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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 363 of 714.
Manual of Library Cataloguing
John Henry Quinn
A practical guide for the late-Victorian librarian, this volume offers a disciplined approach to the systematic organization of books, transforming the chaotic potential of a growing collection into an accessible, searchable, and orderly public utility.
Marriage in Free Society
Edward Carpenter
Marriage in Free Society investigates the profound disconnect between the "real Marriage" of the soul and the rigid, property-based legal institution of Victorian life. It argues that true intimacy requires equality, freedom, and the dismantling of the patriarchal "oak-and-ivy" dynamic.
Mediaeval Church Vaulting
Clarence Ward
Mastering the stone vault was the central engineering triumph of medieval architecture, transforming vulnerable wooden timber roofs into permanent, fireproof masterpieces of structural logic and soaring light.
Melmoth the Wanderer, Vol. 2
Charles Robert Maturin
A desperate prisoner locked within the claustrophobic cruelty of a Spanish convent recounts his harrowing search for salvation. His tale reveals the dark reach of an immortal wanderer who offers freedom at an unutterable price.
Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. II
Fleury de Chaboulon, Pierre Alexandre Édouard, baron
The final, turbulent months of the French Empire are revealed here by an insider who stood at the right hand of a falling giant.
Miss Ashton's New Pupil: A School Girl's Story
Sarah Stuart Robbins
A young woman leaves her missionary parents’ home in the West to attend a prestigious Eastern academy, where she must navigate social hierarchies, intellectual challenges, and the moral consequences of a classmate’s dishonesty.
Miss Civilization: A Comedy in One Act
Richard Harding Davis
In this brisk, late-Victorian one-act comedy, a young woman finds herself alone in her country home on Christmas night with three armed burglars, matching their brute force with her own cool-headed wit.
Mississippi Outlaws and the Detectives: Don Pedro and the Detectives
Allan Pinkerton
These accounts of mid-nineteenth-century criminal investigation offer a rare, unfiltered look into the operations of a legendary detective agency. They reveal the gritty, often tedious reality of tracking lawbreakers across a rapidly expanding American landscape.
Monophysitism Past and Present: A Study in Christology
A. A. (Arthur Aston) Luce
The ancient heresy of Monophysitism offers a mirror to the modern mind, revealing a persistent human tendency to simplify the mystery of Christ’s identity at the expense of his true humanity.
Mortomley's Estate: A Novel. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Riddell, J. H., Mrs.
The financial ruin of a merchant exposes the fragile nature of social standing and personal loyalty. This portrait of Victorian bankruptcy captures the desperate, suffocating decline of a household under the pressure of creditors and callous associates.
Notes and Queries, Number 136, June 5, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This archival window into the Victorian intellectual landscape gathers the collective curiosities, scholarly debates, and eccentric inquiries of a bygone age into one vibrant, collaborative forum.
Observations on the Diseases of Seamen
Blane, Gilbert, Sir
A vital medical chronicle that transformed naval life, shifting the fight against disease from the crowded, infectious hospital ward to the clean, well-ventilated deck.
On Some Fossil Remains of Man
Thomas Henry Huxley
In the mid-nineteenth century, the discovery of strange, ancient skulls in European caves challenged everything known about the origins of the human race. This work serves as a foundational inquiry into our deep past and our physical connection to the natural world.
One Day More: A Play In One Act
Joseph Conrad
The return of a long-lost son is not a celebration, but a collision between a desperate father’s obsession and the harsh reality of a wanderer’s life. This brief, haunting drama captures the inevitable friction when the illusions we hold to survive meet the people we once were.
Orpheus in Mayfair, and Other Stories and Sketches
Maurice Baring
A collection of shadows and echoes, these tales traverse the boundary between the mundane parlor and the uncanny dreamscape, mapping the quiet tragedies of those who live between worlds.
Paris and the Parisians in 1835 (Vol. 1)
Frances Milton Trollope
The streets of Paris in 1835 are a kaleidoscope of political tension and social charm, captured here by a keen, unsparing observer who navigates the city’s theaters, gardens, and shifting loyalties with discerning curiosity.
Peeps at Many Lands: Ireland
Katharine Tynan
A landscape of emerald fields and ancient, crumbling history, this guide invites the reader to wander through the complex, contradictory, and deeply hospitable spirit of the Irish people.
Peter and Alexis: The Romance of Peter the Great
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky
A son faces the crushing weight of a titan father, as the collision between ancient Russian tradition and a brutal, modernizing empire tears a family—and a nation—apart.
Peter Bell the Third
Percy Bysshe Shelley
This satirical epic traces the spiritual and moral degradation of a man who transitions from a living, passionate poet into a soulless, establishment-sanctioned drone. It serves as a biting indictment of intellectual hypocrisy and the artistic decline that follows the betrayal of one’s own ideals.
Philip Winwood: A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American Captain in the War of Independence
Robert Neilson Stephens
A poignant examination of divided loyalties, this narrative follows a tender-hearted American captain whose devotion to his country is rivaled only by his complicated and unrequited love for a woman who chooses the enemy.
Porto Bello gold
Arthur D. Howden (Arthur Douglas Howden) Smith
This is a tale of maritime intrigue where the lines between political ambition and plain piracy blur under the tropical sun. It captures a high-stakes power struggle set in a world of tall ships, hidden charts, and desperate men, serving as an expansion of the lore surrounding a famous literary island.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, March 14, 1891
Various
This collection captures the sharp-tongued spirit of late-Victorian London, blending biting political satire, dramatic parodies, and the frantic, fog-bound anxiety of a society bracing for the modern age.
