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47,330 public-domain books, summarised. Page 793 of 987.

Pierre and Luce
Romain Rolland
In the shadow of the Great War, two young Parisians discover a private sanctuary of love, holding tight to one another as the world around them descends into systematic destruction.

Probation
Jessie Fothergill
Amid the deafening roar of Lancashire looms, a young man faces a test of character that transcends social divides. This is a story of personal transformation set against the backdrop of the devastating cotton famine.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 1, 1916
Various
A sharp, defiant crack of laughter rises from the damp trenches of Flanders and the stuffy committee rooms of wartime London. This collection captures a society keeping its chin up through pure, unadulterated satire.

Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 05, April 30, 1870
Various
A satirical snapshot of post-Civil War American life, this weekly periodical uses wit and parody to dissect the political, social, and cultural obsessions of 1870.

Rada: A Belgian Christmas Eve
Alfred Noyes
A mother’s desperate choice during a brutal military occupation forces the realization that war’s true cost is the destruction of innocence.

Raiders of the Second Moon
Basil Wells
A man with a forgotten past hunts a war criminal across the stars, only to find himself stranded on a hidden, jungle-covered moon. Strife between golden-skinned city dwellers and hairy beast-men sets the stage for a primitive struggle where the only "magic" is a stolen cloak of invisibility.

Robert Tournay: A Romance of the French Revolution
William Sage
A peasant youth rises through the revolutionary army to protect the noblewoman he loves while navigating the bloodshed of the French Revolution.

Rudimental Divine Science
Mary Baker Eddy
Spiritual freedom requires discarding the illusion that matter rules existence, grounding all reality and healing in a single, infinite divine Mind.

Security
Ernest M. Kenyon
A brilliant scientist trapped in a high-security facility discovers that the only way to survive the crushing weight of state censorship is to encode his life’s work into the language of an unrelated field.

Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici': An Appreciation
Alexander Whyte
The seventeenth-century physician Sir Thomas Browne invites readers into a quiet, profound dialogue with his own soul. This exploration serves as a timeless meditation on the harmony between scientific curiosity and Christian faith.

Sketchbook of the Philadelphia & Boston Face Brick Co
Philadelphia & Boston Face Brick Co.
The hearth serves as the heart of the home, and this collection provides the architectural blueprints to elevate that domestic centerpiece through the artistry of ornamental face brick.

Sketches by Seymour
Robert Seymour
A series of cautionary, observational, and often darkly comedic vignettes captures the absurdities and perils of early nineteenth-century English life.

Stairway to the Stars
Larry T. Shaw
HOOK A mild-mannered editor and a self-proclaimed genius find their mundane lives upended when an encounter at sea reveals a hidden gateway to the galaxy.

Stories of Many Lands
Grace Greenwood
The world is a tapestry of common childhood experiences, where children in distant lands and different circumstances share the same capacity for joy, mischief, and deep feeling. This collection bridges the gap between disparate lives through the universal language of human nature.

Suggestions for Fairs and Bazaars
American Thread Company
This collection of designs serves as a practical manual for the mid-century crafter, transforming balls of crochet cotton into functional household finery. It offers a bridge between simple textile supplies and the elaborate, decorative projects that once defined the aesthetic of the domestic interior.

The Aldine speller, part two
Catherine T. (Catherine Turner) Bryce
This collection of lessons and word lists serves as a structured, intentional guide for teaching children how to master the spelling of the English language. It treats correct spelling not as an exercise in rote memorization, but as a path to clear communication and long-term literacy.

The American Missionary
Various
This collection of reports and correspondence offers a direct, unvarnished window into the organizational life of a mid-19th-century religious society committed to education and mission work in the American South, the West, and beyond.

The Bad Family & Other Stories
E. (Eliza) Fenwick
These cautionary tales warn that every small indulgence or act of dishonesty ripples outward, eventually shaping a child’s entire character for better or worse.

The Beast of Space
F. E. Hardart
Nat Starrett, a solitary wanderer of the deep reaches, finds his cynical, reclusive life interrupted by a distress signal that leads him to a predatory entity masquerading as a celestial body. He must navigate the treacherous, cavernous interior of Asteroid Moira, outsmart its hypnotic defenses, and rescue a…

The Boy Grew Older
Heywood Broun
A sportswriter faces the sudden, solitary challenge of raising his infant son after his wife leaves, navigating the evolving demands of fatherhood and the boy’s emerging, artistic identity.

The Boy Traders
Harry Castlemon
A small band of travelers encounters treacherous seas, mutinous sailors, and the perils of the African veldt in this high-stakes adventure of the nineteenth-century frontier.

The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, vol. 06, No. 08, August 1900: The Guild Halls of London
Various
The guild halls of London serve as quiet, enduring anchors of civic history, preserving centuries of tradition behind the unassuming doors of a modern metropolis. These architectural sites remain living vessels for the ancient, powerful associations that once shaped the city's commerce and continue to define its…

The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, June, 1880
Various
A vigorous nineteenth-century journal confronts the rising tides of secularism and dogmatic tradition, calling readers back to reason, evidence, and historical Christian faith.

The Come Back
Carolyn Wells
A man presumed dead in the Labrador wilderness returns home, only to discover his mourning family has built their lives around a fraudulent medium and a comforting, occult delusion. He must now navigate a murder mystery and his own identity crisis to save his father’s reputation.

