The charm of Madrid is elusive, but for those who know how to find it, Madrid has magic. Its magic can be found in the shadow cast over the present by the past. In this Traveller's Reader, a city that was once the seat of power for perhaps the most ambitious political enterprise the western world had seen since the fall of Rome, the Spanish Empire, is brought to life in vivid diaries, letters, memoirs and histories. The Earl of Clarendon describes seventeenth-century bullfights; Salvador Dali plays a surrealist joke on a snooty barman at the Ritz; Rubens visits the Alcázar; Manet is at the Prado; generals and anarchists meet in the Puerta del Sol. The many stories included here evoke for today's tourist the dramas and personalities of a city's past, by drawing on the eyewitness accounts and commentaries of visitors and residents of earlier centuries. Hugh Thomas has chosen these and other vivid snapshots of Madrid's history from diaries, letters, memoirs and novels across five centuries to delight and fascinate the armchair and prospective traveller alike.

This two-volume travelogue recounts the diplomatic mission through Central Asia and Russia undertaken by James Abbott (1807 96) in 1839. An officer in the Bengal Artillery, Abbott first travelled to Central Asia in 1838 and was soon drawn into the 'Great Game' between Russia and Britain as they struggled for influence in the region. When Russia launched an expedition against Khiva in 1839, ostensibly to free Russian slaves, Abbott was sent there to advise the Khan and then travelled to Russia to initiate mediation. While the Russian slaves were freed by Abbott's successor, Abbott believed he had succeeded and published this account in 1843. The work includes anecdotes of his experiences and observations on the cultures and landscapes he encountered. In Volume 2, he chronicles his journey to St Petersburg via Moscow and recounts his general impressions of Russia.

Written by Austrian baron Karl Alexander Anselm von Hugel (1795-1870), this travelogue was one of the first western books published on the Kashmir region. Von Hugel, who worked as a soldier, diplomat, botanist, explorer and ethnologist at various stages in his life, embarked on a trip to India in the 1830s as part of an extensive world tour. His account of his time in Kashmir and the Punjab was first published in German as a four-volume edition from 1840. He aimed to 'lift the veil' on Kashmir in an attempt to resolve the contentious reputation among Europeans of this unfamiliar region, and the book serves as a thorough guide to its history, geography, climate, culture and politics. This English translation and abridgement was prepared by Thomas Best Jervis (1796-1857) and published in 1845. Also included in this reissue is a biography that the author's son, Anatole von Hugel, privately published in 1903.

Scottish explorer and author James Baillie Fraser (1783 1856) was already known for his narratives of travel in the East (his 1820 journal of a journey through the Himalayas being also reissued in this series) when in 1826 he published this account of his journey into the lesser known provinces of Persia. Though it includes an appendix containing information on geology and commerce, it dwells less on statistical and historical details than it does on the author's personal experiences and impressions. In his preface, Fraser summarily rejects factual material as 'insignificant', preferring to describe the manners of a people seldom encountered by Europeans. The work captures both the sights and sounds of bazaars and cities, and the characters of the people, from princes to peasant boys; and Fraser provides facts on topics ranging from rice cultivation to the architecture of ancient tombs and methods of cooling water.

William Jardine Proudfoot (c.1804 1887) published his critique of Sir John Barrow's Travels in China (1804; also reissued in this series) with the agenda of exposing the latter as unreliable and unjust. Barrow had accompanied Lord Macartney on the first British mission to the Chinese Imperial Court (1792 4), in a party that also included the official astronomer, Dr James Dinwiddie, Proudfoot's grandfather. Comparing Barrow's account to that found in other records, Proudfoot concludes that the earlier work was 'a great humbug', ascribing to Barrow the 'powerful motive' of self-promotion. In a work full of vitriol against its subject, Proudfoot's concern is to honour the memory of the mission's members, whom he felt Barrow belittled and vilified, and also to point out factual inaccuracies, accusing him of seeking amusement rather than truth in his anecdotes. Read alongside Barrow's work, it makes for an interesting, scornful, and often entertaining counter.

