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British Literature — page 36
6,377 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 36 of 133.
Soldiers Three - Part 2
Rudyard Kipling
These stories capture the grueling, often surreal existence of British soldiers stationed in India, where the weight of empire meets the fragility of individual men.
The Coming of Bill
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
An impulsive marriage between a painter and a society woman faces a test of wills, complicated by the arrival of an infant and the rigid philosophies of an overbearing aunt.
The Deserted Village
Oliver Goldsmith
The gentle memory of a vanishing world is captured here, tracing the mournful transformation of a once-vibrant hamlet into a hollowed-out landscape of ruins. It serves as an enduring plea for the human soul over the cold accumulation of wealth.
The New Magdalen
Wilkie Collins
A woman born into the margins of society seizes a chance at a new identity, only to find that the past is a ghost that refuses to be buried. This gripping tale of imposture and redemption explores the fragility of social standing and the radical power of forgiveness.
The Parent's Assistant
Maria Edgeworth
The instruction of children is a delicate art, requiring the gentle bending of the twig to ensure the tree grows straight. This collection of stories offers a moral compass for the morning of life.
Boys and Girls from Thackeray
Kate Dickinson Sweetser
This collection gathers the formative years of celebrated literary figures, peeling back the layers of adult complexity to reveal the spirited, vulnerable, and often defiant children beneath.
Diary in America, Series Two
Frederick Marryat
A skeptical British naval officer tours the young United States and Canada, documenting the volatile social habits, political dangers, and rapid expansion of a nation he views with profound suspicion.
Life's Little Ironies: A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters
Thomas Hardy
Life is a series of quiet, devastating collisions where human intentions are consistently dismantled by the indifferent mechanics of fate.
![Cover of Some Short Stories [by Henry James]](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/some-short-stories-by-henry-james-henry-james.webp)
Some Short Stories [by Henry James]
Henry James
The polished surface of high-society life masks a desperate, often invisible, scramble for survival. These tales observe the quiet transactions of those who navigate the world by trade, influence, and the fragile currency of belonging.
Tales of the Long Bow
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
A series of impossible, whimsical, and highly orchestrated pranks serves to challenge the rigid, soul-crushing conventions of modern English life. These stories act as a playful rebellion against the crushing weight of institutional absurdity.
The Black Dwarf
Walter Scott
A solitary recluse, feared by locals as a supernatural being, becomes the unexpected architect of justice in a fractured landscape of political conspiracy and personal ruin.
The Devil's Disciple
Bernard Shaw
A rebellious outcast and a seemingly conventional minister find their fates intertwined when a case of mistaken identity forces a confrontation with the British military during the American Revolution.
The History of John Bull
John Arbuthnot
An honest tradesman finds his life and fortune nearly destroyed by endless, ruinous litigation. This classic satire transforms the high-stakes European power struggles of the early eighteenth century into a relatable, domestic tragedy.
The Knight Of Gwynne, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Charles Lever
A proud Irish household confronts the collapse of their ancestral estate and the political upheaval of the 1801 Act of Union. This sweeping narrative captures a vanishing world through the eyes of those forced to navigate its ruin.
The Philosopher's Joke
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
The possibility of knowing one’s own future is a seductive, if terrifying, prospect. This narrative explores the consequences of such knowledge, examining how the inevitable changes in human character shape the lives we lead.
The Prince and the Pauper, Part 1
Mark Twain
A chance meeting between two boys born on the same day—one a prince, the other a pauper—leads to a sudden, accidental exchange of lives that leaves them both trapped in the wrong world.
Once a week
A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne
This collection captures the lighthearted, witty spirit of Edwardian-era England, offering a series of humorous sketches that find absurdity in the mundane routines of comfortable, middle-class life.
South Wind
Norman Douglas
The south wind—the sirocco—has a habit of unhinging the orderly minds of those who visit the island of Nepenthe, where morality is treated more as a suggestion than a rule.
King Lear
William Shakespeare
An aged king’s impulsive decision to divide his realm among his daughters unravels into a harrowing descent into madness, betrayal, and familial ruin. It remains a definitive exploration of the fragility of power and the limits of human endurance.
Late Lyrics and Earlier, With Many Other Verses
Thomas Hardy
The ghosts of the past walk through these pages, whispering of lost loves, fading memories, and the relentless, quiet passage of time. They are not merely recollections, but living echoes that haunt the present.
On Compromise
John Morley
The struggle for personal integrity requires a willingness to stand apart from the crowd, even when the path to truth demands the sacrifice of social comfort and conventional approval.
The Poetical Works of John Skelton, Volume 2 (of 2)
John Skelton
A riotous, sharp-tongued parrot holds court for Tudor England, unleashing a torrent of multilingual satire against corrupt prelates, courtly fools, and foreign rivals.
The Suppressed Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson
Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron
The discarded verses of a master poet reveal the restless, searching spirit beneath the polished surface of his later, celebrated works.
