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34,093 public-domain books, summarised. Page 552 of 711.

Marguerite Verne
Rebecca Agatha Armour
The story follows the lives of the genteel Verne family in St. John, New Brunswick, amidst a backdrop of social ambition and personal sacrifice. It is a Victorian-era narrative that explores the tension between duty to one’s family and the pursuit of individual happiness.

Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William H. F. Lee (A Representative from Virginia): Delivered in the House of Representatives and in the Senate
Various
This formal collection of congressional tributes serves as a solemn, public record of a life defined by the transition from military command in the American Civil War to quiet, diligent service in the halls of the United States government. It documents the collective esteem held by colleagues for a man who…

My Lords of Strogue, Vol. 1 (of 3): A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union
Lewis Wingfield
A storm of political fervor sweeps across Ireland in the late 18th century, pulling families apart as idealistic youth clash with a rigid, entrenched aristocracy. This chronicle captures a nation standing on a knife-edge, poised between the hope of autonomy and the crushing reality of the Act of Union.

Neighbourhood: A year's life in and about an English village
Tickner Edwardes
This chronicle of a year in the English countryside captures the vanishing rhythms of a village, blending meticulous observations of nature with the quiet, persistent lives of those who inhabit the land.

No Surrender! A Tale of the Rising in La Vendee
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A spirited young Englishman joins his brother-in-law in the desperate uprising of the Vendean peasants against the tyranny of the French Revolution. This adventure traces a harrowing, historical campaign defined by fierce loyalty and survival.

Notes and Queries, Number 54, November 9, 1850: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This volume serves as a Victorian-era clearinghouse for curious minds, where scholars, antiquaries, and amateur detectives trade fragments of knowledge and unravel historical knots. It is a snapshot of an age hungry for precision, capturing the collaborative spirit of mid-19th-century intellectual inquiry.

Old Irish Glass
Stannus, Graydon, Mrs.
This guide offers an intimate, expert look into the world of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Irish glass, serving as both a historical record and a practical manual for identifying authentic pieces amidst a market flooded with fakes.

On Germinal Selection as a Source of Definite Variation
August Weismann
A subtle mechanism governs the invisible architecture of heredity, bridging the gap between random individual variation and the directed, purposeful evolution of entire species.

Pomo Bear Doctors
S. A. (Samuel Alfred) Barrett
The grizzly bear haunts the imagination of the Pomo people, appearing not only as a formidable beast of the wild but as a figure of human artifice, malice, and ritualized terror.

Port Argent: A Novel
Arthur Colton
Port Argent is a sprawling, soot-stained industrial city built upon the banks of the Muscadine River, where the machinery of commerce, local politics, and human ambition grind together in a cycle that feels both inevitable and indifferent. This is a story of a place where power is brokered in back rooms and where…

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 30, 1914
Various
This collection captures the frantic, biting, and stoic spirit of a nation suddenly plunged into the Great War. It functions as a cultural mirror, reflecting how civilians and soldiers alike attempted to maintain humor amidst the darkening shadow of 1914.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, October 16, 1841
Various
This vibrant inaugural collection captures the spirit of early Victorian London, blending sharp-witted political satire with the absurd, daily rhythms of a city in the throes of industrial change. It serves as a humorous, irreverent mirror held up to the manners and madness of 1841.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, February 12, 1919
Various
This periodical provides a snapshot of British life in the immediate aftermath of the Great War, capturing the exhaustion, absurdity, and bureaucratic friction of a nation attempting to settle into an uneasy peace.

Quiet Talks on Following the Christ
S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon
To walk in the footsteps of the Nazarene is to exchange the pride of self-sufficiency for a life of sacrificial friendship. The journey is not an imitation of a historical figure, but a total surrender to an indwelling power.

Red Pepper's Patients: With an Account of Anne Linton's Case in Particular
Grace S. (Grace Smith) Richmond
The man who holds his hat against the wind is searching for a doctor whose reputation for healing is matched only by his reputation for being difficult. It is a story of medical grace found in the most unlikely places.

Researches Chemical and Philosophical
Davy, Humphry, Sir
A rigorous, hands-on account of pneumatic chemistry captures the exact moment when laboratory precision transforms a mysterious gas into a subject of physical, physiological, and personal discovery.

Richelieu: A Tale of France, v. 1/3
G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
A young nobleman finds himself caught in the lethal shadow of the Cardinal de Richelieu, where every gesture of loyalty to his Queen becomes a dangerous gamble for his life.

Right Guard Grant
Ralph Henry Barbour
The path to the varsity lineup is rarely a straight line, but for one determined boy at Alton Academy, it proves to be a season-long education in grit, integrity, and the true cost of victory.

Road Stop
David Mason
The highway is a silent, automated ribbon where humanity has surrendered control to the machines. Yet, in the cracks of this perfect system, something ancient and terrifying continues its endless, unstopping journey.

Samuel Reynolds House of Siam, pioneer medical missionary, 1847-1876
George Haws Feltus
A portrait of endurance and quiet devotion, this chronicle follows a pioneer medical missionary’s decades of labor in mid-nineteenth-century Siam, capturing both the rigors of the field and the evolution of a cross-cultural life.

Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself. Vol. 2 (of 2)
Robert Montgomery Bird
A man discovers the uncanny power to inhabit the bodies of the recently deceased, only to find that every new life brings its own set of inescapable miseries.

Snow-White
Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
The woods hold more than just shadows; for a lost child, they shelter a secret life and a man who has forgotten how to hope.

Spain from Within
Rafael Shaw
The struggle of a nation caught between the rigid structures of the past and a modern desire for dignity, seen through the eyes of those living in the shadow of authority.