Kate Marsden (1859 1931), the youngest of eight children from a poor family, was a highly committed nurse. She cared for soldiers in the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 8, and undertook missionary travels to various countries, but she was especially concerned about the plight of those suffering from leprosy. This volume, published in 1893, describes her remarkable journey to Siberian leper colonies. At first she travelled by sledge with a friend, but continued alone on horseback, facing appalling weather conditions with her customary courage. Her commitment to leprosy sufferers led her to found the St Francis Leprosy Guild in London in 1895, and she organised a leprosy hospital in the remote Siberian town of Vilyusk in 1897. She was made a Member of the Russian Imperial Red Cross Society, and she was also one of the first women to be appointed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

A. H. Savage Landor (1867 1925), the grandson of the author Walter Savage Landor (1775 1864), was born and educated in Florence. He abandoned his painting studies in Paris to travel around the world, and visited Asia, the Middle East and South America, supporting himself as he went by painting portraits of people he encountered. Landor became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1892, and a Member of the Royal Institution in 1897. This volume, first published in 1893, deals with his adventurous experiences among the indigenous Ainu, the 'hairy men' who lived in the northern 'home islands' of Japan and in Sakhalin, the island whose possession was disputed by Japan and Russia for two hundred years. Landor insisted on 'doing in Ainuland as the Ainu does'. He describes his journey through the Ainu territory and gives a detailed and ethnographically aware account of its people and their culture.

Sir Allen Young (1827-1915), merchant navy officer and experienced Polar explorer, took part in several expeditions before that of the Pandora. As navigator he had accompanied the McClintock expedition to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin, during which he explored several hundred miles of new coastline by sledge. He was also in command of the Fox on the 1860 North Atlantic telegraph expedition to assess the practicality of a cable route between Europe and America across the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. In 1875, he led, and financed, the British North-West Passage Expedition on the Pandora, and this compelling account of his journey was first published in 1876. In it, he records his attempt to reach the magnetic pole via Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound, and to navigate the North-West Passage in one season, though he failed in this attempt because of heavy ice in the Franklin Strait.

Charles Lewis Meryon (1783 1877) was the personal physician to the unconventional and adventurous Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 1839), who left England in 1810 to travel to the Middle East. She eventually settled in Lebanon and by the time she died no longer had contact with any Europeans. Meryon's Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (also reissued in this series) recounted her journey during the first seven years he spent with her before returning to England to complete his medical training. Over the next twenty years, they remained in contact and he stayed with her on two more occasions before she died. In this three-volume work, first published in 1845, Meryon presents letters he received from her and recounts their conversations, giving a remarkable insight into the woman he describes as 'out of humour with all mankind'. Volume 1 covers events between 1823 and 1837, beginning with her letters imploring him to visit.

Charles Lewis Meryon (1783 1877) was the personal physician to the unconventional and adventurous Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 1839), who left England in 1810 to travel to the Middle East. She eventually settled in Lebanon and by the time she died no longer had contact with any Europeans. Meryon's Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (also reissued in this series) recounted her journey during the first seven years he spent with her before returning to England to complete his medical training. Over the next twenty years, they remained in contact and he stayed with her on two more occasions before she died. In this three-volume work, first published in 1845, Meryon presents letters he received from her and recounts their conversations, giving a remarkable insight into the woman he describes as 'out of humour with all mankind'. Volume 2 looks back at Lady Hester's noble origins and her reasons for leaving England.

Charles Lewis Meryon (1783 1877) was the personal physician to the unconventional and adventurous Lady Hester Stanhope (1776 1839), who left England in 1810 to travel to the Middle East. She eventually settled in Lebanon and by the time she died no longer had contact with any Europeans. Meryon's Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (also reissued in this series) recounted her journey during the first seven years he spent with her before returning to England to complete his medical training. Over the next twenty years, they remained in contact and he stayed with her on two more occasions before she died. In this three-volume work, first published in 1845, Meryon presents letters he received from her and recounts their conversations, giving a remarkable insight into the woman he describes as 'out of humour with all mankind'. Volume 3 covers the period from 1838 until her death, including reflections on her isolated final months of life.

Later known as an administrator in Australia and founder of one of Tasmania's earliest settlements, William Paterson (1755-1810) was an army officer, naturalist and friend of Joseph Banks. Keenly interested in botany from childhood, in 1777 he was dispatched to Cape Colony on an expedition to collect plant specimens, many of which remain in the Natural History Museum. His accounts, published in 1789, are the observations and impressions of one of the first Europeans to venture into the south-east of modern-day South Africa. On his return to England he brought with him the skin and skeleton of a giraffe, which remained on show in the British Museum until the early twentieth century. He writes clearly and engagingly of the people, flora and fauna, assuring the reader that the work is 'a series of facts, noted down upon the spot, without any after additions'.

