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5,112 public-domain books, summarised. Page 103 of 107.

The Secret History of the Court of Justinian
Procopius
Behind the glittering mosaic facade of sixth-century Byzantium lies a raw, venomous chronicle of greed, absolute power, and private betrayal.

A collection of Latin maxims and phrases literally translated: Intended for the use of students for all legal examinations
John N. Cotterell
Mastering the principles behind legal Latin gives a student a reliable blueprint to navigate the vast, chaotic sea of judicial precedents.

A Wonder Book for Girls & Boys
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Immortal fables escape their ancient marble frames as a country college student spins six timeless Greek myths into lively, romantic tales for a houseful of eager children during a snowy berkshire winter.

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R)
Unknown
An exhaustive system of verbal record captures the English language as it stood at the turn of the twentieth century, organizing human knowledge from technical science to poetic archaisms.

Flagg's The Far West, 1836-1837, part 2
Edmund Flagg
A sweeping journey through the American West captures a continent in transition, where wild landscapes, vanishing frontier posts, and devout missionary encounters meet.

Stories from Le Morte D'Arthur and the Mabinogion
Beatrice E. (Beatrice Elizabeth) Clay
A realm of magic, chivalry, and tragic betrayal comes alive through classic legends of Arthurian knights and ancient Welsh heroes.

Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume II)
Martin Luther
True spiritual freedom arises when faith dismantles human tyranny, restoring individual conscience to divine promise while binding the believer in voluntary, loving service to every neighbor.

Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Behind the formidable architecture of modern evolutionary theory lies a modest home in Kent, where an endlessly curious naturalist spent decades patiently interrogating pigeons, orchids, and earthworms.

Narrative and Legendary Poems, Complete: Volume I of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
A landscape of rugged coasts, dark woods, and quiet hearths comes to life in verse, where human faith and historical memory collide against the silence of the wilderness.

Premature Burial and How It May Be Prevented
William Tebb
Terrifying documented accounts and precise medical observations illuminate the profound societal danger of mistaking profound suspended animation for actual death.

Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore
Elizabeth Mary Wright
Centuries of living local speech and communal memory come to life in a study that captures the precise, poetic ways working people across England name their world.

Among Famous Books
John Kelman
Human history is defined by a perpetual, internal tug-of-war between basic worldly desires and the reach for higher spiritual truth.

Church History (Volumes 1-3)
J. H. (Johann Heinrich) Kurtz
A sweeping, rigorous record of Christian faith as it evolves across two millennia, contending with empire, intellectual schism, and the raw mechanics of worldly power.

Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Jaime Luciano Balmes
The mind does not merely absorb the world through sensory impressions; it possesses an active, rational structure capable of reaching fundamental, necessary truths.

Mark Twain's Letters
Mark Twain
A private life of high ambition, crushing debt, and unquenchable humor unfolds through the frank, unedited mail of an American master.

Short Stories for High Schools
Unknown
A young country needs a literature that moves at its own breakneck pace. This collection captures American life through compact, vivid, and surprising narratives.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
A clever storyteller staves off execution by spinning endless tales of trickster cobblers, underwater kingdoms, and royal intrigue across the medieval Islamic world, bound together by exhaustive scholarly commentaries on Eastern culture.

The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 01
Robert Louis Stevenson
A young Scottish writer wanders through foreign riverways, French mountain trails, and his own storied hometown, transforming simple observation into a masterclass in atmospheric travel prose.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Cat" to "Celt": Volume 5, Slice 5
Various
A vast array of knowledge spans from ancient catacombs and forgotten poets to modern warfare and prehistoric stone tools. It captures the human impulse to record, classify, and comprehend every corner of the known world.

The Theory of Psychoanalysis
C. G. (Carl Gustav) Jung
Human psychological distress stems not from long-buried childhood shocks, but from an individual's immediate hesitation when facing the daunting tasks of adult life.

Armenia, Travels and Studies (Volume 1 of 2): The Russian Provinces
H. F. B. (Harry Finnis Blosse) Lynch
A high-altitude expedition across mountainous borderlands reveals how landscape, imperial policy, and ancient religious memory shape a resilient, imperiled civilization.

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon
Power crumbles not in a single catastrophic instant, but through the slow erosion of institutions, the rise of competing faiths, and the unrelenting pressure of foreign forces across centuries of transformation.

Maud, and Other Poems
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
A bitter young man mourns his father's ruined life and violent death in a dark hollow, nursing hatred for the wealthy estate owner whose financial schemes drove his family to disaster.

My Ántonia
Willa Cather
An orphaned Virginia boy moves to the Nebraskan frontier, where his bond with a bold Bohemian girl defines the landscape of his memory and the trajectory of his life.

