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47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 151 of 988.

Cover of Guernsey Folk Lore: a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that island

Guernsey Folk Lore: a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that island

MacCulloch, Edgar, Sir

An isolated island shapes its own reality, where midnight streams turn to wine, ancient standing stones defy the curious, and every dark lane holds a spectral secret.

History - Other7 min read
Cover of Modern Design in Jewellery and Fans

Modern Design in Jewellery and Fans

Unknown

A revolution in metal and stone abandons pure commercial glitter to turn personal adornment into living, expressive art.

Art5 min read
Cover of "My Novel"

"My Novel"

Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron

A broad, sprawling panorama of nineteenth-century English society, this narrative explores how ambition, honour, and hidden secrets shape the intertwined destinies of the high-born and the humble.

British Literature16 min read
Cover of Mystic Isles of the South Seas

Mystic Isles of the South Seas

Frederick O'Brien

Life in the South Sea islands offers a sweet, temporary refuge from the crushing pace of modern industrial civilization.

Travel Writing8 min read
Cover of Roister Doister: Written, probably also represented, before 1553. Carefully edited from the unique copy, now at Eton College

Roister Doister: Written, probably also represented, before 1553. Carefully edited from the unique copy, now at Eton College

Nicholas Udall

A foolishly vain knight pursues a wealthy widow who thoroughly despises him, completely unaware that his parasite helper is orchestrating his humiliation for sport.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, April, 1852

The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, April, 1852

Various

A vibrant cross-section of mid-nineteenth-century intellectual life, this collection captures a culture rapidly expanding its borders in literature, global politics, science, and social commentary.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume III

The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume III

Alexander Wheelock Thayer

An aging titan, deaf and isolated, wages a fierce legal war for his nephew while summoning his final, transcendent masterpieces from the void.

Biographies8 min read
Cover of The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella

The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella

Tommaso Campanella

Passion and torment echo through every line, revealing two fierce Italian minds bound by verse, faith, and the long shadow of mortality.

Poetry6 min read
Cover of The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4

The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4

Charles Lamb

A tapestry of human frailty, theatrical ambition, and urban devotion reveals how quiet virtues and eccentric passions endure through life's unexpected turns.

British Literature8 min read
Cover of Alone with the Hairy Ainu

Alone with the Hairy Ainu

Arnold Henry Savage Landor

A lone traveller mounts a rough pack-saddle to ride four thousand miles through the uncharted wilderness of late-nineteenth-century Hokkaido, recording the customs of a vanishing people before modern civilization remakes their world forever.

Archaeology & Anthropology6 min read
Cover of Bacon and Shakspere

Bacon and Shakspere

William Henry Burr

A handwriting study of five clumsy signatures becomes a devastating challenge to the conventional author of the Western world’s greatest plays.

British Literature5 min read
Cover of Dangerous Connections, v. 1, 2, 3, 4: A Series of Letters, selected from the Correspondence of a Private Circle

Dangerous Connections, v. 1, 2, 3, 4: A Series of Letters, selected from the Correspondence of a Private Circle

Choderlos de Laclos

A chilling game of emotional conquest turns deadly when two aristocratic schemers weaponize desire against the innocent and the virtuous alike.

French Literature6 min read
Cover of Framley Parsonage

Framley Parsonage

Anthony Trollope

A young vicar's brush with political ambition and borrowed money threatens his quiet parish home, while his plain, fierce sister refuses to marry the local lord until his proud mother begs her to do so.

British Literature11 min read
Cover of Heart of the West

Heart of the West

O. Henry

On the dusty plains of Texas and across the snowbound cabins of the American frontier, human pride, sudden affection, and absurd misunderstandings collide in nineteen sharp vignettes.

American Literature7 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

A vast civilization does not perish in a single dramatic instant, but erodes through centuries of misplaced pride, religious splintering, and the relentless pressure of external forces.

History - European10 min read
Cover of One Irish Summer

One Irish Summer

William Eleroy Curtis

A leisurely journey through early twentieth-century Ireland reveals an island caught between a tumultuous, bloody heritage and a hopeful era of economic and social reform.

History - British7 min read
Cover of Philosophical Works, v. 2 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author

Philosophical Works, v. 2 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author

David Hume

An anatomy of human emotion and moral life reveals that reason does not govern our choices; instead, feeling and natural sympathy construct our social world.

Philosophy & Ethics7 min read
Cover of Stories of Symphonic Music: A Guide to the Meaning of Important Symphonies, Overtures, and Tone-poems from Beethoven to the Present Day

Stories of Symphonic Music: A Guide to the Meaning of Important Symphonies, Overtures, and Tone-poems from Beethoven to the Present Day

Lawrence Gilman

A guide to orchestral narrative unfolds the literary, mythical, and emotional tales hidden within classical scores.

