Leighton Library has a 1768 fifth edition, corrected, of “Dialogues of the dead” by George Lyttelton and Elizabeth Robinson Montagu
Added at 09:02 on 02 October 2024
The Leighton Library has a 1768 fifth edition, corrected, of “Dialogues of the dead” by George Lyttelton and Elizabeth Robinson Montagu, born #OnThisDay 2 October 1718. Dialogues of the Dead was a series of critiques of 18th-century society. The final three dialogues are by Elizabeth Robinson Montagu (she had contributed these anonymously - her authorship is testified elsewhere - she had been encouraged to write them by George Lyttelton). These were Dialogue 26 (where Hercules is engaged in a discussion of virtue), Dialogue 27 (where a character, Mrs. Mopish, cannot go to the Elysian Fields because she is endlessly distracted by worldly influences), and Dialogue 28 (where a bookseller explains to Plutarch the difficulties of publishing in modern society).Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonnière, literary critic and writer, who helped to organize and lead the Blue Stockings Society (society women, with an interest in education, who gathered to discuss literature and the arts, and who supported each other in intellectual endeavours such as reading, art work, and writing). She devoted her fortune to fostering English and Scottish literature and to the relief of the poor.