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34,093 public-domain books, summarised. Page 661 of 711.

Cover of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 432: Volume 17, New Series, April 10, 1852

Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 432: Volume 17, New Series, April 10, 1852

Various

This issue of a famous mid-nineteenth-century weekly miscellany examines the push and pull between romantic nostalgia and practical progress, weaving art criticism, natural history, civic duty, and tales of global discovery into a single picture of Victorian curiosity.

Art6 min read
Cover of Christmas Carols and Midsummer Songs

Christmas Carols and Midsummer Songs

Various

This classic collection captures the changing seasons through children’s eyes, pairing the magic of winter holidays with the warm freedom of summer days.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Christmas Penny Readings: Original Sketches for the Season

Christmas Penny Readings: Original Sketches for the Season

George Manville Fenn

A collection of Victorian hearthside tales offers a vibrant tapestry of mid-century London life, blending seasonal hardship, whimsical misadventures, and heartwarming redemption.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Colonel Carter of Cartersville

Colonel Carter of Cartersville

Francis Hopkinson Smith

An impoverished Virginia aristocrat chases grand financial schemes in New York, sustained only by supreme courtesy, devoted friends, and an indelible bond with his former slave.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Coward or Hero?

Coward or Hero?

Eugène (Dramatist) Leclerc

A hyper-imaginative boy, terrorized by nursery tales and his own shadow, faces the daunting prospect of school life while trying to satisfy a military father who dreads raising a coward.

French Literature7 min read
Cover of Crown and Anchor: Under the Pen'ant

Crown and Anchor: Under the Pen'ant

John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson

Stepping aboard a nineteenth-century Royal Navy vessel means entering a world of iron discipline, roaring seas, and sudden, heartbreaking loss.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Decatur and Somers

Decatur and Somers

Molly Elliot Seawell

Two young American naval officers form an unbreakable bond while steering through the perils, rivalries, and explosive combats of the Barbary War.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Determinism or Free-Will?

Determinism or Free-Will?

Chapman Cohen

A conviction of absolute choice feels real, yet every human decision traces back to causes within mind, body, and history. Resolving that tension requires looking past theological fog to see how character actually forms.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of Diary of Samuel Pepys

Diary of Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

A middle-class bureaucrat moves through the halls of English power, writing down everything he sees, eats, spends, and secretly desires.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Doctor Luttrell's First Patient

Doctor Luttrell's First Patient

Rosa Nouchette Carey

A struggle for subsistence in a drab corner of late-Victorian London yields to quiet grace when a young doctor’s wife acts on a flash of sympathy.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Dorothy

Dorothy

Evelyn Raymond

A sudden arrival on a Baltimore doorstep transforms a childless household, sparking a tender journey of devotion, unexpected loss, and resilient love.

Children & Young Adult Reading7 min read
Cover of Dress and care of the feet: : showing their natural shape and construction

Dress and care of the feet: : showing their natural shape and construction

John Lord Peck

A practical guide to the anatomy, deformities, and proper shoemaking for the human foot, this Victorian manual exposes how fashionable footwear causes crippling ailments while offering sensible remedies for lasting comfort.

Health & Medicine5 min read
Cover of Edith Lyle

Edith Lyle

Mary Jane Holmes

A young widow hides her secret past to marry into a proud, wealthy family, only to find her abandoned past living right on her new estate. The truth threatens to unravel her second chance at a respectable life.

American Literature9 min read
Cover of Elsie and Her Loved Ones

Elsie and Her Loved Ones

Martha Finley

Multi-generational family gatherings, quiet coastal retreats, and historical storytelling define a gentle, faith-filled domestic world.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Essay on the Character and Influence of Washington in the Revolution of the United States of America

Essay on the Character and Influence of Washington in the Revolution of the United States of America

François Guizot

A disciplined leader's steady hand turns a precarious colonial revolt into a self-sustaining republic through unyielding moral authority and practical wisdom.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Esther

Esther

Rosa Nouchette Carey

A girl with an awkward name and an ordinary face discovers that the smallest life, faithfully lived, can bear extraordinary light.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Evening Tales

Evening Tales

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Ortoli

A magical encounter with a tar-built trap sets off fifteen whimsical stories where clever animals outwit foolish kings, modest youth conquer grand trials, and absurd simpletons meet astonishing fates.

