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8,211 public-domain books, summarised. Page 167 of 172.

Cover of Shorter novels, vol. 3

Shorter novels, vol. 3

Samuel Johnson

Restless souls abandon secure palaces and ordinary duties to chase forbidden knowledge and ideal happiness, only to discover that the human heart carries its own torment wherever it wanders.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The complete servant: Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

The complete servant: Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

Adams, Samuel, servant

An exhaustive 1825 manual of domestic economy written by two retired servants, offering a remarkably detailed blueprint for managing every post in a Georgian household.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)8 min read
Cover of The Girl with the Golden Eyes

The Girl with the Golden Eyes

Honoré de Balzac

In the feverish shadows of 1830s Paris, a jaded aristocrat pursues a mysterious beauty, only to uncover a dangerous web of captivity, secret identities, and fatal jealousy.

French Literature6 min read
Cover of The History of Korea (vol. 1 of 2)

The History of Korea (vol. 1 of 2)

Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel) Hulbert

A nation's history unfolds through shifting borders, court intrigues, and foreign invasions across millennia of survival.

History - Ancient8 min read
Cover of The Majesty of Calmness

The Majesty of Calmness

William George Jordan

True peace is not the absence of trouble, but the absolute, quiet readiness to face it. Serenity is a muscle built through self-reliance, steady growth, and the deliberate rejection of modern rushing.

Essays, Letters & Speeches7 min read
Cover of The Parasite: A Story

The Parasite: A Story

Arthur Conan Doyle

An ambitious academic succumbs to hypnotic fascination, surrendering his mind to a vengeful woman who uses mesmerism to systematically dismantle his career, relationships, and sanity.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Travels Through North America, During the Years 1825 and 1826. v. 1-2

Travels Through North America, During the Years 1825 and 1826. v. 1-2

Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Bernhard

A high-ranking German aristocrat tours a young United States, examining its emerging institutions, raw wilderness, and complex social systems with the cool precision of a military officer and the keen curiosity of an enlightened observer.

History - American11 min read
Cover of Vidyāpati: Bangīya padābali

Vidyāpati: Bangīya padābali

Vidyāpati Thākura

Love is a fire that consumes the self to reveal the divine within.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore7 min read
Cover of Wit and its relation to the unconscious

Wit and its relation to the unconscious

Sigmund Freud

Unconscious impulses find an unexpected outlet through joke-making, transforming hidden tensions into shared delight.

Psychiatry/Psychology5 min read
Cover of Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White

Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White

Andrew Dickson White

A life spent navigating the clash between tradition and progress yields a remarkable view of a rapidly transforming modern world.

Biographies9 min read
Cover of Highways and Byways in London

Highways and Byways in London

Emily Constance Baird Cook

The great, noisy, living city stretches out before the reader, revealed not through dry statistics but through a warm-hearted wanderer’s deliberate, sharp-eyed strolls down crowded thoroughfares and forgotten alleys.

Architecture8 min read
Cover of Kim

Kim

Rudyard Kipling

A homeless Irish-English orphan boy navigates the vibrant, sprawling roads of British-ruled India, caught between the mystical quest of a Tibetan monk and the deadly shadow-games of imperial espionage.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2

Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2

George Daniel

Through tavern songs, fairground antics, and historical anecdotes, a vibrant panorama of traditional English revelry comes to life, set against the encroaching march of modern sobriety.

History - British6 min read
Cover of Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter

Records of Woodhall Spa and Neighbourhood: Historical, Anecdotal, Physiographical, and Archaeological, with Other Matter

J. Conway (James Conway) Walter

A rich, decades-long survey of a Lincolnshire spa town, this historical guide unearths everything from ancient Roman fortifications and Cistercian ruins to lost birds of prey and local dialect.

Archaeology & Anthropology6 min read
Cover of Some Famous Women

Some Famous Women

Louise Creighton

Courage, self-sacrifice, and quiet duty unite twelve women who reshaped the world not through luck, but through sheer force of character.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of The Biography of a Prairie Girl

The Biography of a Prairie Girl

Eleanor Gates

A blizzard rages across the Dakota plains as a newborn girl enters the world, fatherless from her first hours. She grows up in a sod-and-timber homestead where survival demands everything and beauty must be found on the wild prairie.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of The Blue Bird for Children: The Wonderful Adventures of Tyltyl and Mytyl in Search of Happiness

The Blue Bird for Children: The Wonderful Adventures of Tyltyl and Mytyl in Search of Happiness

Maurice Maeterlinck

Two poor woodcutter’s children set out on a magical Christmas quest across time, memory, and nature to capture a legendary blue bird that promises true happiness.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
Cover of The Dance of Death: Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein

The Dance of Death: Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein

Francis Douce

A meticulous antiquarian journey reveals how a medieval warning against human vanity transformed into one of Western art’s most enduring visual motifs.

