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47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 139 of 988.
Manners and Rules of Good Society
Anonymous
To move through the world with grace, one must master the intricate, unwritten choreography that governs every social encounter from the dinner table to the throne room. This definitive guide transforms the daunting complexities of Edwardian social life into a structured, reliable map for the aspiring individual.
Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A street-smart bootblack navigates the bustling, opportunistic landscape of mid-nineteenth-century New York, proving that a little ambition and an honest heart can transform a vagrant into a gentleman.
The Celestial Omnibus, and Other Stories
E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster
These tales explore the friction between the constraints of mundane, ordered life and the wild, transformative power of the unseen world.
The Great Stone Face, and Other Tales of the White Mountains
Nathaniel Hawthorne
In these haunting tales of the White Mountains, individuals search for truth, greatness, and treasure against the backdrop of an unforgiving, majestic wilderness that reveals the folly of human ambition.
The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton. Volume II
Barrington, Russell, Mrs.
A life of artistic devotion unfolds in these pages, tracing the journey of a painter who transformed his deep reverence for classical tradition into a singular, enduring career at the heart of the Victorian establishment.
An Iron Will
Orison Swett Marden
Success is rarely a matter of accident or inheritance, but the direct result of a cultivated, indomitable spirit. This work serves as a practical manual for transforming a passive existence into one of iron-willed achievement.
Ancient Rome
Robert F. Pennell
This is a concise, academic survey of Roman history, designed to guide students through the rise of the Republic, the triumph of the Empire, and the eventual decay of the state.
Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife
Marietta Holley
A sharp-witted American farm wife finds that traveling the globe provides as much opportunity for social commentary as it does for sight-seeing. She navigates foreign landscapes while measuring the world against her own unyielding common sense.
English Verse: Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History
Raymond MacDonald Alden
This collection serves as a practical guide to the mechanics of English poetry, offering a carefully curated selection of verse designed for inductive study. It maps the evolution of rhythmic forms from their earliest origins to the modern era.
History of Human Society
Frank W. (Frank Wilson) Blackmar
Humanity’s trajectory is a vast, interconnected narrative of struggle, invention, and social refinement. This text traces the long, uneven ascent from primitive survival to the complex, interdependent global society of the modern era.
Kai Lung's Golden Hours
Ernest Bramah
A wandering storyteller must trade his most imaginative tales for his own life, navigating the treacherous politics and rigid bureaucracy of a high official’s court. This collection of linked fables balances wit with profound, quiet stakes.
Renascence, and Other Poems
Edna St. Vincent Millay
This collection of poetry captures the sudden, sharp ache of existence—the dizzying realization of infinity and the quiet, heavy persistence of grief. It is a portrait of a heart trying to reconcile the vastness of the universe with the small, singular loss of a loved one.
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 05 (of 12)
William Hazlitt
The written word is a living companion, transforming solitary hours into a vibrant, crowded conversation with the greatest minds of the past. To read is to walk through history, shaking hands with ghosts who speak as clearly as friends.
The Humorous Poetry of the English Language
Unknown
A spirited anthology of wit, this collection gathers centuries of verse that mocks, pricks, and plays, proving that a sharp mind and a nimble rhyme are the surest antidotes to a dull day.
His Family
Ernest Poole
HOOK A man grapples with the fading remnants of his old world as his daughters forge their own independent, modern paths in a rapidly changing, industrial New York.
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare
A Roman general stands at the threshold of absolute power, forcing his closest allies to decide if the survival of their republic is worth the cold-blooded murder of a friend.
Modern Painters, Volume 2 (of 5)
John Ruskin
To perceive the beauty of the world is not merely a sensory experience, but a profound moral act that requires us to strip away our cynicism and see with the clarity of a child.
Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown
Virginia Woolf
Literature is not a fixed museum of rules, but a living pursuit of the human spirit. To read this essay is to stand on a crowded platform, watching the tools of one generation clash against the vision of the next.
The Hairy Ape
Eugene O'Neill
A brutal, existential collision between the iron-willed laborer and a world that sees him only as a beast. This is a journey into the dark heart of industrial isolation.
The Human Side of Animals
Royal Dixon
Animals are not merely instinct-driven organisms, but complex beings possessing social structures, artistic sensibilities, and moral lives that mirror our own. This volume serves as an earnest, observational study of the "human" characteristics ingrained within the animal kingdom.
A History of Modern Europe, 1792-1878
Charles Alan Fyffe
The sweep of nineteenth-century European history unfolds as a relentless collision between the fading structures of absolute monarchy and the rising, volatile forces of national identity and constitutional reform.
Routledge's Manual of Etiquette
George Routledge
Refinement in social conduct acts as a quiet architecture for civilized life, transforming individual interactions into a harmonious and predictable whole. This guide serves as a foundational manual for navigating the complexities of nineteenth-century society.
The Beckoning Hand, and Other Stories
Grant Allen
The macabre and the mundane collide in these Victorian tales, where quiet English drawing rooms and remote tropical shores alike harbor dark, irreparable secrets. This collection of short stories masterfully explores the fragility of human composure when confronted by sudden, irrevocable catastrophe.
The Seventeenth Highland Light Infantry (Glasgow Chamber of Commerce Battalion)
Unknown
The Seventeenth Highland Light Infantry chronicles the formative years, rigorous training, and harrowing combat service of a battalion composed of volunteers from Glasgow’s business community. This record transforms the raw chronology of a regiment into a testament of civic duty, endurance, and profound collective…
The Story of Mary MacLane
Mary MacLane
This is the raw, unvarnished diary of a nineteen-year-old girl in Butte, Montana, who declares herself a misunderstood genius and a companion to the Devil. It is a startling, honest, and abrasive exploration of profound adolescent alienation.
Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets
John Evelyn
The garden provides a wealth of medicinal and culinary virtue, yet modern appetites often obscure the simple, restorative power of the raw, green earth. This treatise elevates the humble salad into a philosophy of health and temperate living.
Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A haunted mariner, a sinister guest, and a vision of a pleasure-dome reveal the restless, transformative power of the imagination. These verses capture the fleeting brilliance of a mind caught between ethereal beauty and dark, heavy isolation.
Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa: With Sixteen Illustrations in Colour by William Parkinson and Sixteen Other Illustrations, Second Edition
Edward Hutton
The Italian landscape is a storied tapestry, woven from the ruins of ancient empires, the spiritual fervor of the Middle Ages, and the artistic triumphs of the Renaissance.
Historic Homes, Fort Dodge, Iowa
Karl F. Haugen
The history of a community is built, brick by brick and beam by beam, into the dwellings where its citizens live, work, and dream. This record preserves the architectural and social heritage of Fort Dodge, Iowa, through the stories of its most enduring homes.
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 3 (of 12)
G. (Gaston) Maspero
The cradle of civilization emerges here as a landscape of shifting rivers, divine hierarchies, and the persistent, human struggle to organize the chaos of existence into enduring history.
Little Visits with Great Americans, Vol. 2 (of 2): Or Success, Ideals and How to Attain Them
Unknown
This collection serves as a Victorian-era manual on the nature of ambition, framing the lives of prominent individuals as blueprints for personal and professional achievement. It documents the transition from early struggle to public influence through firsthand accounts and biographical sketches.
Medieval People
Eileen Power
History is rarely a collection of dry dates and distant battles; it is a tapestry woven from the daily lives, labor, and small joys of ordinary people.
Responsibilities, and other poems
W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
In the wake of a changing Ireland, a poet confronts the weight of his own legacy, finding that the heavy cloak of tradition must be discarded for the clarity of a naked, singular voice.
Student's Hand-book of Mushrooms of America, Edible and Poisonous
Thomas Taylor
HOOK This technical guide serves as an early, systematic attempt to demystify the fungal kingdom for American students, bridging the gap between scientific observation and the practical, often dangerous, task of foraging.
Swan Song
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
The stage is a cavern of shadows where an aging actor confronts the hollow echo of his own life. Behind the greasepaint lies a man realizing that his greatest performance has been the slow erasure of his soul.
The Master of Game: The Oldest English Book on Hunting
of Norwich Edward
This foundational guide defines the art and ethics of medieval venery, preserving a vanished world where hunting was the supreme test of a gentleman's skill, patience, and character.
The Princess of Cleves
Madame de (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne) La Fayette
The Princess of Cleves is a masterpiece of psychological precision, chronicling the internal life of a woman who values her own integrity above her deepest desires. It serves as a foundational text of the modern novel, stripping away the ornamentation of court life to reveal the stark, often painful, reality of…
The Symbolist Movement in Literature
Arthur Symons
This critical survey illuminates the emergence of a revolutionary literary aesthetic, tracing how a generation of French poets and novelists shifted focus from the outer world to the elusive, inward landscape of the soul.
Two Little Savages: Being the adventures of two boys who lived as Indians and what they learned
Ernest Thompson Seton
Two boys trade the constraints of turn-of-the-century farm life for the freedom of the wilderness, mastering the arts of tracking, archery, and self-reliance to forge a life as "savages" in the woods.
Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature
Francis Bacon
This collection of philosophical fragments serves as a foundational blueprint for a new way of thinking, challenging the traditional reliance on ancient authority to instead favor the active discovery of nature’s secrets. It is a rigorous, demanding call to reshape the human mind for the sake of practical progress.
A Treatise on Relics
Jean Calvin
This work serves as a sharp, polemical examination of the historical origins and logical absurdities surrounding the veneration of holy objects. It functions as a pointed critique of superstition, challenging the authenticity of claims made by various traditions.
Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology
Audrey B. Davis
This meticulously documented study examines the evolution of phlebotomy through the artifacts held in the Smithsonian's collection, tracing the transition from ancient medical orthodoxy to modern obsolescence.
Marion Harland's Complete Etiquette: A Young People's Guide to Every Social Occasion
Marion Harland
This guide provides a rigorous blueprint for navigating the social obligations of the early twentieth century, blending practical instruction with a moral philosophy centered on consideration and restraint.
Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 2. Under British Rule, 1760-1914
William H. (William Henry) Atherton
A dual civilization carved a metropolis out of a frontier garrison, balancing two languages and two faiths beneath a single flag.
Political Ideals
Bertrand Russell
Political ideals must prioritize the flourishing of the individual over the rigid demands of the state. By fostering creative rather than possessive impulses, society can move toward a future defined by liberty and international cooperation.
Robert's Rules of Order: Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies
Henry M. (Henry Martyn) Robert
Effective meetings require a structured language for disagreement, ensuring that the will of the majority is clear while the rights of the minority remain protected. This systematic guide provides the precise mechanics for navigating that balance.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume XIV, South Carolina Narratives, Part 3
United States. Work Projects Administration
This collection of oral histories captures the intimate, unvarnished memories of formerly enslaved people in South Carolina, preserving the cadence of their voices and the complexity of their lived experiences during and after the era of bondage. Through these interviews, the past is not merely recounted as a…
The Fall of Troy
Quintus, Smyrnaeus, active 4th century
The ancient walls of Troy are destined to fall, but between the death of Hector and the burning of the city lies a final, desperate chapter of myth.