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47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 378 of 988.

Cover of Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems

Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems

William Carlos Williams

Winds batter bare branches, city traffic roars outside quiet bedrooms, and cold mud gives way to sudden, sharp blossoms.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of "Stops", Or How to Punctuate: A Practical Handbook for Writers and Students

"Stops", Or How to Punctuate: A Practical Handbook for Writers and Students

Paul Allardyce

A text without points is a mere puzzle, yet punctuation is less a rigid set of voice-matching pauses than a structural tool for clarifying a writer’s ideas.

How To ...5 min read
Cover of Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian

Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian

Unknown

This collection of translations brings together quiet human heartbreak, dry domestic comedy, and sweeping historical violence across four distinct European traditions. <Image alt="An open vintage book resting on a wooden surface" caption="Stories from across 19th-century Europe"…

Short Stories7 min read
Cover of Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage"

Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage"

Nephi Anderson

Bound for Europe aboard a sea-tossed steamer, a lonely traveler discovers that the father who abandoned him is closer than he thinks.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Struggling Upward, or Luke Larkin's Luck

Struggling Upward, or Luke Larkin's Luck

Alger, Horatio, Jr.

A honest boy in nineteenth-century New England faces poverty, false accusations, and the petty malice of his rich rivals, only to rise through his own integrity and the aid of wealthy allies.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Swedish fairy tales

Swedish fairy tales

Herman Hofberg

A landscape of mist, dark woods, and hidden valleys comes alive through tales of vengeful noblemen, crafty trolls, and stubborn peasants.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore5 min read
Cover of The Bail Jumper

The Bail Jumper

Robert J. C. Stead

A young clerk is accused of a prairie bank-safe robbery, loses his liberty to bail, and flees into the wide Canadian West to rebuild his honor.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The best stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Volume 1 (of 2)

The best stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Volume 1 (of 2)

Sarah Orne Jewett

A summer visitor settles into a quiet Maine coastal village, discovering a community of retired mariners and herbalists whose quiet lives hold surprising depth and dignity.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes: Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection

The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes: Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection

Various

A clever piece of courtroom misdirection turns on an altered almanac, while a frightened poet finds unexpected comfort in the comical tale of a runaway rider.

Humour6 min read
Cover of The Brass Bottle

The Brass Bottle

F. Anstey

Uncorking a long-imprisoned genie brings a London architect infinite gratitude, extravagant wealth, and an endless stream of utterly ruined plans.

British Literature5 min read
Cover of The Champlain tercentenary

The Champlain tercentenary

New York (State). Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission

Across a series of formal dedications and international banquets, two nations gather to honor a shared wilderness past, using the bronze features of Samuel de Champlain to anchor their modern diplomatic friendship.

History - American6 min read
Cover of The Coming of the King

The Coming of the King

Bernie Babcock

A young Jewish woman’s romantic devotion to the Galilean prophet transforms her understanding of kingdom, power, and sacrificial love.

Historical Novels7 min read
Cover of The Crime and the Criminal

The Crime and the Criminal

Richard Marsh

An unexpected encounter on a late-night train hurls a quiet London clerk into a labyrinth of identity theft, secret societies, and murder.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of The Criminal & the Community

The Criminal & the Community

James Devon

Punishment fails because society studies abstract theories rather than the living person, mistaking environmental misery for inherent depravity and institutional routine for genuine reform.

Law & Criminology6 min read
Cover of The Cruise of the Land-Yacht "Wanderer"

The Cruise of the Land-Yacht "Wanderer"

Gordon Stables

A custom-built horse-drawn caravan rolls through quiet country lanes, offering its traveler absolute freedom and a front-row seat to the changing British landscape.

Travel Writing6 min read
Cover of The Cutting of an Agate

The Cutting of an Agate

W. B. (William Butler) Yeats

Art is not made by detached logic, but carved out of personal passion, living speech, and ancient memory. These essays examine how genuine beauty survives only when rooted in emotion, tradition, and the discipline of the human soul.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of The Dog Crusoe and his Master

The Dog Crusoe and his Master

R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

A young hunter and his extraordinary hound cross the uncharted Great Plains, facing wild horses, grizzly bears, and hostile tribes to deliver a message of peace.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Enclosures in England: An Economic Reconstruction

The Enclosures in England: An Economic Reconstruction

Harriett Bradley Fitt

This rigorous economic study dismantles the centuries-old belief that English agrarian enclosures were driven by skyrocketing wool prices, revealing instead a story of exhausted soil, falling crop yields, and forced systemic adaptation.