Art5 min read
Cover of The Intellectual Life

The Intellectual Life

Philip Gilbert Hamerton

Cultivating the mind is a deliberate art of self-preservation, requiring physical discipline, emotional honesty, and a calculated defense of one's time against the trivialities of the world.

Essays, Letters & Speeches7 min read
Cover of A Son of the Middle Border

A Son of the Middle Border

Hamlin Garland

A relentless march westward shapes a boyhood of grueling labor and starry dreams, as a pioneer family chases prosperity across the changing American frontier.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Around the clock in Europe

Around the clock in Europe

Charles Fish Howell

A series of vivid hourly snapshots across the grand capitals of Europe captures the fleeting, sensory magic of early twentieth-century travel.

Travel Writing6 min read
Cover of Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War

Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War

Anonymous

A sprawling narrative traces Britain’s transformation across a pivotal century, where royal succession disputes, colonial uprisings, and world-shattering revolutions reshaped the global order.

History - British10 min read
Cover of Chaldea: From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria

Chaldea: From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria

Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna) Ragozin

Long before classical antiquity raised its marble temples, a vast civilization rose and fell along the alluvial banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, leaving its legacy buried under silent mounds of mud and sand.

Archaeology & Anthropology6 min read
Cover of Curiosities of the Sky

Curiosities of the Sky

Garrett Putman Serviss

An examination of the cosmos where standard laws break down, revealing a universe governed by sudden stellar explosions, drifting stars, destroyed moons, and vast, terrifying voids.

Science - Physics6 min read
Cover of Customs and Fashions in Old New England

Customs and Fashions in Old New England

Alice Morse Earle

Amid raw winter winds, cramped log dwellings, and severe pulpit admonitions, early American settlers fashioned a vibrant, highly particular, and deeply resilient domestic existence out of the wilderness.

History - American6 min read
Cover of Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers

Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers

W. A. (William Alexander) Clouston

Across diverse cultures and distant eras, human ingenuity shapes the same fundamental observations about foolishness, vanity, and moral truth into unforgettable stories.

Essays, Letters & Speeches5 min read
Cover of History of Egypt From 330 B.C. To the Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)

History of Egypt From 330 B.C. To the Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)

A. S. (Angelo Solomon) Rappoport

From the medieval Crusades and Napoleonic ambitions to the modern unraveling of the Nile's mysteries, Egypt’s past forms an unbroken chain of struggle, transformation, and discovery.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)6 min read
Cover of Mammonart: An essay in economic interpretation

Mammonart: An essay in economic interpretation

Upton Sinclair

Art has never belonged to the dreamers; it has always been bought, paid for, and directed by the class that holds the purse strings.

Art7 min read
Cover of Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 122, February 28, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 122, February 28, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

Various

A lively Victorian tapestry of shared erudition, where nineteenth-century scholars and curious readers trade historical discoveries, resolve obscure literary puzzles, and preserve disappearing folklore through open, collaborative correspondence.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know

Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know

Unknown

A prince leaps over seven walls of spears to win a weightless princess, while an iron-bound captive tricks his savior into granting him three drinks of water. Global folklore gathers here to prove that wit, mercy, and sheer nerve build lasting wonder.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
Cover of The Harvester

The Harvester

Gene Stratton-Porter

A man driven by a prophetic vision builds a woodland home for a nameless stranger, then hazards his heart and wealth to rescue her from poverty and heal her broken spirit.

American Literature8 min read
Cover of The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller

The Life and Works of Friedrich Schiller

Calvin Thomas

A young medical student secretly digests smuggled literature in a regimented academy, harboring a quiet ambition that will soon reshape German letters.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day

The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day

Evelyn Underhill

Ancient human longings for the absolute meet the empirical rigor of twentieth-century psychology in an investigation of spiritual existence. Written to bridge faith and modern science, the text examines how interior devotion translates into vibrant outward action.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of The Public School Word-book: A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universities

The Public School Word-book: A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universities

John Stephen Farmer

Inside the guarded gates of Britain's elite schools, boys speak an exclusive dialect built to preserve tradition and keep outsiders at bay.

