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8,211 public-domain books, summarised. Page 159 of 172.

First Footsteps in East Africa
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
A daring expedition into the forbidden city of Harar, this account captures the perilous journey of a nineteenth-century traveler through the largely uncharted Somali interior.

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern
Unknown
This anthology serves as a vast, curated gateway to the human experience, gathering legendary voices from antiquity through the nineteenth century to celebrate the enduring power of the written word. It functions as both a scholarly record and a deeply personal invitation to explore the breadth of global literary…

Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew) Jones
The pursuit of a direct, inward connection with the Divine drove a courageous, often persecuted, lineage of thinkers to challenge the rigid dogmas of their age.

The book of witches
Oliver Madox Hueffer
The witch remains a persistent, haunting figure in human history, challenging our modern sense of order. This exploration traces her evolution from ancient myth to the shadow cast over the modern world.

The Song of Songs
Hermann Sudermann
Lilly Czepanek seeks beauty and status in a world that treats her as a commodity, finding that the paths to "respectability" are often as restrictive as those of the demimonde. This expansive novel charts the long, painful search for identity in a society that offers women only the roles of ornament or victim.

The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse
Beatrix Potter
A journey between a quiet garden and a bustling city reveals the clashing rhythms of two very different lives. Two mice discover that home is not merely a place, but a matter of temperament.

Dead Men Tell No Tales
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
A sea voyage becomes a nightmare when a passenger discovers a deadly criminal conspiracy aboard. Survival and love collide in this tense, atmospheric tale of pursuit and redemption.

Dr. Allinson's cookery book, comprising many valuable vegetarian recipes
T. R. (Thomas Richard) Allinson
Wholemeal flour and fresh vegetables take center stage in this collection, which argues that a simple, plant-based diet is the surest path to physical vitality. It is a practical guide for the home cook seeking to replace meat-heavy traditions with nutrient-dense alternatives.

Emily Fox-Seton
Frances Hodgson Burnett
This portrait of a self-effacing woman who navigates the rigid hierarchies of Edwardian society reveals how kindness and quiet resilience can alter the course of a life. It is an intimate study of grace under pressure.

Federal Bureau of Investigation FOIA Documents - Unidentified Flying Objects
United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation
The files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation offer an unvarnished window into the summer of 1947, when a sudden wave of "flying disc" sightings gripped the American public and forced the government to scramble for a response.

History of Ancient Civilization
Charles Seignobos
An exploration of the dawn of human progress, this work charts the rise of the great societies of antiquity from the primitive silence of the Stone Age to the administrative sprawl of the later Roman Empire.

Marion Harland's Autobiography: The Story of a Long Life
Marion Harland
A prolific nineteenth-century domestic author reflects on a life shaped by the traditions of Old Virginia, the fractures of the Civil War, and the demands of a public literary career.

Michael Faraday, His Life and Work
Silvanus P. (Silvanus Phillips) Thompson
A man of profound simplicity and sage wisdom, Michael Faraday transformed our understanding of the invisible forces governing the natural world. He dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth, valuing the labour far above the wage.

Mother
Maksim Gorky
The factory whistle bellows, the smoke-begrimed streets teem with exhausted laborers, and a quiet woman finds herself drawn into a dangerous, clandestine world of awakening. This is a story of a mother who moves from fear to a fierce, transcendent courage as her son embraces the revolutionary cause.

Motion pictures and filmstrips, 1970
Library of Congress. Copyright Office
This volume serves as an exhaustive official index of motion picture and filmstrip copyrights registered with the Library of Congress during the first half of 1970. It acts as a primary historical record, documenting the vast array of creative and educational media produced and legally protected in the United…

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
Mark Twain
This is a fictionalized memoir of a saint, told by a man who served as her secretary, page, and lifelong devotee. It captures the rise and tragic fall of a teenage peasant girl who transformed a broken nation through faith, iron will, and a singular, selfless vision.

Reprinted Pieces
Charles Dickens
The hearth is a perfect place to confront the wider world, as these essays prove that the most vivid human dramas—from the detective’s beat to the exile’s dream—are often found in the quietest corners of society.

Schools of Hellas: An Essay on the Practice and Theory of Ancient Greek Education from 600 to 300 B. C
Kenneth J. (Kenneth John) Freeman
This examination of ancient Greek education provides a meticulous reconstruction of how children were raised and taught between 600 and 300 B.C., exploring the rigid discipline of Sparta and the evolving intellectual life of Athens.

The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
A Victorian traveler documents his arduous trek across the American wilderness to the isolated, burgeoning capital of a controversial new faith, providing an unflinching look at a society on the edge of the frontier.

The Europeans
Henry James
A spirited, worldly brother and sister arrive in Boston to claim their American cousins, setting a quiet, tradition-bound family on a collision course with European sophistication. This comedy of manners explores how a stagnant, rigid culture responds to the unexpected intrusion of charm, fluidity, and the…

The Two First Centuries of Florentine History: The Republic and Parties at the Time of Dante. Fourth Impression
Pasquale Villari
This historical study examines the origins of the Florentine Republic, tracing its evolution from a chaotic collection of warring feudal factions into a sophisticated merchant-led power. It offers a rigorous, scholarly look at how the early city navigated the influence of the Empire, the Papacy, and its own…

Translations from the German (Vol 3 of 3): Tales by Musæus, Tieck, Richter
Thomas Carlyle
These tales map the strange borderlands between the waking world and the uncanny, where ordinary lives are suddenly upended by ancient folklore, spectral visitations, and the dizzying turns of fate.

A Righte Merrie Christmasse: The Story of Christ-Tide
John Ashton
A scholarly yet festive exploration of Christmastide, this collection gathers the history, folklore, and customs that have defined the winter season for centuries, tracing the holiday from its ancient origins to its Victorian revival.

