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British Literature — page 104
5,719 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 104 of 120.
A Girl in Ten Thousand
L. T. Meade
A young woman struggles to balance her own yearning for independence with the overwhelming, often stifling, needs of her fragile family. This is a story of duty, sacrifice, and the quiet heroism of finding one’s way.
An Essay on Satire, Particularly on the Dunciad
Walter Harte
This defense of verse satire argues that the genre is a sophisticated form of moral philosophy, essential for correcting the vices of the age and upholding the dignity of literature.
Cocke Lorelles Bote
Anonymous
A lawless tinker summons a rogue’s gallery of knaves to board a vessel, sailing across England to celebrate the vices of the common man in a cacophony of riotous, unrepentant revelry.
Helbeck of Bannisdale
Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
A young woman's fierce independence collides with an unyielding Catholic faith in a tragic conflict of love, conscience, and stubborn devotion.
Her own way
Eglanton Thorne
The story of a young woman’s headstrong pursuit of independence, this narrative explores the painful consequences of prioritizing vanity and self-will over family, duty, and spiritual integrity.
Limitations: A Novel
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
HOOK A portrait of a young man’s collision with the boundaries of his own ambition, where the vibrant promise of artistic creation meets the cold reality of finite human capability.
Married or single?, Vol. 1 (of 3)
B. M. (Bithia Mary) Croker
A young woman, cast aside by her boarding school, must navigate the treacherous divide between her desperate poverty and a sudden, deceptive inheritance from a long-lost father.
Memorials and Other Papers
Thomas De Quincey
This collection gathers distinct exercises in narrative atmosphere and intellectual rigor, moving from the shadow-haunted streets of a besieged city to the austere, high-stakes debates of nineteenth-century political theory.
My Beautiful Lady. Nelly Dale
Thomas Woolner
An earnest, elevate-the-spirit Victorian verse narrative that turns devastating personal bereavement into a lifelong vow of civic duty and high artistic purpose.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, August 26th, 1914
Various
This period anthology captures the fragile, defiant levity of a nation standing on the precipice of the First World War. It is a snapshot of an empire attempting to maintain its composure through relentless, biting wit.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 158, June 2, 1920
Various
A sharp-witted chronicle of post-war English life, capturing the era’s anxieties and absurdities through a blend of satirical verse, whimsical prose, and biting commentary on the changing social order.
Roland Whately: A Novel
Alec Waugh
A young man navigates the transition from schoolboy romanticism to the pragmatism of adult business, finding that his charm and indecisiveness create a web of unintended consequences. He must reconcile his youthful ideals with the sobering realities of professional life and the commitments he has made to the women…
Sink or swim? : a novel
Mrs. (Matilda Charlotte) Houstoun
This domestic drama captures the suffocating friction between rigid social expectations and the quiet, personal longings of individuals trapped by their own choices. It is a portrait of provincial life, marked by class tensions and the quiet tragedies of unfulfilled hearts.
The Cornhill Magazine (vol. XLI, no. 244 new series, October 1916)
Various
The quiet halls of Oxford and the thunderous, gas-choked trenches of the Great War collide in this late-Victorian and Edwardian literary mosaic. It captures a world on the precipice of irrevocable change, documenting both the intimate struggles of the spirit and the brutal realities of modern combat.
The Last of the Barons
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A grand historical tapestry set against the bloody backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, this epic explores the tragic decline of the old feudal order through the eyes of a legendary power-broker.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
William Shakespeare
When a boastful, penniless knight attempts to woo two married women simultaneously, he finds himself ensnared in a web of elaborate, hilarious traps. In this world, the hunters quickly become the hunted.
The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment
George Meredith
A young barber sets out across a surreal, magical landscape to fulfill a fated task: the shaving of a legendary, enchanted figure.
Vixen, Volume III
M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
Caught between the suffocating expectations of a new stepfather and the loss of her childhood friend, a young woman finds herself exiled to a distant manor, only to discover the path back to her own life.
What's Mine's Mine
George MacDonald
The contrast between the soul’s hunger and the world’s hollow ambitions defines a journey through the Scottish Highlands. This narrative explores the tension between ancestral heritage and the encroaching, disconnected values of the modern era.
Woodburn Grange: A story of English country life
William Howitt
A serene English countryside becomes a battlefield of clashing traditions, where rigid religious devotion and modern ambition collide to shatter the quiet lives of families caught in the crossfire.
Bandit Love
Juanita Savage
A beautiful young Englishwoman finds her life turned upside down when a charming, arrogant Spanish nobleman decides that he—and not her dull, predictable fiancé—is the only man worthy of her spirit.
Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes. Volume II
Walter De la Mare
HOOK This collection captures the thin, translucent veil between the familiar world of childhood and an unsettling, moonlit realm where nature and folklore collide.
Daisy Burns (Volume 1)
Julia Kavanagh
The windswept cliffs of the English coast offer a solitary girl nothing but the rhythm of the sea, until an older, magnetic stranger arrives to claim her life and heart as his own.
Elizabeth: the Disinherited Daughter: By E. Ben Ez-er
Ebenezer Arnold
The daughter of a wealthy farmer loses her inheritance for the sake of her faith, choosing the fervor of early American Methodism over the strictures of her father’s household.
