Portrait of publisher John Murray III, 19th century
Murray's Handbooks for Travellers were travel guide books published in London by John Murray beginning in 1836.[1] The series covered tourist destinations in Europe and parts of Asia and northern Africa. According to scholar James Buzard, the Murray style "exemplified the exhaustive rational planning that was as much an ideal of the emerging tourist industry as it was of British commercial and industrial organization generally."[2] The guidebooks became popular enough to appear in works of fiction such as Charles Lever's Dodd Family Abroad.[3] After 1915 the series continued as the Blue Guides and the familiar gold gilted red Murrays Handbooks published by John Murray London including the
long running Handbook to India, Pakistan, Ceylon & Burma which concluded with the 21st edition in 1968 before changing from the original format of 1836 to a more modern paperback edition of 1975.
Cover of Handbook for Travellers in Turkey, 1871
List of Murray's Handbooks by date of publication
1830s
A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent (Northern Germany) (1st ed.), London: John Murray and Son, 1836, OCLC1039483584
A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent (Southern Germany) (1st ed.), London: John Murray and Son, 1837
A Handbook for Travellers in Switzerland (1st ed.), London: J. Murray and Son, 1838, OCLC794649338
A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent (Northern Germany) (2nd ed.), London: John Murray and Son, 1838, OCLC2030550, OL22881568M
A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent (Northern Germany) (3rd ed.), London: J. Murray and Son, 1839, OL23546118M
1840s
A Hand-Book for Travellers in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, London: J. Murray, 1840, OCLC397597, OL6952607M[4] (Index)
A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent (Northern Germany) (4th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1841, OCLC222901979
Handbook for Travellers in Central Italy, London: J. Murray and Son, 1843, OL6597087M
A Hand-book for Travellers in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Constantinople (2nd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1845, OCLC397597, OL6952607M
A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent (Northern Germany) (5th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1845, OCLC2172798, OL6569519M
A Handbook for Travellers in Berks, Bucks, and Oxfordshire, London: J. Murray, 1860, OCLC2099710, OL6924857M
A Handbook for Travellers in South Wales, London: J. Murray, 1860, OCLC2094865, OL6924864M
A Handbook for Travellers in France (8th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1861, OL24627024M
Handbook for Travellers in Ireland (2nd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1866, OCLC2013636, OL6936234M
A Handbook of Rome and its Environs (8th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1867, OCLC4038432, OL23302746M
A Handbook for Travellers in North Wales (3rd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1868, OCLC2109683, OL6924865M
Hand-book for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland (2nd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1868, OL23414674M
A Handbook for Travellers in Southern Italy (6th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1868, OL23389358M
A Hand-book for Travellers on the Continent (16th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1868, OL23423054M
Handbook for Westmorland, Cumberland, and the lakes (2nd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1869, OCLC5358890
1870s
Handbook for Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire .., London: J. Murray, 1870, OL14010753M
Handbook for Shropshire, Cheshire and Lancashire, London: J. Murray, 1870, OCLC2109674, OL6924861M
A Handbook for Travellers on the Continent: Being a Guide to Holland, Belgium, Prussia, Northern Germany, and the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland (17th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1871, OCLC5358857, OL6936276M
Handbook for Travellers in Greece (5th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1884, OCLC2832159, OL6949054M
A Handbook of Rome and its Environs (14th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1888, OL23378173M
1890s
R. Lambert Playfair (1890), Handbook for Travellers in Algeria and Tunis (4th ed.), London: J. Murray, OCLC12720545, OL14045975M
Handbook for Travellers in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire .. (3rd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1892, OCLC2097091, OL6924846M
R. Lambert Playfair (1892), Handbook to the Mediterranean (3rd revised ed.), London: John Murray, OCLC6853896Pt.1; Pt. 2
R. Lambert Playfair (1895), Handbook for Travellers in Algeria and Tunis (5th ed.), London: J. Murray, OCLC4443952, OL6953677M
John Cooke (1906), Handbook for Travellers in Ireland (7th ed.), London: Edward Stanford, OL24591180M (Cover title: Murray's Handbook Ireland)
Basil Hall Chamberlain; W.B. Mason (1907), A Handbook for Travellers in Japan including the whole empire from Saghalien to Formosa (8th ed.), London: J. Murray, OCLC1329108, OL6991983M
Handbook for Travellers on the Continent: Being a Guide to Holland, Belgium, Prussia, Northern Germany, and the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland (17th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1871, OCLC5358857, OL6936276M
Handbook for Travellers in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire (3rd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1892, OCLC2097091, OL6924846M + Index
Handbook for Travellers in Scotland (4th ed.), London: J. Murray, 1875, OCLC4658476, OL6933923M
Wales
A Handbook for Travellers in South Wales, London: J. Murray, 1860, OCLC2094865, OL6924864M
A Handbook for Travellers in North Wales (3rd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1868, OCLC2109683, OL6924865M
Greece
A Hand-book for Travellers in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, London: J. Murray, 1840, OCLC397597, OL6952607M
A Hand-book for Travellers in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Constantinople (2nd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1845, OCLC397597, OL6952607M + Index
Handbook for Travellers in Greece, London: J. Murray, 1854, OL23389359M
Basil Hall Chamberlain; W.B. Mason (1907), A Handbook for Travellers in Japan including the whole empire from Saghalien to Formosa (8th ed.), London: J. Murray, OCLC1329108, OL6991983M
A Hand-book for Travellers in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, London: J. Murray, 1840, OCLC397597, OL6952607M
A Hand-book for Travellers in the Ionian Islands, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, London: J. Murray, 1845, OCLC397597, OL6952607M + Index
A Handbook for Travellers in Turkey (3rd ed.), London: J. Murray, 1854, OCLC2145740, OL6952606M. (Index).
R. Lambert Playfair (1882), Handbook to the Mediterranean (2nd revised ed.), London: John Murray Pt. 1
R. Lambert Playfair (1892), Handbook to the Mediterranean (3rd revised ed.), London: John Murray, OCLC6853896Pt.1; Pt. 2
^Rudy Koshar (July 1998). "'What Ought to Be Seen': Tourists' Guidebooks and National Identities in Modern Germany and Europe". Journal of Contemporary History. 33.
^James Buzard (Autumn 1991). "The Uses of Romanticism: Byron and the Victorian Continental Tour". Victorian Studies. 35.
^James Buzard (January 1993). "A Continent of Pictures: Reflections on the "Europe" of Nineteenth-Century Tourists". PMLA. 108.
^Stevan K. Pavlowitch (June 1962). "Early Nineteenth-Century Serbia in the Eyes of British Travelers". Slavic Review. 21.
^E. W. Gilbert (1945). "Richard Ford and His 'Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain'". Geographical Journal. 106 (3/4): 144–151. doi:10.2307/1789266. JSTOR1789266.
^J.R. Hale (2005), England and the Italian Renaissance (4th ed.), Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., ISBN9780631233640, Francis Palgrave ... author of the first edition of Murray's Handbook for Travellers in North Italy
^Peter H. Hansen (1995). "Albert Smith, the Alpine Club, and the Invention of Mountaineering in Mid-Victorian Britain". Journal of British Studies. 34 (3): 300–324. doi:10.1086/386080. JSTOR175982. S2CID162720571.
