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1,474 public-domain books, summarised. Page 27 of 31.
Madame Bovary: A Tale of Provincial Life, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Gustave Flaubert
A woman trapped by the dullness of provincial life seeks escape in passion and illusion, only to find herself ensnared in despair and ruin.
Oswald Langdon
Levi Jackson Hamilton
HOOK A tangled web of mystery, betrayal, and redemption unfolds across England, India, and beyond, where secrets of identity, family loyalty, and justice collide in a gripping tale of human frailty and moral struggle.
Anne of Avonlea
L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
HOOK A young schoolteacher’s earnest efforts to shape a small community’s future unfold amid the vivid rhythms of rural life, friendship, and the quiet stirrings of adulthood.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
A whimsical future London erupts into a fierce, poetic battle over the soul of a single neighborhood, where irony and passion collide in a struggle for meaning and identity.
Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests
Johann Jakob von Tschudi
Hook A vivid journey through Peru’s diverse landscapes, from bustling Lima to remote Andean heights and dense primeval forests, revealing the land’s natural wonders, complex cultures, and turbulent history in the mid-19th century.
A Little Girl of Long Ago
Amanda M. Douglas
A young girl’s life unfolds amid the bustling streets and changing times of mid-19th century New York, revealing a tapestry of family, friendship, and the slow march of history through personal joys and sorrows.
The Crooked House
Brandon Fleming
A murder in a garden of lights draws a circle of witnesses into guilt, longing, and fear. What begins as a closed-room suspicion grows into a darker puzzle about inherited madness and the things people destroy.
Southern Literature From 1579-1895: A comprehensive review, with copious extracts and criticisms
Louise Manly
Explore the rich tapestry of Southern life and letters from the earliest colonial days through the 19th century, revealing how history, culture, and literature intertwine to shape a distinct American region.
Mountain Blood: A Novel
Joseph Hergesheimer
A rugged mountain valley conceals fierce human passions, old grudges, and the relentless struggle for survival and dignity in a world shaped by nature and ambition.
Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812. Volume 1
A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan
A detailed exploration of how naval power shaped the War of 1812, revealing the strategic interplay between maritime strength, diplomacy, and national identity in early American history.
Impressions of South Africa
Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount
A country of bare ranges, deep politics, and hard distances becomes a test of empire, race, and power. What begins as travel writing widens into a clear-eyed argument about South Africa’s future.
An Elementary Study of Chemistry
William McPherson
A chemistry text can sound dry until you watch it move from breathing and burning to salts, alloys, mines, dyes, and explosives.
History of the Rise of the Huguenots, Vol. 1
Henry Martyn Baird
France’s religious future turns on ministers, queens, kings, and judges who keep trying to control a faith that will not stay contained.
A Voice in the Wilderness
Grace Livingston Hill
HOOK A young woman ventures into the wild Arizona desert to teach and transform a rugged community, facing isolation, danger, and unexpected friendships that challenge her faith and courage.
The Chautauqua Girls At Home
Pansy
Four young women come home changed, and the ordinary duties of church, school, and visiting become the arena where private conviction is tested.
Swann's Way
Marcel Proust
A child lies awake in the dark, and from that ordinary unease a whole world of memory, habit, longing, and social illusion begins to open.
Ancient law
Maine, Henry Sumner, Sir
Explore the origins and evolution of law as a living, historical organism shaped by society’s changing structures, customs, and ideas, from ancient family groups to the complexities of Roman jurisprudence.
The Superstitions of Witchcraft
Howard Williams
Fear of witches begins as a tale of marvels and ends as a history of courts, prisons, and fires. The book tracks how superstition hardens into law and how law, in turn, feeds superstition.
Reincarnation and the Law of Karma: A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect
William Walker Atkinson
Explore the ancient and modern teachings on the soul’s journey through multiple lives, revealing how cause and effect shape spiritual evolution across cultures and ages.
The Religious Experience of the Roman People: From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus
W. Warde (William Warde) Fowler
Explore the evolving religious life of ancient Rome, from its earliest rites and beliefs through the complex rituals and philosophies that shaped the city-state’s spiritual identity by the age of Augustus.
Louis Philippe: Makers of History Series
John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
A life shaped by revolution, exile, and power, tracing a man who navigates the collapse of monarchy and the rise of modern France with resilience and complexity.
My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War
Ben J. (Ben Johannis) Viljoen
A commander’s war diary becomes something sharper: a record of retreat, stubbornness, misjudgment, and endurance, seen from inside the Boer side as the campaign tightens around men, horses, and country.
Rinkitink in Oz
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
A spoiled little king, a fearless boy prince, and a talking goat are thrown into a chain of rescues, betrayals, and magic pearls. The journey keeps widening until it reaches Oz itself, where the last answers finally come into view.
Manual of Military Training: Second, Revised Edition
James A. (James Alfred) Moss
A war manual can feel cold on the page, but here every page is made of movement, habits, and consequence. It shows how an army tries to turn ordinary men into a unit that can think, march, camp, fight, and endure.
