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3,125 public-domain books, summarised. Page 47 of 66.
Our Home in the Silver West: A Story of Struggle and Adventure
Gordon Stables
A family of Scottish settlers seeks a new beginning in the untamed Argentine frontier, facing the harsh realities of pioneer life, violent conflict, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
Artists' Wives
Alphonse Daudet
The artistic life demands a singular, all-consuming devotion that rarely leaves room for the practical demands of a household. This collection of sketches explores the friction that arises when the ethereal world of the studio collides with the mundane realities of marriage.
Line and Form (1900)
Walter Crane
The mastery of art begins where the hand meets the paper, tracing the fundamental boundaries that define the world.
Bushido, the Soul of Japan
Inazo Nitobe
Bushido, the Soul of Japan remains an essential guide to the Japanese character, illuminating the moral architecture of a nation through the lens of its historic knightly code. It invites readers to understand how feudal values continue to shape the contemporary Japanese soul.
The Greatest Highway in the World: Historical, Industrial and Descriptive Information of the Towns, Cities and Country Passed Through Between New York and Chicago Via the New York Central Lines. Based on the Encyclopaedia Britannica
New York Central Railroad Company
This guide chronicles the storied landscapes and industrial hubs along the rail route connecting New York and Chicago. It transforms a standard transit schedule into a rich narrative of American history and progress.
Light On the Child's Path
William Allen Bixler
Children learn to walk the narrow way of righteousness through the gentle guidance of nature, the wisdom of scripture, and the promise of a heavenly home. Every act of kindness is a seed planted for an eternal harvest.
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IV (of X)—Great Britain and Ireland II
Unknown
Great literature often reveals itself in the quiet, reflective moments of a life, captured here in a curated selection of British prose spanning the eighteenth century. This volume serves as a deliberate survey of a transformative era in English letters.
The Foundations of the Origin of Species: Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844
Charles Darwin
These early sketches capture the birth of a revolutionary scientific vision, revealing a mind meticulously assembling the argument for natural selection long before it was unveiled to the world.
The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 3 (of 4)
William Milligan Sloane
This historical account chronicles the zenith and unraveling of a continental empire, charting the shift from a triumphant, self-assured hegemony to the desperate, fragmented defense of a crumbling power.
The Old Tobacco Shop: A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure
William Bowen
A curious boy finds a doorway to wonder within the smoke and relics of a local merchant’s shop. What follows is a dreamlike journey into the extraordinary, bridging the gap between the mundane and the magical.
The Big Brother: A Story of Indian War
George Cary Eggleston
This story of survival follows three children and a young companion who, separated from their families during the violence of the Creek War, must build a hidden life within the wilderness to stay alive. It is a taut, earnest adventure centered on the ingenuity and devotion required to protect the vulnerable when…
The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln
Wayne Whipple
This biography chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln, transforming the legendary statesman into a relatable figure whose rise from a frontier log cabin to the White House remains a profound American touchstone.
The Moon and Sixpence
W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
HOOK A middle-aged stockbroker abandons his family and comfort for the single-minded, often brutal pursuit of painting, eventually finding his masterpiece in the isolation of Tahiti.
The Cheerful Smugglers
Ellis Parker Butler
A domestic experiment in taxation turns a happy household into a den of petty spies, proving that even the most well-meaning rules can dismantle the peace they were intended to protect.
Boy Scouts Handbook: The First Edition, 1911
Boy Scouts of America
To forge a character that is physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight, one must cultivate a life of practical skill, civic duty, and constant observation of the natural world.
Book of Wise Sayings: Selected Largely from Eastern Sources
W. A. (William Alexander) Clouston
Pithy observations on the human condition transcend geography and time, offering a perennial guide for the practical, moral, and intellectual challenges of daily existence.
More Science from an Easy Chair
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Science is a conversation, not a catalog, and these pages invite the reader to pull up a chair and listen to the natural world’s most curious secrets.
Rollo's Museum
Jacob Abbott
A young boy discovers the wonders of the natural world and the complexities of human cooperation when he decides to build a home collection of curiosities.
Sketches
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
The walls of ancient castles and the shifting tides of Mediterranean politics find common ground in this collection of tales and observations. It is a work that captures the grand sweep of history alongside the intimate intensity of personal romance.
Tales of Fantasy and Fact
Brander Matthews
This collection of short narratives explores the thin, permeable border between the mundane world of Gilded Age New York and the realm of the impossible. These stories challenge our perceptions of reality, suggesting that the fantastic may be hiding in plain sight behind a modern veneer.
Great Pirate Stories
Unknown
This collection presents an unflinching gallery of maritime outlaws, documenting their brutal careers from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. It serves as a stark reminder that the history of the sea is paved with as much violence as discovery.
Rollo in Geneva
Jacob Abbott
A young boy travels through Switzerland with his family, learning practical lessons about safety, observation, and the wonders of the European landscape.
Rootabaga Stories
Carl Sandburg
Rootabaga Stories offers a sprawling, imaginative landscape where logic bends to the whims of the wind and nonsense serves as a map for the soul. These American fairy tales reclaim wonder from the mundane, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel
Samuel W. (Samuel William) Johnson
HOOK This technical guide serves as an essential manual for nineteenth-century landowners, detailing how to transform humble swamp muck into a source of agricultural fertility and domestic heat.