Essays, Letters & Speeches5 min read
Cover of Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)

Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)

Augustus Hopkins Strong

Eternal security and human responsibility belong together, acting as anchor and engine to the soul; to hold the promise of election without the daily pursuit of holiness is to miss the very means by which salvation is realized.

Religion/Spirituality10 min read
Cover of The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

A fiery, restless spirit seeks absolute ideal beauty, political freedom, and profound emotional truth, confronting mortal decay and worldly tyranny through transcendent verse before vanishing into the quiet deep.

British Literature5 min read
Cover of The Fortunate Mistress (Parts 1 and 2): or a History of the Life of Mademoiselle de Beleau Known by the Name of the Lady Roxana

The Fortunate Mistress (Parts 1 and 2): or a History of the Life of Mademoiselle de Beleau Known by the Name of the Lady Roxana

Daniel Defoe

A woman abandoned in poverty transforms herself into a wealthy, high-class courtisan, only to find that no amount of fortune can shield her from the haunting consequences of her past.

British Literature8 min read
Cover of The Nobel Prize winners in literature

The Nobel Prize winners in literature

Annie Russell Marble

A rare glimpse into global literary history reveals how a newly forged international prize sought to crown humanity’s greatest creative minds.

History5 min read
Cover of The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D

The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D

Jonathan Swift

A sharp collection of political essays and satirical broadsides dissects the fierce party faction, personal avarice, and rhetorical deception dominating eighteenth-century British public life.

British Literature5 min read
Cover of The Variable Man

The Variable Man

Philip K. Dick

A 1913 handyman, pulled two centuries into the future by a time-travel accident, alters the fate of an interstellar war simply by fixing a broken bomb.

Science-Fiction & Fantasy6 min read
Cover of The Wizard of Wall Street and His Wealth

The Wizard of Wall Street and His Wealth

Trumbull White

A quiet, frail man accumulates the largest personal fortune of his century, leaving behind a legacy of financial devastation, brilliant strategic manipulation, and a nation left questioning the moral limits of unbridled American capitalism.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of "1683-1920": The Fourteen Points and What Became of Them—Foreign Propaganda in the Public Schools—Rewriting the History of the United States—The Espionage Act and How It Worked—"Illegal and Indefensible Blockade" of the Central Powers—1,000,000 Victims of Starvation—Our Debt to France and to Germany—The War Vote in Congress—Truth About the Belgian Atrocities—Our Treaty with Germany and How Observed—The Alien Property Custodianship—Secret Will of Cecil Rhodes—Racial Strains in American Life—Germantown Settlement of 1683 and a Thousand Other Topics

"1683-1920": The Fourteen Points and What Became of Them—Foreign Propaganda in the Public Schools—Rewriting the History of the United States—The Espionage Act and How It Worked—"Illegal and Indefensible Blockade" of the Central Powers—1,000,000 Victims of Starvation—Our Debt to France and to Germany—The War Vote in Congress—Truth About the Belgian Atrocities—Our Treaty with Germany and How Observed—The Alien Property Custodianship—Secret Will of Cecil Rhodes—Racial Strains in American Life—Germantown Settlement of 1683 and a Thousand Other Topics

Frederick Franklin Schrader

This polemic challenges the official wartime narrative of the early 20th century, arguing that American history and public opinion were being systematically distorted to serve British geopolitical interests.

History - American6 min read
Cover of A Sportsman's Sketches: Works of Ivan Turgenev, Volume I

A Sportsman's Sketches: Works of Ivan Turgenev, Volume I

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

A hunter wanders the fields, forests, and estates of nineteenth-century Russia, recording quiet encounters with peasants, landholders, and serfs. His observations lay bare the human costs of a feudal society with understated, devastating clarity.

Russian Literature6 min read
Cover of Chemical warfare

Chemical warfare

Amos A. (Amos Alfred) Fries

The battlefield is no longer a place of mere kinetic force; it has become a laboratory where the atmosphere itself is weaponized to disable, distress, and destroy.

History - Modern (1750+)6 min read
Cover of Famous Men of Science

Famous Men of Science

Sarah Knowles Bolton

Long night hours and silent labor shape the men who reveal the universe, proving that true scientific triumph comes from quiet, persistent work.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Now It Can Be Told

Now It Can Be Told

Philip Gibbs

Combat on the Western Front strips away every romantic illusion, leaving only mud, shattered limbs, and the quiet, enduring valor of young men who march into engineered slaughter.

History - British8 min read
Cover of Sweden

Sweden

Victor Alfred Nilsson

Through centuries of struggle, northern wilderness, and imperial ambitions, a nation defines itself less by its victories than by the enduring spirit of its self-governing people.

