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32,123 public-domain books, summarised. Page 439 of 670.

Maori and Settler: A Story of The New Zealand War
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A family’s quiet pursuit of a new life in the New Zealand wilderness is violently interrupted by the brutal realities of colonial frontier conflict.

McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896
Various
A time capsule of the late Victorian era, this collection captures the shifting frontier between traditional craftsmanship and the rapid, often unsettling, arrival of modern science and global political intrigue.

Modern Skepticism: A Course of Lectures Delivered at the Request of the Christian Evidence Society
Unknown
This collection of lectures offers a systematic defense of Christian orthodoxy, constructed by Victorian-era scholars to address the intellectual challenges posed by emerging secular philosophies and biblical criticism.

Nuts and Nutcrackers
Charles Lever
The world is a hard-shelled filbert, and these essays are the iron crackers meant to break it open. Through a series of sharp, cynical observations, the author picks apart the pretensions of the Victorian age.

On English Homophones: Society for Pure English, Tract 02
Robert Bridges
A language burdened by too many identical sounds risks losing its precision, and this urgent examination argues that English is rapidly becoming a clumsy instrument of communication. It serves as a call to recognize, and perhaps reverse, the erosion of our spoken heritage.

On the Frontier
Bret Harte
The wild, untamed frontier of nineteenth-century California acts as a crucible for human ambition, where the shifting mists and rugged terrain mirror the moral ambiguity of the desperate souls seeking their fortunes.

Our Little Russian Cousin
Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade
This travelogue-style narrative offers an intimate glimpse into the daily life, traditions, and sharp social contrasts of early 20th-century Russia through the eyes of a privileged young girl.

Over the Sliprails
Henry Lawson
Life in the Australian bush is a relentless, dusty struggle where the landscape dictates the temperament of those who endure it. This collection of stories captures the harsh, sun-scorched reality of the frontier with unvarnished, empathetic clarity.

Paul and Virginia from the French of J.B.H. de Saint Pierre
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
In a remote, idyllic valley on the island of Mauritius, two children grow up in a garden paradise, only to have their innocent bond shattered by the encroaching demands of the civilized world and a tragic storm.

Phil-o-rum's Canoe, and Madeleine Vercheres: Two Poems
William Henry Drummond
These two narrative poems capture the spirit of early Canada through the voices of a weary frontiersman and a legendary heroine of the French colonial frontier.

'Possum
Mary Grant Bruce
A family exchanges the polished comfort of suburban life for the rugged, unpredictable reality of an Australian farm. Their journey toward self-reliance is a testament to the transformative power of shared labor and new horizons.

Psichopath
Randall Garrett
A secret government agent must neutralize a brilliant scientist who is subconsciously sabotaging his own experiments through psychic interference. This story explores the clash between rigid scientific dogma and the terrifying reality of uncontrollable mental power.

Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions: Their Relation to Archæology, Language, and Religion
John Kenrick
The stones of ancient Rome do not merely mark graves; they speak, offering an intimate and unvarnished record of the lives, loves, and anxieties of a people long vanished.

Russian Life To-day
Bury, Herbert, Bp.
A sympathetic observer documents his travels across a vast, changing Empire, offering an intimate window into the faith, customs, and daily rhythms of Russia on the precipice of the First World War.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 717, September 28, 1889
Various
Scientific American Supplement, No. 717, serves as a remarkable time capsule of late nineteenth-century industrial optimism and technical curiosity. It offers a wide-ranging survey of the engineering, physical sciences, and manufacturing practices that defined the era.

Side-stepping with Shorty
Sewell Ford
A physical trainer with a sharp wit and a knack for fixing broken lives navigates the eccentricities of New York City’s high society and low-rent districts. He is a man who builds reputations as effectively as he builds muscle.

State of the Union Addresses
Rutherford Birchard Hayes
These annual reports document the stability and growth of a nation recovering from civil conflict, detailing a presidency defined by economic consolidation and the struggle to protect newly won constitutional rights.

"Swingin round the cirkle"
David Ross Locke
This satirical work offers a searing, caustic look at the wreckage of American politics during the Reconstruction era. It remains a singular artifact of how humor was weaponized to expose the hypocrisy and moral rot of a defeated political faction.

The Anglo-Saxon Century and the Unification of the English-Speaking People
John R. (John Randolph) Dos Passos
Great power, common ancestry, and the shared ideals of the English-speaking world demand a formal, permanent political union to ensure the future of global civilization. This vision for a unified Anglo-Saxon future defines a critical moment at the turn of the twentieth century.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 09, No. 56, June, 1862: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
A vibrant, multifaceted snapshot of the American mind at a pivotal moment, this collection captures a nation struggling to define itself through the lens of nature, art, and the furnace of civil conflict.

The Beach of Dreams: A Romance
H. De Vere (Henry De Vere) Stacpoole
This story of survival and transformation follows a woman cast away on a desolate island, where she discovers that the harshness of the wild is less alienating than the rigid conventions of her own society.

The Boy Travellers in Australasia: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to the Sandwich, Marquesas, Society, Samoan, and Feejee Islands
Thomas Wallace Knox
Two young travelers embark on a wide-ranging expedition through the Pacific Islands and Australia, documenting the geography, history, and customs of the region for a curious Victorian audience.

The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring
Hildegard G. Frey
A group of young women embark on a cross-country motoring trip, only to find themselves ensnared in a web of mistaken identities, stolen trunks, and mysterious pursuers. This lively tale follows the Winnebago Camp Fire Girls as they navigate the unpredictable roads of the early twentieth century.

