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32,123 public-domain books, summarised. Page 411 of 670.

Little Yellow Wang-lo
M. C. Bell
A young boy’s errand to provide his father with dinner spirals into an unlikely alliance with a family of talking pigs, leading to a fortune that changes his life forever.

Mademoiselle Blanche: A Novel
John D. (John Daniel) Barry
In this sharp-edged portrait of obsession, a young woman’s perilous circus act becomes the stage for a hollow man’s undoing. It is a haunting study of how easily we mistake the spectacle of another person for love.

Mamma's Stories about Birds
Mary Elizabeth Southwell Dudley Leathley
A feathered guide for the young naturalist, this collection of sketches celebrates the variety, intelligence, and peculiar habits of birds through a lens of Victorian wonder and moral instruction.

Manual of the apiary
Albert John Cook
Practical, methodical, and deeply grounded in the natural sciences, this guide transforms the complex biology of the honeybee into a manageable, flourishing pursuit for any dedicated student or gardener.

McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, October 1893
Various
This issue of a prominent late-Victorian periodical offers a wide-ranging survey of the intellectual and social currents defining the 1890s, blending political biography with emerging scientific inquiry and historical storytelling.

Mightier than the Sword
Alphonse Courlander
The young man, scorned by his elders in all the periods of the nineteenth century except those last years of development, found himself suddenly caught up on the high wave that was sweeping away the rubbish and the sentiment and the lumber of the old customs, and borne above them all.

Miss Merivale's Mistake
Clarke, Henry, Mrs.
The secret of a lost inheritance and a hidden family identity unravels within the walls of a quiet country estate, challenging the rigid social pretensions of a young woman’s elite ambitions.

Notes on the Book of Leviticus
Charles Henry Mackintosh
The pages of Leviticus, often regarded as a dense thicket of ancient ritual, are here transformed into a map of spiritual devotion. This work serves as an intensive, verse-by-verse commentary designed to reveal the deeper meaning behind the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. It is a foundational text of…

Old and rare Scottish tartans
Donald William Stewart
This scholarly record illuminates the origins and evolution of Highland textiles, tracing the transition from practical, regional patterns to the codified, symbolic clan tartans recognized today.

Olla Podrida
Frederick Marryat
This collection of essays, narratives, and plays serves as a literary mosaic, capturing the restless, observational spirit of a nineteenth-century naval officer turned writer. It offers a candid look at travel, cultural critique, and the mechanics of storytelling itself.

One Man's Initiation—1917
John Dos Passos
The innocence of a young man meets the machine-like devastation of the First World War in this haunting, impressionistic chronicle of a volunteer ambulance driver. It is a stark, unadorned meditation on how the machinery of global conflict systematically strips away the illusions of a generation.

Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in Preston
Atticus
A journalist wanders through the pews and pulpits of a bustling Victorian town, recording with sharp wit and candid observation the characters of the men who lead the faithful and the buildings they inhabit.

Our Philadelphia
Elizabeth Robins Pennell
A nostalgic yet sharp-eyed portrait of a changing city, this work captures the intersection of colonial tradition and modern progress through the eyes of a writer rediscovering her native home after decades abroad.

Outward Bound Or, Young America Afloat: A Story of Travel and Adventure
Oliver Optic
The voyage of the Young America is a journey of moral navigation, where a shipful of spirited students must learn that true authority is earned through character rather than force.

Pagan Papers
Kenneth Grahame
The spirit of the wayfarer—the restless, dreaming soul who prefers a green lane to a railway carriage—finds its most eloquent champion in these pages. A collection of essays celebrating the art of the detour, this work champions the noble, unhurried pursuit of observation over the frantic pace of modern life.

Patty's Summer Days
Carolyn Wells
A spirited teenager navigates the social whirlwind of a busy household, finding joy in the simple pleasures of a long, sun-drenched summer of friendship and discovery.

Photogravure
Henry R. Blaney
This technical manual offers a precise window into the late-nineteenth-century craft of translating light into permanent copper-plate engravings. It serves as both a historical record of a sophisticated artistic process and a practical guide for the dedicated practitioner.

Potash and Perlmutter Settle Things
Montague Glass
Two garment-trade partners navigate the bewildering landscape of post-WWI diplomacy, applying the sharp, pragmatic logic of the New York business world to the grand, often incomprehensible stage of international peace negotiations.

"Prison Life in Andersonville": With Special Reference to the Opening of Providence Spring
John Levi Maile
The harrowing silence of a prisoner’s starvation is broken only by the prayers of the desperate and the eventual gush of a life-saving spring. This account bridges the brutal reality of the Civil War’s most infamous site with a lasting, reflective search for divine intervention.

Real Folks
A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney
HOOK This story explores the quiet, often overlooked connections that turn a collection of houses into a genuine community. It finds the extraordinary in the everyday lives of those who choose to live with intention.

Richard III: Makers of History
Jacob Abbott
A portrait of a king forged by cruelty and circumstance, this account traces the collapse of an era through one man’s relentless pursuit of the crown.

Roden's Corner
Henry Seton Merriman
A charitable facade masks a lethal industrial secret, drawing a group of well-meaning socialites into a dangerous confrontation with a cold, calculating mastermind.

Sir Christopher Wren
Lawrence Weaver
This concise biography offers a measured, appreciative look at the man who rebuilt London, framing his architectural genius as the natural extension of a brilliant scientific mind. It avoids myth-making in favor of a portrait of a versatile, modest, and tireless English gentleman.

Stained Glass Tours in France
Charles Hitchcock Sherrill
This is a practical, enthusiastic guide for the traveler who wishes to move beyond the surface of French cathedrals to study the hidden, shifting brilliance of their medieval and Renaissance stained glass.