Mr. Punch with the Children
Unknown
Victoria’s golden age finds its most candid, unfiltered historians not in solemn parliamentarians, but in the nursery room, where small children routinely dismantle adult gravity with sheer logical precision.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, June 23, 1920
Various
This collection of weekly satire captures the fragile, restless spirit of post-war England in 1920, where the ink of the armistice was barely dry, but the humor of the street and the halls of power remained sharp, skeptical, and deeply human.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, August 15, 1891
Various
This volume captures the restless, satirical spirit of Victorian London, blending sharp political commentary with the frantic, witty absurdity of a magazine at the height of its cultural influence.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, November 15, 1890
Various
A snapshot of late-Victorian British life, this collection captures the intersection of high-minded political satire, social commentary, and the whimsical, often absurd, preoccupations of a nation in flux.
The Double Traitor
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
The calm of a summer evening is only a thin veil over the gathering storm of a continent on the brink of total war. A young diplomat discovers that the polite world of international travel is a front for a sprawling, invisible conflict.
The Queen's Scarlet: The Adventures and Misadventures of Sir Richard Frayne
George Manville Fenn
Behind the glitter of brass instruments and military dress lies a dark story of family jealousy, mistaken identity, and a quiet lad forced to fight for his stolen life.
Harry Joscelyn
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A young man severs ties with his family to forge an identity abroad, only to discover that the heart’s attachments are as unavoidable as the past he seeks to outrun.
Jilted! Or, My Uncle's Scheme, Volume 2
William Clark Russell
A young man finds himself the pawn in an elaborate, unwanted marriage scheme orchestrated by his uncle, only to discover the bride-to-be is equally determined to sabotage the match.
Miss Cheyne of Essilmont, Volume 3 (of 3)
James Grant
A young woman faces a cascade of misfortune, poverty, and unwanted pursuit, only to find her fate intertwined with the colonial wars and social hierarchies of her era. This final volume traces the hard-won path toward stability, reckoning, and love.
Our Christmas party
Edwin Hodder
HOOK This collection brings together a series of Victorian holiday tales and staged performances, woven into a single festive gathering designed to amuse and instruct young readers.
The Amazing Years
W. Pett (William Pett) Ridge
The home front transforms as the First World War ripples through a respectable London family, forcing its members to shed their rigid class assumptions and find resilience in an age of uncertainty.
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX. No. 1013, May 27, 1899
Various
This 1899 issue of a Victorian periodical offers a window into the structured, instructive, and morally earnest world of young women at the turn of the century. It serves as both a repository of contemporary fiction and a manual for domestic and personal conduct.
The Hampstead mystery: a novel. Volume 1 (of 3)
Florence Marryat
A wealthy father’s rigid intolerance and a trusted family friend’s secret obsession collide, turning a young woman’s romantic elopement into a devastating tragedy. This dark Victorian domestic drama explores the lethal consequences of controlling those we claim to love.
The Strange Visitation
Marie Corelli
A cautionary tale of a wealthy, heartless man confronted by his own moral decay on a stormy Christmas Eve, this narrative serves as a stark reminder of the spiritual emptiness inherent in unchecked greed.
Willow the king
J. C. (John Collis) Snaith
A lighthearted, turn-of-the-century portrait of English village life where a high-stakes cricket match serves as the backdrop for social maneuvering, youthful bravado, and a clumsy attempt at romance.
A Book of Old Ballads
Unknown
These verses preserve the raw, vibrant pulse of English history, capturing legends of outlaws, kings, and commoners in language that still rings with the clarity of a bell.
Aaron Trow
Anthony Trollope
The tale centers on the desperate flight of an escaped convict through the treacherous, isolated landscape of Bermuda, where his path violently intersects with the lives of a young woman and her protector.
Boy: A Sketch
Marie Corelli
A fragile child receives only neglect and cruel whim from self-absorbed parents until a tender spinster offers him a lifeline that his family proudly and foolishly destroys.
Christian's Mistake
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
A young woman's second marriage to a much older man brings her into a household of motherless children, where she must navigate family tensions and her own past to find her place.
Fanny and the Servant Problem
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
A newlywed noble discovers his wife is the niece of his own household staff, turning the rigid hierarchies of his country estate into a farcical, high-stakes battle for domestic control.
Mrs. Severn: A Novel, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Mary Elizabeth Carter
A quiet, domestic landscape in rural England is upended when a secret history of passion and abandonment resurfaces to threaten the security of a fragile, genteel marriage.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 29, 1914
Various
A razor-sharp snapshot of Edwardian society laughing past the graveyard, capturing British domestic absurdities and high-stakes political anxieties on the literal eve of the First World War.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 150, February 2, 1916
Various
The British home front, caught in the grip of the Great War, finds a temporary release in the biting, irreverent observations of a nation determined to laugh through the darkest of times.
The Blue Pavilions
Arthur Quiller-Couch
A tale of two retired sea captains, a long-standing grudge, and the unexpected arrival of a grown son, this historical drama plays out against the tense backdrop of the Franco-Dutch War. It is a story of stubborn pride, quiet reconciliations, and the persistence of human affection.