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47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 961 of 988.

Richard Dare's Venture
Edward Stratemeyer
This is a classic tale of a country youth’s ascent in the bustling, unforgiving landscape of late 19th-century New York. It captures the quintessential American rags-to-riches spirit, balancing the harsh realities of urban poverty against the rewards of hard work, integrity, and timely luck.

The Alternate Plan
Gerry Maddren
This science fiction story follows a man facing a terminal diagnosis who attempts to cheat death by abandoning his physical form, only to discover that the afterlife is not the sanctuary he imagined.

The Amazing Marriage
George Meredith
The aristocrat marries the mountain girl on a whim, only to abandon her on their wedding day. This cold choice binds them in a lifelong struggle of pride, regret, and the slow, painful awakening of a conscience.

The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians
Willard F. Baker
The frontier air hums with the promise of high-stakes pursuit, as a band of courageous young ranchers rides headlong into the rugged desert to rescue two travelers from a perilous kidnapping.

The Burston School Strike
Casey
The Burston school strike is a testament to the power of ordinary people, as parents and children in a small English village defy local authorities to stand by their dismissed teachers against entrenched rural tyranny.

The Cold Snap: 1898
Edward Bellamy
The crushing grip of a sudden, unnatural deep freeze tests the limits of human endurance and the fragility of modern life. A family trapped by an unprecedented arctic event confronts the terrifying indifference of nature.

The cranberry
Bradley Fertilizer Company
This manual offers a practical guide to the systematic cultivation of cranberries, transforming the fruit from a wild, opportunistic harvest into a managed, high-yield commodity. It documents the transition from subsistence foraging to intensive agricultural investment.

The Esperantist, Vol. 2, No. 1
Unknown
This collection of articles and literary sketches captures the early, fervent pulse of a global movement, documenting the practical and artistic aspirations of those who believed a common language could bridge the divides of the twentieth century.

The Fly Leaf, No. 3, Vol. 1, February 1896: A Pamphlet Periodical of the New—the New Man, New Woman, New Ideas, Whimsies and Things
Various
The February 1896 issue of this "pamphlet periodical" serves as a defiant, witty manifesto for the literary avant-garde, urging young American writers to abandon stale traditions in favor of bold, individual expression.

The Giant of Bern and Orm Ungerswayne: A Ballad
George Borrow
A young hero rises from obscurity to defend a kingdom, reclaiming his father's legendary blade to vanquish giants and avenge ancestral blood. This spirited ballad captures the rhythmic intensity of old heroic traditions, telling a tale of courage that refuses to be ignored.

The god on the 36th floor
Herbert D. Kastle
HOOK A corporate office worker discovers that his quiet, unremarkable life is a facade masking a far more terrifying reality. He is the final remnant of a species that has already been replaced.

The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 32, June 17, 1897: A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls
Various
This archival window into 1897 delivers a brisk, global survey of political unrest, industrial innovation, and colonial pageantry. It captures the rapid pulse of a world standing on the threshold of a new century.

The Irish ecclesiastical record. Volume 1, Index
Unknown
The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Volume 1, serves as a comprehensive chronicle of the nineteenth-century Irish Catholic intellectual landscape. It acts as a bridge between Roman authority and local Irish tradition, documenting the rigorous theological and administrative life of the Church.

The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 03, July 18, 1840
Various
This diverse collection of essays, lore, and commentary captures the spirit of early nineteenth-century Ireland, offering a window into the country’s architectural majesty, its rural tragedies, and the keen, often humorous, Irish perspective on foreign observation.

The Law and Lawyers of Pickwick: A Lecture
Lockwood, Frank, Sir
Lawyers are often the villains of fiction, yet they remain essential figures in the world’s most beloved stories. This lecture offers a sharp, witty appraisal of the legal profession as depicted in a classic Victorian masterpiece.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 405, December 19, 1829
Various
This collection offers a nineteenth-century window into a world of diverse curiosities, blending historical scholarship, technical observations, and intimate reflections on the human experience.

