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44,127 public-domain books, summarised. Page 786 of 920.

Down the Slope
James Otis
The dark, dangerous life of the coal breaker boy serves as a crucible for friendship and justice in this gripping tale of subterranean struggle.

East of the Shadows
Barclay, Hubert, Mrs.
The promise of a new morning often hides behind the veil of past grief. Peace arrives not through the erasing of history, but through the courage to finally accept it.

Far Above Rubies
George MacDonald
A young couple navigates the quiet, harrowing struggle of artistic integrity and domestic poverty, finding that true wealth lies in their devotion to one another and their faith.

"Farewell"
William Henry Stacpoole
An ordinary shopman is plucked from obscurity by a mysterious, veiled woman, setting in motion a bizarre, long-term contract that will redefine his entire existence. This is a tale of obsession, patience, and the strange intersection of law, money, and love.

Fifteen Years with the Outcast
Fflorens Roberts
Faith and tenacity drive a woman to confront the shadows of early twentieth-century California, seeking out society’s castaways in the brutal corners of the Barbary Coast. These accounts detail the difficult, often heartbreaking work of rescue mission life.

Fighting the Whales
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A young sailor ventures into the perilous waters of the South Seas to support his widowed mother, discovering that the true challenge is not just the sea, but the titanic struggle against the sperm whale.

Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society
Unknown
A harvest of faith is planted across the globe, as early struggles in uncharted lands transform into a sprawling, organized network of missions and native churches.

Georgie's Present, or, Tales of Newfoundland
C. L. (Cecilia Lucy) Brightwell
A ten-year-old boy spends his birthday listening to his grandmother tell true tales of the rugged, frostbitten, and brave lives led by missionaries and rescue dogs in nineteenth-century Newfoundland.

Goma's Follicles
John De Courcy
Getting a haircut is usually a routine chore, but on the mining colony of Procyon IV, it becomes a dangerous political maneuver that decides the fate of a fortune in iridium.

Good Intentions: Ship's Company, Part 3
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A night-watchman’s scheme to save a slippery sea captain from two simultaneous courtships collapses into a tangle of absurd misunderstandings, locked doors, and an extraordinarily furious wife.

Goose Creek Folks: A Story of the Kentucky Mountains
Isabel Graham Bush
A determined group of Kentucky mountain youth strive for an education, finding that the true challenge of progress is not just acquiring knowledge, but carrying it back to the home they love.

Government Documents in Small Libraries: Reprinted from Report of Board of Library Commissioners of Ohio for the Year ending November 15, 1909
Charles Wells Reeder
Effective management of government publications transforms a collection into an essential community resource. By selecting materials that align with local needs, librarians can turn dry federal records into a responsive, living reference service.

Great Britain's Sea Policy: A Reply to an American Critic, reprinted from 'The Atlantic Monthly'
Gilbert Murray
When wartime blockades spark fierce international debate, legal theory collides directly with existential military survival. This detailed polemic systematically dismantles an American critic's accusations, defending Great Britain’s naval measures during World War I through the lens of international law and…

Harper's Young People, March 16, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This issue of a Victorian-era weekly periodical serves as a vibrant time capsule, blending moral instruction, natural history, and serialized storytelling into a single, accessible package for young readers of the late nineteenth century.

Harper's Young People, November 15, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This collection of Victorian-era periodical writing captures a vanished world through earnest stories, practical advice, and the intimate, handwritten voices of children from across the American landscape.

Historic Papers on the Causes of the Civil War
Eugenia Dunlap Potts
The American South was once a self-contained, aristocratic civilization, defined by its plantation life and its interpretation of constitutional rights, until a collision of political ideologies and historical inevitability led to the total collapse of its social order.

Jamieson
William R. Doede
This story explores the heavy toll of inherited trauma, examining how a mother’s corrosive quest for vengeance ultimately alienates the son she intends to protect. It is a quiet, somber meditation on the burden of hidden powers.

Lancashire Songs
Edwin Waugh
These verses capture the honest, rhythmic heartbeat of 19th-century working life, where joy and hardship are shared over a pint or a hearth.

Law Rustlers
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
Two roguish cowpunchers return to a lawless community to protect a child and dismantle a cruel local regime. It is a gritty, fast-paced tale of frontier justice and unlikely redemption.

Loveliness: A Story
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
A silver-haired terrier and a frail, beloved child are bound by an unbreakable devotion, until a dark, hidden threat from the world of science tears them apart. This poignant story explores the profound, unspoken language of love between a small girl and her devoted protector.

Lummox
Fannie Hurst
A giant of a woman moves through a world that refuses to see her, carrying the secrets of her own spirit in a life defined by the labor of others.

Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency
Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de
A sharp-eyed witness chronicles the golden cage of Versailles, exposing the petty rivalries, fragile hierarchies, and hidden scandals that defined a monarch’s absolute rule.

Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI
Mme. Du Hausset
Through the intimate, watchful eyes of those closest to the throne, witness the fragile grace and mounting tragedy of a monarchy on the precipice of revolution.

Morals in Trade and Commerce
Frank B. Anderson
Youth must guard its ideals while navigating commercial life, avoiding the cynical distortions of popular media to build lasting reforms on facts and fair dealing.

