This is an accomplished and scholarly biography of a compelling individual. It is also a literary life that throws much light on the Augustan world of letters. Furthermore, this study carries conviction in part because Isobel Grundy does not exaggerate the importance of her subject ... fine study ... a wealth of information and reflection, and a careful piecing-together of a fascinating life.

These impeccably edited fragments will provide additional bearings for anyone interested in the narrative foundations of either the romance or the realistic novel. ... The editor continually and helpfully points out Montagu's relations to writers from both traditions. ... These manuscripts will also be useful to anyone interested in the process of literary composition. ... The most obvious readership for this collection will be those interested in early women's writing,/The International Fiction Review 25 (1998) `this is a highly entertaining and readable collection which also shows the development of eighteenth-century literature' The Fawcett Library Newsletter, No. 27, June 1996 `Elaborately and carefully edited ... This looks like a scholarly compromise, but the quality of the translations is excellent; fluent and colloquial, they shadow eighteenth-century cadences and turns of phrase without ever lapsing into the self-advertisement of pastiche.' Times Literary Supplement `Isobel Grundy's scholarship is always impressive and illuminating' Dr. Eithne Henson, The New Rambler, 1995/6 (Vol. XI) `this collection makes fascinating reading for the various and complex dialogues it establishes with Lady Mary's other writings, with those of her English contemporaries, and with a broader European literary tradition. Grundy's annotations are judiciously adapted to the differing positions of the texts ... This volume is certain to be of value to scholars of Lady Mary, of eighteenth-century women writers, and of English and French literature. Many undergraduate students are fascinated by Lady Mary; these narratives could only enhance and justify that fascination.' Betty Schellenberg, Simon Fraser University, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 9:3