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4,129 public-domain books, summarised. Page 67 of 87.
The Rhodesian
Gertrude Page
An ancient landscape holds its breath while two wealthy women traverse the African wilderness, seeking escape from grief and finding instead a unyielding, transformative terrain that reshapes their lives and loves.
Washington Irving
Henry Walcott Boynton
A life spent moving between fragile health and brilliant fame shows how a gentle observer became America’s first world-renowned author.
A Book of Burlesques
H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
A sharp-edged gallery of American hypocrisies, social rites, and cultural absurdities exposes the vanity hidden beneath civilization's polished veneer.
The Hotel
Elizabeth Bowen
Underneath the glitter of the Italian Riviera, an assembly of English tourists wanders through small personal crises, polite misunderstandings, and the quiet, heavy work of trying to connect.
The Vaudois of Piedmont: A Visit to Their Valleys
J. N. (John Napper) Worsfold
High in the secluded Alpine valleys of Piedmont, an ancient Christian community endured centuries of state-sanctioned massacres, exile, and betrayal, refusing to abandon their ancestral faith.
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume I
Alexander Wheelock Thayer
A patient biographer sweeps away centuries of romantic speculation to uncover the cold, documented facts of a musical genius's early life.
A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy
Isaac Husik
To reconcile faith with reason is the enduring labor of the human mind, a bridge built by thinkers across centuries to unite the ancient certainty of scripture with the unfolding discoveries of philosophy.
McTeague: A Story of San Francisco
Frank Norris
A dull, uneducated San Francisco dentist finds his simple life derailed by love, a sudden lottery fortune, and an all-consuming greed that drives everyone around him to absolute ruin.
Two Years Before the Mast
Richard Henry Dana
Bound for the hazards of the open Pacific, a Harvard scholar trades his books for a sailor's berth to cure his failing eyesight.
Colonial Records of Virginia
Various
Forged in starvation, harsh discipline, and the struggle for political self-determination, early English settlement takes shape through raw archival testimony.
A Cluster of Grapes: A Book of Twentieth Century Poetry
Unknown
An unexpected glimpse into early twentieth-century British poetry reveals a transitional world balancing between Victorian traditions and modern anxieties.
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
Beatrix Potter
A clever red squirrel pushes an old owl's patience to the limit through six days of taunting riddles, learning a painful lesson about the dangers of unchecked insolence.
Letters of Abelard and Heloise: To which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours, and misfortunes
Peter Abelard
A intellectual match between brilliant minds degenerates into a devastating public scandal, forcing two lovers into the solemn isolation of the monastic life while their passionate letters keep their tragic fire burning.
Old and New Masters
Robert Lynd
To observe a world of grand artistic ambitions and human absurdities with a cool, sharp, yet irrepressibly vivid critical eye is to master the craft of literary assessment.
The Garden of Swords
Max Pemberton
A young English bride in Alsace finds her newly wedded life shattered when the Franco-Prussian War erupts around her.
The Story of Mankind
Hendrik Willem Van Loon
A sweeping panorama of human experience lifts the reader high above the rush of daily life to watch civilizations rise, struggle, transform, and pass their hard-won knowledge along the generations.
A History of the Philippines
David P. Barrows
From ancient island migrations to American civil administration, this narrative traces the rich, complex evolution of an archipelago shaped by continuous global contact, deep-seated traditions, and relentless struggles for unity.
Peeps At Many Lands: Australia
Frank Fox
A land once left to centuries of quiet isolation now invites the adventurous, offering vast golden horizons, rugged mountain barriers, and the spirit of a resilient young nation built on raw resourcefulness.
Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare
Separated from her twin brother in a shipwreck, a resourceful young woman disguises herself as a male page to serve a melancholy duke, accidentally winning the heart of the noble lady he obsessively woos.
Essays of an Americanist: I. Ethnologic and Archæologic. II. Mythology and Folk Lore. III. Graphic Systems and Literature. IV. Linguistic
Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison) Brinton
A rigorous, deeply informed vindication of Indigenous American intellect and history, this scholarly collection dismantling nineteenth-century biases through meticulous linguistic analysis, archæological evidence, and translated native poetry.
The Key to the Brontë Works: The Key to Charlotte Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights,' 'Jane Eyre,' and her other works
John Malham-Dembleby
A litany of uncanny structural parallels suggests that Charlotte Brontë alone wrote Wuthering Heights under a web of personal trauma, local history, and concealed grief.
Martin Chuzzlewit
Charles Dickens
A family’s obsession with inheritance turns every relative into a scheming predator, while an arrogant young heir must lose everything across two continents to discover what genuine human integrity costs.
Spoon River Anthology
Edgar Lee Masters
Beyond the quiet headstones of a small town, the dead speak freely of the secrets, hypocrisies, and unfulfilled desires that governed their lived experiences.
