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13,367 public-domain books, summarised. Page 231 of 279.

The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus Made into a Farce
Christopher Marlowe
A legendary scholar trades his soul for twenty-four years of absolute power, only to find his path toward vanity and indulgence leads to a grotesque, slapstick end.

The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton. Volume I
Barrington, Russell, Mrs.
A portrait of an artist’s early evolution, this volume gathers the letters and experiences that shaped a Victorian master, revealing the dedication and social world behind the brush.

The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer
Andrew Murray
This earnest guide explores the neglected duty of intercessory prayer, offering a path for those who feel their spiritual lives have grown stagnant or ineffective. It serves as a call to prioritize a deeper, consistent life of communion with God.

The Night Club
Herbert George Jenkins
A jovial London furniture mover finds his true calling as the life of a weekly social circle, where storytelling bridges the gap between classes during the Great War.

The North-Americans of yesterday
Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh
A comprehensive, scholarly survey of indigenous life across North America, this work synthesizes ethnographic observations and historical analysis into a unified portrait of the continent’s original inhabitants.

The Red Tavern
C. R. (Charles Raymond) Macauley
A young knight stumbles into a web of political intrigue, finding that his royal mission is a hollow conspiracy designed to bait him into a lethal trap.

The Stag Cook Book: Written for Men by Men
Unknown
A collection of recipes gathered from famous men in 1922, this volume asserts that any man can master the kitchen if he approaches cooking with the same confidence he brings to his professional life.

The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 15
John Dryden
The breadth of a foundational literary mind is captured here, balancing the heroic sweep of classical translation against the sharp, polemical debates that defined English drama and criticism at the close of the seventeenth century.

Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions
George S. (George Sewall) Boutwell
Education is the bedrock of a stable republic, a vital, living process that transforms the raw potential of youth into the disciplined, productive, and moral citizens required for a thriving, free society.

Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 1
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
A restless Victorian explorer ventures into the West African interior to test the sensational reports of gorillas and the realities of life along the Congo.

A Book of Sibyls: Miss Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs Opie, Miss Austen
Anne Thackeray Ritchie
These biographical sketches offer an intimate, appreciative look at four pioneering women of English letters, exploring their domestic lives, their creative struggles, and the enduring humanity found within their pages.

A Handbook of the English Language
R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham
This comprehensive survey traces the evolution of the English language from its Germanic foundations to its modern, multifaceted state. It serves as a rigorous scholarly roadmap for understanding the structural and historical forces that shaped the way we speak.

A Midnight Fantasy
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
A restless midnight stroll through Boston sparks a whimsical, imaginative revision of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy. This story explores how two iconic, star-crossed figures might have found happiness if only they had chosen differently.

A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and a History of His Brigade
William Dobein James
This account offers an intimate, firsthand perspective on the Revolutionary War’s Southern theater, documenting how a small, ragged militia turned the tide of independence through relentless endurance and unconventional warfare.

All's Well That Ends Well
William Shakespeare
This play explores the collision between rigid social hierarchy and the persistence of desire, following a young woman who pursues an aristocratic husband despite his active refusal of her love. It is a work of uncomfortable truths and complex resolutions, sustained by the enduring question of whether a person can…

Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the Bishops
A. F. (Albert Frank) Kendrick
This guide provides a comprehensive history and structural analysis of Lincoln Cathedral, offering readers a scholarly yet accessible tour of its architectural evolution, historical figures, and internal treasures.

Cardigan
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
A young man thrust into a brewing revolution discovers that true loyalty requires choosing between his past and his future. Caught between the shifting politics of the American frontier and the stirrings of his own heart, he finds that the only map for survival is one he must draw himself.

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon (1938)
United States. National Park Service
This administrative guide invites readers to discover a volcanic marvel in the Cascade Range, detailing the natural history, recreational offerings, and logistical requirements of visiting one of the nation’s most storied scenic treasures.

Curiosities of Impecuniosity
H. G. Somerville
Lacking coin can be a catalyst for greatness or a path to ruin, revealing the strange, desperate, and often ingenious ways human beings navigate the crushing weight of poverty.

Frank Merriwell at Yale
Burt L. Standish
The quintessential collegiate hero steps onto the campus, his prowess in sports and character immediately tested by the intense, often brutal rivalries of early twentieth-century undergraduate life.

Fresh Leaves
Fanny Fern
This collection of sharp, satirical essays and sketches captures the vibrant, often brutal pulse of mid-19th-century American urban life with unflinching wit and a deeply empathetic heart.

Gabrielle of the Lagoon: A Romance of the South Seas
W. H. (William Henry) Myddleton
A young sea apprentice finds his life irrevocably altered after discovering a white girl living among the indigenous tribes of the Solomon Islands.

Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia: From Authentic Sources
Karl von Gebler
The confrontation between a pioneering mind and an unyielding institution serves as a timeless warning about the cost of challenging established truth. A scholar’s pursuit of the stars ultimately leads him into a harrowing struggle for his own life.

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. II, No. X., March 1851
Various
This volume of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic time capsule of mid-nineteenth-century intellectual and social life, bridging the gap between high-minded Victorian literature and the practical interests of a burgeoning American middle class.

Hymn Stories of the Twentieth Century
William J. (William John) Hart
Music and memory intertwine in these pages, revealing how common hymns have served as anchors for the human spirit across the turbulent landscape of the twentieth century.

