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1,474 public-domain books, summarised. Page 21 of 31.
The Critical Period of American History
John Fiske
The ink had barely dried on the peace treaty with Britain when the real struggle for America’s survival began. The young nation faced a collapse that promised to turn victory into chaos.
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: From the Quarto of 1604
Christopher Marlowe
Ambition, like a waxen wing, must eventually meet the sun. When the heat of desire melts the structure of a life, what remains is the cold, hollow reckoning of a man who traded eternity for a moment’s vanity.
Woman: Her Sex and Love Life
William J. (William Josephus) Robinson
The secrets of the human body and the complexities of the heart are not mere mysteries to be feared, but essential truths to be understood with clarity, compassion, and scientific rigor.
Great Pianists on Piano Playing: Study Talks with Foremost Virtuosos. A Series of Personal Educational Conferences with Renowned Masters of the Keyboard, Presenting the Most Modern Ideas upon the Subjects of Technic, Interpretation, Style and Expression
James Francis Cooke
The virtuoso’s life is a high-wire act of technical mastery and magnetic persuasion, where the journey from student to master is paved not with secrets, but with relentless, deep-thinking labor.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce
The journey of a young man discovering his own voice begins with the simple, sensory world of childhood and ends in a daring declaration of independence from his nation, his family, and his faith.
Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant
The stories collected here offer a stark, unvarnished window into the human condition, capturing moments of profound isolation, obsession, and the quiet cruelty of everyday life with haunting precision.
History of Education
Levi Seeley
To study the history of education is to trace the evolution of the human mind, observing how the most vital ideas of the past continue to shape the classroom of today.
The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn: Including a new and circumstantial account of the battle of Long island and the loss of New York, with a review of events to the close of the year
Henry Phelps Johnston
The American Revolution hangs by a thread as a ragtag army faces the greatest naval power in history on the streets of New York.
A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others
Unknown
A collection of winter stories that captures the essence of the season, where cold nights and hard lives are softened by the enduring human capacity for grace, charity, and reconciliation.
Western Characters
John Ludlum McConnel
The untamed American frontier is not a place, but a collection of distinct human types, forged by solitude, violence, and the relentless expansion of a new society.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 122, December, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
Beyond the bustle of the nineteenth-century parlor, the silent depths of limestone caverns, and the precise mechanics of the telegraph, a world of intellectual ambition and quiet domesticity unfolds. This collection captures the pulse of a transformative era, weaving together the intimate complexities of human…
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8
Elbert Hubbard
The pursuit of wisdom is a restless journey through the lives of those who dared to question the world, revealing that the greatest thinkers are often as fragile and contradictory as the truths they chase.
Royal Palaces and Parks of France
M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield
The stones of these royal dwellings hold the echoes of a thousand years, waiting for the patient traveler to pause and listen to the ghosts of kings, queens, and the architects who shaped their surroundings.
Shakespearean Playhouses: A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restoration
Joseph Quincy Adams
The wooden "O" was never merely a stage; it was a battleground of high-stakes commerce, social scandal, and rigid city law. Here is the true, grit-filled story of the buildings where the greatest plays in history were born.
Hamlet
William Shakespeare
A young prince, haunted by his father’s ghost, discovers his family is rotting from within. To survive the truth, he must decide whether to act or be consumed by the dark questions that plague his soul.
Fantômas
Pierre Souvestre
The shadow of a man who is both nobody and everything looms over Paris, a shape-shifting specter whose only signature is a trail of terror that defies the reach of the law.
The Home Medical Library, Volume 2 (of 6)
Unknown
When illness strikes the home, knowledge is the first line of defense. This guide provides a clinical, no-nonsense look at how to manage everything from common ailments to the gravest threats to family health.
Agatha's Husband: A Novel
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
The heart’s quietest, most devastating truths are often carried by those who speak the least. In a world of artifice, one woman’s long-guarded fidelity becomes the anchor for a young couple’s unraveling.
Memoirs of Fanny Hill: A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749)
John Cleland
The pleasures of the flesh are fleeting, yet their echoes shape the soul. A woman recounts her descent into the shadows of London and her eventual, surprising emergence into the light of an honest life.
Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror
Trumbull White
The ground beneath the Golden Gate turns to liquid, transforming a city of prosperity into a vast, smoldering tomb as the earth heaves and the fire consumes what remains.
Steam, Its Generation and Use
Babcock & Wilcox Company
The power of steam rests on the precision of its containment, a challenge that turns engineering into a high-stakes search for durability and safety. This detailed guide reveals the mechanics behind the machine.
Tristram of Blent: An Episode in the Story of an Ancient House
Anthony Hope
A secret kept for a generation transforms a young man’s life into a performance of ownership, until a series of intrusions forces him to choose between his birthright and the woman who rightfully holds it.
The Evolution of Modern Capitalism: A Study of Machine Production
J. A. (John Atkinson) Hobson
The relentless march of the machine has transformed not only how we produce our goods, but the very marrow of human society and the fragile health of our urban centers.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology
John Bernhard Smith
Precise language serves as the essential lens through which we view the diversity of insect life, turning chaos into a structured map of the natural world.
Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
To love is human, but to outwit a jealous spouse is an art form—and in these pages, the hunt for illicit pleasure is the only game in town.
The Deaf: Their Position in Society and the Provision for Their Education in the United States
Harry Best
The world of the deaf is not a separate realm, but an integral part of American society, shaped by complex histories of institutional provision and the quiet, persistent struggle for individual agency.
Mary Queen of Scots: Makers of History
Jacob Abbott
A life caught between the grandeur of crowns and the fragility of human impulse, this narrative traces the ascent and tragic descent of a queen whose ambition survived even her own execution.
The Olive Fairy Book
Unknown
A world of hidden doors, vengeful curses, and sudden magic awaits those who are willing to venture beyond the threshold of the familiar.
The Life of King Edward VII: with a sketch of the career of King George V
J. Castell (John Castell) Hopkins
A life spent in the shadows of an empire’s throne, finally stepping into the light to become the most influential mediator in a world teetering on the edge of conflict. This account traces the journey of a man who turned the limitations of royal duty into a masterclass of diplomacy and public service.
The Pursuit of God
A. W. (Aiden Wilson) Tozer
The secret to a life of profound peace is found not in changing your circumstances, but in shifting your focus from the world of things to the presence of the Creator.
The rose of old St. Louis
Mary (Mary C. Johnson) Dillon
The vast, untamed expanse of the Louisiana Purchase serves as the backdrop for a quiet, high-stakes game of international intrigue, where one young man’s devotion to a hidden heiress decides the fate of nations.
Famous Women: George Sand
Bertha Thomas
A woman of defiant intellect and boundless imagination, she broke the social molds of her century to live as she pleased and write as she felt. Her journey remains one of the most singular in modern literature.
Pagan and Christian Rome
Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani
The stones of Rome hold a dual history, where the altars of the gods were quietly remade into the foundations of the saints.
Brand Blotters
William MacLeod Raine
The frontier is a place where a man’s past is his own business, provided he can survive the present. In a land defined by dust, feuds, and shifting loyalties, truth is the most dangerous currency of all.
Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete
Emily Dickinson
The soul selects her own society, then shuts the door. Within these pages, a singular mind unfolds its private, piercing architecture of existence, grief, and the infinite.
The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. Poetry
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
A sharp-witted journey through the corridors of power and the private chambers of a restless mind, where satire meets the sublime. This collection captures the restless energy of an iconoclast whose verses turn from biting mockery to profound melancholy with the stroke of a pen.
The Psychology of Singing: A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern
David C. (David Clark) Taylor
Modern science has failed to explain the beauty of the human voice, leaving students trapped in a maze of contradictory mechanical rules that actually hinder the very instrument they are intended to perfect.
The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol. 2
Harry Furniss
An indefatigable observer with a sketchbook in hand, this artist navigates the globe and the drawing board, offering a candid, often irreverent account of the dizzying life of a Victorian celebrity.
The Strange Adventures of Mr. Middleton
Wardon Allan Curtis
A young man steps out of the rain and into a bizarre, unpredictable world where his every decision is governed by the mysterious, enchanted gifts of a stranger.
Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul
Unknown
A collection of verse designed to fortify the spirit, this anthology offers a quiet sanctuary for those seeking moral clarity and inner resilience amidst the pressures of a busy world.
Mistress Anne
Temple Bailey
In the quiet corners of a Maryland countryside, a young teacher discovers that serving others is a delicate art, especially when the hearts of men and the expectations of society begin to pull her in conflicting directions.
Mexico and Its Religion: With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected With Places Visited
Robert Anderson Wilson
The veil of history is often woven from the threads of convenience, and these pages serve as a sharp, corrective needle, piercing the myths that have long obscured the true face of a complex land.
Paul Patoff
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
The turbulent, mist-shrouded waters of the Bosphorus serve as the stage for a haunting drama of familial resentment and psychological instability. When two brothers disappear into the night and only one returns, a web of suspicion and madness begins to unravel, ensnaring a diverse cast of characters in a struggle…
Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1
Isaac Disraeli
A book is a battle, a history of the mind’s revolutions, and a map of the strange, forgotten corners where human genius once stood.
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert
Emma Bovary, a provincial doctor’s wife, attempts to escape the crushing boredom of her middle-class existence through romantic delusions, illicit affairs, and reckless spending, leading her inexorably toward disaster.
The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Christopher Marlowe
The world is a stage of shifting light, where love and ambition chase one another into the dark. These pages capture the fever of a restless age, holding human desire up to the fire to see how brightly it can burn before it consumes itself.
Sound Military Decision
Naval War College (U.S.)
Success in the most critical of human endeavors rests not on sudden inspiration, but on the relentless application of disciplined, analytical thought to the chaos of the battlefield.
Phrases and Names, Their Origins and Meanings
Trench H. Johnson
Curiosity about the hidden history behind a common street name or a peculiar turn of phrase is a quiet, persistent itch. This guide offers a map to the origins of the words that populate our everyday speech.