Steve Young
George Manville Fenn
HOOK When a young man’s uncle disappears in the Arctic, a rescue mission sets sail into a frozen, unforgiving wilderness where survival demands more than courage—it requires an iron will and a complete transformation of character.

Studies in the Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling
Hiram Miner Stanley
This work offers an evolutionary examination of human feeling, tracing the development of emotions from primitive biological survival mechanisms to complex psychological experiences. It bridges early experimental psychology with a biological framework of struggle and adaptation.

"Surly Tim": A Lancashire Story
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A quiet, devastating portrait of a man’s hidden grief, this story explores the profound loneliness that often wears the mask of bitterness in the working-class world of Lancashire.

Synge and the Ireland of His Time
W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
This is a portrait of a singular artistic mind finding its voice within the untamed landscapes of Ireland, written by a peer who witnessed the struggles of genius against the constraints of its time.

Tarzan the invincible
Edgar Rice Burroughs
A ruthless band of agitators seeks to destabilize Africa by plundering the fabled gold of ancient Opar, but they underestimate the jungle lord who guards the continent’s deepest secrets.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 02, December, 1857: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant cultural snapshot of 1857, blending rigorous art criticism, political urgency, and intimate storytelling to capture the intellectual spirit of a nation on the brink of profound change.

The Black Eagle Mystery
Geraldine Bonner
The Black Eagle Mystery is a classic puzzle of urban suspense, where the shifting loyalties of a New York office staff mirror the dark, labyrinthine secrets of a financial titan.

The book of jade
David Park Barnitz
The ennui of a brilliant, doomed youth finds its final, feverish expression in these pages. It is a work of ornate shadows, where the weariness of the world meets the exquisite precision of a poet turning his back on life.

The Book of Months
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A meditative journey through a single year, this work blends personal diary entries with lyrical nature writing to explore the intersections of profound grief, sudden joy, and the relentless passage of time.

The Books of the New Testament
Leighton Pullan
This guide provides a structured, scholarly introduction to the New Testament, balancing conservative tradition with the critical investigations of early 20th-century biblical research.

The Boy Scouts at the Panama Canal
John Henry Goldfrap
Young Boy Scouts tackle international intrigue and high-stakes engineering challenges while assisting a prominent American engineer at the building of the Panama Canal.

The Bungalow Boys North of Fifty-Three
John Henry Goldfrap
In the frozen reaches of the Alaskan wilderness, three young men test their grit against hostile trappers, starving wolf packs, and the unforgiving climate of the far north.

The Call of the Town: A Tale of Literary Life
J. A. (John Alexander) Hammerton
The path from a quiet village to the bustling newsrooms of London is paved with broken illusions and the hard lessons of professional ambition. This story traces a young man's journey into the heart of literary life.

The Call of the World
William E. (William Ellison) Doughty
The world is rapidly changing, and a new era of global connection demands a bold, unified response from the Christian laity to address spiritual and social needs on an unprecedented scale.

The Calvinistic Doctrine of Predestination Examined and Refuted
F. (Francis) Hodgson
HOOK This polemical work systematically dismantles the doctrine of absolute predestination, arguing that the belief that God foreordains every human action destroys the possibility of free will, moral accountability, and a coherent understanding of divine justice.

The Cause of it All
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
This brief, piercing drama captures the volatile intersection of poverty, pride, and conscience within a Russian peasant household. It explores how the cycle of addiction and resentment can be broken by a single, unexpected impulse of mercy.

The condition of England
Charles F. G. (Charles Frederick Gurney) Masterman
These pages offer a sober, unvarnished anatomy of early twentieth-century England. It is a portrait of a society at a crossroads, caught between the vanishing comforts of the past and a future of profound, uncertain change.

The Consul
Richard Harding Davis
The long, loyal career of an aging diplomat comes to a quiet end—or a dramatic beginning—in a fever-ridden port. This story of principle, political patronage, and the weight of one’s own conscience remains a poignant reflection on public service.

The Corner House Girls on a Tour: Where they went, what they saw, and what they found
Grace Brooks Hill
The four Kenway sisters trade their quiet life in Milton for the open road, discovering that a high-powered automobile is the perfect vehicle for both cross-country mischief and unexpected amateur detective work.

The Country Housewife and Lady's Director in the Management of a House, and the Delights and Profits of a Farm
Richard Bradley
This practical compendium offers an immersive, month-by-month guide to the industrious management of a country estate, blending sophisticated culinary arts with the seasonal rhythms of farm life. It serves as both a manual for self-sufficiency and a blueprint for elegant hospitality in the eighteenth century.

The Desert Fiddler
William H. (William Henry) Hamby
A young laborer seeks his fortune in the Imperial Valley’s unforgiving cotton fields, armed with little more than a fiddle, a stubborn work ethic, and a fierce, righteous defiance against the men who would exploit the soil.

The feather symbol in ancient Hopi designs
Jesse Walter Fewkes
This study of ancient Hopi pottery reveals how a single, recurring artistic motif—the feather—acts as a window into the spiritual and cultural life of a prehistoric civilization.

The Flower-Patch Among the Hills
Flora Klickmann
The restorative power of a humble country cottage offers a refuge for three friends seeking sanctuary from the stresses of early twentieth-century life. Amidst the shifting seasons, they find that true peace is often hidden in the smallest, most familiar details of home.

The Galloping Ghost: A Mystery Story for Boys
Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell
A star athlete is snatched from a moving train, plunging him into a wilderness mystery where a phantom figure haunts the shadows of his captors.

The Girls of Hillcrest Farm
Amy Bell Marlowe
When their father falls ill and their family fortune vanishes, two resourceful sisters trade city life for an abandoned mountain farm, only to find that reclaiming their future requires solving a persistent, generations-old mystery.