The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C. L. Dodgson)
Stuart Dodgson Collingwood
A shy Oxford mathematician creates timeless wonderland tales for children, balancing strict logic and deep piety with endless whimsical play.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "English Language" to "Epsom Salts": Volume 9, Slice 6
Various
A sweeping window into human knowledge spans the physical world and human culture, tracking everything from shifting linguistic structures to ancient sacred sites and chemical compounds.
The Authoress of the Odyssey: Where and when she wrote, who she was, the use she made of the Iliad, and how the poem grew under her hands
Samuel Butler
An unconventional scholar presents a provocative case that the epic was composed by a young Sicilian woman who drew directly upon her local Mediterranean landscape.
The Flaming Jewel
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
A desperate pursuit through the snowbound Adirondacks pits forest outlaws and international jewel thieves against the State Police for a fortune in stolen gems.
The life-story of a Russian exile
Marie Sukloff
Underneath the quiet surface of tsarist Russia lies a generation of young idealists willing to sacrifice everything, including their own lives, to shatter the monarchy.
The man in the dark
J. A. (John Alexander) Ferguson
A desperate man wandering through a suffocating London fog accepts a strange midnight assignment, only to find himself entangled in a high-stakes murder inquiry and a dangerous getaway across the English countryside.
Zoological Mythology
Angelo De Gubernatis
Across global folklore, animals are never just animals; they are the vivid, forgotten vocabulary of ancient sky myths.
The storm that had to be stopped
Murray Leinster
A terrifying force of nature becomes an engine of war, turning the Eastern Seaboard into a wasteland where survive or perish depends on two men in a steel box.
A Short History of England
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
A nation’s history is best understood not through its kings, but through its ordinary citizens. When the populace is forgotten, true national heritage is replaced by the quiet, steady erosion of broad human freedom.
Lucian's True History
of Samosata Lucian
A band of Greek sailors sails past the Pillars of Hercules into a surreal cosmos of stellar wars, giant sea beasts, and cork-footed ocean walkers.
Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life
Sherwood Anderson
Isolation in a small Midwestern town drives individuals to embrace single truths, twisting their lives into tragic, beautiful grotesques.
Statesman
Plato
Governing a community requires a rare scientific knowledge rather than written codes or raw power, blending contrasting human temperaments into a single, cohesive social fabric.
The Sequel: What the Great War will mean to Australia
George A. (George Augustine) Taylor
An airman soaring over a shattered Europe foresees how the clash of modern machinery, speculative finance, and utopian politics will reshape the world—and ultimately forge a newly disciplined Australia.
Captain Cook's Journal During His First Voyage Round the World: Made in H. M. Bark "Endeavour", 1768-71
James Cook
A plain-spoken naval logbook expands into an extraordinary chronicle of Pacific navigation, recording with unadorned precision the first European mapping of New Zealand and eastern Australia alongside the everyday realities of eighteenth-century seafaring.
Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories: The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1
Unknown
A vibrant collection of traditional verse, cautionary fables, and enchanted folk narratives captures the wondrous and sometimes perilous landscape of childhood imagination.
Mission Furniture: How to Make It, Part 1
H. H. (Henry Haven) Windsor
Hand-hewn oak, exposed joints, and the quiet satisfaction of creating honest, functional furniture define this practical manual from the height of the American Arts and Crafts movement.
The Survey of London
John Stow
To know a city is to know the bone and mortar beneath its feet, the forgotten charities that built its conduits, and the ghosts of old riots lingering at its stone gates.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ripon: A Short History of the Church and a Description of Its Fabric
Cecil Walter Charles Hallett
A complex architectural tapestry, Ripon Cathedral stands as a physical archive of Northern English history, where Saxon foundations meet medieval ambition and Victorian restoration.
The Madman: His Parables and Poems
Kahlil Gibran
Stripped of socially expected disguises, a newly awakened outcast discovers that true spiritual freedom exists only when society rejects you.
Acres of Diamonds: Our Every-day Opportunities
Russell H. Conwell
Greatest fortunes and grandest opportunities often lie unnoticed in our own backyards, waiting for common sense to recognize what grand ambition overlooks.
The Upper Berth
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
A heavy dampness in the air, the rank smell of stagnant salt water, and an unseen presence that unfastens a brass porthole from the inside to drag a passenger down into the depths.
Twice-told tales
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Silent, shadowed figures slip down New England streets, carrying secrets that rot the soul or lift it toward a terrible, shimmering grace.
Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati
Warren Crocker Herrick
A transformative encounter in the wilderness turns an uncertain young man into a dedicated minister who devotes four decades to reviving an urban parish, challenging political corruption, and serving as the moral anchor of a major Midwest city.
Prince Prigio: From "His Own Fairy Book"
Andrew Lang
A prince cursed at birth with excessive cleverness must learn that intellect without modesty or affection will only leave him royal, brilliant, and entirely alone.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Lord Chamberlain" to "Luqman": Volume 17, Slice 1
Various
Lucid and broad, this reference installment captures the turn-of-the-century state of human knowledge through rigorous historical analysis, scientific discovery, and geographic survey.