Satan Sanderson
Hallie Erminie Rives
A man suffering from amnesia must confront a dark, forgotten past and the weight of a stolen identity to win the woman he loves.
Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World
Francis Pretty
A harrowing record of survival and discovery, this firsthand account details the first English circumnavigation of the globe. It transforms a dangerous maritime expedition into a singular, epoch-defining feat of endurance and navigation.
Sir John Constantine: Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756
Arthur Quiller-Couch
A young man’s idyllic life in Cornwall shatters when he is thrust into a dangerous, quixotic campaign to claim a lost throne in Corsica, revealing the heavy price of inherited ambition.
Sónnica
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
A desperate struggle between two rising powers, the ancient city of Saguntum serves as the stage for a tragic collision of cultures, ambition, and the relentless march of history.
Source Book of London History, from the earliest times to 1800
Unknown
The story of London is not found in a single narrative, but in the layered documents of those who lived it. This collection offers an unfiltered look at the rise of a city from ancient times to the dawn of the nineteenth century.
Spinning Tops: The "Operatives' Lecture" of the British Association Meeting at Leeds, 6th September, 1890
John Perry
A spinning top is far more than a child’s toy; it is a profound gateway into the mechanical principles that govern everything from the rotation of the Earth to the stabilization of modern seafaring vessels.
Steve P. Holcombe, the Converted Gambler: His Life and Work
Gross Alexander
The harrowing journey of a man who traded a life of gambling and ruin for a career of radical service, this work offers a sobering look at the transformative power of faith.
Sturdy and Strong
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
Success is the result of character, not fortune; a young man’s steady climb from poverty to prosperity serves as a blueprint for the virtue of perseverance.
The Angel of Pain
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
The Angel of Pain traces the fragile intersections of love, artistic ambition, and the cruel inevitability of fate. It explores how deep-seated human connections fracture and mend under the weight of sudden, life-altering tragedy.
The Art of Tying the Cravat
H. Le Blanc
A meticulously illustrated guide to Regency-era neckwear, this manual elevates the daily ritual of dressing into a high-stakes performance of social standing and physical poise. It offers the reader a window into a world where a knot is a character judgment.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 72, October, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This collection captures the intellectual pulse of the American Civil War era, blending urgent political inquiry with literary reflection and the quiet, persistent pursuit of truth during a national rupture.
The Barber of Paris
Paul de Kock
A calculating barber acts as the cold-blooded instrument of a bored nobleman’s desires, but his latest abduction—a young girl named Blanche—unwittingly threatens to unravel his own dark past.
The Basket Woman: A Book of Indian Tales for Children
Mary Austin
The Basket Woman is a collection of evocative, interweaving tales that bridge the gap between childhood curiosity and the enduring natural history of the American West. Through the eyes of a young boy, the landscape itself begins to speak.
The Beggar's Opera
John Gay
In a world where the gallows is a career goal and morality is a matter of price, love becomes the only currency that never quite balances. This sharp, melodic satire remains as biting today as it was in the eighteenth century.
The Beggar's Purse: A Fairy Tale of Familiar Finance
Samuel Hopkins Adams
A man discovers that a mysterious, enchanted wallet can cure the expensive habits of vanity and timidity. By tracking his daily expenditures, he finds that true economy requires shedding the performative costs of social expectation.
The celestial worlds discover'd
Christiaan Huygens
The heavens are not merely a backdrop for human affairs, but a vast, populated frontier echoing the design of our own world. This inquiry elevates the cosmos from a mechanical mystery to a place of potential life.
The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, Vol. 6 (of 8): Ideas of Good and Evil
W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
These essays trace a poet’s search for a national soul, arguing that art must abandon the distractions of politics and science to rediscover the ancient, symbolic power of the imagination.
The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 01 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen
These plays offer a rigorous, unsparing look at the friction between individual passion and the suffocating weight of social obligation. They capture the early development of a playwright who would eventually reshape the landscape of modern drama.
The Defence of Stonington (Connecticut) Against a British Squadron, August 9th to 12th, 1814
J. Hammond (James Hammond) Trumbull
The defense of Stonington remains a singular testament to civilian resolve, chronicling how a small, ill-equipped Connecticut village defied a powerful British squadron during the closing months of the War of 1812.
The Enchanted Typewriter
John Kendrick Bangs
A young man discovers an old typewriter in his attic, only to find it being used by the ghost of James Boswell to report on the daily affairs of the afterlife.
The Idyl of Twin Fires
Walter Prichard Eaton
A disillusioned academic trades his tedious life of grading college themes for the challenging, tactile reality of a derelict New England farm. He discovers that true fulfillment grows from the soil he learns to cultivate.
The Kingdom of the Blind
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
The shadow of the Great War falls across London, where a silent, unseen battle between masters of espionage decides the fate of the nation. Loyalty and deception blur in a world of high-stakes secrets and whispered threats.
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume V
Theophilus Cibber
A collection of lives spanning centuries, these pages offer a candid, often sharp-edged window into the fortunes and failings of the writers who defined the English language.
The Lost Explorers: A Story of the Trackless Desert
Alexander MacDonald
A veteran prospector and two young engineering students venture into the unforgiving Australian wilderness to hunt for gold and uncover the secrets of the fabled "Never Never Land.
The Man Who Rose Again
Joseph Hocking
A cynical socialite wagers his honor on a high-stakes courtship, only to find his life unraveling through pride and deception. Years later, he returns in disguise, seeking both retribution and the redemption he once discarded.
The Master of Appleby: A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part with the Great Struggle in the Two Carolinas
Francis Lynde
Two men bound by friendship and war find their loyalty tested when they fall in love with the same woman, amidst the volatile frontier of the American Revolution.