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference5 min read
Cover of The Southern South

The Southern South

Albert Bushnell Hart

An outsider explores the American South, examining its land, its economy, and the bitter divide between its black and white citizens.

History - American6 min read
Cover of Tobacco Leaves: Being a Book of Facts for Smokers

Tobacco Leaves: Being a Book of Facts for Smokers

William Augustine Brennan

This compendium serves as a comprehensive, early 20th-century manual on the lifecycle of the tobacco plant, from its cultivation and curing to its manufacture and consumption.

Drugs/Alcohol/Pharmacology6 min read
Cover of Two Wars: An Autobiography of General Samuel G. French: Mexican War

Two Wars: An Autobiography of General Samuel G. French: Mexican War

Samuel Gibbs French

A West Point graduate traces a lifetime of soldiering from the dusty battlefields of the Mexican War to the blood-soaked trenches of the Confederacy, writing with unyielding conviction, quiet bitterness, and a survivor's sharp detail.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Vikram and the Vampire

Vikram and the Vampire

Burton, Richard Francis, Sir

Bound by a solemn oath, a brave king trudges through the dark to carry a corpse, only to find a cunning spirit inside it that demands he solve a series of perplexing riddles.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore6 min read
Cover of A New Voyage to Carolina: Containing the exact description and natural history of that country

A New Voyage to Carolina: Containing the exact description and natural history of that country

John Lawson

A vivid, detail-rich survey of the eighteenth-century American frontier, combining a treacherous overland journey with meticulous natural history and a candid account of Indigenous cultures.

Archaeology & Anthropology6 min read
Cover of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

George Rawlinson

A narrow corridor of fertile black soil fed by an extraordinary river emerges from harsh deserts to foster one of humanity's earliest and most enduring civilizations.

History - Ancient5 min read
Cover of Degeneracy: Its Causes, Signs and Results

Degeneracy: Its Causes, Signs and Results

Eugene S. (Eugene Solomon) Talbot

A chilling, clinically detailed examination of the physical and psychological markers of inherited decline, tracing the path from ancestral instability to modern social ailments through the lens of nineteenth-century medicine.

Archaeology & Anthropology7 min read
Cover of France and England in North America, Part II: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

France and England in North America, Part II: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

Francis Parkman

A band of seventeenth-century French Jesuits marches into the deep North American wilderness, armed only with rosaries and conviction, seeking to transform native souls before a brutal intertribal war consumes them all.

History - American7 min read
Cover of Mountain Craft

Mountain Craft

Unknown

Climbing mountains requires technical mastery, psychological discipline, and a profound respect for the uncompromising nature of high altitudes.

How To ...11 min read
Cover of Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Vol. 1 (of 2)

Edmund Spenser

A questing knight rides through monster-haunted wilds, guided by a maiden whose lands have fallen to a dragon. Across enchanted islands and shadowy bowers, every trial tests whether human virtue can endure against the world's deep deceits.

British Literature8 min read
Cover of Tales of the Fish Patrol

Tales of the Fish Patrol

Jack London

In the windswept waters of San Francisco Bay, teenage patrolmen wage a dangerous, high-stakes game of speed and strategy against ruthless illegal fishermen.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

James Weldon Johnson

A light-skinned child of an unsanctioned biracial union grows up to move fluidly across the American color line, choosing safety over identity in a society obsessed with racial caste.

American Literature11 min read
Cover of The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 08 (of 10)

The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 08 (of 10)

Hans Gadow

Beyond the cold definitions of biological taxonomy lies a world where structural adaptation shapes life, revealing the precise evolutionary elegance of cold-blooded creatures in their natural haunts.

Nature/Gardening/Animals14 min read
Cover of The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates

The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates

Theodore Low De Vinne

Before mechanical types could reorder the world, human hands spent centuries refining the arts of pressure, carving, and ink. The modern printed page is not a sudden miracle, but the culmination of a long, deliberate mechanical evolution.

Engineering & Technology9 min read
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