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34,093 public-domain books, summarised. Page 656 of 711.

Cover of Scenes and Portraits

Scenes and Portraits

Frederic Manning

This collection of imaginative dialogues bridges the chasm between ancient myth and modern skepticism, inviting readers to witness history’s great minds debating the nature of belief. It is a contemplative meditation on how humanity grapples with the silence of the divine.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of Scenic Mount Lowe and Its Wonderful Railway

Scenic Mount Lowe and Its Wonderful Railway

George Wharton James

This guide serves as both a historical record and a promotional portrait of the legendary mountain railway that once connected the San Gabriel Valley to the heights of the Sierra Madre. It captures an era when technological ambition and the romantic appreciation of nature converged to make California’s peaks…

Engineering & Technology6 min read
Cover of Shuddering castle

Shuddering castle

Wilbur Finley Fauley

A wealthy family’s secluded Long Island estate becomes the unlikely epicenter for a bizarre collision between radio-age ambition, intergalactic mystery, and a frightening, uninvited guest.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Signal in the Dark

Signal in the Dark

Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt

A resourceful young reporter hunts for the truth behind a suspicious invention and a series of waterfront crimes. She risks her safety to expose the corrupt forces threatening her father’s newspaper and the industrial peace of her city.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of Smoke Bellew

Smoke Bellew

Jack London

HOOK A pampered city editor is thrust into the brutal, frozen wilderness of the Yukon, where he discards his former self to become a legendary frontiersman known only as Smoke.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Stories of New Jersey

Stories of New Jersey

Frank R. Stockton

A tapestry of local legend and national milestone, this collection gathers the figures and turning points that transformed a wilderness into a cornerstone of American history. It captures the spirit of a state shaped by both quiet resolve and grand ambition.

Archaeology & Anthropology7 min read
Cover of Subject to Vanity

Subject to Vanity

Margaret Benson

HOOK This collection of sketches observes the private lives of household creatures, finding in their small joys and tragedies a reflection of the human condition.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of Tenterhooks

Tenterhooks

Ada Leverson

A comedy of manners set in the rarified air of London’s social elite, where the delicate, unspoken boundaries of marriage and friendship are navigated with sharp, ironic precision.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Album Writer's Friend: Comprising More Than Three Hundred Choice Selections of Poetry and Prose, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums, Valentines, Birthday, Christmas and New Year Cards

The Album Writer's Friend: Comprising More Than Three Hundred Choice Selections of Poetry and Prose, Suitable for Writing in Autograph Albums, Valentines, Birthday, Christmas and New Year Cards

Unknown

An invitation to leave a lasting mark, this collection offers a treasury of verse and prose designed to bridge the distance between friends, one autograph at a time.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of The Ascent of Man

The Ascent of Man

Mathilde Blind

This ambitious work of poetry traces the epic trajectory of human progress, moving from the primal struggle for survival toward a vision of collective enlightenment and the refinement of the soul.

Poetry7 min read
Cover of The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 21: Psalms: The Challoner Revision

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 21: Psalms: The Challoner Revision

Unknown

The Book of Psalms serves as an enduring repository of human emotion, mapping the vast landscape between profound isolation and spiritual ecstasy. It remains a foundational text for its raw, unflinching articulation of the human condition.

Poetry6 min read
Cover of The Camp Fire Girls on a Yacht

The Camp Fire Girls on a Yacht

Margaret Love Sanderson

A summer yachting adventure brings together a spirited group of young women, a secret aristocrat, and a series of dramatic rescues along the Atlantic coast.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The case of Oscar Slater

The case of Oscar Slater

Arthur Conan Doyle

A meticulous, impassioned critique of a high-stakes Scottish murder trial, arguing that a flawed conviction was secured through systemic prejudice and unreliable eyewitness testimony.

History - British6 min read
Cover of The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 10. October, 1880

The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 10. October, 1880

Various

This periodical from 1880 mounts a vigorous, combative defense of Christianity, using common-sense reasoning and biblical exegesis to challenge both scientific skepticism and prevailing theological traditions.

