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47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 697 of 988.

Famous Firesides of French Canada
Mary Wilson Alloway
A narrative tapestry woven from three centuries of Canadian history, this work explores how the hearths and forts of Quebec forged a resilient, unified nation.

Feats on the Fiord: The third book in "The Playfellow"
Harriet Martineau
A young maiden's wedding preparations in the northern wilds of Norway are shadowed by ancient superstitions, lurking sea-pirates, and the sudden, terrifying disappearance of her betrothed.

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 7
Mark Twain
A keen observer of human nature follows the global path of British imperialism, measuring the distance between high-minded ideals and the absurd, mercenary realities on the ground.

Forty-one Thieves: A Tale of California
Angelo Hall
A brutal stagecoach murder in the California Sierras sets off a multi-year chain of betrayal, flight, and quiet financial ruin across the American West.

Four little Blossoms through the holidays
Mabel C. Hawley
Sparks fly, a small town whispers, and four innocent siblings must clear their name when holiday joy turns into unexpected mystery.

Friends and Enemies
Fritz Leiber
An exiled scientist and a banned poet are driven down a sun-baked highway into the post-apocalyptic ruins of Southern California, arguing whether technology or nature ruined the world.

Gerda in Sweden
Etta Blaisdell McDonald
A warm summer voyage through Swedish waterways opens a world of sunlit fjords, ancient northern lore, and enduring childhood friendship.

Harper's Round Table, January 21, 1896
Various
A rich, diverse miscellany of Victorian adventure, practical instruction, historical fiction, and youthful wit offers a vibrant window into the domestic and imaginative lives of turn-of-the-century children.

Harper's Round Table, March 3, 1896, Vol. XVII., No. 853
Various
A collection of high-spirited fiction, instructional guides, historical serials, and whimsical anecdotes captures the kinetic energy and earnest curiosity of turn-of-the-century youth.

Harper's Young People, May 10, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
Echoes of revolutionary gunfire, the frantic panic of a burning city, and the cheerful chatter of children creating homemade canoes fill these pages.

Harper's Young People, November 8, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A vibrant snapshot of late nineteenth-century youth culture, this weekly periodical blends thrilling frontier adventure, hands-on science, fairytale fantasy, and intimate letters from young readers across Gilded Age America.

Heel
Philip José Farmer
A starship hanging hidden inside a storm cloud directs the Trojan War as a high-budget galactic film, using tech-rigged armor, Hypnos-inducing gas, and manufactured divine intervention to manipulate mortal armies into cinematic magic.

If I Were King
Justin H. (Justin Huntly) McCarthy
A condemned vagabond poet is plucked from the gutter by a cynical king and given seven days of absolute power, only to discover that winning a lady’s heart and saving Paris means facing his own gallows.

In colonial days
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A grand Boston mansion becomes a haunted stage where four historical legends unveil the lingering, tragic downfall of British rule in New England.

In the Prison City, Brussels, 1914-1918: A Personal Narrative
J. H. (Julia Helen Watts) Twells
Trapped behind enemy lines, a city endures four years of occupation, fighting back not with weapons, but with quiet defiance and whispered truths.

International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science - Volume 1, No. 6, August 5, 1850
Various
A rich array of nineteenth-century thought unfolds across these pages, where literary criticism, biographical sketches, gothic romance, and reflective poetry converge to capture a world in rapid transition.

Jacques Bonneval
Anne Manning
A young French Protestant faces the violent fallout of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, enduring torture and separation to shepherd his family toward safety.

John Tincroft, bachelor and benedict
George E. (George Eliel) Sargent
An awkward Oxford scholar steps into a small rural drama and spends the rest of his life untangling the quiet consequences of a single well-meaning mistake.

Joy and Power: Three Messages with One Meaning
Henry Van Dyke
Choosing the path of integrity and spiritual purpose over fleeting worldly ambition offers the only true foundation for happiness. These reflections urge a life of active, joyful devotion to the common good.

Knickerbocker's history of New York, vol. 1 (of 2)
Washington Irving
An absurd, sweeping chronicle of cosmic origins and colonial missteps transforms the founding of New Amsterdam into a grand satirical epic of human vanity.

Letters written in France, to a friend in London, between the month of November 1794, and the month of May 1795
Watkin Tench
A captured British officer observes the daily life, political shifts, and naval realities of Revolutionary France from inside a prison ship.

Like Another Helen
George Horton
Driven by high ideals and caught in the fury of the 1866 Cretan insurrection, two foreign adventurers discover that war is far more perilous, chaotic, and unpredictable than their grand romantic notions ever suggested.

Lost in Translation
Laurence M. Janifer
A lonely space agent uses the unyielding logic of a totalitarian alien race to paralyze their imperialist ambitions with a simple political concept.

Main Street: (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Centuries of New England history unspool inside a single room as a determined showman turns the crank of a painted paper panorama.