The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform
Stephen Langdon
HOOK The world’s oldest recorded epic captures the primal struggle for meaning, following a legendary king and his wild-born companion as they navigate the brutal, beautiful transition from nature to civilization.
The Wonders of the Jungle, Book One
Sarath Kumar Ghosh
The natural world is a vast, interconnected society governed by instinct, reason, and a complex system of survival that humbles even the most clever human observers.
The Economic Consequences of the Peace
John Maynard Keynes
The fragility of global prosperity rests upon a delicate economic equilibrium that modern political vengeance threatens to destroy. This foundational critique of the 1919 Versailles settlement warns that a vengeful peace will inevitably sow the seeds of future ruin.
Hunters Out of Space
Joseph E. (Joseph Everidge) Kelleam
Hunters Out of Space follows an Earth doctor and his allies into the cavernous depths of an alien world and across the stars to stop a genocidal tyrant. It is a pulpy adventure that blends classic science fiction motifs with the primal rhythms of an epic quest.
The Cauliflower
A. A. (Arthur Alger) Crozier
HOOK A detailed, practical guide to the cultivation, varieties, and care of cauliflower, revealing the challenges and opportunities of growing this often-neglected vegetable in diverse climates and soils.
Poems
Rainer Maria Rilke
This collection of verse traces a poet’s evolution from the intimate, impressionistic sketches of his youth to a profound, rhythmic grappling with the divine and the nature of artistic perception. It is a journey through the "inner voice of things," rendered with precise, painterly observation.
The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902
J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell
This account documents the final, agonizing deliberations of the Boer leadership as they faced the collapse of their Republics and the necessity of signing a peace treaty to end the South African War.
Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems (1798)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A revolutionary collection of poems that redefined the English voice, this work strips away formal artifice to find the extraordinary within the ordinary lives of the forgotten and the outcast.
The American Credo: A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind
H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
The national psyche is a repository of folklore, prejudice, and half-baked axioms that we accept as absolute truth without ever pausing to verify them.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1902 to 1903
L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
These stories capture the quiet struggles and small triumphs of rural life at the turn of the century, where steadfast character and a touch of wit resolve even the most stubborn of conflicts.
The Teacher
Jacob Abbott
This guide to classroom management advocates for a shift from authoritarian coercion to a system of moral influence, where the teacher acts as a thoughtful architect of the school environment. It remains a foundational text in the history of American pedagogy, emphasizing the practical, psychological, and ethical…
John Knox
A. Taylor (Alexander Taylor) Innes
This exploration of a pivotal Scottish figure reconstructs the life and inner struggles of a man who transformed a nation’s soul. It bridges the gap between the historical icon and the complex, deeply human individual.
The Flight of Pony Baker: A Boy's Town Story
William Dean Howells
A restless boy finds the suffocating affection and strict rules of his home unbearable, leading him into a series of increasingly elaborate, doomed attempts to run away from his small town.
The Golden Age Cook Book
Henrietta Latham Dwight
A dedicated manifesto for the meatless kitchen, this collection serves as a practical guide to culinary ethics, proving that a compassionate diet can be as sophisticated and indulgent as any traditional spread.
The Monctons: A Novel. Volume 1 (of 2)
Susanna Moodie
This sprawling Victorian narrative explores the psychological toll of social inequality and the hidden secrets of family lineages, where the weight of a name often crushes the spirit of the young.
Gold Out of Celebes
Aylward Edward Dingle
Jack Barry is a master mariner adrift in Batavia, looking for a job and finding instead a high-stakes hunt for gold in the treacherous wilds of Celebes. He soon discovers that the true treasure is far more complex than the dust he seeks.
The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, multifaceted window into the intellectual and cultural landscape of 1851, blending urgent geopolitical reporting with literary criticism and the refined aesthetics of a bygone century.
St. Cuthbert's
Robert E. (Robert Edward) Knowles
A dedicated minister faces the unraveling of his quiet Canadian parish when the hidden, shameful pasts of his flock collide with the rigid expectations of his congregation.
Ted and the Telephone
Sara Ware Bassett
The curiosity of a young boy and his fascination with the early promise of the telephone bridge the gap between social classes, leading to unexpected growth and the forging of a lifelong, transformative friendship.
Grandmother Dear: A Book for Boys and Girls
Mrs. Molesworth
This is a gentle, immersive portrait of childhood seen through the eyes of a wise, storytelling matriarch, capturing the quiet shifts in perspective that define growing up. It moves with a deliberate, comforting pace that invites the reader to linger alongside its young protagonists.
A Dialogue Between Dean Swift and Tho. Prior, Esq.: In the Isles of St. Patrick's Church, Dublin, On that
Anonymous
Two restless ghosts wander the grounds of St. Patrick’s Church, debating whether Ireland can ever be saved from its own systemic poverty and self-inflicted ruin.
An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases
William Withering
A quiet, rigorous pioneer in eighteenth-century medicine, this work documents the painstaking discovery of a potent heart medication through years of cautious clinical observation and transparency. It remains a foundational text for the modern scientific method.
Journal of a Visit to Constantinople and Some of the Greek Islands in the Spring and Summer of 1833
John Auldjo
A seasoned traveler navigates the shifting political tides and sensory marvels of 1830s Constantinople, capturing the transient spirit of an empire in transition.
The Common Law
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. This foundational work strips away the pretense that legal systems are merely sets of mathematical axioms, revealing them instead as the evolving product of human history.