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7,238 public-domain books, summarised. Page 135 of 151.

Cover of The Poems of Philip Freneau, Poet of the American Revolution. Volume 3 (of 3)

The Poems of Philip Freneau, Poet of the American Revolution. Volume 3 (of 3)

Philip Morin Freneau

A searing, often bitter chronicler of early American political life, this collection captures a poet’s transition from revolutionary firebrand to a cynical observer of a nation struggling to define its own identity.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)

The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Clement, of Alexandria, Saint

Seek the path of the Word, which transforms the seeker from a mortal bound by earthly error into a child of the divine. Through reason and faith, this ancient guide offers a rigorous, life-altering discipline for those weary of the hollow customs of the world.

History - Religious7 min read
Cover of Answers to Prayer, from George Müller's Narratives

Answers to Prayer, from George Müller's Narratives

George Müller

This account offers a rare, intimate look at a life defined by radical reliance on prayer, tracing decades of provision for thousands of orphans without ever making a personal request for funds.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., in Nine Volumes

Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., in Nine Volumes

Samuel Johnson

This collection offers a rare and intimate encounter with a foundational figure of English letters, presenting his moral fiction, sharp social commentary, and deeply human correspondence in a single, accessible volume. It serves as a window into a mind that combined immense intellectual rigor with an enduring sense…

Biographies6 min read
Cover of History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Edward Gibbon

The legacy of Rome is a vast, echoing hall where the rise of new faiths and the clash of empires reveal the fragile architecture of human civilization.

History - European8 min read
Cover of Hunting with the Bow & Arrow

Hunting with the Bow & Arrow

Saxton T. (Saxton Temple) Pope

The call of the woods and the ancient, silent power of the bow beckon the modern reader to trade the mechanical roar of the firearm for a more primal, disciplined connection to the wild.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Just—William

Just—William

Richmal Crompton

Eleven-year-old William Brown is a whirlwind of well-intentioned chaos whose singular talent is turning the orderly world of his family and neighbors upside down.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Manual of Gardening (Second Edition): A Practical Guide to the Making of Home Grounds and the Growing of Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for Home Use

Manual of Gardening (Second Edition): A Practical Guide to the Making of Home Grounds and the Growing of Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for Home Use

L. H. (Liberty Hyde) Bailey

A garden is a living portrait, and like any work of art, it demands a clear, unified vision to avoid becoming a cluttered, fidgety display of mismatched parts.

How To ...7 min read
Cover of Melomaniacs

Melomaniacs

James Huneker

Music possesses a dangerous, intoxicating power to consume those who surrender to its lure. This collection explores the thin line between artistic genius and the madness that follows when sound becomes a life’s singular obsession.

Music6 min read
Cover of Memoirs of Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz

Memoirs of Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz

Jean François Paul de Gondi de Retz

A master of political intrigue recounts his meteoric rise and fall in the heart of 17th-century France. This candid memoir maps the chaotic power struggles defining the minority of Louis XIV.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Original Photographs Taken on the Battlefields during the Civil War of the United States

Original Photographs Taken on the Battlefields during the Civil War of the United States

Francis Trevelyan Miller

This volume serves as a somber, visual testament to the American Civil War, preserving a vast archive of battlefield photography that once risked being lost to time. It acts as an essential bridge between the historical record and the visceral reality of the front lines.

History - American6 min read
Cover of The Age of Fable

The Age of Fable

Thomas Bulfinch

A classic gateway to the foundational stories of Western culture, this work gathers the myths of antiquity into a single, accessible narrative. It remains the essential primer for any reader seeking to understand the bedrock of classical literature.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore7 min read
Cover of The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies: As illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila (1583-1800)

The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies: As illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila (1583-1800)

Charles Henry Cunningham

The Spanish colonial administration maintained control over its far-flung territories through a central legal and political institution known as the audiencia. This study examines that tribunal as the vital, often contentious, heart of government in the Philippines.

History - Other7 min read
Cover of The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera

John Gay

A rakish highwayman finds his criminal underworld turned upside down when his secret marriage to a receiver’s daughter sparks a chaotic power struggle between rival thieves and corrupt officials.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf

The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf

John Watson McCrindle

A window into the ancient world, these dual accounts map the maritime arteries that once connected Roman Egypt to the distant shores of India and the Persian Gulf.

History - Ancient5 min read
Cover of The Protocols and world revolution

The Protocols and world revolution

Sergiei Nilus

This collection of documents presents a conspiratorial framework intended to explain the geopolitical upheavals of the early twentieth century by alleging a coordinated, centuries-old effort to undermine Christian civilization. It functions as a foundational text for modern antisemitic conspiracy theories,…

History - European6 min read
Cover of The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)

The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Origen

The mind of an early Christian teacher grapples with the nature of existence, attempting to reconcile the deepest mysteries of the soul with the sharp-edged skepticism of the Roman world.