Stradella
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
A tale of love and danger unfolds in 17th-century Italy, where a gifted musician’s passion for a noblewoman ignites a perilous struggle against jealous rivals and shadowy enemies.
The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan
Dixon, Thomas, Jr.
HOOK Set against the wreckage of the American Civil War, Thomas Dixon Jr.’s novel depicts the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a desperate, heroic crusade to reclaim Southern civilization from the chaos of Reconstruction.
The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus Vasa
Paul Barron Watson
A gripping tale of Sweden’s fierce struggle for independence, where a determined leader rises from exile to forge a new nation amid war, political intrigue, and religious upheaval.
The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
A man discovers the secret to invisibility, but the power he gains leads him into isolation, violence, and a desperate struggle for survival.
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities
Anonymous
Tales of the sea unfold in relentless storms, desperate mutinies, and harrowing shipwrecks, where courage and cruelty collide on the vast, unforgiving ocean.
A Wayfarer in China: Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia
Elizabeth Kimball Kendall
A journey through the remote landscapes of early 20th-century West China and Mongolia reveals a world of rugged beauty, ancient traditions, and the quiet stirrings of change.
The Trail of '98: A Northland Romance
Robert W. (Robert William) Service
HOOK In the savage grip of the Klondike Gold Rush, a young man battles the frozen fury of the North and the corruption of his own soul in a desperate quest for fortune and love.
Myths of the Cherokee: Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology
James Mooney
Ancient tales and sacred traditions reveal the soul of a people caught between worlds, their myths weaving the origins, struggles, and spirit of the Cherokee Nation.
The Huguenots in France
Samuel Smiles
Religious conviction and persecution intertwine in a gripping tale of resilience and faith amid the harsh repression of the Huguenots in 17th- and 18th-century France.
The Mind and the Brain: Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps
Alfred Binet
HOOK Alfred Binet challenges the ancient divide between thought and matter, dismantling the illusion that the mind is a secret inner world. He argues that consciousness is not a place, but a relationship with reality.
The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche Contra Wagner, and Selected Aphorisms
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
A fierce critique of a towering musical figure, this work unravels the complex interplay of art, culture, and personal conviction in a time of profound aesthetic and moral upheaval.
The Twelfth Hour
Ada Leverson
A delicate portrait of Edwardian London society unfolds through intertwined lives, where love, ambition, and social expectation collide beneath the polished surface of polite gatherings.
The Wars of the Jews
Flavius Josephus
A gripping firsthand account of a devastating revolt, where faith, politics, and survival collide amid the ruins of a once-glorious city.
Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children
Mabel Powers
HOOK Mabel Powers gathers the luminous oral traditions of the Haudenosaunee, revealing a world where animals, spirits, and humans converse to explain the profound mysteries of the natural world.
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern
Unknown
HOOK A vast treasury of human thought and expression, this collection spans centuries and continents, revealing the evolution of literature and ideas that have shaped civilizations.
Story of the War in South Africa, 1899-1900
A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan
A detailed account of a war fought on rugged terrain, where strategy, endurance, and the clash of empires shaped the fate of South Africa at the turn of the 20th century.
A Woman who went to Alaska
May Kellogg Sullivan
A determined woman ventures into the wilds of Alaska at the turn of the 20th century, navigating harsh landscapes, unpredictable weather, and the complex human tapestry of a gold rush frontier.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume II, Arkansas Narratives, Part 4
United States. Work Projects Administration
Voices long silenced by history speak plainly of bondage, survival, and the complex legacies of slavery in Arkansas, revealing a world of hardship, resilience, and memory.
The regent's daughter
Alexandre Dumas
A love affair begins in secrecy, then becomes a trap set by politics, family, and prison. By the end, private loyalty and public power have tangled so tightly that every rescue costs someone else dearly.
Debts of Honor
Mór Jókai
A poignant exploration of ancestral legacies and tragic destinies, this narrative follows a Hungarian family navigating the rigid demands of 19th-century social codes, where youthful passion and political idealism often lead to an early grave.
The Bishop's Secret
Fergus Hume
HOOK When a mysterious vagabond is found murdered in a cathedral city, a respected bishop’s hidden past threatens to unravel his life and those around him in a tale of secrets, suspicion, and social intrigue.
The Story of the Heavens
Robert S. (Robert Stawell) Ball
The vast cosmos unfolds through vivid descriptions of the sun, moon, planets, and stars, revealing their motions, mysteries, and the laws that govern them in a journey from Earth’s nearest neighbor to the farthest reaches of the heavens.
Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill
What if the foundation of all morality could be found in the pursuit of happiness? A profound exploration of how the greatest good for the greatest number shapes right and wrong.
A harum-scarum schoolgirl
Angela Brazil
HOOK A spirited schoolgirl’s adventures unfold amid the upheaval of a beloved headmistress’s sudden departure, ancient family secrets, and the lively rhythms of school life in a remote English abbey.