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47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 155 of 988.
The Brick Moon, and Other Stories
Edward Everett Hale
A pioneering work of early science fiction, this collection balances speculative engineering with earnest, often whimsical meditations on the social and domestic lives of 19th-century Americans. It captures a spirit of boundless Victorian optimism, grounded in the belief that human ingenuity, bolstered by kindness,…
The French Revolution - Volume 1
Hippolyte Taine
The collapse of a nation is not a sudden thunderclap, but a slow, agonizing dissolution of the bonds that hold human society together. This examination traces the disintegration of France from the idealism of 1789 into the anarchy of total social rupture.
The Nabob
Alphonse Daudet
This sweeping, atmospheric chronicle captures the dazzling ascent and inevitable ruin of a self-made millionaire amidst the glittering decadence of late 19th-century Paris. It is a sharp study of human ambition, moral compromise, and the fragility of social standing.
A Book of Nonsense
Edward Lear
A collection of absurd, rhythmic sketches, this work invites readers into a world where logic is merely a suggestion and physical laws are subject to sudden, whimsical revision. By embracing the peculiar and the impossible, it serves as a foundational text for the genre of nonsense literature.
American Fairy Tales
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
These whimsical, subversive tales reimagine the landscape of American childhood, where magic acts as a sudden, often chaotic, intrusion into the mundane lives of ordinary people.
Brief Lives, Vol. 2
John Aubrey
A collection of candid, ink-stained portraits captures the human spirit of the seventeenth century, documenting the eccentric lives, private habits, and unvarnished deaths of poets, scientists, and kings with startling, intimate precision.
Burlesques
William Makepeace Thackeray
A collection of sharp-edged parodies, this volume dismantles the pretension of 19th-century literature and the social climbers who hungrily consumed it. It is a masterclass in literary mimicry, where the high-flown tropes of romance and adventure are brought down to earth by biting wit.
Creative Chemistry: Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries
Edwin E. (Edwin Emery) Slosson
This book serves as a vivid tour through the industrial triumphs of the early twentieth century, explaining how human ingenuity transformed raw materials into the foundations of modern life. It bridges the gap between the laboratory and the living room, showing how chemistry dictates everything from the food we eat…
Hand and Ring
Anna Katharine Green
A cold-blooded murder, a web of circumstantial evidence, and a courtroom trial where the truth is buried beneath layers of obsession and legal maneuvering.
Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
This collection preserves the soul of a nation through the voices of its bards, capturing the epic struggles and enduring spirit of the Serbian people. It serves as both a historical record and a window into a vivid, mythic world.
Lola Montez
Edmund B. (Edmund Basil) D'Auvergne
This biography chronicles the life of one of the 19th century’s most notorious figures, a woman who rose from a military childhood in India to captivate kings and stir revolutions across Europe.
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: a series of very plain talks on very practical politics, delivered by ex-Senator George Washington Plunkitt, the Tammany philosopher, from his rostrum—the New York County court house bootblack stand
George Washington Plunkitt
A veteran New York City politician defends his career of "honest graft," arguing that serving the public and lining one’s own pockets are perfectly compatible activities.
The Adventures of Ulysses the Wanderer
Homer
The wanderer returns from a decade of war, only to find his home besieged by shadows and his own identity fractured by the long, cruel passage of time.
The Book of Herbs
Rosalind Northcote
The garden is a repository of living history, where a sprig of rosemary or a handful of basil carries the weight of centuries, folklore, and medicinal lore. Within these pages, the humble herb reveals its enduring role in the human story.
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10
Unknown
A vast, panoramic survey of Spanish and Portuguese history, this volume chronicles the rise, imperial expansion, and turbulent internal struggles of the Iberian nations from the Visigothic era to the turn of the twentieth century.
The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education
William T. Preyer
The development of a child’s mind is not a sudden awakening, but a biological progression of sensory, motor, and intellectual milestones that exist long before the first word is spoken.
The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2
Edward Young
The grave and the great are the twin poles of this collection, where the promise of eternity clashes with the vanity of worldly ambition. These verses navigate the uneasy border between a soul’s final reckoning and a citizen’s duty to the state.
The Story of Brussels
Ernest Gilliat-Smith
Brussels is a city built upon layers of commerce, religious devotion, and the persistent, often violent, friction between the common craftsman and the ruling patrician class. This historical narrative traces the development of the city from a modest ninth-century ducal settlement into a sophisticated center of art…
Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2
Charles Lever
The chaotic, vibrant adventures of an Irish dragoon reveal the relentless energy of a soldier’s life during the Peninsular War and the final, thunderous climax of Waterloo.
Cicero: Letters to Atticus, Vol. 1 of 3
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A window into the private anxieties of Rome’s most eloquent statesman, these personal letters reveal the human frailty behind the public mask of a legend.
Dixie After the War: An Exposition of Social Conditions Existing in the South, During the Twelve Years Succeeding the Fall of Richmond
Myrta Lockett Avary
This account captures the turbulent decade following the Civil War, offering a window into the social and political upheaval that reshaped the American South. It documents a landscape defined by loss, resentment, and a difficult, faltering transition.
Eric Brighteyes
H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
A legendary warrior battles fate, blood-feuds, and the machinations of a vengeful witch in this saga of honor and tragic love.
Famous composers and their works, Vol. 3
Unknown
This volume serves as a scholarly survey of European musical history, profiling the lives, aesthetic struggles, and technical evolutions of composers from the late Renaissance through the late nineteenth century. It frames the development of Western classical music as a cumulative, often competitive, narrative of…
Hesperus
Jean Paul
The world is a camera obscura, a fleeting, vaporous image of a higher reality, and the human heart struggles to find its footing amid the shadows. This is a journey through the labyrinth of the soul.
Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume 1 (of 2): Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs
Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
The nineteenth-century explorer traverses the rugged landscapes of Persia and Kurdistan, documenting a world of stark beauty, systemic decay, and profound cultural isolation.
Kinematics of Mechanisms from the Time of Watt
Eugene S. Ferguson
This study examines how mechanical design evolved from the empirical intuition of James Watt to the rigorous mathematical synthesis of the mid-twentieth century.
Myths and Legends of All Nations: Famous Stories from the Greek, German, English, Spanish
Logan Marshall
These tales of gods, heroes, and tragic figures form a foundational bridge between the ancient imagination and our own, preserving the voices of history through the enduring language of myth.
Natural History of the Ornate Box Turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata Agassiz
John M. Legler
This formal, meticulous study documents the life cycle, behavior, and physical adaptations of the ornate box turtle within its native Kansas prairie environment. It remains a foundational text for understanding the species' specialized terrestrial existence.
Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
These pages capture the singular, restless brilliance of a great poet’s mind, preserved as he held court in his final years. It is a portrait of genius caught in the amber of informal conversation.
Studies in Occultism
H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky
True occultism is the demanding science of the soul, requiring total self-renunciation rather than the mere acquisition of psychic power. It warns that misdirected ambition leads inevitably to the perils of black magic.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
The nineteenth-century literary magazine serves as a mirror of its time, capturing the urgent debates, artistic sensibilities, and shifting social landscapes of the American Civil War era through a diverse collection of voices.
The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself
De Witt C. (De Witt Clinton) Peters
A true son of the American frontier, this account follows a legendary scout as he navigates the untamed wilderness, survives perilous encounters, and helps define the boundaries of a growing nation.
After London
Richard Jefferies
HOOK England has reverted to a silent, overgrown wilderness where civilization is a memory, and a restless wanderer seeks to reclaim his destiny in the ruins of a forgotten world.
Browning and the Dramatic Monologue
S. S. (Samuel Silas) Curry
The dramatic monologue is a delicate, precise instrument of human revelation, requiring an artist who can breathe life into silent, implied conversations. This study offers a rigorous guide to mastering the nuances of this distinctive literary form.
Cabbages and Kings
O. Henry
Life in a sleepy tropical republic proves as unpredictable as a revolving stage, where fleeting fortunes and quiet loves collide in the shadow of political upheaval.
Curious Creatures in Zoology
John Ashton
An illustrated archive of early monster lore resurrects forgotten natural histories, revealing how medieval imagination and ancient observation shaped the boundaries of the living world.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Andros, Sir Edmund" to "Anise": Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1
Various
This volume serves as a dense, scholarly gateway to the world as understood at the dawn of the twentieth century, cataloging human knowledge from "Andros" to "Anise." It represents the rigorous, expansive effort to freeze the complexities of history, science, and geography into a single, accessible repository.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Celtes, Konrad" to "Ceramics": Volume 5, Slice 6
Various
This volume serves as a dense repository of human knowledge, bridging the gap between the intellectual rigor of Renaissance humanism and the industrial precision of the early twentieth century. It offers a meticulously ordered survey of history, science, and the decorative arts.
Inquiries into human faculty and its development
Francis Galton
In these pages, a pioneering polymath observes the hidden variations of the human mind, using statistical rigor to map how our senses, thoughts, and inherited traits diverge from the norm.
Life History and Ecology of the Five-Lined Skink, Eumeces fasciatus
Henry S. (Henry Sheldon) Fitch
Small lizards navigate a world of shifting sun and shadow, their lives defined by the urgent rhythms of the forest floor. Through careful observation, the hidden mechanics of survival—from the heat of a spring afternoon to the hazards of a nest in the damp earth—are revealed in exquisite detail.
North American Free Trade Agreement, 1992 Oct. 7 Tariff Phasing Descriptions
Canada
This technical document outlines the precise, multi-year schedule for the elimination of tariffs across a vast spectrum of goods under the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement. It serves as a foundational blueprint for continental commerce.
The Book of Snobs
William Makepeace Thackeray
A master of social dissection exposes the hollow pretenses that govern human interaction, proving that the most ridiculous figures are often those who try hardest to climb the ladder of prestige.
The Electra of Euripides: Translated into English rhyming verse
Euripides
Two children of a murdered king seek vengeance, only to find that fulfilling a divine command does not guarantee justice, but rather leaves them hollow, blood-stained, and utterly alone.
The old and the new Peru
Marie Robinson Wright
The ancient stones of the Andes hold a silent, enduring history, bridging the gap between the vanished glory of the Inca Empire and the bustling, modern republic of the early twentieth century.
A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Volume 1 (of 2)
A. H. (Arthur Hamilton) Smith
The stone remains of ancient civilizations hold the silent, frozen echoes of their creators’ hands, preserved now for study and reflection in the hushed galleries of a modern museum.
Book-Plates
William John Hardy
The history of personal marks left within books reveals as much about the human desire to claim knowledge as it does about the shifting fashions of graphic art and heraldic display.
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 1 of 7
Edgar Thurston
A panoramic survey of the myriad peoples of the Madras Presidency, this classic reference work captures the intricate social fabric of Southern India at the dawn of the twentieth century. It serves as an essential, exhaustive catalog of life as it was then lived.
Celtic Fairy Tales
Unknown
These gathered tales offer a window into the ancient, melancholic, and vibrant folk-imagination of the Celtic people, blending the mortal world with the unpredictable realm of the "good people.