History - British6 min read
Cover of The Goat-gland Transplantation: As Originated and Successfully Performed by J. R. Brinkley, M. D., of Milford, Kansas, U. S. A., in Over 600 Operations Upon Men and Women

The Goat-gland Transplantation: As Originated and Successfully Performed by J. R. Brinkley, M. D., of Milford, Kansas, U. S. A., in Over 600 Operations Upon Men and Women

Sydney Blanshard Flower

A bold medical procedure promises to reclaim human vitality by harvesting energy directly from the animal world.

Health & Medicine5 min read
Cover of The King's Pilgrimage

The King's Pilgrimage

Frank Fox

A solemn, quiet journey across former battlefields turns raw landscape into a sanctuary of shared grief and enduring honor.

History - Modern (1750+)7 min read
Cover of The Land of Frozen Suns: A Novel

The Land of Frozen Suns: A Novel

Bertrand W. Sinclair

Kidnapped off a St. Louis riverfront and impressed into steamship labor, an orphaned young man is swept into the lawless northern fur trade, where he must choose between competing loyalties to survive frozen, hostile wildernesses.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of The Landing of the Pilgrims

The Landing of the Pilgrims

Henry Fisk Carlton

Trapped aboard the Mayflower off a wild coastline, forty weary English refugees use a corrupt captain’s sabotage to seize their own self-governance.

History - American6 min read
Cover of The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1

The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 1

James Harrison

Determined to excel at sea from boyhood, a fragile Norfolk rector's son faces ice, fever, and heavy cannonades to become Britain's most fearless naval strategist.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of The Mentor: The Ring of the Nibelung, Vol. 3, Num. 24, Serial No. 100, February 1, 1916

The Mentor: The Ring of the Nibelung, Vol. 3, Num. 24, Serial No. 100, February 1, 1916

Henry T. Finck

A four-part epic of gods, dwarfs, and mortal heroes battles for a ring of absolute power that carries an inescapable deadly curse.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Midnight Queen

The Midnight Queen

May Agnes Fleming

In a city suffocated by pestilence, two men discover a beautiful dead bride in the street, only for her face to begin appearing everywhere—alive, disguised, and hunted.

Historical Novels6 min read
Cover of The Old Man of the Sea: Ship's Company, Part 11

The Old Man of the Sea: Ship's Company, Part 11

W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs

A schemes-and-scoundrels comedy of working-class London, where a young man's desperate bid for social status collapses under the weight of an elderly sea-captain's boundless appetite for expensive entertainment.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Poor Plutocrats

The Poor Plutocrats

Mór Jókai

A dark, gripping tale of love, greed, and deception in old Transylvania, where a forced marriage entangles a innocent heiress with a ruthless, masked criminal mastermind.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Present Condition of Organic Nature: Lecture I. (of VI.), "Lectures to Working Men", at the Museum of Practical Geology, 1863, on Darwin's Work: "Origin of Species"

The Present Condition of Organic Nature: Lecture I. (of VI.), "Lectures to Working Men", at the Museum of Practical Geology, 1863, on Darwin's Work: "Origin of Species"

Thomas Henry Huxley

A single horse contains the architectural plan of all backboned life, reducing the complex machinery of biological existence to a simple balance of physical forces and microscopic cells.

Science - Biology6 min read
Cover of The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation

The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation

Richard Hakluyt

Determined sailors, ruthless merchants, and royal envoys push beyond the horizon into frozen, uncharted realms, carving out lucrative trade networks through sheer resilience and cold-blooded diplomacy.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)6 min read
Cover of The Sable Cloud: A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861)

The Sable Cloud: A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861)

Nehemiah Adams

A pro-slavery treatise framed as an ideological debate between North and South, this work attempts to justify human bondage through Scripture, moral philosophy, and idealizations of Southern domestic life.

History - American6 min read
Cover of The Slavery Question

The Slavery Question

John Lawrence

An uncompromising moral assault on the institution of American chattel slavery, this treatise dissects the legal, scriptural, and ecclesiastical arguments used to sustain human bondage.