Marjorie Dean's Romance
Josephine Chase
A generous, spirited young woman finds her college sanctuary transformed by warm friendships, historical discoveries, and the quiet, persistent dawn of adult romantic feelings.

Master of None
Neil Goble
Finding a singular, well-rounded individual in a society defined by extreme specialization proves impossible for the government—until a park-dwelling philosopher accidentally qualifies for a mission to the stars.

Memoirs and resolutions of Adam Graeme of Mossgray, including some chronicles of the borough of Fendie
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
Reflective, quiet, and deeply rooted in its Scottish landscape, this story traces the lifelong path of a gentle laird through grief, quiet devotion, and ultimate peace.

Miss Crespigny
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Spurned in his youth by a proud woman, a man returns years later to play the cynical man of the world, only to discover that the girl who broke his heart has been undone by her own pride.

Motor Matt's Enemies
Stanley R. Matthews
A light-hearted young athlete with a knack for engines dodge ropes, river hazards, and bitter grudges across Wisconsin’s lakes.

My Little Lady
E. Frances (Eleanor Frances) Poynter
A poignant, quiet portrait of a young girl navigating a rootless, precarious upbringing, this narrative explores the resilience required to find one’s own path after a childhood defined by instability, loss, and the weight of adult expectations.

Never: A Hand-Book for the Uninitiated and Inexperienced Aspirants to Refined Society's Giddy Heights and Glittering Attainments
Nathan Dane Urner
An absurd, razor-sharp satire of 1880s etiquette, this satirical handbook uses mock advice to expose the boorishness hiding just beneath gilded-age pretenses.

Nice Girl with 5 Husbands
Fritz Leiber
Strange winds blow through time in a desert valley, carrying a frustrated artist one hundred years into a future where every assumption he holds about love, society, and art is gently upended.

No star's land
Joseph Samachson
A trapped newlyweds' exploration ship becomes an insignificant pawn between two warring, sentient suns.

Notes and Queries, Number 236, May 6, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This mid-Victorian periodical serves as a communal clearinghouse for historical curiosities, literary debates, and the technical fascinations of a rapidly evolving nineteenth-century world.

Ocean Gardens. The History of the Marine Aquarium: and the best methods now adopted for its establishment and preservation
Henry Noel Humphreys
Beneath the surface of the tide pool lies an intricate world waiting to be brought indoors, where translucent sea-weeds and carnivorous flowers thrive together in miniature glass oceans.

Our Den
E. M. Waterworth
Bound to a couch by a childhood spinal injury, delicate twelve-year-old Edric fears his world will be shattered when four boisterous cousins arrive for the summer, but their chaotic warmth slowly pulls him back to life.

Philip Steele of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police
James Oliver Curwood
A lonely mountie patrolling the Canadian wilderness becomes entangled in a high-stakes web of deception, heartbreak, and frontier justice involving a mysterious woman and a tragic train robbery.

Plain Jane
G. M. George
The path to virtue is often paved with self-righteousness, and sometimes, that path leads directly into the hands of traveling showmen. This cautionary tale serves as a stark reminder that judging others carries a heavy, and sometimes permanent, price.

Plays
John Galsworthy
A hypocritical patriarch loses control, a stolen wallet splits high society, and a troubled girl tests a family's morals.

Playwrights on playmaking
Brander Matthews
A play must win over its living audience, or it dies forever.

Poems
Muriel Stuart
A quiet seed in a dusty room holds an entire forest; a woman's captive spirit unclasps its chains to step toward the dawn as man's true equal.

Problem on Balak
Roger D. Aycock
An isolated expedition team faces an agonizing biological puzzle on a world where every creature collaborates, and where distinguishing a human from his identical alien copy is the only ticket home.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 15, 1893
Various
Political posturing, corporate greed, and social hypocrisy collide in a world where public debate is reduced to empty noise and empty promises.

Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, December 10, 1887
Various
A satirical snapshot of late Victorian society, this single issue of the famous British magazine captures a nation cheerfully poking fun at its own political absurdities, theatrical extravagances, and literary squabbles.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 147, August 12, 1914
Various
This collection captures a nation on the brink of profound change, balancing biting wartime satire against the domestic absurdities of early twentieth-century English life.

Rachel and the Seven Wonders
Netta Syrett
A young girl stranded in London discovers that ancient history is no dead collection of relics, but a door into living wonder.

Reminiscences of two years with the colored troops: Personal Narratives of events in the War of the Rebellion, being papers read before the Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society. No. 7, Second Series
Joshua M. (Joshua Melancthon) Addeman
In a war that remade a nation, thousands of newly freed men stepped forward to fight for a Union that had only just recognized their right to bear arms.

Renascence: A Book of Verse
Walter Crane
Seeking a spot of shade beneath the noon to mark life’s fleeting lights, a traveler turns toward the harvest-home, gathering tangled stems of steadfast love, enduring memory, and the vibrant hope of a human spirit reborn.