The Complete Writings of Charles Dudley Warner
Charles Dudley Warner
A collection of witty, observant essays and travel sketches that find profound charm in gardening failures, domestic pets, and the eccentricities of rural Nova Scotia.

The Conflict
David Graham Phillips
A restless heiress navigates the suffocating constraints of her social class in a changing industrial landscape, ultimately seeking a life of purpose beyond the traditional expectations of marriage and domesticity.

The Eve of the French Revolution
Edward J. (Edward Jackson) Lowell
The French Revolution did not arrive as a sudden bolt of lightning, but as the inevitable collapse of a social and political structure that had been rotting from within for nearly a century.

The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 2: Psalms XXXIX.-LXXXIX
Alexander Maclaren
This study explores the ancient songs of Israel, mapping the landscape of human suffering and the persistence of hope when God feels distant.

The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL
Alexander Maclaren
This commentary serves as a meditative bridge between ancient Hebrew poetry and the heart of the seeker, exploring how the final collection of Psalms addresses the endurance of faith through life’s inevitable trials. It seeks to uncover the enduring relevance of these sacred songs, framing them not as relics, but…

The Firefly of France
Marion Polk Angellotti
An ordinary New Yorker finds himself entangled in a high-stakes web of espionage, romance, and wartime intrigue after a chance encounter at a hotel. What begins as a simple mystery quickly transforms into a dangerous journey toward the front lines of World War I.

The Four Roads
Sheila Kaye-Smith
Four roads cut through the Sussex landscape, binding together a village of farmers, preachers, and soldiers caught in the inexorable machinery of the Great War.

The Front Yard, and Other Italian Stories
Constance Fenimore Woolson
This collection of sketches and tales captures the quiet, often melancholy lives of Americans abroad, mapping the intersection of wandering souls and the timeless, unyielding landscapes of Italy.

The German Spy System from Within
Anonymous
Germany’s clandestine efforts to undermine its neighbors from within are exposed as a pervasive, systematic, and long-standing threat to British security. This urgent warning demands a more aggressive response from the government during wartime.

The Girl from the Marsh Croft
Selma Lagerlöf
A young woman’s act of quiet integrity unravels a web of secrets in this collection of stories, where the boundaries between rural harshness and moral redemption blur.

The Hills of Refuge: A Novel
Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben
A man sacrifices his future to shield a disgraced brother, only to find redemption in the humble, rural life he sought to escape. This is a story of shifting identities, moral exhaustion, and the quiet weight of family secrets.

The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Part 35
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
This volume follows the iconic knight and his squire as they leave the comfort of a ducal palace, only to find that their reputation—and a fraudulent sequel—has arrived at their destination before them. It is a profound meditation on identity, authorship, and the burden of fame.

The History Teacher's Magazine, Vol. I, No. 9, May, 1910
Various
This record provides a window into the professional landscape of American history education at the turn of the twentieth century. It serves as a vital artifact of pedagogical theory and academic networking from 1910.

The Horse Shoe: The True Legend of St. Dunstan and the Devil, Showing How the Horse-Shoe Came to Be a Charm against Witchcraft
Edward G. Flight
The legend of a saint who bested the devil by turning his forge into a courtroom and his hammer into an instrument of supernatural justice remains a curious, enduring piece of folklore.

The Huge Hunter
Edward Sylvester Ellis
The sight of a giant mechanical man striding across the plains strikes terror into the hearts of men who have only ever known the slow, steady pace of the wilderness.

The Legends of the Iroquois
Unknown
The legends of the Iroquois offer a window into a world where the natural and the supernatural are woven into the very fabric of the forest.

The Little Red Foot
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
In the shadow of the American Revolution, a hardened scout and a spirited Scottish woman find themselves bound together by love and the brutal, shifting loyalties of the frontier.

The Lost Pibroch, and other Sheiling Stories
Neil Munro
The pipes carry the weight of seven generations, a haunting call to ancient feuds and long-forgotten departures. To hear the true music is to know the ache of a world that can never be recovered.

The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat
Janet Aldridge
A summer vacation on a houseboat turns into a test of nerves and resourcefulness as a group of young women navigates unpredictable waters, a local mystery, and a rival group of boys.

The Ocean Wireless Boys on the Pacific
John Henry Goldfrap
A pair of young wireless operators face treacherous storms, man-eating sharks, and jungle outlaws while helping a millionaire hunt for a missing brother in the South Pacific.

The Principles of the Art of Conversation
J. P. (John Pentland) Mahaffy
Conversation is an art of human connection that feels effortless when performed perfectly, yet thrives on deliberate principles. It is not merely the exchange of facts, but a social grace that can be cultivated by anyone willing to study its underlying mechanics.

The Real Latin Quarter
F. Berkeley (Frank Berkeley) Smith
The Latin Quarter is a world unto itself, a vibrant neighborhood where starving artists, devoted lovers, and eccentric wanderers collide in a perennial pursuit of beauty, art, and romance.

The South-West, by a Yankee. In Two Volumes. Volume 1
J. H. (Joseph Holt) Ingraham
A curious traveler drifts from the North to the Mississippi, capturing the vibrant and unsettling spirit of the American South-West through a series of observant, epistolary dispatches.

The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 6, February, 1835
Various
This vibrant window into 1835 captures the intellectual pulse of the American South, blending historical inquiry, literary critique, and the era’s restless pursuit of progress and moral self-improvement.

The Story of Books
Gertrude Burford Rawlings
Before the digital age, human knowledge lived and breathed through the physical labor of scribes, the slow evolution of the printing press, and the careful preservation of rare, ink-stained pages.