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44,127 public-domain books, summarised. Page 887 of 920.

Diary of Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
A private record of a public life, this journal offers an unrivaled window into the mundane and momentous details of 17th-century London. It remains a masterpiece because it captures the human experience with such startling, unvarnished honesty.

Diary of Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
A man’s most intimate, unfiltered record of seventeenth-century London, documenting the mundane and the momentous with equal intensity. It captures the rise of a public servant through the corridors of power and the shadows of a personal life.

Down the River to the Sea
Agnes Maule Machar
Clear water, noble views, and quiet company form the background for a summer trip down Canada's great waterway, where history and gentle romance meet under open skies.

Eugene Aram
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A brilliant, reclusive scholar finds his quiet life in a country village shattered when his dark, hidden past—a crime of violence—emerges to confront him.

Example
Tom Pace
A commander faces a terrible moral calculation: whether to sacrifice a single ship of innocents to provoke a galactic government into stopping a genocidal regime. The decision hinges on the cold weight of duty over human life.

Four Little Blossoms on Apple Tree Island
Mabel C. Hawley
A family’s summer escape to a quiet island turns into an accidental mystery when four siblings discover lost letters that could reunite a broken family.

Frank Hardy's choice, and what came of it
Charlotte Grace O'Brien
Choosing between the quiet path of self-improvement and the loud allure of bad company, two young apprentices in a seaside village find that their decisions shape not just their evenings, but their entire destinies.

From Sea to Sea
W. Bert (Walter Bertram) Foster
The sea is a vast, unforgiving stage where characters are tested, rivalries are forged, and the true measure of a person emerges through the salt spray and the storm.

Geographic Distribution of the Pocket Mouse, Perognathus fasciatus
J. Knox Jones
The small, elusive pocket mouse reveals the intricacies of its range through the quiet, meticulous labor of taxonomic classification. By examining subtle physical markers, this study maps the identity of a species across the American Great Plains.

George Sand
Justin McCarthy
This portrait of a legendary French novelist explores how a singular, defiant life shaped a body of work that challenged the world’s most rigid social conventions. It offers a balanced look at an icon who dared to live and write on her own terms.

Harper's Round Table, July 23, 1895
Various
This midsummer edition of a classic American weekly offers a vibrant, multifaceted snapshot of nineteenth-century life, blending earnest moral instruction with the spirited, restless curiosity of the Victorian youth.

Harper's Round Table, June 4, 1895
Various
This compendium of turn-of-the-century journalism captures the intellectual and adventurous spirit of a bygone era, blending historical gravity with the earnest, inquisitive energy of youth. It offers a unique window into the values and pastimes that shaped a generation of readers.

Harper's Young People, May 31, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A curated window into the nineteenth-century American imagination, this illustrated weekly blend of moral tales, nautical adventures, and community puzzles captures the spirit of a bygone childhood.

Harper's Young People, November 7, 1882: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This weekly periodical offers a vivid glimpse into the Victorian imagination, blending adventurous tales of survival and morality with charming domestic sketches and educational curiosities for the young reader.

Harper's Young People, September 14, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A late-nineteenth-century weekly magazine offers a captivating snapshot of American childhood, balancing serialized fiction with nature studies, historical adventures, and energetic reader exchanges.

It Happened in Japan
Anethan, Albert d', Baroness
A woman’s quest for personal integrity amidst the rigid social expectations of expatriate life in early twentieth-century Japan leads to profound emotional upheaval and a tragic, lingering legacy.

Little Tales of The Desert
Ethel Twycross Foster
A six-year-old girl discovers the wonders and perils of the Arizona desert, learning that nature is a resilient, interconnected classroom.

Lost in the Forest: Wandering Will's Adventures in South America
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A voyage of leisure turns into a desperate struggle for survival when a mutinous crew abandons a small party in the unforgiving wilderness of South America.

Love's Usuries
Louis Creswicke
These stories explore the quiet tragedies of the human heart, where love is often a debt impossible to repay and passion leaves behind only the wreckage of broken illusions.

Making a Lawn
Luke Joseph Doogue
Growing a lush lawn is not a matter of wishing, but of disciplined, season-long labor. This guide provides the practical, no-nonsense expertise required to turn a patch of neglected earth into a enduring carpet of green.

Marley's Chain
Alan Edward Nourse
HOOK A desperate man returns to a society that has branded him an outcast, only to find that his former friend has accepted the very cruelty they once fought together.

Meta toluene sulphonic acid and related compounds
C. F. H. (Charles Francis Hitchcock) Allen
The pursuit of a elusive chemical isomer drives this rigorous laboratory investigation into the synthesis and stabilization of meta toluene sulphonic acid.

Mr. Belloc objects to "The outline of history"
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
This spirited defense of historical and scientific inquiry dismantles a sustained polemical attack, offering a sharp, intelligent look at the clash between modern secular thought and traditional religious dogma in the early twentieth century.

Mrs. Arthur
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
An ill-matched marriage between a refined young man and a spirited, unpolished woman leads to a painful collision between social worlds. Can two people who lack a common language of taste or upbringing ever truly reach one another?