Explorer and naturalist Thomas Thomson (1817 78) led an intrepid life. He started his career as an assistant surgeon with the East India Company and soon became a curator of the Asiatic Society's museum in Bengal. He was sent to Afghanistan in 1840 during the First Anglo-Afghan War, and was captured but managed to escape as he was about to be sold as a slave. Undaunted by this misfortune, he accepted a perilous mission to define the boundary between Kashmir and Chinese Tibet in 1847. During his eighteen-month journey, Thomson explored the Kashmir territories and went as far north as the barren Karakoram Pass. He collected valuable geographical and geological information as well as a wealth of botanical specimens. He describes his findings in minute detail in this account, first published in 1852. Thomson later became a Fellow of the Linnean Society, the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society.

Sir Henry Holland (1788-1873) was a passionate and intrepid traveller from a young age. In addition to a distinguished career as court physician - first to Caroline of Brunswick, then to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert - he sought to keep two months of each year free to travel. His trip to Greece formed part of a European tour that Holland undertook in 1812-13 after having taken his medical degree at Edinburgh. Holland focuses on the lesser-known islands and parts of Macedonia and Albania, and gives a unique first-hand account of the Albanian vizier Ali Pasha (1740-1822), whom he befriended while visiting his court. The publication of Holland's travelogue in 1815 enhanced his reputation greatly and he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society that year. The book contributed to the early nineteenth-century fascination with Greece that would later lead Lord Byron to join the Greek War of Independence.

Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874 1938) was a colonial administrator and oriental scholar. He travelled extensively in the Far East and developed a deep interest in Chinese culture and religion. His fourteen-year posting to Weihaiwei, a quiet naval base, allowed him to travel to places not usually visited by Europeans, and to begin writing. In 1906 he spent six months travelling across China to Burma, publishing this illustrated account of his arduous journey in 1908. In it he comments on the economic and political state of China, but the book's main theme is the beauty of the country and the character of its people. His understanding of the language, religion and culture make this a valuable description of Chinese society at the beginning of the twentieth century. Johnston's Lion and Dragon in Northern China (1910) and Twilight in the Forbidden City (1934) are also reprinted in this series.

Polar explorer John Ross (1777 1856) sailed with William Edward Parry in 1818 to seek a North-West Passage from Baffin Bay. The attempt was unsuccessful, and Ross was widely blamed for its failure. In 1829, he set out on a privately funded expedition on the steamship Victory, accompanied by his nephew James Clark Ross, to try again, returning to England in late 1833. Using survival techniques learnt from the Inuit he befriended, Ross kept his crew healthy through four icebound winters. While the voyage once again failed to find a North-West Passage, it surveyed the Boothia Peninsula and a large part of King William Land. It was also valuable for its scientific findings, with J. C. Ross discovering the magnetic pole. Ross published this two-volume work in 1835. Volume 2 contains scientific reports, ethnological information on the Inuit, an Eskimo vocabulary, and comments on natural history.

The Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Carl Lumholtz (1851-1922) wrote the influential ethnographic studies Among Cannibals and Unknown Mexico (both reissued in this series) after his journeys through Australia and Mexico respectively. In 1913, Lumholtz went on his final expedition, which aimed to explore the large parts of Borneo unknown to the rest of the world. Interested by tales of head-hunting, he wanted to spend time with the indigenous people and conduct research. Originally published in 1920, this two-volume work is Lumholtz's account of his expedition. Many of the illustrations in the work are from photographs taken by the author, including pictures of members of the different tribes he stayed with. Volume 1 begins with an overview of Borneo and goes on to describe the expedition's journey into the jungle, and the various ceremonies experienced during the journey, which provide interesting insights into tribal life and belief systems.

Sir Allen Young (1827-1915), was a merchant navy officer and experienced polar explorer. He took part in several expeditions before those of the Pandora including as navigator to McClintock on the Fox to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin. He was also in command of the Fox on the 1860 North Atlantic Telegraph Expedition to assess the practicality of a cable route between Europe and America across the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. In 1875 and 1876 he led two expeditions in the Canadian Arctic on the steam yacht Pandora. The first, the British North-West Passage Expedition, was an attempt to reach the magnetic pole via Baffin Bay and Lancaster Sound, and to navigate the North-West Passage in one season. The second was a further attempt on the North-West Passage, but also to deliver dispatches to George Nares' Arctic expedition. These compelling accounts were first published together in 1879.