History - American7 min read
Cover of The Thousand Buddhas: Ancient Buddhist Paintings from the Cave-Temples of Tun-huang on the Western Frontier of China

The Thousand Buddhas: Ancient Buddhist Paintings from the Cave-Temples of Tun-huang on the Western Frontier of China

Stein, Aurel, Sir

Hidden deep inside desert cliffs on China's western frontier, thousands of long-forgotten Buddhist paintings reveal a lost world where Indian spirituality and Chinese artistic mastery converge.

Archaeology & Anthropology6 min read
Cover of The Tinted Venus: A Farcical Romance

The Tinted Venus: A Farcical Romance

F. Anstey

An obscure Victorian hairdresser slips an ancient ring onto a marble statue’s finger, accidentally binding himself to an imperious goddess who awakens in his London shop to claim him.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of The Trial of William Tinkling: Written by Himself at the Age of 8 Years

The Trial of William Tinkling: Written by Himself at the Age of 8 Years

Charles Dickens

Children play at adult authority with deadly seriousness, only to discover that the real world refuses to comply with their elaborate dramatic rules.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat

Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat

Victor Appleton

An inventive teenager buys a damaged lake launch at auction, fixing its motor only to discover that the boat holds a hidden secret that draws dangerous rivals and local thieves.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of Twilight sleep

Twilight sleep

Edith Wharton

A family built on modern self-delusion shatters when its matriarch's serene denial can no longer keep real passion, greed, and despair from crashing through the door.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Venomous arthropod handbook

Venomous arthropod handbook

Terry L. Biery

A clinical overview of venomous insects and arachnids offers military personnel a methodical defense against the quiet, widespread hazards of the American landscape.

Health & Medicine6 min read
Cover of Walt Whitman in Mickle Street

Walt Whitman in Mickle Street

Elizabeth Leavitt Keller

A nurse’s clear-eyed memoir pulls back the curtain on Walt Whitman’s final years in Camden, revealing the quiet devotion of his long-suffering housekeeper, Mary Davis, who managed the poet’s chaotic household at her own financial and emotional expense.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Wit, Humor, and Shakspeare: Twelve Essays

Wit, Humor, and Shakspeare: Twelve Essays

John Weiss

Laughter separates human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom, serving as a doorway to understanding our shared nature and the profound art of William Shakespeare.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 1, part 2: John Adams

A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 1, part 2: John Adams

Unknown

Stepping into an executive office during a time of European warfare, domestic rebellion, and deep political division requires balancing national security with democratic restraint.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of A Confession of St. Augustine

A Confession of St. Augustine

William Dean Howells

The fading winter sun of a bypassed era illuminates this meditative account, where the quiet rhythms of an aging city offer more solace than the frantic progress of the modern world.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of A Little Book of Western Verse

A Little Book of Western Verse

Eugene Field

From quiet nursery lullabies to the raucous humor of Western mining camps, these verses capture the tender, nostalgic, and comic rhythms of nineteenth-century American life.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of A Soldier's Son

A Soldier's Son

Maude Mary Butler

When a young boy returns from a long illness transformed by a gentle, radical faith, his quiet certainty begins to reshape every life he touches.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Abington Abbey: A Novel

Abington Abbey: A Novel

Archibald Marshall

When a wealthy London widower transplants his easygoing family to a sprawling estate in the countryside, the quiet rhythms of village life soon challenge their assumptions about love, Duty, and status.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Adrift in the Unknown

Adrift in the Unknown

William Wallace Cook

A rogue burglar and four greedy millionaires are hurled through space inside a floating iron tower, discovering that interplanetary travel is mostly a matter of bad company and awkward celestial politics.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Ailsa Paige: A Novel

Ailsa Paige: A Novel

Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

Courage and devotion collide as a proud New York woman and a wounded soldier seek redemption across the bleeding battlefields of the American Civil War.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Andreas Vesalius, the Reformer of Anatomy

Andreas Vesalius, the Reformer of Anatomy

James Moores Ball

A young physician in sixteenth-century Europe defies religious taboo and ancient dogma to strip away centuries of medical error, dissecting human corpses with his own hands to reshape how humanity understands its physical inner machinery.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. 3, No. 2 [February, 1898]: A Monthly Serial designed to Promote Knowledge of Bird-Life

Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. 3, No. 2 [February, 1898]: A Monthly Serial designed to Promote Knowledge of Bird-Life

Various

This nineteenth-century natural history periodical combines accessible ornithological accounts, personal anecdotes, child-friendly dialogues, and poetry to educate the public on bird species while fostering a moral imperative toward environmental conservation.

Nature/Gardening/Animals7 min read