Children & Young Adult Reading7 min read
Cover of Evolution Social and Organic

Evolution Social and Organic

Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow) Lewis

A thinker scans three centuries of science to prove that nature moves by relentless transformation, arguing that human society must follow the same evolutionary law into a cooperative future.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of Fairy Tales from Gold Lands: Second Series

Fairy Tales from Gold Lands: Second Series

May Wentworth

Amid the fog-streaked cañons and snowbound belfries of a romantic frontier, forgotten children and wandering souls discover that even the coldest wilderness yields to acts of quiet devotion.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore7 min read
Cover of Fairy Tales Told in the Bush

Fairy Tales Told in the Bush

Sister Agnes

A young boy on the Australian frontier sells a magical shape-shifting trick to outsmart his parents, only to find that every deception brings him closer to a humiliating end.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
Cover of Felicitas: A Tale of the German Migrations: A.D. 476

Felicitas: A Tale of the German Migrations: A.D. 476

Felix Dahn

A stone-mason’s inscription promises peace to a Roman home in fifth-century Salzburg, but invading Germanic tribes soon test whether love can survive the fall of an empire.

German Literature6 min read
Cover of Fig Culture: Edible Figs: Their Culture and Curing. Fig Culture in the Gulf States

Fig Culture: Edible Figs: Their Culture and Curing. Fig Culture in the Gulf States

Gustavus A. Eisen

A clear, grounded overview of the 1897 Department of Agriculture publication on domestic fig growing.

How To ...5 min read
Cover of Fly Leaves

Fly Leaves

Charles Stuart Calverley

Victorian domestic life, literary pretension, and poetic romance are dismantled with effortless, dry precision across these light-hearted verse satires.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Foes in Ambush

Foes in Ambush

Charles King

In a sun-scorched Arizona desert where ambush waits behind every jagged crag, a heavy military payroll attracts outlaws, renegades, and Apaches, forcing a handful of weary soldiers and vulnerable travelers into a desperate fight for survival.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Four Pigeons: Captains All, Book 7

Four Pigeons: Captains All, Book 7

W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs

A cunning poacher turns a disastrous shooting accident into a lucrative insurance racket, exploiting the local landlord's wealthy guests and outmaneuvering his own neighbors at every turn.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Greasy luck

Greasy luck

Gordon Grant

This is an unvarnished, visual account of the American whaling era, documenting the brutal mechanics and stark traditions of a trade that turned men and ships into industrial machines.

Art6 min read
Cover of Harper's Young People, March 23, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly

Harper's Young People, March 23, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly

Various

This issue captures the texture of late nineteenth-century American childhood through a mix of moral verse, instructional prose, serialized sea adventure, history, and active reader correspondence.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Harper's Young People, May 17, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly

Harper's Young People, May 17, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly

Various

Four young boys set sail in a modified boat, discovering that clear rules and mutual respect are essential to navigating both open waters and life ashore.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Henry Ford: Highlights of His Life

Henry Ford: Highlights of His Life

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village

A farm boy turns his mechanical curiosity into an industrial empire that changes how the world travels, works, and lives.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Heroes of Israel: Text of the Hero Stories with Notes and Questions for Young Students

Heroes of Israel: Text of the Hero Stories with Notes and Questions for Young Students

Theodore Gerald Soares

Through carefully arranged scriptural texts, pedagogical commentary, and reflective exercises, a landmark early-twentieth-century curriculum transforms ancient Hebrew narratives into vivid personal studies of character, faith, and moral courage.

Religion/Spirituality6 min read
Cover of Historical difficulties and contested events

Historical difficulties and contested events

Octave Delepierre

Many cherished historical accounts are merely comfortable fables agreed upon after the fact, created by active imaginations rather than solid evidence.

History - Other6 min read
Cover of Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac

A young painter enters a master's Paris studio in 1612, unaware that art's highest perfection lies just beyond reach.

