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13,367 public-domain books, summarised. Page 272 of 279.

The Keepsake
Anonymous
Clear moral instruction meets the vivid domestic world of Regency-era childhood in a sequence of verse vignettes that balance parental discipline with outdoor play.

The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Complete (Volumes 1 and 2)
Robert Paltock
A shipwrecked mariner discovers a race of winged beings in a hidden, cavernous realm, finding himself cast as both a husband and a miraculous savior in a strange, subterranean world.

The Log School-House on the Columbia
Hezekiah Butterworth
This evocative tale of the Pacific Northwest follows a young woman and a devoted teacher as they navigate the volatile landscape of pioneer settlement, indigenous relations, and the encroaching dangers of the 1840s.

The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I: Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns
Pöllnitz, Karl Ludwig, Freiherr von
A refined, wandering nobleman offers an intimate look at the shifting political alliances and private lives of eighteenth-century European courts, blending travelogue with the sharp-eyed gossip of a seasoned insider.

The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)
John Skelton
A riotous, sharp-tongued parrot holds court for Tudor England, unleashing a torrent of multilingual satire against corrupt prelates, courtly fools, and foreign rivals.

The Student-Life of Germany
William Howitt
A vibrant, unruly, and often dangerous world emerges from these pages, capturing the singular, fleeting epoch of German university life during the early nineteenth century.

The Suppressed Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
The discarded verses of a master poet reveal the restless, searching spirit beneath the polished surface of his later, celebrated works.

The Wolf's Long Howl
Stanley Waterloo
This collection of stories explores the collision between ancient human instincts and modern civilization, capturing the strange, often turbulent evolution of the human spirit across vast stretches of time.

Turrets, towers, and temples
Unknown
A grand monument is never merely stone; it is the living memory of human faith, imperial triumph, and inevitable ruin.

Walking Shadows: Sea Tales and Others
Alfred Noyes
The shadows cast by the Great War define this collection, revealing the quiet, unreckoned lives caught in the machinery of a world gone dark. These stories find dignity and sudden clarity in the face of an encroaching, mechanized terror.

War Days in Brittany
Elsie Deming Jarves
The Great War is a tragedy of blood and iron, yet in the quiet corners of Brittany, it reveals a resilient humanity that refuses to be extinguished by the shadow of the trenches.

Watched by Wild Animals
Enos A. Mills
The wilderness is rarely a silent place, but rather a theater where the observer is constantly being watched by the very creatures he seeks to study.

A guide to the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in the city of New York: Fifth Edition
Edward Hagaman Hall
A monumental American structure rises slowly through faith and stone, transforming ancient Gothic architectural traditions into a living, democratic sanctuary for a modern metropolis.

A History of the Durham Miner's Association 1870-1904
John Wilson
How a fragile union of British coal miners transformed into a powerful industrial force through thirty-five years of patient organization, fierce strikes, and reasoned conciliation.

A Lady of England: The Life and Letters of Charlotte Maria Tucker
Agnes Giberne
A clever, spirited English woman resolves in girlhood to overcome her plain looks through goodwill, only to reinvent herself in middle age as a prolific author and intrepid missionary in northern India. <Image alt="Portrait of Charlotte Maria Tucker" caption="Charlotte Maria Tucker (A. L. O. E.)"…

A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)
B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts
When institutional religions fracture and abandon their initial spark, a solitary voice must step forward to claim that divine revelation has returned to repair a broken world.

Adventures in Friendship
David Grayson
A quiet journey through the Massachusetts countryside reveals that the deepest human connections and most profound truths are hiding in plain sight along everyday dirt roads.

Akbar: An Eastern Romance
P. A. S. van (Petrus Abraham Samuel) Limburg Brouwer
This historical romance offers an immersive portrait of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, blending the intrigue of a sprawling imperial court with the philosophical struggles of a ruler seeking truth in a world of clashing faiths.

Alec Forbes of Howglen
George MacDonald
A boy’s reckless vitality and a girl’s quiet devotion navigate the harsh pieties, frozen rivers, and sudden drownings of a small Scottish town.
Beacon Lights of History, Volume 12: American Leaders
John Lord
Great leaders do not shape history in a vacuum; they are forged by the fierce economic, legal, and regional friction of their eras.

Black Rock: A Tale of the Selkirks
Ralph Connor
A small band of men and women wage a fierce, high-stakes battle for the souls and sanity of rough timber-cutters and miners trapped in the lawless wilderness of Western Canada.

Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Nature's intricate variety emerges through rigorous observation, tracing the fine boundaries where species meet, diverge, and adapt.

Cape Cod Stories
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
A crusty Cape Cod sea captain stumbles into hospitality, where eccentric summer tourists, runaway heiresses, and slippery local prophets prove far harder to navigate than any Atlantic gale.

Castle Richmond
Anthony Trollope
A quiet Irish estate becomes a battlefield of extortion, where an old fraud threatens to erase an entire family’s name, land, and future.

Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture
William Saunders
This guide serves as a practical, encyclopedic inventory of the diverse botanical specimens maintained by the United States Department of Agriculture in the late nineteenth century. It provides a crisp, descriptive survey of plants valued for their utility, medicinal properties, or industrial applications.