No Abolition of Slavery: Or the Universal Empire of Love, A poem
James Boswell
HOOK This polemic verse presents a staunch, contrarian defense of the slave trade, framing the institution as an essential component of social order and the "Universal Empire of Love.

Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary forum gathers the period's sharpest antiquarian minds to untangle obscure historical references, linguistic oddities, and disputed folklore.

One Way
Miriam Allen De Ford
In a future where youth are drafted into an irreversible, mysterious space program, one family defies the cold logic of the state to preserve a piece of their son’s humanity.

Oxford
F. D. (Frederick Douglas) How
A place of ancient stone and summer haze reveals its secrets to those who approach slowly and learn to love it over time.

Paul Clifford
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
This is a story of a young man caught between the allure of a criminal life and the pull of a refined world he was never meant to occupy. It explores the blurred lines between legality and morality, suggesting that the difference between a gentleman and a brigand is often nothing more than opportunity and social…

Pelham
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A dandy’s wit serves as his sharpest weapon in a world of high-stakes gambling, social artifice, and dangerous secrets. This novel defines the "silver-fork" tradition with elegance and a cynical eye.

Photography at home : A handbook to the use of the camera in the home for pleasure and profit
John A. Tennant
Photography is often mistaken for a fair-weather pastime, but this practical manual reveals how the camera can transform the quiet, intimate spaces of a home into a realm of creative discovery. It offers a blueprint for mastering indoor lighting, portraiture, and specialized crafts like enlarging and…

Piracy off the Florida Coast and Elsewhere
Samuel A. (Samuel Abbott) Green
The shadow of the pirate long loomed over the merchant marine, a persistent threat to those crossing the high seas. This historical account preserves the harrowing reality of encounters with marauders and the enduring anxiety they instilled in travelers.

Pomona
Basil De Selincourt
The future of language is inseparable from the people who speak it, evolving not through mechanical precision or expert decree, but through the unpredictable, organic growth of human experience.

Pretty Quadroon
Charles L. Fontenay
The fate of a nation rests on the forbidden love between a Confederate general and a woman of mixed race, pulling the threads of time itself to rewrite a bloody history.

Proud Lady
Neith Boyce
A young woman’s pride and emotional reserve collide with the turbulent, demanding nature of her husband as they attempt to build a life in a provincial Midwestern town.

Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 9, 1914
Various
This collection of weekly satire captures the precise atmosphere of a nation caught in the opening, uncertain months of the First World War. It is a portrait of a society attempting to maintain its composure and wit while the world shifts beneath its feet.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, 1920-11-03
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of British life in 1920, blending political bite, surreal household mishaps, and the wry absurdity of post-war recovery into a single, enduring voice of wit.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 105, July 15th 1893
Various
A sweltering London summer yields to a sparkling parade of satire, where high-society gossip, parliamentary bickering, and absurd parodies rub shoulders in a single week's print.

Ralph Osborn, Midshipman at Annapolis: A Story of Life at the U.S. Naval Academy
Edward L. (Edward Latimer) Beach
This is a rigorous, earnest depiction of the demanding life at the U.S. Naval Academy, where honor and discipline are the only currencies that matter. It captures the transition from raw youth to disciplined officer through the eyes of a resilient student.

Religious Poems, Part 2.: Part 6 From Volume II of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
In these reflective verses, the search for spiritual meaning moves beyond rigid dogma, finding a quiet, enduring grace in the simple conduct of a life lived for others.

Rhythm rides the rocket
Bob Olsen
When a transport ship carrying a female band to a remote colony is captured by hostile extraterrestrials, the crew must rely on musical performance and experimental sound technology to survive a lethal alien trap.

Rome, Turkey and Jerusalem
Edward Hoare
Tracing biblical prophecy through the shifting politics of nineteenth-century Europe, this short volume argues that contemporary decays in Rome and the Ottoman Empire herald the imminent return of Christ and the liberation of Jerusalem.

Rubáiyát of Doc Sifers
James Whitcomb Riley
A humble country physician of the American frontier finds a quiet, profound greatness through his simple devotion to his neighbors, his patients, and the natural world.

Sales Talk
H. F. Cente
A fed-up salesman quits his job to escape a dying world, only to find himself the target of a high-stakes pitch from an ancient, fading entity at the edge of time.

Sixty years with Plymouth Church
Stephen Morrell Griswold
A eyewitness account of a famous Brooklyn congregation captures six decades of American spiritual life, political upheaval, and pulpit eloquence.

"Stella Australis": Poems, verses and prose fragments
E. (Emily) Coungeau
The vast, sun-drenched horizons of a young nation meet the weight of ancient history in these lyrical meditations on beauty, loss, and the promise of the Southern Cross.

The American Missionary
Various
A monthly record of Victorian-era religious outreach, this publication offers a granular look at the ambitions and daily operations of missionaries working among the marginalized in the American South, the West, and Africa.

The Amethyst Box
Anna Katharine Green
She knew the small vial contained a single drop of deadly poison, yet as she held it above her aunt’s bedside, a sudden cry shattered the midnight silence.