History - Religious8 min read
Cover of U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1965 July - December

U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1965 July - December

Library of Congress. Copyright Office

A meticulous administrative register of American intellectual property, this document captures the mid-century machinery of creative ownership through the routine filing of copyright renewals.

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference5 min read
Cover of Zadig

Zadig

Voltaire

A man of exceptional virtue finds his life repeatedly upended by a world that mistakes his wisdom for crime and his loyalty for treason. This brisk, sharp satire explores the unpredictable nature of fate.

French Literature6 min read
Cover of Ancient Faiths And Modern: A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, Before the Christian Era. Showing Their Relations to Religious Customs as They Now Exist

Ancient Faiths And Modern: A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities in Central and Western Asia, Europe, and Elsewhere, Before the Christian Era. Showing Their Relations to Religious Customs as They Now Exist

Thomas Inman

This challenging work of Victorian rationalism strips away the veneer of religious exceptionalism, arguing that the foundations of modern faith rest upon ancient, borrowed mythologies and human psychological needs.

History - Ancient7 min read
Cover of Bouvard and Pécuchet: A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life, part 1

Bouvard and Pécuchet: A Tragi-comic Novel of Bourgeois Life, part 1

Gustave Flaubert

Two aging copy-clerks abandon their humdrum Parisian lives to pursue a series of intellectual obsessions, only to find that every ambition leads inevitably to disappointment, absurdity, and the collapse of their fragile world.

French Literature6 min read
Cover of Giovanni Boccaccio, a Biographical Study

Giovanni Boccaccio, a Biographical Study

Edward Hutton

This biographical portrait reconstructs the life of a founding father of Italian literature, tracing his journey from an illegitimate merchant’s son to the celebrated architect of the Decameron. It examines how personal heartbreak fueled a lifetime of creative output.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of How Justice Grew: Virginia Counties, An Abstract of Their Formation

How Justice Grew: Virginia Counties, An Abstract of Their Formation

Martha W. (Martha Woodroof) Hiden

The formation of Virginia’s counties reflects the steady, deliberate movement of a frontier society seeking to bring the reach of law to the edge of the wilderness.

History - American6 min read
Cover of Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Andrew Lang

HOOK This study explores how the bizarre, often irrational narratives of ancient mythology are not mere poetic inventions, but "survivals" of a primitive, savage mental state that once viewed the entire world as alive.

Archaeology & Anthropology6 min read
Cover of Sea and Sardinia

Sea and Sardinia

D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence

The pull of the road is a primary human need, and here the urgency is absolute: the necessity to move, to leave the known behind, and to steer toward a destination that promises a different kind of life.

Travel Writing7 min read
Cover of The Letters of Ambrose Bierce, With a Memoir by George Sterling

The Letters of Ambrose Bierce, With a Memoir by George Sterling

Ambrose Bierce

The man behind the curtain of a legend emerges here, revealing a mind as sharp and unforgiving as the prose that defined his reputation. This collection offers an intimate, often biting look into the life of one of America’s most elusive literary figures.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Negro Problem

The Negro Problem

Unknown

The struggle for civil rights, economic self-sufficiency, and political agency defines the early twentieth-century American experience. These collected essays map a path toward justice for a people emerging from the long, dark shadow of slavery.

Essays, Letters & Speeches7 min read
Cover of The Pearl: A Middle English Poem, A Modern Version in the Metre of the Original

The Pearl: A Middle English Poem, A Modern Version in the Metre of the Original

Sophie Jewett

A grieving father finds solace in a dream of a radiant city, where he glimpses his lost child among the blessed, learning to surrender his earthly anguish to a higher, divine order.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of The Satyricon

The Satyricon

Petronius Arbiter

A sprawling, raucous portrait of Roman excess, this work exposes the vulgar, fragile vanity of the nouveau riche through the lens of an unforgettable, grotesquely elaborate dinner party.

Classics of Literature6 min read
Cover of Dictionary of Battles: From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

Dictionary of Battles: From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

Thomas Benfield Harbottle

This reference work functions as a vast, chronological gazetteer of human conflict, cataloging major engagements from the ancient world through the dawn of the twentieth century with clinical, dispassionate brevity. It offers a panoramic view of history distilled into the stark statistics of victory, defeat, and…

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference6 min read
Cover of History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Edward Gibbon

This monumental work chronicles the slow, agonizing dissolution of the Roman world, tracing the internal rot and external pressures that dismantled a global superpower. It serves as the definitive account of an empire’s long sunset.