The coming of peace (A family catastrophe)
Gerhart Hauptmann
The long-lost father returns home to a household defined by resentment and fragile nerves, turning a holiday gathering into a crucible for a family haunted by their own history.

The Copper-Clad World
Harl Vincent
Drifting off course near the asteroid belt, a cargo ship carrying a fortune in rare metal is hijacked and driven deep into the Jovian system, where its crew discovers a hidden civilization plotting to rip its own moon from orbit to invade Earth.

The curse of the Reckaviles
Walter S. (Walter Sidney) Masterman
A series of mysterious deaths and a generations-old family curse haunt a desolate coastal village, drawing an ambitious detective and a man with a dangerous secret into a web of murder and hidden identity.

The girl in the crowd
Albert Payson Terhune
A young telephone operator finds her monotonous life transformed by a secret, romantic obsession with the voices of two apartment tenants, only to learn that reality is far less glamorous than the stories she imagines.

The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 355, October 16, 1886
Various
An October afternoon in Victorian Britain unfolds across a countryside brook, where hidden life thrives beneath the water while human drama plays out quietly along its shores.

The Great Conspiracy, Volume 4
John Alexander Logan
This volume examines the political and constitutional maneuvers surrounding the American Civil War, charting how the conflict over the Union inexorably forced the federal government to confront the institution of slavery.

The Importance of the Proof-reader: A Paper read before the Club of Odd Volumes, in Boston, by John Wilson
John Wilson
A practical printer makes the case that behind every great work of literature stands a vigilant reader correcting bad handwriting, untangling faulty grammar, and preserving the author's true meaning from ruin.

The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 34, February 20, 1841
Various
This nineteenth-century periodical serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic record of Irish life, blending practical instruction with curious antiquarian lore and philosophical reflection. Its pages offer a window into a culture caught between ancient tradition and the rapid, industrializing pace of the modern world.

The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 48, May 29, 1841
Various
This collection preserves a snapshot of Irish life and lore in 1841, blending architectural history, folklore, and humorous social commentary. It offers a rare, intimate view of a society balancing tradition against rapid transition.

The King Nobody Wanted
Norman F. Langford
The story of a man whose life defied all expectations, reframing the definition of power and kingship for a world that desperately misunderstood him.

The Lady and Sada San: A Sequel to the Lady of the Decoration
Frances Little
The unexpected journey of a Kentucky woman to the Orient leads her into a dramatic web of cross-cultural romance and high-stakes family duty.

The Lady Paramount
Henry Harland
A game of masks and inheritance unfolds between two brilliant, headstrong aristocrats. Through a tangle of deception and wit, they must decide if their connection is a matter of convenient strategy or a genuine, irrevocable destiny.

The Lawhorn Site
John Moselage
This archaeological report chronicles the patient, methodical excavation of a Mississippian-era site in northeast Arkansas, revealing the daily life and cultural remnants of a vanished community. It serves as a rigorous testament to the value of amateur fieldwork conducted with professional standards.

The Man Who Played to Lose
Laurence M. Janifer
The job is to dismantle a rebellion not by crushing it, but by giving the rebels exactly what they ask for until they destroy themselves. This is a story about the lethal irony of getting one’s own way.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 346, December 13, 1828
Various
A curated mosaic of Regency-era thought, this collection captures the intellectual pulse of 1828 through historical anecdotes, natural philosophy, and lighthearted satire. It remains a fascinating relic of the period’s insatiable curiosity.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 385, August 15, 1829
Various
This collection of articles and anecdotes captures the wide-ranging curiosity of an early nineteenth-century audience, offering a curated snapshot of history, geography, and cultural trivia. It serves as a fascinating lens into the intellectual preoccupations of 1829.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 547, May 19, 1832
Various
A single misstep over a hot kitchen pot plunges a parish minister into absurd peril, setting the tone for a lively collection of nineteenth-century miscellanea.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 567, September 22, 1832
Various
This expansive compendium captures the restless intellectual spirit of the early nineteenth century, blending architectural marvels, historical lore, and scientific inquiry into a singular portrait of a rapidly changing world.

The natural and artificial disintegration of the elements: An address by Professor Sir Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford
This address serves as a foundational inquiry into the architecture of the atom, documenting the transition from observing natural radioactivity to the experimental, artificial manipulation of atomic nuclei. It remains a landmark text for its clarity in bridging the gap between early quantum speculation and the…

The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
George Meredith
A young man is raised under a rigid, experimental "System" designed by his father to shield him from the world's corruption, only to find that love and human nature cannot be contained by philosophy.

The Outcasts of Solar III
Robert Emmett McDowell
A gifted scientist discovers that his entire life—and the fate of the human race—is a grand, cold-blooded experiment orchestrated by mysterious observers from the stars. He must reconcile his hidden origins with his love for a human spy to save humanity from its own destructive nature.

The Princess Idleways: A Fairy Story
Helen Ashe Hays
A little princess finds that wealth cannot cure boredom, but a season of real work and forest magic can turn a spoiled heart entirely inside out.

The ragged edge: A tale of ward life & politics
John T. (John Thomas) McIntyre
The rough-and-tumble world of ward politics reveals that power is a currency as volatile and corrupting as the cheap whiskey consumed in its back-alley saloons.

The Rapids
Alan Sullivan
A dynamic promoter descends on a sleepy Canadian border town, intent on bending its wild river and vast forests to his industrial will, only to find that building an empire demands more than sheer force of belief.