This two-volume work, published in 1844, is a memoir of time spent in China by Captain Arthur Cunynghame (1812 84), aide-de-camp to Major-General Lord Saltoun, Commander of the East India Company's troops in China. Cunynghame set off from Plymouth Sound on board HMS Belle-Isle in late 1841 to take up his post, and the first half of Volume 1 consists of a description of the long journey out to China (they touched at Rio de Janeiro before re-crossing the Atlantic to South Africa, and later visited Singapore and Hong Kong). Once in China, Cunynghame travelled widely in the course of his duties, and recorded his experiences in detail, from the wonders of the Yangtse River to the walls of Nankin: as he observes in his dedication, 'events and anecdotes occurring in a country that is so strange and new to all Europe may be worth recording'.

This two-volume work, published in 1844, is a memoir of time spent in China by Captain Arthur Cunynghame (1812 84), aide-de-camp to Major-General Lord Saltoun, Commander of the East India Company's troops in China. In Volume 2, the author is invited to visit Ning-po, recently given the status of a 'treaty port', and he subsequently travels to both Hong Kong and Canton (Guangzhou), both now open to international trade. Cunynghame next accompanied Saltoun to the Philippines, and gives a fascinating account of life in Manila. Ordered home in 1844, he travelled via Hong Kong and Malaya to Calcutta, then south to Madras (Chennai) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and eventually home to England, via the Red Sea, the Sinai Desert, Egypt and the Mediterranean, noting the curiosities among both people and places with undiminished zest.

Edward Vizetelly (1847 1903) was the son of the publisher Henry Vizetelly and a perceptive war correspondent. He began his career for the Daily News and New York Times, covering the Franco-Prussian War, where he narrowly escaped being shot as a spy. This work, published in 1901, recounts the next period of his career, with vivid descriptions of people and places. In 1878, Cyprus was ceded to Britain by Turkey, and Vizetelly, then in Athens, was sent to report on the Island, where he remained for four years. In 1882, he moved to Egypt, where Arab unrest led to the massacre of Europeans in Cairo and the bombardment of Alexandria by British warships. On his return to Europe in 1889, he was commissioned by the owner of the New York Herald to find H. M. Stanley, using Zanzibar as his base. He concludes with a brief summary of subsequent events in Africa.

The Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Carl Lumholtz (1851-1922) wrote the influential ethnographic studies Among Cannibals and Unknown Mexico (both reissued in this series) after his journeys through Australia and Mexico respectively. In 1913, Lumholtz went on his final expedition, which aimed to explore the large parts of Borneo unknown to the rest of the world. Interested by tales of head-hunting, he wanted to spend time with the indigenous people and conduct research. Originally published in 1920, this two-volume work is Lumholtz's account of his expedition. Many of the illustrations in the work are from photographs taken by the author, including pictures of members of the different tribes he stayed with. Volume 2 begins with the expedition's stay with the Penihing people. Throughout the volume, the folklore of the different tribes is discussed, and a chapter on head-hunting and its purposes is included.

'My object is to give a peep into the Celestial Empire, to show its strange hills and romantic valleys, its rivers and canals ... and its strange and interesting people.' Robert Fortune (1813-80), the author of several books on China, was a keen botanist. He first went to China for the Royal Horticultural Society, but soon returned on behalf of the East India Company in order to collect tea specimens for the British government's plantations in the Himalayas. In this entertaining account, first published in 1852, Fortune includes stories of how he disguised himself in Chinese clothes to gain access to districts barred to Europeans, of watching farmers sail in what seemed to be wash-tubs, and the bizarre dyeing process that saw large quantities of Prussian Blue and gypsum poured into green tea. Full of panoramic descriptions and engaging anecdotes, this book is ideal for historians and modern-day travellers alike.

Arthur Young (1741-1820) was a renowned English writer on agriculture, economics and social statistics. First published by Cambridge in 1929, this volume contains selections from Young's Travels, relating to observations made in France around the time of the Revolution. The selections, largely taken from Part I of the Travels, are notable for containing first-hand descriptions of public affairs and working conditions. The rigour and intelligence of these descriptions provide an unrivalled document of this critical moment in French history.

The adventurous and unconventional Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) set off to travel to the East in the early nineteenth century. She had been hostess to her uncle, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and after his death she received a government pension and decided to leave England. Her personal physician Charles Meryon (1783-1877) wrote this three-volume memoir of their travels, first published in 1846. She had a reputation as an eccentric, but thought of herself as the 'Queen of the desert' and indeed achieved considerable influence in the places she travelled to. Eventually she settled in the Lebanon, where she lived out the remainder of her life. Volume 1 describes travels in Greece, Egypt, Palestine and Syria, and an account of being shipwrecked near Rhodes. It concludes with the party's arrival in Damascus, where Lady Hester dressed in men's clothing and refused to wear a veil.