History - Ancient8 min read
Cover of How to Speak and Write Correctly

How to Speak and Write Correctly

Joseph (Lexicographer) Devlin

Clear, confident communication is not a luxury reserved for scholars but a practical tool for the ordinary person to navigate daily life. A mastery of one’s own language empowers the individual to express ideas with precision and dignity.

How To ...6 min read
Cover of Petrarch's Secret

Petrarch's Secret

Francesco Petrarca

A man confronts the shadow of his own soul in a series of intimate, searching dialogues that strip away the illusions of a lifetime. This candid work serves as a spiritual map for anyone struggling to balance personal ambition with the desire for moral clarity.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1

The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1

Maria Edgeworth

A vibrant, keen-eyed observer captures the intellectual pulse of the nineteenth century through a lifetime of private correspondence, revealing the spirited heart behind a literary legend.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Mucker

The Mucker

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Billy Byrne is a Chicago street thug whose brutal journey through a mutiny at sea and revolution in Mexico forces a radical transformation of his own character. He is a man who begins by hating all authority and ends by discovering that he is capable of honor, loyalty, and even chivalry.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Poems of Schiller

The Poems of Schiller

Friedrich Schiller

This collection captures the restless, soaring intellect of a literary titan who sought to bridge the gap between the physical world and the ideal. It is a brilliant, searching window into the heart of German Romanticism.

German Literature6 min read
Cover of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 14

The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 14

Robert Louis Stevenson

The wide world is seen through the singular, shifting lens of a child’s imagination, where the backyard becomes an ocean and a bed is a boat destined for distant shores.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Cambridge

Cambridge

M. A. R. (Mildred Anna Rosalie) Tuker

A storied landscape of cloisters and colleges, this account traces the evolution of an ancient university from its medieval monastic roots to its emergence as a modern center of intellectual and social change.

History - British6 min read
Cover of Fabre's Book of Insects

Fabre's Book of Insects

Jean-Henri Fabre

Jean-Henri Fabre invites the reader into the dusty, sun-baked landscape of Provence to witness the hidden lives of insects. By observing beetles, wasps, and locusts in their native habitats, he reveals a world of complex architecture, ruthless survival, and mysterious, inherited instincts.

Nature/Gardening/Animals6 min read
Cover of Highways and Highway Transportation

Highways and Highway Transportation

George R. Chatburn

The humble road is a machine for civilization, bridging distance to bind the human family together. This comprehensive survey traces the evolution of human transit from ancient footpaths to the dawn of the motorized age.

Engineering & Technology7 min read
Cover of Little Black Sambo

Little Black Sambo

Helen Bannerman

A young boy navigates a perilous walk through the jungle by outsmarting the creatures that threaten him. Through quick wit and a series of concessions, he survives an encounter with hungry tigers to return home for a feast.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
Cover of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3): Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Volume 1 (of 3): Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs and Other Pieces of Our Earlier Poets Together With Some Few of Later Date

Unknown

This collection gathers the lost voices of a disappearing world, preserving the heroic ballads, tragic songs, and rough-hewn rhymes that once echoed in English fields and royal halls. It serves as a bridge between the oral traditions of the past and the literary canon of the future.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Seven Discourses on Art

Seven Discourses on Art

Reynolds, Joshua, Sir

Great art requires the disciplined pursuit of universal truth rather than the fleeting imitation of individual styles or the indulgence of personal whims. Through a series of lectures delivered to Royal Academy students, a seasoned master defines the rigorous path to excellence.

Art6 min read
Cover of Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol 2 of 2)

Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol 2 of 2)

John Addington Symonds

The ancient Greek spirit survives not in cold marble, but in the enduring, vibrant pulse of its poetry. This exploration charts the evolution of that verse from the heights of tragic drama to the intimate whispers of epigrammatic art.

Classics of Literature6 min read
Cover of System of Economical Contradictions

System of Economical Contradictions

P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph) Proudhon

Progress is a double-edged sword, and every leap in human industry inevitably carries the seed of its own destruction. This dense, challenging work argues that the history of economic life is a series of unresolved antinomies, where every solution to a social problem creates a new, more dangerous contradiction.

Economics6 min read
Cover of The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation

The Botanic Garden, a Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation

Erasmus Darwin

This ambitious work enlists the Muses to explain the natural world, blending rigorous scientific inquiry with classical mythology to map the hidden lives of plants and the elements that sustain them.

Poetry6 min read
Cover of The Burlington magazine

The Burlington magazine

Unknown

This scholarly periodical offers a window into the turn-of-the-century art world, blending meticulous connoisseurship with the thrill of newly discovered masterpieces.

Art7 min read
Cover of The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868

The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868

David Livingstone

The search for the Nile’s true origin drives a weary explorer into the heart of a continent, where he documents both the majesty of the landscape and the brutal toll of the slave trade.

Biographies6 min read
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