Mr. Jervis, Vol. 3 (of 3)
B. M. (Bithia Mary) Croker
A young man’s devotion to his reclusive father in the Indian hills forces a painful choice between his inheritance and the woman he loves. This narrative of duty, sacrifice, and colonial society follows Mark Jervis as he navigates the complex social and moral landscapes of late nineteenth-century India.

My Sword's My Fortune: A Story of Old France
Herbert Hayens
A young man is thrust into the volatile heart of 17th-century Paris, where shifting political allegiances turn every street corner into a battlefield.

Nine O'Clock Talks
Frederic B. Kellogg
These reflections bridge the gap between ancient theological principles and the urgent, practical anxieties of a world emerging from global conflict. They serve as a guide for finding purpose amidst the disorientation of modern life.

No Moss
Harry Castlemon
A spoiled youth joins a band of runaways, attempting to play pirate on the Rhode Island waters while fleeing school, authority, and common sense.

Notes and Queries, Number 184, May 7, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This Victorian periodical serves as a communal clearinghouse for historical, linguistic, and scientific curiosities, functioning as a sprawling, crowdsourced archive for the inquisitive mind. It invites readers to contribute small findings and seek answers to obscure questions, preserving the ephemeral knowledge of…

Notes and Queries, Number 217, December 24, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century periodical serves as a vibrant, communal archive of Victorian intellectual life, where curiosity meets the collective memory of a nation. It captures a moment when the pursuit of knowledge was a shared, grassroots endeavor.

Notes and Queries, Number 77, April 19, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A lively Victorian forum unfolds through brief dispatches, preserving a rich tapestry of literary debate, historical investigation, and regional folklore.

Novelties & Things: Made with Aunt Lydia's Heavy Rug Yarn
American Thread Company
A practical compendium of patterns for the home and wardrobe, this guide serves as a foundational manual for creating durable, textured accessories and garments using heavy rug yarn.

Novice
James H. Schmitz
A fifteen-year-old law student uncovers her latent telepathic talents when her pet cat turns out to be an apex predator on an alien world.

Oklahoma Sunshine
Freeman Edwin Miller
A warm, frontier-town optimism radiates through every entry of a regional columnist’s daily dispatch from the newly settled American West, where neighborly grit and unfailing good cheer turn dusty plains into a home.

On the Existence of Active Oxygen: Thesis Presented for the Attainment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University
Edward Harrison Keiser
Active oxygen, or the "nascent" state, was one of the most contentious topics in late nineteenth-century chemistry. This doctoral thesis meticulously dismantles the prevailing hypotheses of the era to argue that such a state is likely a scientific phantom.

One way out
Frederick Orin Bartlett
When a quiet middle-class clerk gets fired, he avoids financial ruin by packing his bags and emigrating to the city's immigrant slums to start over as a common ditch-digger.

Outlaw Jack
Jos. E. (Joseph Edward) Badger
HOOK A fever for gold drives pioneers into a mountain wilderness where they find not just fortune, but a lethal web of outlaws, madness, and obsession.

Pan-Germany
André Chéradame
The survival of global democracy depends on recognizing that a single, calculated German plan for domination—not merely the war itself—must be dismantled to ensure future peace.

Patty Fairfield
Carolyn Wells
A fourteen-year-old girl journeys across the North, visiting various households to learn the ways of the world before she and her father reunite to build a permanent home.

Pictures in Colour of the Isle of Wight
Unknown
This collection serves as a serene, visual-focused guide to the Isle of Wight, capturing the landscape and local landmarks of a bygone era with appreciative, observant detail. It acts as an invitation to travel, pairing descriptive prose with the promise of natural and historical wonders.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, March 18, 1914
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical spirit of British life on the eve of the Great War, offering a witty lens into the political anxieties, social fashions, and daily absurdities of 1914.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, April 25, 1891
Various
This collection offers a curated glimpse into the Victorian mind, blending biting political satire, dramatic parody, and the anxieties of an empire navigating the rapid cultural shifts of the late nineteenth century.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, April 18, 1917
Various
This collection captures the sharp-witted resilience of a nation mid-conflict, blending biting political satire with the absurdities of daily existence during the Great War.

Queenie's whim, Volume 1 (of 3)
Rosa Nouchette Carey
The lives of two orphaned sisters are redefined by the discovery of an estranged, wealthy uncle, a secret promise of support, and the eventual found family they cultivate in a quiet English village.

Saunders' Books on Pathology, Physiology Histology, Embryology and Bacteriology
W.B. Saunders Company
This volume serves as a comprehensive bibliographic window into the early twentieth-century medical landscape, capturing the definitive textbooks and reference works that shaped the education of a generation of physicians. It is a preserved archive of professional standards and pedagogical tools from a pivotal era…

Service with a Smile
Charles L. Fontenay
A crash-landed crew of four women finds their survival on a desolate planet made perfect by a tireless robot, until the arrival of a single man forces them to confront their own latent desperation and greed.

Sketches New and Old, Part 5
Mark Twain
Beneath the veneer of a humorist’s sketches lies a sharp, restless mind observing the absurdities of human belief and the strange, stubborn persistence of fraud.

Southern Derringers of the Mississippi Valley
Turner Kirkland
A dedicated collector preserves the fading history of the Mississippi Valley’s nineteenth-century gunsmiths, documenting the distinctive, small-bore pistols that once defined personal defense in the American South.