French Literature8 min read
Cover of Into the Highways and Hedges

Into the Highways and Hedges

F. F. (Frances Frederica) Montrésor

An uncalculated marriage between a headstrong young woman and an itinerant open-air preacher turns a rash blunder into a quiet, transformative test of devotions.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Is the Young Man Absalom Safe?: A Sermon Preached in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Stoke Bishop, on Sunday, July 19th, 1885

Is the Young Man Absalom Safe?: A Sermon Preached in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Stoke Bishop, on Sunday, July 19th, 1885

David Wright

A nineteenth-century preacher turns a grief-stricken king's desperate query into a piercing inquiry for his own age: are the young people of this generation truly protected from moral ruin?

Parenthood & Family Relations6 min read
Cover of Italian Letters, Vols. I and II

Italian Letters, Vols. I and II

William Godwin

A young man's unshakeable faith in his closest friend becomes the very instrument of his downfall when romantic jealousy and calculated betrayal test the limits of philosophical virtue.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Jack Winters' Campmates

Jack Winters' Campmates

Mark Overton

A summer camping trip turns into a high-stakes detective mission when three small-town friends venture into the deep woods with a camera and a secret assignment.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Jonah

Jonah

Louis Stone

A deformed street urchin builds an empire of cheap shoe stores in Edwardian Sydney, only to find that money cannot buy the life he wanted.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Jungle and Stream

Jungle and Stream

George Manville Fenn

A young English boy and a Siamese prince stand shoulder to shoulder against tiger strikes, crocodile jaws, and a violent palace coup in nineteenth-century Siam.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Kaffir, Kangaroo, Klondike: Tales of the Gold Fields

Kaffir, Kangaroo, Klondike: Tales of the Gold Fields

Thad. W. H. (Thaddeus William Henry) Leavitt

A woman in disguise leads her partner through Australian sand, a gold-seeker stumbles upon a phantom mine in his sleep, and a disgraced nobleman harvests pearls in New Guinea to reclaim his ancestral home.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII

William Shakespeare

Power, piety, and political maneuvering collide in this theatrical portrait of Tudor England, where fortunes vanish overnight and royal desires rewrite national destiny.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Letters from Switzerland

Letters from Switzerland

Samuel Irenæus Prime

High above the world's noisy highways, standard routes fade into steep mountain passes, icy glaciers, and quiet sanctuaries of living history. This mid-nineteenth-century travelogue captures a moving journey across Switzerland, blending landscape, historic reverence, and human connection.

Travel Writing6 min read
Cover of Letters from the Holy Land

Letters from the Holy Land

Elizabeth (Elizabeth Southerden Thompson) Butler

At sunrise off the coast of Jaffa, a landscape long imagined in childhood turns suddenly real as open boats carry travelers across heavy surf toward the shores of Palestine.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of Mamie's Watchword

Mamie's Watchword

Joanna H. (Joanna Hooe) Mathews

A young girl's willful disobedience leads her to test her limits, only to learn a terrifying lesson about consequences, faith, and redemption on the open water.

Children & Young Adult Reading7 min read
Cover of Margaret Dashwood

Margaret Dashwood

Edith C. (Edith Charlotte) Hubback

Left out of her family’s main dramas, a quiet younger sister observes the world with gentle amusement until her own romantic complications begin.

Romance6 min read
Cover of Mary Russell Mitford and her surroundings

Mary Russell Mitford and her surroundings

Constance Hill

A life lived richly in the quietest corners of Berkshire yields a world of vibrant color, rustic charm, and stubborn literary devotion.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Melbourne House, Volume 1

Melbourne House, Volume 1

Susan Warner

A lonely, thoughtful girl on a wealthy Hudson Valley estate faces the quiet cruelty of her fashionable family when she decides to live out her Christian faith.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Volume 1: Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen

Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Volume 1: Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen

Mme. (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette) Campan

A devoted servant's intimate memory resurrects the vanished splendor and gathering shadow of Versailles, transforming royal legend into human history.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of Minnie

Minnie

C. S. (Caroline Snowden) Guild

A headstrong little girl wishes to escape the constraints of childhood, only to discover that shrinking down to the size of forest creatures brings far more peril than freedom.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
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