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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 40 of 714.

Demonology and Devil-lore
Moncure Daniel Conway
A global tour of horror shows that humanity creates its own gods and devils out of natural fears, projection, and historical strife.

New York Times Current History
Various
Governments, soldiers, and citizens locked in global conflict attempt to explain, justify, and document the early months of the First World War.

The Apologia and Florida of Apuleius of Madaura
Apuleius
A second-century philosopher stands accused of using dark magic to woo a wealthy widow, defending his freedom, intellect, and honor before a Roman court.

Demian
Hermann Hesse
A boy's dark secret becomes his doorway into a shadow world where standard morality fractures, forcing him to choose between comfortable lies and the dangerous work of becoming himself.

Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan
Toru Dutt
A devoted wife confronts the god of death to reclaim her husband's soul in a sweeping collection of classical Indian legends and deeply felt personal lyrics.

The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave
George Augustus Sala
A roguish eighteenth-century mercenary wanders from stage-fighting in London to global privateering, French espionage, Barbary captivity, and Eastern exile before claiming his peaceful reward.

The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1
George Warburton
A stark structural divide defines the early history of North America: while English settlers built permanent, self-sustaining communities along the coast, the French erected a centralized feudal outpost strictly bound to the interests of the distant crown.

Mary, Mary
James Stephens
In the tight, impoverished tenement rooms of Dublin, a young girl and her charwoman mother navigate romantic intrusion, poverty, and sudden illness through the protective magic of shared imagination and fierce devotion.

Puck of Pook's Hill
Rudyard Kipling
A chance performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in an English meadow summons a ancient sprite, who unlocks forgotten centuries of local history for two children through vivid personal encounters with those who lived them.

South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 1 (of 8): From the Foundation of Cape Colony to the Boer Ultimatum of 9th Oct. 1899
Louis Creswicke
Decades of imperial miscalculation, political maneuvering, and bitter territorial friction collide in South Africa, setting the stage for an explosive colonial war.

Footprints in the Forest
Edward Sylvester Ellis
Deep in the nineteenth-century American wilderness, two boys and their native allies search for a lost friend across hostile territory where survival demands constant vigilance and moral restraint.

World's War Events, Vol. I
Unknown
An eye-witness mosaic of the First World War's opening chapters, this volume captures a civilization fracturing in real time. Through official dispatches and raw accounts, it details how grand strategic calculations quickly collapsed into the grim reality of modern industrial warfare.

The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
An isolated estate, a decaying dynasty, and a lingering sense of doom set the stage for an unforgettable tale of psychological unraveling.

The Armed Forces Officer: Department of the Army Pamphlet 600-2
United States. Department of Defense
Leadership is not a matter of theatrical heroism, but of steady character, deep empathy, and practical competence. Command is forged in daily attention to duty and the quiet cultivation of human trust.

An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises
George Lyman Kittredge
The study of language is not a collection of arbitrary rules, but a logical system designed to clarify human thought. This comprehensive guide serves as both a map and a toolkit for mastering the mechanics of English.

Pharaoh's Broker: Being the Very Remarkable Experiences in Another World of Isidor Werner
Ellsworth Douglass
A restless Chicago wheat broker abandons the chaos of the commodities market to join an eccentric scientist on a daring voyage to Mars, where they discover a civilization mirroring the ancient history of Egypt.

Tales of Giants from Brazil
Elsie Spicer Eells
A great river, a moon giant, and a daughter who walks the earth looking for her lost mother: the Portuguese stories brought to South America took root in new soil and grew wild.

Tom, The Bootblack
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A young street boy works his way from hardship to independence, using his wits, honest labor, and unyielding self-reliance to survive in the city.

Finnish Legends for English Children
R. Eivind
Through the warmth of a hearthside fire, ancient Finnish myths come alive, transforming complex epic verse into enchanted tales of grand sorcery, perilous quests, and the primordial forces of nature.

Self Help
Samuel Smiles
Individual achievement stems not from passive privilege or effortless fortune, but from patient labor, moral courage, and persistent self-reliance in the face of steep adversity.

The Royal Pawn of Venice: A Romance of Cyprus
Turnbull, Lawrence, Mrs.
A captive crown, a court of deadly intrigue, and a young bride forced to choose between the empire of her birth and the island that claims her heart.

Ben's Nugget
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A young miner and his loyal companions navigate wilderness perils, treacherous outlaws, and crooked guardians to secure their hard-won fortunes and protect those they love.