The Mudfog papers, etc
Charles Dickens
Through a series of sharp, irreverent sketches, this collection captures the absurdities of nineteenth-century intellectual posturing and the performative nature of public life.

The Practical Joke
Anonymous
The holiday season is a time of warmth, family gathering, and the simple, innocent joys of childhood anticipation. Yet, behind the merriment, this narrative reminds us that even the most spirited fun carries inherent, sobering responsibilities.

The railhead at Kysyl Khoto
Allen Kim Lang
To goad a stagnant nation toward the moon, a brilliant analyst fabricates a Soviet threat, ensnaring a skeptical rocket engineer in a game of professional deception that turns into a desperate personal gamble.

The scientific pioneer
Nelson S. Bond
An unpretentious rural farmer discovers he possesses a preternatural ability to solve the most complex mysteries of the universe using nothing but simple, grounded logic. This talent propels him into the heart of high-society academia, where he must navigate the rigid, ego-driven world of science and the…

The Sentence and Affidavit of John Church, the Obelisk Preacher: For an Attempt to Commit an Unnatural Crime on Adam Foreman, at Vauxhall. Together With Judge Bayley's Impressive Address to the Prisoner, at Full Length. At the Court of King's Bench, Nov. 24, 1817
Joseph Augustus Dowling
This transcript documents the final courtroom reckoning of John Church, a disgraced preacher whose public morality collapsed under the weight of his criminal behavior at Vauxhall.

The soul of Henry Jones
Ray Cummings
This story of a quiet clerk’s midlife awakening explores the thin line between romantic delusion and the rediscovery of a spouse. It captures the sudden, restless stirrings of a man who feels he has outgrown his modest, predictable existence.

The twin seven-shooters
Charles F. (Charles Frederick) Manderson
The twin seven-shooters serve as the silent, steel-bound witnesses to a nation’s fracture and its eventual, uneasy reconciliation. They are not merely weapons, but talismans of a soldier’s memory, tracing a path through the bloody fields of the Civil War.

The World English Bible (WEB): Hosea
Anonymous
This ancient prophetic work explores the fracture between a divine parent and a wayward nation, using the turbulent marriage of a prophet to illustrate the pain of betrayal and the enduring possibility of reconciliation.

Through green glasses
Edmund Downey
The world is viewed through the eyes of a singular, illiterate storyteller whose wild imagination transforms cold historical facts into vibrant, intensely local yarns. These tales reframe the grandeur of kings and the weight of history within the familiar, conversational landscape of an Irish town.

Was the Beginning Day of the Maya Month Numbered Zero (or Twenty) or One?
Charles P. (Charles Pickering) Bowditch
In the intricate puzzle of the ancient Maya calendar, the way one counts days determines the alignment of history itself. This investigation reconstructs the logic behind the Maya month to settle a fundamental dispute over zero and twenty.

Where the young child was
Marie Conway Oemler
A collection of holiday tales, these stories explore the redemptive power of children and the necessity of human connection during the season of peace. They bridge the divides of war, grief, and social isolation.

A Charming Fellow, Volume III
Frances Eleanor Trollope
A man of irresistible charm masks a hollow interior, weaving a web of deceit that leads to tragedy in a small, provincial town. He navigates life by vanity and convenience, leaving destruction in his wake.

A Complete Edition of the Works of Nancy Luce
Nancy Luce
The bond between a suffering woman and her poultry defines this singular testament, a blend of theological fervor, intense personal grief, and surprisingly practical veterinary advice for the nineteenth-century farmyard.

A Lover's Diary, Volume 1
Gilbert Parker
A young poet escapes the stifling confines of dogma and convention through a transformative, unrequited love, finding his authentic voice in the sacred, quiet intimacy of a chosen soul.

A New Pocket Gopher (Genus Thomomys), from Eastern Colorado
E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond) Hall
This brief, precise monograph formalizes the classification of a specific population of pocket gophers in Colorado. It serves as a definitive record for mammalogists reconciling historical taxonomic gaps in the American West.