Archaeology & Anthropology7 min read
Cover of The Law and the Lady

The Law and the Lady

Wilkie Collins

A bride discovers that her new husband married her under a false name to conceal a horrifying past—a trial for his first wife’s murder that ended in an ambiguous verdict.

British Literature8 min read
Cover of The Story of Magellan and The Discovery of the Philippines

The Story of Magellan and The Discovery of the Philippines

Hezekiah Butterworth

Driven by an unyielding spirit of discovery, a Portuguese navigator braves unknown seas to unlock a western passage to the East, altering world history forever.

Adventure5 min read
Cover of The taste of honey

The taste of honey

Edna Worthley Underwood

A series of intellectual sketches and literary reflections, this volume captures a life spent reading across borders, celebrating the timeless power of global poetry and prose. It serves as a defiant, scholarly homage to the art of thinking deeply.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger

Travels and Adventures of Little Baron Trump and His Wonderful Dog Bulger

Ingersoll Lockwood

A tiny German aristocrat and his loyal hound wander across a fantastical Earth, surviving inflated aerial societies and rolling spherical humanoids through sheer brass, quick wits, and stubborn devotion to one another.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the British Museum. Vol. 4

Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the British Museum. Vol. 4

Pascual de Gayangos

This scholarly register acts as a systematic map through the British Museum’s vast collection of Spanish-language records, meticulously organizing centuries of imperial administration, ecclesiastical correspondence, and private history into an accessible reference for the historical researcher.

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference6 min read
Cover of King Philip: Makers of History

King Philip: Makers of History

John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott

Before New England towns grew calm, two worlds tore each other apart in the shadows of an untamed wilderness.

History - American6 min read
Cover of Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third: From the Original Family Documents, Volume 1

Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third: From the Original Family Documents, Volume 1

Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, Duke of

Behind the polished facades of late eighteenth-century British statecraft lay a world of constant friction, where personal rivalries and sudden crises dictated the fate of an empire.

History - British6 min read
Cover of Selections from American poetry, with special reference to Poe, Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier

Selections from American poetry, with special reference to Poe, Longfellow, Lowell and Whittier

Unknown

This collection serves as a historical and literary survey of American verse, documenting the evolution of a national voice from the colonial strictures of the seventeenth century to the expansive, democratic spirit of the post-Civil War era.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Sinister Street, vol. 1

Sinister Street, vol. 1

Compton MacKenzie

A boy's vivid imagination transforms a shadowy Kensington house into a realm of terrifying phantoms and quiet wonders, setting him on a long, introspective journey toward manhood.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Tar : A Midwest childhood

Tar : A Midwest childhood

Sherwood Anderson

A young boy stands at the edge of an Ohio field, watching a threshing machine turn wheat into a river of gold, and realizes that the quiet adult world is filled with secret labors, hidden griefs, and unexplained longings.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of The Complex Vision

The Complex Vision

John Cowper Powys

A philosophical inquiry into the nature of human consciousness, this work explores how our diverse inner faculties assemble a unified reality in an eternally dualistic universe.

Philosophy & Ethics5 min read
Cover of The Life of Nelson, Volume 2: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain

The Life of Nelson, Volume 2: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain

A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

A genius for naval warfare collides with personal frailty as Great Britain's greatest admiral shapes the fate of Europe while breaking his own life apart.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of The Story of the Great War, Volume 7: American Food and Ships

The Story of the Great War, Volume 7: American Food and Ships

Unknown

A global war turns on logisticians and mud, shifting from eastern collapses to the fresh weight of American iron.

History - American7 min read
Cover of The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons

The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Eleven Volumes, Volume 06: Reviews, Political Tracts, and Lives of Eminent Persons

Samuel Johnson

This collection assembles a lifetime of sharp-witted critique and biographical insight, capturing the intellectual pulse of the eighteenth century through one of literature’s most formidable minds. It serves as both a historical record and a masterclass in discerning judgment.

British Literature8 min read
Cover of Wilfrid Cumbermede

Wilfrid Cumbermede

George MacDonald

A restless search for truth and belonging drives a young man to uncover the secrets of his ancestry, navigating the divide between his own humble origins and the pride of an ancient, crumbling estate.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Abraham Lincoln, Volume I

Abraham Lincoln, Volume I

Morse, John T., Jr. (John Torrey)

This detailed biography captures the steady emergence of Abraham Lincoln alongside the descent of a divided republic into civil war. John Torrey Morse Jr. reconstructs the era not as a sudden calamity, but as the unavoidable culmination of a long moral and political crisis.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of An inquiry into the permanent causes of the decline and fall of powerful and wealthy nations

An inquiry into the permanent causes of the decline and fall of powerful and wealthy nations

William Playfair

A nation’s rise creates the very habits, luxuries, and debts that guarantee its eventual ruin unless rulers actively intervene.

Economics6 min read