Religion/Spirituality6 min read
Cover of The Chronic Loafer

The Chronic Loafer

Nelson Lloyd

The front porch of a country store serves as the stage for a group of men whose lives are measured by the slow passing of seasons and the infinite variety of local gossip. This collection of stories captures the rhythmic, unhurried cadence of a rural Pennsylvania valley, where a simple bench becomes the center of a…

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The claims of decorative art

The claims of decorative art

Walter Crane

Art thrives only when it breathes the same air as the life that surrounds it, yet modern industry has severed the connection between the beauty of the object and the soul of the laborer. This collection of essays serves as a manifesto for the dignity of the craftsman, arguing that when art becomes a mere commodity…

General6 min read
Cover of The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer

The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer

Charles Lever

The life of a young officer is a dizzying succession of near-misses, romantic blunders, and narrow escapes. This picaresque narrative captures the frantic, often self-inflicted chaos of a man forever one step away from disaster.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Countess of Lowndes Square, and Other Stories

The Countess of Lowndes Square, and Other Stories

E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

A collection of tales that peer into the quiet, often darker corners of English life, where blackmail, supernatural obsession, and the thin line between reality and invention collide.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Duchess of Trajetto

The Duchess of Trajetto

Anne Manning

The life of a sixteenth-century Italian noblewoman serves as the backdrop for this historical narrative, which explores the tension between worldly aristocratic duty and the quiet, dangerous pursuit of spiritual truth during the Reformation.

Historical Novels6 min read
Cover of The End of a Coil

The End of a Coil

Susan Warner

A young woman finds her devotion to faith tested by her father’s unraveling life, discovering that true strength lies in quiet endurance and moral courage.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of The Fire-Gods: A Tale of the Congo

The Fire-Gods: A Tale of the Congo

Charles Gilson

Three explorers venture into the heart of the Congo to confront the mysterious "Fire-gods," only to discover that the greatest threats in the jungle are not spirits, but the greed of man.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Flower of the Flock, Volume 1 (of 3)

The Flower of the Flock, Volume 1 (of 3)

Pierce Egan

The sun illuminates both the gilded monuments of London and the desperate, soot-stained garrets of the poor. Amidst this bustling city, the lives of the proud, the desperate, and the devoted collide in a tangled web of inheritance and longing.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Frontier Boys in the Sierras

The Frontier Boys in the Sierras

Wyn Roosevelt

The Frontier Boys in the Sierras follows a band of resourceful brothers and their companions as they navigate the perils of the Pacific and the rugged California mountains in pursuit of a legendary lost gold mine.

Adventure5 min read
Cover of The Gist of Swedenborg

The Gist of Swedenborg

Emanuel Swedenborg

The Divine is not a distant abstraction but a present, accessible reality, revealed through a lifetime of labor dedicated to mapping the unseen landscape of the soul and its eternal progression.

Religion/Spirituality7 min read
Cover of The Great Taxicab Robbery: A True Detective Story

The Great Taxicab Robbery: A True Detective Story

James H. (James Hiram) Collins

In the heart of a bustling, modernizing New York, a brazen daylight robbery of a taxicab leaves the city in a panic and the police under fire. This true account follows the methodical, often psychological, hunt to reclaim $25,000 and restore public faith in the law.

Crime, Thrillers and Mystery6 min read
Cover of The hate disease

The hate disease

Murray Leinster

When a routine planetary checkup turns into a fight for survival, a lone medical officer must diagnose a society succumbing to a terrifying, artificial plague of hatred.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Haunted Ship

The Haunted Ship

Kate Marion Tucker

HOOK A group of children vacationing on the Maine coast stumbles upon a mysterious, grounded schooner, only to discover that the "ghost ship" is hiding very real, very dangerous secrets.

Adventure5 min read
Cover of The heathery

The heathery

Andrews, Henry Cranke, active 1799-1828

This botanical survey documents the breathtaking diversity of the *Erica* genus, capturing the delicate morphology of heaths from the Cape of Good Hope with scientific rigor and an artist’s eye.

Nature/Gardening/Animals6 min read
Cover of The land of gold

The land of gold

Hinton Rowan Helper

This 1855 account offers a stark, disillusioned corrective to the era’s "Golden State" mythology, detailing a landscape defined more by systemic corruption, environmental hazards, and social decay than by promised wealth.

History - American6 min read
Cover of The Little Gray Lady: 1909

The Little Gray Lady: 1909

Francis Hopkinson Smith

The Little Gray Lady is a delicate, atmospheric study of a woman who has spent twenty years mourning a lost love, only to find the past unexpectedly brought to life by the village youth. It is a quiet, sentimental exploration of memory and the redemptive power of a truth spoken in time.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Lone Wolf Returns

The Lone Wolf Returns

Louis Joseph Vance

A man who has finally traded his life as a notorious jewel thief for the peace of domestic love finds his past forcibly exhumed by a blackmailing criminal syndicate.