Story of Aeneas
Michael Clarke
This retelling of an ancient epic follows a Trojan hero’s arduous journey to establish a new home, guided by destiny and hindered by divine wrath. It serves as an accessible gateway to the foundational myth of the Roman people.

Sunday Under Three Heads
Charles Dickens
The Sabbath was intended as a day of rest and restorative joy, not a tool for legislative tyranny against the working class. This passionate defense of human happiness argues that true morality is found in compassion rather than mandated gloom.

Tales of Daring and Danger
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
Even a small, seemingly insignificant threat can carry a lethal sting, much like the deceptive dangers faced by those venturing into the wild unknown. These accounts of peril illustrate that true character is forged only when the margin between survival and disaster vanishes.

The Aran Islands
J. M. (John Millington) Synge
The Aran Islands are a stark, treeless expanse of limestone and sea, where life is lived on the edge of the Atlantic and the brink of modernity. This narrative captures a vanishing world through the eyes of an outsider who finds himself drawn into the intimate, rhythmic cycles of an ancient, resilient people.

The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt
W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders) Petrie
Surrounded by vast deserts and harsh sunlight, ancient artisans turned stone, metal, and clay into enduring monuments of human character.

The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter
Padraic Colum
A young fisherman and a clever girl navigate a world of ancient magic, fleeing a dangerous master while seeking their own destinies across mythic landscapes. This lyrical tale blends folklore with a classic coming-of-age journey.

The Chase of the Golden Plate
Jacques Futrelle
A high-stakes masquerade ball, a daring heist, and an impossible romantic entanglement collide, leaving a young man wrongly accused and a brilliant, prickly scientist to dismantle the web of deception.

The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, June 1883
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
The Chautauquan, Vol. 3, serves as a portal into the intellectual rigor of late 19th-century self-improvement. It captures a moment where global history, classical literature, and moral philosophy converged to shape the American mind.

The Children's Own Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This collection gathers the most enduring verses of a celebrated nineteenth-century American poet, serving as an accessible introduction to the rhythmic storytelling and moral clarity that defined his literary legacy. It offers readers a window into a bygone era of American verse, where history, folklore, and the…

The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 11: Antepenultimata
Ambrose Bierce
The nineteenth-century satirist turns his gaze toward the fraying fabric of American life, offering a collection of essays that dissects the political, social, and moral decay of a nation rushing toward its own obsolescence.

The Devil's Pool
George Sand
A widowed farmer, urged by his community to seek a new wife, finds himself unexpectedly drawn to the young shepherdess tasked with helping him on his journey. This gentle narrative explores the intersection of duty and sudden, natural affection.

The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 04
Unknown
The American Revolution was won not only on the battlefield but through a grueling, precarious marathon of international diplomacy. These pages reveal the intimate mechanics of how a fragile new republic secured its standing among the empires of the world.

The Engineering Contributions of Wendel Bollman
Robert M. Vogel
The transition from timber to iron in American bridge design marks a pivot point where engineering shifted from intuitive craftsmanship to a rigorous, science-based discipline. This account documents that evolution through the life and work of a self-taught pioneer.

The Garden of Swords
Max Pemberton
A young English bride in Alsace finds her newly wedded life shattered when the Franco-Prussian War erupts around her.

The Gilded Chair: A Novel
Melville Davisson Post
A traveler finds himself caught in a web of obsession and destiny, where the boundaries between ancient myth and modern life dissolve into a desperate pursuit of an impossible love.

The Great Frozen Sea: A Personal Narrative of the Voyage of the "Alert"
Markham, Albert Hastings, Sir
In the crushing grip of the Arctic, a crew battles shifting floes and the onset of the polar night to push the limits of human endurance and geographical discovery.

The Haunted Pajamas
Francis Perry Elliott
A gentleman’s mundane life is upended by a mysterious, unwanted gift from China that triggers a series of surreal, identity-blurring transformations.

The Historical Christ
F. C. (Frederick Cornwallis) Conybeare
The study of early Christianity often sits between the poles of uncritical faith and total skepticism. This examination offers a rigorous, scholarly defense of the historical reality of Jesus against the claims of his non-existence.

The honey-bee: its nature, homes and products
William Hetherington Harris
This study of the honey-bee offers a detailed window into the Victorian era’s fascination with natural history, blending meticulous anatomical observation with the practical techniques of nineteenth-century apiculture. It remains a valuable historical record of how humanity has sought to understand and work…

The humour of Russia
E. L. (Ethel Lillian) Voynich
The melancholy of the Russian soul finds its most piercing expression in these pages, where laughter acts not as a relief from misery, but as a sharp, necessary witness to the absurdities of life under autocracy.

The Invasion
William Le Queux
A chilling, meticulously detailed warning of national vulnerability, this narrative depicts a sudden, overwhelming German invasion of the British Isles that strips away the veneer of imperial security.

The Last Egyptian: A Romance of the Nile
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
Set along the banks of the Nile, this tale of obsession and ancient secrets follows an ambitious archaeologist who discovers a man claiming royal Egyptian descent. It weaves together colonial-era rivalry, buried treasure, and a complicated high-stakes romance.

The Life of St. Paul
James Stalker
A man transformed from a zealous persecutor into the world’s most influential missionary, whose tireless travels and profound writings altered the course of history forever.

The Naturalist in Nicaragua
Thomas Belt
A professional engineer traverses the dense forests and rugged mountains of Nicaragua, turning the keen, methodical eye of a scientist toward the complex mysteries of the natural world. This enduring work of travel and observation remains a masterclass in curiosity and clear-eyed field reporting.