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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 597 of 714.

Jacqueline of Golden River
V. R. (Victor Rousseau) Emanuel
The sudden appearance of an Eskimo dog in a New York park serves as the catalyst for an impulsive, perilous journey into the frozen wilderness. An ordinary clerk finds himself cast into an atmospheric, high-stakes collision of greed, memory, and obsession centered on a mysterious woman in distress.

John Enderby
Gilbert Parker
The unwavering integrity of an English squire faces the capricious demands of a King and the bitter malice of a rival in this historical drama of loyalty and loss.

Kathie's Soldiers
Amanda M. Douglas
This story follows a young girl discovering that true courage is found in the quiet, daily commitment to duty, kindness, and faith, rather than in the grand gestures of war.

Letters on the Cholera Morbus.: Containing ample evidence that this disease, under whatever
J. (James) Gillkrest
HOOK This polemic exposes the futility of quarantine during the 1831 cholera outbreaks, arguing that the disease is an environmental, atmospheric phenomenon rather than a personal contagion.

Lighted to Lighten: the Hope of India: A Study of Conditions among Women in India
Alice B. (Alice Boucher) Van Doren
A record of the pioneering efforts to bring Western-style education to the women of India, this text highlights the profound transition from traditional domestic confinement to the emergence of a new class of female leadership. It serves as an earnest, period-specific document detailing the pedagogical and social…

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875
Various
This collection offers a curated window into the intellectual and literary preoccupations of 1875, blending travelogues, social commentary, and fiction within a single, expansive monthly volume.

Little Meg's Children
Hesba Stretton
A young girl’s unwavering faith sustains her three siblings through the crushing poverty and isolation of London’s docklands, where she clings to a dying mother’s final, heavy secret.

Lives of the English Poets: From Johnson to Kirke White, Designed as a Continuation of Johnson's Lives
Henry Francis Cary
The path of the English writer is rarely a straight line, marked as much by the quiet burdens of daily life as by the brilliance of the page. This collection offers a meditative survey of the lives that shaped our literary heritage.

Mammals taken Along the Alaska Highway
Rollin H. (Rollin Harold) Baker
A methodical survey of the diverse mammalian life found along the Alaska Highway, documenting the results of extensive field research conducted in the immediate postwar years.

Marjorie's Vacation
Carolyn Wells
A summer of small adventures becomes an enduring memory for a young girl sent to visit her grandmother in the country. This gentle narrative captures the ephemeral, sun-drenched joy of childhood.

Memoirs of Doctor Burney (Vol. 1 of 3): Arranged from his own manuscripts, from family papers, and from personal recollections by his daughter, Madame d'Arblay
Fanny Burney
This memoir serves as a sprawling, intimate portrait of an ambitious man of letters, written by his daughter with profound devotion and a keen eye for the social textures of eighteenth-century England. It captures the rise of a self-made polymath through the lens of family history, private correspondence, and the…

Michael O'Halloran
Gene Stratton-Porter
The life of a streetwise newsboy changes forever when he adopts an invalid girl, proving that goodness is a principle, not a purchase. This story captures the moral fervor of early 20th-century American optimism.

Military Service and Adventures in the Far East: Vol. 2 (of 2): Including Sketches of the Campaigns Against the Afghans in 1839, and the Sikhs in 1845-6
Daniel Henry MacKinnon
A first-hand account of the mid-19th-century British campaigns in India, this narrative captures the stark transition from colonial travel to the brutal, decisive machinery of the Sikh Wars.

Moth and Rust
Mary Cholmondeley
This collection of narratives explores the hidden fractures in lives defined by social artifice, examining how secret burdens and the corrosive nature of material greed quietly dismantle the human heart.

Motor Matt's Red Flyer
Stanley R. Matthews
HOOK A resourceful teenage mechanic and his loyal German sidekick navigate the rugged Arizona frontier, pitting their speed and wits against a gang of ruthless car thieves to save a stranded group of traveling actors.

Nature readers
Julia McNair Wright
HOOK This guide to the natural world transforms the earth into a vast, collaborative classroom, encouraging young observers to look closely at the hidden lives of plants, insects, and creatures of the deep.

Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This nineteenth-century periodical captures the vibrant, sprawling curiosity of Victorian intellectual life. It serves as a persistent public bridge for scholars, hobbyists, and antiquaries to exchange rare knowledge and solve minor mysteries.

Notes and Queries, Number 197, August 6, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This nineteenth-century periodical serves as a vibrant forum for the exchange of knowledge, where Victorian intellectuals, antiquaries, and curious readers gather to solve obscure historical, linguistic, and scientific puzzles through collaborative inquiry.

Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century periodical serves as a communal clearinghouse for historical, etymological, and folk-literary inquiry. It offers a fascinating glimpse into a Victorian culture obsessed with the minutiae of the past and the mechanics of language.

Notes and Queries, Number 82, May 24, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century repository of collective wisdom, this periodical invites readers to bridge the gaps in human knowledge through shared inquiry and meticulous documentation.

Our Little English Cousin
Blanche McManus
This travelogue for young readers offers a guided tour of Edwardian England, seen through the eyes of a privileged, inquisitive child named Edith. It captures a vanished world of polite manners, traditional rituals, and historical pageantry.

Our People: From the Collection of "Mr. Punch"
Charles Keene
The keen-eyed sketches of Victorian life gathered here reveal the absurdities of a society obsessed with status, class, and the stiff upper lip. These vignettes capture the humor hidden in the mundane frictions of everyday existence.

Pariah Planet
Murray Leinster
When a plague-stricken world is marked for extinction by its neighbors, a lone medical officer must use science and diplomacy to prevent a galactic genocide.

