Books in the Cambridge Library Collection - Travel, Europe series

The writer, satirist and poet Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had an inexhaustible appetite for travel and society. This third edition of her Letters and Works (1866), offers valuable insight into the ambitions and frustrations of one of the most unconventional women of the eighteenth century.

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875) pioneered modern Egyptology and travelled widely during his life. In 1844, he gathered important historical and contemporary material as he toured little-known regions of the Adriatic coast. First published in 1848, this two-volume account of his travels is accompanied by many remarkable illustrations.

The radical writer and poet Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827) is best remembered for her eight-volume Letters from France (1790-6). First published in 1798, this two-volume political travelogue covers the journeys she made in Switzerland with John Hurford Stone following her flight from France in 1794.

First published in English in 1861, during the golden age of alpinism and travel writing, this work by Hermann Alexander Berlepsch (1814?-83) was translated from German by Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), a renowned British mountaineer in his day. The book is a scientific and cultural guidebook to the Alps.

In this 1842 work, the artist and zoologist George French Angas (1822-86) blends antiquarian notes on temples and castles with picturesque descriptions of natural history. Incorporating fourteen illustrations, this book displays the charm and diversity that defines the best nineteenth-century travel writing.

Published in 1895, this book documents William Conway's celebrated 65-day journey across the European Alps in 1894. Accompanied by two Gurkha soldiers, Conway climbed twenty-one peaks, including Mont Blanc, the Jungfrau and Grossglockner, and traversed thirty-nine mountain passes.

The American zoologist, physiologist and naturalist Samuel Kneeland (1821-88) published this account of his travels through the Scottish islands and to Iceland in 1876. It shows the breadth of his interests, from the Norse origins and history of the Icelanders to volcanoes, their geological causes, and their flora and fauna.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849), was famous for her charm and wit, which are reflected in this three-volume travel narrative, first published in 1839-40. The work contains vivid pictures of Italian cities, and Blessington also reminisces about meetings with Lord Byron, who became a close friend.

Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849), was famous for her charm and wit, which are reflected in this three-volume travel narrative, first published in 1839-40. Volume 1 contains anecdotes from France and Switzerland and ends with the author's encounter with Lord Byron in Genoa.

The social world of 'dandy' Thomas Raikes (1777-1848) included some of the most influential people of his day. Raikes was best known for his diaries, extracts from which were published in four volumes from 1856 to 1857. Volume 1 covers 1832-4, encompassing the Reform Act and Irish unrest.

Targeted at both travellers and 'readers at home', Richard Ford's 1845 account of Spanish history, topography and culture combines the rigour of a gazetteer with the humour and pace of a private travel diary. Volume 1 leads the reader from Cadiz in Andalucia to Granada and on to Catalonia.

Mariana Starke's Travels in Italy (1802) is one of the best-loved travel guides of the nineteenth century. Volume 1 gives a detailed account of the political situation after Napoleon's first Italian campaigns and offers practical guidance for tourists visiting the major cultural sites and artistic treasures of the country.

A rare first-hand Victorian account of this little-known region, published in 1888 when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In a highly engaging, anecdotal style, novelist Emily Gerard combines her personal recollections of with a detailed account of the landscape, people, superstitions and customs.

The romantic novelist Elizabeth Strutt (1783-c.1863) published this guidebook for the unaccompanied 'lady traveller' in 1828. Strutt's carefully-observed account of an eventful journey provides an unusual perspective both on European customs and society of her time, and on the mindset of the British travellers who witnessed them.

Hester Piozzi's 1789 Observations of her travels around Europe with her second husband is a witty and fascinating account, full of conversational anecdotes and local colour, which today make it a valuable work of social history, as well as the entertaining travel book that it was originally intended to be.

In the late 1830s Elizabeth Rigby (1809-1893) travelled alone from London to the Baltic States via Denmark and Russia; a remarkable undertaking for a single woman in the first half of the nineteenth century. Her collection of letters focusing on life in Estonia particularly was published in 1841.

The writer and translator Anne Plumptre (1760-1818) published this three-volume description of three years' residence in France in 1810. Volume 1 describes her stay in Paris (where she was accidentally locked in the ruins of the Bastille at nightfall), and her journey to Marseilles via Lyons.

Robert Pashley (1805-59) was a Trinity College, Cambridge Travelling Fellow who spent 1834 exploring the island of Crete, which was then under Egyptian administration, and published this two-volume account in 1837. Volume 1 discusses his arrival in Chania and the tensions between Christians and Muslims.

Lady Georgiana Chatterton (1806-1876) was a respected and prolific British romantic novelist and travel writer. These volumes, first published in 1839, contain Lady Chatterton's detailed accounts of various excursions she undertook in the south of Ireland. Volume 1 contains her excursions to Bantry and Killarney.

This two-volume Autobiography by Cornelia Knight (1757-1837), Lady Companion to Princess Charlotte, was compiled by Sir John Kaye and published in 1861. Volume 1 describes her childhood, time spent in Italy with Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and the events which led to Knight's dismissal by the Prince Regent.

John Davy (1790-1868) spent years as an army surgeon, and was stationed in the Mediterranean from 1824 to 1835. He took detailed notes on his surroundings, later published in this two-volume 1842 work. Volume 1 examines the history, geology, and climate of the Ionian Islands and Malta.

This two-volume English translation of part of a longer narrative by the Ottoman aristocrat Evliya Celebi (1611-c.1680) was published in 1834. It offers a fascinating assemblage of topics varying from the fountains of Istanbul to a journey to Georgia. Volume 1 includes a short biography of Celebi.