Crime, Thrillers and Mystery6 min read
Cover of The Man of Taste

The Man of Taste

James Bramston

This poem is a sharp, satirical monologue that skewers the self-important affectations of the 18th-century social climber. It serves as a mock-autobiographical confession from a man who believes his expensive, shallow whims define true cultural sophistication.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Marriages

The Marriages

Henry James

Adela Chart, a fiercely devoted daughter, takes it upon herself to protect her late mother’s legacy from her father’s impending remarriage. Her desperate interference sparks a complex chain of family secrets, personal betrayals, and unexpected consequences.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 03: Military Career

The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 03: Military Career

Giacomo Casanova

A young man casts off his clerical robes to reinvent himself as a dashing officer, trading the constraints of the church for the unpredictable, often perilous, and relentlessly romantic landscapes of eighteenth-century Europe.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 391, September 26, 1829

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 391, September 26, 1829

Various

This Victorian-era miscellany captures the restless curiosity of 1829, blending mechanical ingenuity, antiquarian wonder, and the polite social commentary of a rapidly industrializing England.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 552, June 16, 1832

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 552, June 16, 1832

Various

This collection captures the intellectual pulse of 1832, blending curiosities of natural history, antiquarian lore, and literary critique into a vibrant mosaic of the early Victorian cultural imagination.

Art6 min read
Cover of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 578, December 1, 1832

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 578, December 1, 1832

Various

This nineteenth-century miscellany offers an eclectic window into the Georgian and Victorian mind, blending architectural history, medical theory, and the dry wit of London’s literary circles into a single, cohesive volume.

Architecture6 min read
Cover of The monkey that would not kill

The monkey that would not kill

Henry Drummond

This small volume collects two loosely connected tales about an irrepressible, indestructible creature that defies every attempt to end its life, eventually finding its way into the homes and hearts of those who tried hardest to be rid of it.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain, and Other Stories

The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain, and Other Stories

Charles Egbert Craddock

A haunting, atmospheric portrait of life in the Cumberland Mountains, these tales capture the intersection of jagged landscapes and the complex, often isolated hearts of those who dwell among them.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Nest Egg: Captains All, Book 3

The Nest Egg: Captains All, Book 3

W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs

This is a tale of sailors, schemes, and the unintended consequences of trying to outsmart one's own life. It turns a sharp, observant eye on the small-stakes dramas of the London docks, where a single clever plan can unravel everything.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The New York Tombs Inside and Out!: Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the Present. A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America's Most Famous Prison

The New York Tombs Inside and Out!: Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the Present. A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America's Most Famous Prison

John Josiah Munro

This account pulls back the iron curtain of early twentieth-century New York, exposing a world of systemic corruption, prisoner gambling, and the stark intersection of human failing with municipal greed.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Nine-Tenths

The Nine-Tenths

James Oppenheim

A wealthy printer’s life is shattered by a catastrophic factory fire, leading him to abandon his business to fight for the rights of the city’s most vulnerable laborers. This is a story of personal transformation and the high cost of social justice.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The peaceful atom

The peaceful atom

Bernice Kohn Hunt

The invisible building blocks of everything around us hold secrets that, once unlocked, promise to transform the future of humanity. Discover how the smallest particles in the universe became our greatest source of potential power.

Science - Physics6 min read
Cover of The Pink Shop

The Pink Shop

Fergus Hume

A young woman’s quest for justice following her mother’s murder leads her into a labyrinth of secrets involving her wealthy father, a mysterious shop, and a determined investigator.

Crime, Thrillers and Mystery6 min read
Cover of The Poisoned Pen

The Poisoned Pen

Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

A scientific investigator navigates the grit of early twentieth-century New York, using cutting-edge chemistry and emerging technology to solve mysteries that baffle the police.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Punishment of Children

The Punishment of Children

Felix Adler

Parenting is often a reactionary endeavor, driven by impulse and inherited habits. This guide seeks to replace such reflexive actions with intentionality, arguing that the way a parent corrects a child is the ultimate test of the parent’s own moral character.

Parenthood & Family Relations6 min read
Cover of The Re-echo Club

The Re-echo Club

Carolyn Wells

A witty collection of literary parodies, this book imagines famous poets reimagining the same trivial subjects, from a purple cow to a Cubist painting, with hilarious and often biting results.

Humour6 min read
Cover of The Return of Tharn

The Return of Tharn

Howard Browne

A prehistoric warrior traverses a perilous landscape of jungles and cities to rescue his captured beloved. He finds himself caught in a complex web of political betrayal involving a powerful king and a scheming nobleman.

Adventure6 min read
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