A plan for improving female education
Emma Willard
This landmark address argues that women’s education is a matter of national importance, proposing that state legislatures must move beyond private boarding schools to establish permanent, publicly endowed seminaries for women.

A trip to California
Thomas Sewell Inborden
A dedicated educator traverses the American West and the rural South, documenting his observations on industry, agriculture, and the essential role of community progress in the lives of African American farmers.

Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg: a ballad
George Borrow
Caught in the cruel machinery of religious law and royal ambition, two star-crossed lovers find their childhood vow severed by the state, leading them toward a tragic end on the battlefield.

Beauchamp's Career
George Meredith
A young idealist struggles to reconcile his radical political convictions with the rigid, aristocratic expectations of his family and the woman he loves. This deeply observed study of character explores the collision between individual passion and the relentless gravity of social duty.

Beyond The Thunder
H. B. Hickey
A man of action finds his honeymoon interrupted by a cosmic threat that dissolves cities into rubble, forcing him to track an invisible enemy through a tear in the fabric of space.

Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 155, vol. III, December 18, 1886
Various
This nineteenth-century miscellany captures the Victorian spirit through a blend of natural history, serialized fiction, and technical curiosity, offering a vivid window into the anxieties and aspirations of the late 1880s.

Conformity to the World
Edward Hoare
Living a faithful spiritual life requires navigating the delicate tension between active social participation and the preservation of one’s own deeply held convictions. This text serves as a guide for those seeking to balance their place in the world with their commitment to their faith.

Congregationalism in the Court Suburb
John Stoughton
This account charts the growth of a Nonconformist chapel from its quiet origins in an 18th-century village to its place as a cornerstone of Victorian religious life. It serves as both a local chronicle and a meditation on the enduring nature of faith in a changing suburb.

Conspecificity of two pocket mice, Perognathus goldmani and P. artus
E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond) Hall
Two distinct populations of pocket mice are revealed to be a single species through a close study of their physical traits and geographic overlap. This scientific account offers a precise look at how biologists refine their understanding of the natural world.

Deadwood Dick Jr. Branded
Edward L. (Edward Lytton) Wheeler
HOOK A relentless detective and a ruthless outlaw engage in a high-stakes duel of wits and violence, turning the lawless frontier into a personal arena for vengeance and retribution.

Enemies
Marian Isabel Hurrell
But I say unto you, Love your enemies . . . that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.

Falkland, Book 4
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A man haunted by the shadows of his past seeks a final, forbidden love, only to find that the weight of his previous transgressions and the fragility of his own soul make peace impossible.

Four New Pocket Gophers of the Genus Cratogeomys from Jalisco, Mexico
Robert J. Russell
This specialized study documents the discovery and classification of four new subspecies of pocket gophers found in central Jalisco, Mexico. It serves as a focused, technical examination of mammalian biodiversity within isolated geological pockets.

Gen. Cowdin and the First Massachusetts Regiment of Volunteers
Robert Cowdin
A veteran commander recounts his systematic exclusion from military advancement, exposing the bitter friction between battlefield service and the political machinery of the Massachusetts state government during the American Civil War.

Harper's Young People, December 9, 1879: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This collection represents a window into the late Victorian era, blending moral instruction, imaginative fiction, and factual curiosities designed to cultivate a well-rounded and virtuous young reader. It captures the pedagogical spirit of a time when entertainment was inseparable from character development.

He's Coming To-Morrow
Harriet Beecher Stowe
When news spreads that Christ will return tomorrow, a bustling, modern city is forced to confront what its inhabitants truly love and value.

"Hear Ye the Rod, and Who Hath Appointed It": A Sermon for the Fast Day, October 7, 1857
James Galloway Cowan
When the world seems to teem with chaos and violence, how are we to interpret the suffering of nations? This mid-nineteenth-century sermon explores the unsettling idea that major historical catastrophes are not merely accidents, but divinely ordained instruments of correction.