After Dark
Wilkie Collins
The storyteller finds the truth of a person not in the pose they strike for a portrait, but in the unguarded tales they tell while sitting for it. These collected narratives, framed by the life of a traveling painter, turn the mundane act of posing into a gateway for mystery, suspense, and human confession.

History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II
James Anthony Froude
The Reformation in England was not a single, clean event, but a slow, brutal unraveling of centuries of custom. This account traces that transformation through the power struggles, religious fervor, and political violence that defined the Tudor age.

Irish Fairy Tales
Unknown
This collection serves as a portal into a vanishing landscape, where the boundary between the mundane world and a mischievous, often perilous, supernatural realm remains dangerously thin. It gathers the voices of Ireland’s oral tradition, preserving tales that feel less like bedtime stories and more like warnings…

Marguerite
Anatole France
This reflection on memory and the fleeting nature of the self explores how the ghosts of our pasts shape the lives of those we hold dear. It is a quiet, haunting study of a man finding his own identity mirrored in the fragile existence of a child.

Memorabilia Mathematica
Unknown
Mathematics is the queen of the sciences and arithmetic the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank.

Out from the heart
James Allen
The human heart serves as the singular source of all life’s conditions, and its disciplined purification remains the only reliable gateway to enduring peace and enlightenment.

Rogers' Directory of Norwich and Neighbourhood
Edmund Dawson Rogers
This volume is a meticulous survey of 19th-century Norwich, capturing the social, economic, and geographic landscape of an English city at the height of the Victorian era. It serves as an essential record of a bustling urban center, preserving the names, trades, and habitations of thousands who lived and worked…

Seasoning of Wood
J. B. (Joseph Bernard) Wagner
Wood is a stubborn, living material that vigorously defies the efforts of human ingenuity to strip away its natural moisture without causing damage or destruction.

State of the Union Addresses
Theodore Roosevelt
These annual reports capture a transformative decade in American governance, chronicling the transition from a nineteenth-century republic to an emerging global power through the eyes of its most energetic executive.

The Authoritative Life of General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army
George S. (George Scott) Railton
This portrait of a religious firebrand chronicles the transformation of a single, uncompromising conscience into a worldwide movement that challenged the status quo and reached the forgotten corners of society.

The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science
T. (Thomas) Troward
HOOK This foundational text explores the natural laws governing the bridge between mind and matter, offering a systematic guide to manifesting one’s own reality through the focused power of thought.

The Spell of Switzerland
Nathan Haskell Dole
To travel through Switzerland is to walk among ghosts of history, where the majesty of the Alps is inseparable from the centuries of human passion, struggle, and intellectual ferment that have shaped the land. This immersive exploration invites the reader to look past the postcard-perfect vistas and engage with the…

The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 10 (of 12)
Edmund Burke
The British Empire stands at a precipice, where the corrupt wealth of distant provinces threatens to dissolve the moral foundation and political liberty of the metropole.

813
Maurice Leblanc
A gentleman thief finds his legendary reputation weaponized against him as he navigates a labyrinthine conspiracy involving European monarchs and a series of brutal, high-stakes murders.

Charles Dickens: A critical study
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
The genius of Charles Dickens lies in his ability to transform the mundane into the mythical, proving that a truly vivid imagination can find the sublime in the most ridiculous corners of human life.

Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
This collection of essays serves as a rigorous, sharp-witted laboratory of political and literary thought, examining the great figures and turbulent crises that shaped the English character. It is a masterclass in intellectual combat, written with profound historical perspective and a fearless commitment to public…

History and criticism of the labor theory of value in English political economy
Albert C. (Albert Conser) Whitaker
This academic inquiry examines the evolution and inherent contradictions of the labor theory of value within English classical political economy. It provides a rigorous critique of the doctrine that labor is the ultimate determinant of commodity value.

Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
These works form a definitive archive of a master of twentieth-century light fiction, encompassing the development of a unique, sun-drenched style of English humor. They chronicle the transition from earnest schoolboy tales and early experiments in romance to the polished, inimitable clockwork farces that define…

It Happened in Egypt
C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson
A young nobleman’s pursuit of a hidden desert treasure entangles him with a sharp-witted American heiress, leading both into the mysterious heart of ancient Egypt. This spirited romance, set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century travel, blends archaeological intrigue with the shifting social dynamics of a…

Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas
Herman Melville
The South Seas are a vast stage for the restless, and this narrative captures the wandering spirit of a sailor who exchanges the rigid discipline of a whale-ship for the unpredictable freedom of island life.

Plays by August Strindberg, First Series
August Strindberg
A haunting exploration of human discord, these plays peel back the thin veneer of marriage and social convention to reveal the desperate, often irrational struggles of souls trapped by their own illusions.

The Golden Maiden, and other folk tales and fairy stories told in Armenia
A. G. (Apraham Garabed) Seklemian
The mountains of Armenia whisper secrets of ancient giants, magic eagles, and the unpredictable whims of fate. These folk tales capture the soul of a people through legends that endure as long as the snows on Ararat.

The Poetry of Science
Robert Hunt
The marriage of scientific inquiry and human wonder transforms the cold study of matter into a grand, vital narrative. This work invites readers to see the hidden beauty governing the natural world.

U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1958 July - December
Library of Congress. Copyright Office
This record offers a methodical, administrative snapshot of American intellectual property in transition, capturing the literary and academic works that sustained their legal protection midway through the twentieth century.

With the Judæans in the Palestine Campaign
J. H. (John Henry) Patterson
The formation of the first Jewish military unit in centuries serves as both a tactical campaign record and a fervent defense of the right of a people to fight for their own ancestral home.