Patroclus and Penelope: A Chat in the Saddle
Theodore Ayrault Dodge
This is a masterclass in the art of the saddle, written by a veteran who views his horse not as a tool, but as a partner in a refined and exhilarating dialogue.

Peeps at Postage Stamps
Stanley C. (Stanley Currie) Johnson
Stamp collecting is a timeless, affordable pursuit that turns a quiet hobby into a doorway through which the history and geography of the entire world can be explored and understood.

Penelope
William Pitt Scargill
A young woman finds herself caught in the webs of aristocratic entitlement when a nobleman decides he is entitled to her affections, regardless of her own heart or her existing engagement.

Points of Humour, Part 2 (of 2)
Unknown
This second collection of literary and historical anecdotes serves as a spirited, sometimes dark, meditation on the folly of human ambition, pride, and the inevitable triumph of the ridiculous over the grave.

Portuguese portraits
Aubrey F. G. (Aubrey Fitz Gerald) Bell
The annals of a seafaring nation are built from the bones of its explorers, a collection of lives defined by iron will, maritime mastery, and an unyielding devotion to the state. These biographies trace the trajectory of an empire rising from the foam of perilous seas.

Practical Stair Building and Handrailing: By the square section and falling line system
W. H. Wood
Mastering the architecture of a staircase is less about raw strength and more about the elegant intersection of geometry and physics. This manual provides a systematic bridge between the abstract rules of solid geometry and the physical reality of building a safe, graceful climb.

Princess Sukey: The story of a pigeon and her human friends
Marshall Saunders
A retired judge finds his quiet, ordered life transformed when he takes in a lonely boy and a mysterious little girl, only to discover that compassion requires more than just wealth and good intentions.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 29, 1916
Various
The war effort is a serious business, but the British spirit—and this publication—refuses to let gravity extinguish the flicker of a well-timed, satirical jab.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, January 24, 1891
Various
This collection captures the frantic, witty, and deeply skeptical spirit of late-Victorian London, offering a kaleidoscopic view of a society obsessed with its own news, politics, and absurdity.

Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, April 2, 1892
Various
A vibrant, satirical mosaic of Victorian London, capturing the eccentricities of Parliament, the frustrations of early telephone technology, and the fleeting joy of a disastrous day spent salmon fishing.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, April 2, 1919
Various
This volume captures the weary, witty spirit of a nation poised between the end of the Great War and the uncertainty of a fragile peace. It serves as a sharp-eyed mirror to the social and political anxieties of 1919.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, August 9, 1890
Various
This mid-Victorian periodical offers a biting, satirical lens into 1890s British life, lampooning the absurdity of social customs, political maneuvers, and the stiff, self-important nature of the ruling class.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, September 27, 1890
Various
This collection of Victorian wit and satire offers a sharp, wry glimpse into the social anxieties, political posturing, and bureaucratic absurdities of late 19th-century London life.

Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 06, May 7, 1870
Various
This nineteenth-century periodical offers a sharp-witted, satirical window into the political scandals, social pretensions, and daily irritations of post-Civil War New York. It functions as a comedic mirror held up to the excesses of the Gilded Age.

Quicksands
Adolf Streckfuss
A man burdened by debt and despair finds a second chance by assuming a new identity, only to discover that the past—and the people he left behind—are never truly out of reach.

Report of the Juvenile Delinquency Committee
R. M. (Ronald Macmillan) Algie
A parliamentary committee examines the moral climate of 1950s New Zealand, seeking a balance between legislative control and expert guidance to address rising anxieties over adolescent behavior and the influence of mass media.

Running to Waste: The Story of a Tomboy
George M. (George Melville) Baker
A wild-spirited girl finds herself at a crossroads, where she must choose between the aimless freedom of her youth and the structured demands of a maturing life.

Six Little Ducklings
Katharine Pyle
A mother duck protects her six curious children from the dangers of the wide world, teaching them that safety and happiness are found in obedience and family unity.

Sonnets and Poems
Eleanor Farjeon
The verse in this collection captures the delicate, often painful threshold between the innocence of childhood and the heavy demands of an adult world at war. It is a work of quiet, crystalline observation.

Special Delivery
Damon Knight
A young couple’s domestic life is upended by the arrival of an unborn child who possesses a lethal intellect, telepathic reach, and a profound contempt for his parents.

Specimens of German Romance
C. F. van der (Carl Franz) Velde
This collection gathers historical fiction from the early nineteenth century, framing the intense, often brutal friction between the fading traditions of the knightly class and the rising, stubborn power of the mercantile elite. Through the lens of the sixteenth-century German city, it explores how rigid social…

Starved Rock
Edgar Lee Masters
Humanity exists in a state of perpetual, restless flux, caught between the desire for eternal connection and the cold certainty that all things—even the most profound passions—must eventually dissolve into change.

Susâni: 1901
Louis Becke
A fragile girl, touched by both illness and what some call divinity, binds the souls of two transient observers in a remote Pacific lagoon. This brief, meditative narrative captures the fading twilight of a native community through the lens of a singular, haunting life.

Tharon of Lost Valley
Vingie E. (Vingie Eve) Roe
A young woman inherits a kingdom of cattle and lawless secrets in a mountain-locked valley, where she must choose between the violence of her heritage and the promise of a new life.

The Amazing Emperor Heliogabalus
John Stuart Hay
This historical study re-examines the life of a maligned Roman boy-emperor, stripping away centuries of ecclesiastical and political slander to reveal a complex, purposeful, and profoundly misunderstood ruler.