Industrial Arts Design: A Textbook of Practical Methods for Students, Teachers, and Craftsmen
William H. (William Harrison) Varnum
This rigorous manual codifies the transition from creative impulse to professional craftsmanship, providing a systematic framework for designing functional objects in wood, clay, and metal. It serves as a bridge between abstract aesthetic theory and the practical, technical limitations of the workshop.

John Burnet of Barns: A Romance
John Buchan
A young Scottish exile returns home to find his heritage threatened by a treacherous kinsman and his own true love caught in a web of political intrigue.

Korean Tales: Being a collection of stories translated from the Korean folk lore, together with introductory chapters descriptive of Korea
Horace Newton Allen
This collection of traditional narratives serves as a window into the cultural landscape of late 19th-century Korea, blending historical description with the enduring moral archetypes of folk storytelling.

Legends of the Bastille
Frantz Funck-Brentano
HOOK The infamous state prison served as a fertile ground for myths of torture and tyranny, yet the reality of its history reveals a surprising chronicle of bureaucracy, administrative leniency, and human endurance.

Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 1
Edward FitzGerald
The quiet life is often the most observant one, captured here through decades of correspondence that turn the mundane details of English country living into a meditation on friendship, art, and the passage of time.

Manual of Oriental Antiquities
Ernest Babelon
The ancient East—stretching from the plains of Mesopotamia to the rugged heights of Persia—finds its artistic voice through the enduring remnants of stone, clay, and precious metal. This survey reconstructs the vanished majesty of civilizations that shaped the world long before the rise of Greece and Rome.

My Lady Ludlow
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
A gentle, aging narrator recounts the vanishing world of a rigid aristocrat, exploring the quiet tensions between tradition and the relentless march of a modernizing age.

Reminiscences, 1819-1899
Julia Ward Howe
A life of literary ambition and social advocacy unfolds across the nineteenth century, tracing the evolution of a prominent American voice from the quiet parlors of old New York to the front lines of reform.

Shakespeare's Lost Years in London, 1586-1592
Arthur Acheson
This study reconstructs the formative years of a literary giant, arguing that personal vendettas and political alliances shaped the plays we now consider masterpieces.

Short story classics (Foreign), Vol. 1, Russian
Unknown
This collection of Russian short stories offers a profound, often haunting window into the human condition, capturing the stark landscapes and complex social hierarchies of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It serves as an essential introduction to the Russian literary masters and their successors,…

Tales and Novels
Maria Edgeworth
These stories weave together the high-stakes politics of the British aristocracy, the intricate moral dilemmas of the landed gentry, and the quiet struggles of rural life with a sharp, discerning eye. They offer a vivid, unsentimental portrait of a society balancing public duty against private ambition.

The Alps
Conway, William Martin, Sir
The mountains are not merely scenery but a vast, living archive of physical forces and human endeavor, waiting for those with the patience to truly see them.

The Black Death in the Fourteenth Century
J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl) Hecker
HOOK The Black Death was an oriental plague of such ferocity that it depopulated entire nations and shattered the foundations of medieval society, leaving behind only echoes of terror in our collective historical memory.

The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, Esmeralda
Victor Hugo
The passions of history collide with the turbulence of the human heart in these three feverish tales of love, betrayal, and inexorable fate.

The hounds of Tindalos
Frank Belknap Long
The boundary between the known world and the terrifying, non-Euclidean reality beyond is thinner than anyone dares to imagine. Those who peer through the veil of time risk waking ancient, cosmic hungers that reside in the angles of existence.

The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume 2 (of 2)
Rudyard Kipling
The Second Battalion of the Irish Guards endures the crucible of the Great War, forging its own identity through relentless service, sacrifice, and the stubborn, mundane labor of survival. This record serves as a testament to the men who defined the battalion’s spirit on the Western Front.

The ivory king
Charles Frederick Holder
The elephant, long celebrated as a creature of myth and majesty, stands as the most powerful land animal on Earth, yet its survival remains precariously balanced against the insatiable human demand for ivory.

The Library of Work and Play: Mechanics, Indoors and Out
Fred T. (Frederick Thomas) Hodgson
Mastering the physical world requires a blend of curiosity, patience, and the right set of tools. This practical guide serves as an essential manual for those who wish to understand the mechanics governing their surroundings, from the garden path to the gas-engine launch.

The Lovely Lady
Mary Austin
A quiet man struggles to reconcile the heavy, practical demands of a life built on duty with the persistent, shimmering pull of an idealized feminine grace.

The Next Step: A Plan for Economic World Federation
Scott Nearing
Modern industrialization has knitted the world into a single, fragile web of interdependence. To survive the resulting chaos and prevent further catastrophic wars, humanity must transition toward a rational, federated global economic system.

The Quest of the Simple Life
W. J. (William James) Dawson
This is a meditative account of an urban professional who abandons the crushing pace of London for the quietude of the countryside. It serves as a gentle, reflective manifesto for those seeking to reclaim their health and autonomy.

The Scouts of the Valley
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
The frontier is a place of shadows and survival, where five young men navigate the brutal collision of colonial expansion and indigenous resistance. They move as ghosts through the wilderness, bonded by a desperate, unwavering loyalty.

The Spell of Belgium
Isabel Anderson
A traveler’s account from the dawn of the First World War, capturing a nation’s cultural spirit and its sudden, tragic transformation under the shadow of global conflict.