Little Bobtail
Oliver Optic
A poor Maine boy finds an abandoned yacht, protects his mother from a violent stepfather, and stands firm against a web of theft and smuggling that threatens his good name.
The Panchronicon
Harold Steele MacKaye
Flying over the North Pole at extreme speeds, an aerial vessel made of glass and copper winds backwards through time, carrying three modern New Englanders straight into the vibrant, chaotic world of Elizabethan England.

Hidden Gold
Wilder Anthony
A range war brews as invading sheep herds threaten to ruin the mountain valley, forcing a steadfast rancher to defend his home and his heart.

Prairie Flowers
James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx
A shadow on a man’s reputation rarely hides the whole truth, especially when frontier justice and high-water torrents collide to separate a husband from his wife.

Theaetetus
Plato
A wandering pursuit of what it truly means to know something reveals that defining knowledge is far harder than holding an opinion.

A Simple Story
Mrs. Inchbald
A Catholic priest inherits a fortune and a fiery young ward, triggering a tragic cycle of passion, pride, and generational redemption across two contrasting halves of one family.

Lady Luck
Hugh Wiley
A veteran of the Great War, his wandering mascot goat, and a pocketful of dice navigate a chaotic post-armistice America where fortune shifts with every roll.

The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 1 (of 2)
Robert Paltock
A shipwrecked traveler builds a life in a subterranean realm, marrying a winged woman and raising a family before her people discover his existence.

The Keepers of the Trail: A Story of the Great Woods
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
A small band of young Kentucky woodsmen discovers that a British-led force is bringing heavy artillery into the wilderness to destroy the border settlements.

Kant's Critique of Judgement
Immanuel Kant
A systematic inquiry into the bridges connecting human reason and nature reveals how aesthetic feeling and organic order bind our divided world together.

Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts
Rosalind Northcote
Rugged granite tors give way to quiet river valleys and historic coastal ports in this expansive portrait of England's southwest.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Ambrose Bierce
A Southern planter stands on a northern Alabama bridge, a noose tight around his neck. As the drop falls, time stretches, opening a desperate path toward escape and home.

Deerfoot in The Mountains
Edward Sylvester Ellis
An intrepid Shawanoe warrior and two young settlers brave unforgiving mountain passes, hostile raiding parties, and harsh winter freezes during an epic overland journey across the American frontier at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Modern British Poetry
Unknown
A sweeping literary evolution captured through verse, tracing a nation's shift from gilded Victorian elegance to the raw, unsparing realities of a modern industrial world.

Aspects of the novel
E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster
A warm, conversational investigation into the mechanics of fiction, these lectures invite readers to look over the shoulders of novelists as they create the complex, "soggy" reality we call a book.

Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King
Sophocles
A doomed king desperately hunts for a killer, only to discover that the corrupting blight on his city is himself.

Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy
Andrew Murray
True spiritual transformation begins not with human striving, but with a radical reorientation toward the quiet, indwelling presence of a transcendent and holy Creator.

Browning's Heroines
Ethel Colburn Mayne
An insightful reader’s companion to Robert Browning’s poetic works, exploring how his female characters illuminate his vision of human nature.

My Reminiscences
Rabindranath Tagore
A sheltered child gazes through venetian blinds at a sunlit terrace, inventing secret worlds from pipe water and solitary afternoons before stepping onto the stage of Indian literature.

Old Mackinaw
W. P. (William Peter) Strickland
In the nineteenth century, the Straits of Mackinac served as the undisputed geographic heart of North American commerce, history, and spiritual life.

What Men Live By, and Other Tales
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
A peasant's simple acts of mercy reveal an angel in his home, exposing the true measure of human life and greed.

Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy
A headstrong young heiress inherits a Wessex farm and finds herself pursued by three wildly different men, testing the delicate balance between wild passion and steady devotion.

As A Chinaman Saw Us: Passages from His Letters to a Friend at Home
Unknown
Observations made by an educated Chinese traveler reveal the quirks, hypocrisies, and unexpected charms of late nineteenth-century American society.

The Doings of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade: August 1914 to March 1915
Gleichen, Edward, Lord
A rare, authentic view of command on the Western Front, this memoir captures the bloody first winter of World War I through the sharp, dryly humorous eyes of an infantry brigade commander.

Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch
Arthur Dimock
A structural, historic, and architectural journey across centuries of destruction, redesign, and resilience within London's quintessential landmark.

Blue Ridge Country
Jean Thomas
Deep within the isolated hollows of the Southern Highlands, a centuries-old culture shaped by rugged mountains, bloody feuds, and enduring oral traditions yields a surprisingly complex portrait of American life.