Donal Grant
George MacDonald
A young man takes a tutoring job at a remote castle, where he uncovers dark family secrets, a hidden chapel, and a love that transforms his life.

Europe After 8:15
H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
Three American travel writers strip away the romanticized myths of pre-war Europe, revealing a continent of artificial night life, provincial absurdities, and carefully manufactured pleasure.

Every Man in His Humour
Ben Jonson
An eccentric circle of Londoners spends a chaotic day chasing their absurd obsessions, false reputations, and misguided suspicions.

Flora
A. L. O. E.
A gentle young woman believes her life is built on pure Christian virtue, until a charismatic, unbelieving baronet tests her quiet countryside home and reveals the hidden pride of her own heart. <Image alt="Vintage Victorian red book cover with gold foil decorations" caption="Victorian edition of Flora"…

From Dan to Beersheba: A Description of the Wonderful Land, with Maps and Engravings and a Prologue by the Author Containing the Latest Explorations and Discoveries
John Philip Newman
This nineteenth-century travelogue conducts a rigorous, reverent journey across Palestine, blending precise geographic measurements with vivid historical and biblical commentary.

Hector's Inheritance, Or, the Boys of Smith Institute
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A sudden blow strips a wealthy young orphan of his home, but his integrity transforms every trial into a new beginning.

Hygiene: a manual of personal and public health (New Edition)
Newsholme, Arthur, Sir
From the proper temperature for rendering fats to the statistical correction of urban mortality rates, this Victorian manual transforms the messy realities of daily existence into a rigorous, actionable science of survival.

Kepler
Walter W. (Walter William) Bryant
A visionary mathematician battles financial ruin, dogma, and his own bizarre superstitions to unlock the fundamental, elegant laws governing planetary motion.

King Lear's Wife
Gordon Bottomley
An icy, atmospheric examination of a domestic collapse, this work reimagines the origins of a Shakespearean tragedy through a cold, unflinching lens. It portrays the final days of a queen, the cold ambition of her daughter, and the decay of a royal marriage.

Latter-Day Sweethearts
Harrison, Burton, Mrs.
A wealthy socialite flees an uncomfortable domestic shift, embarking on a transatlantic voyage where unexpected connections, old flames, and social maneuverings redraw the boundaries of her future.

Mohun
John Esten Cooke
Two swords cross above a quiet Virginia hearth, framing a portrait of a past that refuses to die without a voice.

New-England's rarities discovered
Josselyn, John, active 1630-1675
Deep in the wilderness of a newly claimed continent, odd creatures swim, strange herbs heal severe wounds, and thick forests hide unexpected remedies for those observant enough to gather them.

Object Lessons on the Human Body: A Transcript of Lessons Given in the Primary Department of School No. 49, New York City
Sarah F. (Sarah Frances) Buckelew
A Victorian classroom transcript reveals how primary school children were taught to view their own anatomy through strict recitation and moral warnings.

Old Church Lore
William Andrews
Long before parish life narrowed into modern quietude, the medieval church presided over legal sanctuary, festive Sunday sports, gruesome trials by touch, and civic spectacle.

Old Mortality, Volume 1
Walter Scott
A young religious moderate in 1679 Scotland is thrust into a bloody civil war, caught between tyrannical royalists and fanatical Covenanting rebels while struggling to protect the woman he loves and preserve his own moral compass.

Prehistoric Textile Art of Eastern United States: Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 3-46
William Henry Holmes
Spun fibers, woven mats, and coarse netted sacks preserved in earth and clay reveal the elaborate artistic traditions of ancient North American peoples.

Protection from fire and thieves : Including the construction of locks, safes, strong-rooms, and fireproof buildings
George Hayter Chubb
Mechanical ingenuity stands as the sole defense against criminal cunning and thermal destruction in an urban world grown increasingly hazardous.

Recollections of My Youth
Ernest Renan
A quiet bell tolls from a submerged city beneath the Breton tides, calling a lost soul back to a faith he can no longer hold.

Religions of Ancient China
Herbert Allen Giles
Long before philosophical systems or imported creeds took hold, a personal, watching deity stood at the heart of Chinese spiritual life.

Salve Venetia, gleanings from Venetian history
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
Across the shallow salt marshes of the Adriatic, a fugitive settlement built of wood and mud slowly transforms into an invincible maritime empire ruled by a jealous, self-electing council of nobles.

Sketches of the Covenanters
J. C. (James Calvin) McFeeters
A devotion to divine liberty drives a persecuted people into the wilderness to defy the dictates of earthly kings.

The Appreciation of Music - Vol. 1 (of 3)
Daniel Gregory Mason
Train your ears to hear the logic, balance, and architecture within every musical phrase. This guide strips away confusing technical jargon to reveal how simple folk tunes gradually evolved into the monumental symphonic masterpieces of classical music.

The Boy With the U.S. Census
Francis Rolt-Wheeler
An eager youth tours early twentieth-century America as a census enumerator, discovering that the nation's truest heroes are those facing real hardship in its factory towns, icy frontiers, and crowded tenements.