Walking Shadows: Sea Tales and Others
Alfred Noyes
The shadows cast by the Great War define this collection, revealing the quiet, unreckoned lives caught in the machinery of a world gone dark. These stories find dignity and sudden clarity in the face of an encroaching, mechanized terror.
Alec Forbes of Howglen
George MacDonald
A boy’s reckless vitality and a girl’s quiet devotion navigate the harsh pieties, frozen rivers, and sudden drownings of a small Scottish town.
Castle Richmond
Anthony Trollope
A quiet Irish estate becomes a battlefield of extortion, where an old fraud threatens to erase an entire family’s name, land, and future.
Every Man in His Humour
Ben Jonson
An eccentric circle of Londoners spends a chaotic day chasing their absurd obsessions, false reputations, and misguided suspicions.
Flora
A. L. O. E.
A gentle young woman believes her life is built on pure Christian virtue, until a charismatic, unbelieving baronet tests her quiet countryside home and reveals the hidden pride of her own heart. <Image alt="Vintage Victorian red book cover with gold foil decorations" caption="Victorian edition of Flora"…
Old Mortality, Volume 1
Walter Scott
A young religious moderate in 1679 Scotland is thrust into a bloody civil war, caught between tyrannical royalists and fanatical Covenanting rebels while struggling to protect the woman he loves and preserve his own moral compass.
The De Coverley Papers, From 'The Spectator'
Steele, Richard, Sir
A quiet observer moves through the coffee-houses of London and the quiet lanes of Worcestershire, chronicling the life, oddities, and enduring charm of an old-fashioned country gentleman.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 08
Robert Louis Stevenson
A young ward discovers that his guardian murdered his father, throwing his loyalty into chaos amidst a civil war.
The Youngest Girl in the School
Evelyn Sharp
An irrepressible tomboy steps into the rigid world of an English boarding school, turning social hierarchies upside down through sheer honesty and an unfortunate knack for breaking bones.
What's Bred in the Bone
Grant Allen
Identical twins, hidden parentage, and a mysterious murder collide when an innocent man flees a crime committed by a high-standing judge.
A Fair Mystery: The Story of a Coquette
Charlotte M. Brame
A baby’s innocent bedtime prayer shatters a father facing ruin, setting off a chain of hidden origins and dangerous passions.
Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.)
Arnold Bennett
A young woman returns to her native English pottery town and promptly takes charge of her crusty, misanthropic grand-uncle's household and heart.
King Henry IV, Part 1
William Shakespeare
A royal throne gained by usurpation trembles under the weight of open rebellion, while a reckless heir spends his days in tavern revelry alongside a charismatic thief before stepping up to claim his warlike destiny.
The Jolliest School of All
Angela Brazil
A sunlit Italian coast and an international boarders’ hall set the stage for an energetic, joyful, and affectionate portrait of mid-Edwardian girlhood.
Cinderella
Henry W. Hewet
A grieving girl endures the cruelty of her new stepmother, finds unexpected magic through a compassionate old woman, and captures a prince's heart before a forgotten deadline strips away her illusion.
King Henry IV, Part 2
William Shakespeare
A dying king struggles to hold a fractured realm together while his rebellious heir lingers between the rowdy license of London’s taverns and the stern, unyielding duty of the English crown.
Press Cuttings
Bernard Shaw
Set in a panicked London war office, this satire pitilessly exposes the absurdities of statecraft, military bluster, and gender politics when suffragette agitation threatens to upend the establishment.
Salted with Fire
George MacDonald
A proud young theological student, consumed by intellectual vanity and social ambition, abandons the gentle woman he seduced, only to be broken and remade through public disgrace, harrowing guilt, and unexpected grace.
Six to Sixteen: A Story for Girls
Juliana Horatia Ewing
A quiet girl comes of age across colonial India and rural England, finding strength not in high drama, but in artistic curiosity, quiet observation, and deep friendship.
The Scouring of the White Horse
Thomas Hughes
A London clerk escapes to the Berkshire countryside, where ancient Saxon history and a raucous village festival collide to change his view of traditional English life.
The Vision of Sir Launfal: And Other Poems by James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
A knight abandons his hollow quest for a relic to find the divine in the service of the poor, while a collection of verse explores the intersection of nature, memory, and the moral demands of citizenship.
1914, and Other Poems
Rupert Brooke
Youth, love, and national devotion collide with mortality in a collection that moves from quiet homesickness and tropical beauty to the heroic, tragic heights of wartime sacrifice.
A Schoolmaster's Diary: Being Extracts from the Journal of Patrick Traherne, M.A., Sometime Assistant Master at Radchester and Marlton
Patrick Traherne
A idealist schoolmaster records his daily battles against the dry rigidity of British boarding schools, tracking his evolution from an eager young teacher to a devoted husband and father.
Strange Stories
Grant Allen
Speculative science, uncanny ironies, and radical shifts of perspective converge in tales that stretch nineteenth-century reason to its absolute limits.
Tales of All Countries
Anthony Trollope
A collection of sharp, comic vignettes that transport Victorian travelers across the globe only to prove that no distance can outrun human narrow-mindedness and vanity.