Rewards and Fairies
Rudyard Kipling
Across the ancient fields of the English countryside, two children step into whispered encounters with figures summoned from three thousand years of forgotten history.

Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists
George Berkeley
Stripping away physical substance to leave only perception, two thinkers walk a summer garden and rebuild reality from the ground up.

Ask a Foolish Question
Robert Sheckley
An all-knowing cosmic entity waits for creatures to ask the truth of the universe, only to realize that true knowledge remains forever unreachable to those who lack the understanding to frame the proper inquiry.

Essays in the Art of Writing
Robert Louis Stevenson
Great writing depends on hidden mechanics, absolute moral honesty, and the unvarnished realities of the creative life.

Fairies and Fusiliers
Robert Graves
Youthful daydreams of fairies and ancient legends clash violently with the cold, muddy horrors of the Western Front, forcing a wounded soldier to rebuild his shattered world through verse.

Heartbreak House
Bernard Shaw
In a eccentric English country house on the eve of the Great War, a collection of cultured, romantic, and cynical aristocrats drift through life, blissfully oblivious to their impending doom.

Music and Some Highly Musical People
James M. Trotter
This landmark nineteenth-century volume combines a reflective history of global music with detailed biographies, recording how Black instrumentalists, vocalists, and ensembles built illustrious careers despite systemic prejudice.

Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Faith, sensory wonder, and deep psychological distress collide in a body of verse that remakes the cadences of traditional English poetry into something altogether new, urgent, and radically alive.

Senescence, the Last Half of Life
G. Stanley (Granville Stanley) Hall
Aging is neither a sudden collapse nor a quiet harbor, but a vast, uncharted continent of human experience that demands its own rigorous psychological and biological understanding.

An introduction to philology
Clement Wood
Language is not a fixed monument but a living tide, reshaped daily by human need, migration, and accidental invention.

Jane Austen and Her Country-house Comedy
W. H. (William Henry) Helm
A rare blend of good-natured satire and quiet observation transforms the domestic world of early nineteenth-century country houses into an enduring canvas of human folly, social ambition, and understated moral truth.

Principles of literary criticism
I. A. (Ivor Armstrong) Richards
A rigorous attempt to rescue literary judgment from vague mysticism, this work grounds art and reading in the concrete mechanics of human psychology, language, and emotional impulse.

Sailing ships
E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton
Human ingenuity takes to the water, tracing how a simple bundle of papyrus evolved over millennia into majestic, multi-masted vessels of oak, iron, and canvas.

Sylvie and Bruno
Lewis Carroll
Two realm-bound visions collide in a feverish, shape-shifting landscape where political palace coups melt into sweet fairy encounters and high-minded Victorian tea-parlor debates.

"Everyman," with other interludes, including eight miracle plays
Unknown
A universal human journey unfolds as a dying man discovers that his wealth, friends, and strength vanish, leaving only his neglected good deeds to stand before his Creator.

Illustrated history of ancient literature, oriental and classical
John D. (John Duncan) Quackenbos
An expansive survey traces human expression across centuries, following the rise and decay of ancient literary traditions from the courts of Asia to the forums of Greece and Rome.

Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon
Louis Constant Wairy
A servant's eye view strips the global conqueror of his myth, revealing the human engine that drove an empire.

Stories from the Odyssey
Homer
A long-lost king battles monsters, wrathful gods, and treacherous seas to return to an island realm overrun by insolent invaders.

Theresa Raquin
Émile Zola
A suppressed, passionate woman and a brutal, sluggish man murder a sickly husband, only to discover that the dead man's memory poisons their passion into mutual terror and inescapable hatred.

Smithsonian Institution - United States National Museum - Bulletin 240: Contributions From the Museum of History and Technology
Museum of History and Technology (U.S.)
Through eleven detailed monographic studies, this volume reconstructs the practical ingenuity, mathematical rigor, and physical craft that transformed raw materials and physical laws into the foundation of modern technical civilization.

The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5)
Theodor Mommsen
From a handful of agrarian clans tilling the banks of the Tiber to the master of the Mediterranean world, one city reshapes human history through administrative genius, ruthless military ambition, and eventual internal decay.

The Philosophy of Mystery
Walter Cooper Dendy
What appears to be a ghost, a prophetic vision, or a supernatural spell is almost always the natural product of an excited brain, a trick of light, or a body subjected to stress.

Books in chains, and other bibliographical papers
William Blades
Old books carry the physical marks of human hands, from the heavy iron chains that anchored them to cathedral desks to the tiny guide letters written at the margins.

Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America
Edmund Burke
A passionate plea for political pragmatism, this famous parliamentary address argues that holding an empire together requires honoring the inherent spirit of liberty in its people rather than demanding absolute submission through force.