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British Literature — page 36
1,768 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 36 of 37.
The Heroine
Eaton Stannard Barrett
A young woman, intoxicated by the tropes of Gothic fiction, abandons her quiet life to inhabit a world of castles, abductions, and high-born drama.
The History of Emily Montague
Frances Brooke
This epistolary novel captures the shifting landscapes of 18th-century Canada and England through the intimate, observant correspondence of two spirited women and their suitors.
The History of Tom Thumb: To Which Are Added the Stories of the Cat and the Mouse and Fire! Fire! Burn Stick!
Unknown
Born from a magical wish and no larger than a thumb, a courageous boy navigates a world of giants, kings, and perilous kitchen accidents. This enduring English folktale traces the extraordinary life and final, tragic fate of a diminutive hero.
The Prophet of Berkeley Square
Robert Hichens
The celestial gaze of a Berkeley Square gentleman turns into a chaotic farce when he finds his quiet, aristocratic life invaded by a desperate, self-styled prophet and his eccentric family.
Bat Wing
Sax Rohmer
A man of singular intellect investigates the dark secrets of a remote estate, where a supposedly supernatural "death-token" masks a web of human obsession and long-simmering vengeance.
George Crabbe: Poems, Volume 2 (of 3)
George Crabbe
A meticulous chronicler of the human heart, this poet strips away the pastoral veneer of English life to reveal the grit, longing, and moral complexity hidden behind quiet village doors and country estates.
Legends of Charlemagne
Thomas Bulfinch
A collection of medieval romantic cycles, these tales follow the legendary Emperor and his paladins through a world of enchanted forests, magic weapons, and moral trials.
Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver
William Carleton
A master of deception navigates the harsh realities of nineteenth-century Ireland, where survival depends as much on a well-timed lie as on hard work and cold-blooded cunning.
Sixpenny Pieces
A. Neil (Albert Neil) Lyons
This narrative offers a candid, unsentimental portrait of life among the London poor, centered on a weary but dedicated doctor navigating the messy realities of his patients’ daily struggles.
The Garden Without Walls
Coningsby Dawson
The struggle to reconcile desire with the suffocating expectations of Victorian morality haunts the life of a young man caught between his upbringing and his restless spirit. This narrative explores the tension between the safety of the garden and the unpredictable, dangerous world beyond its walls.
Birds of Prey
M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
Ambition and avarice wear the mask of mid-Victorian propriety in this intricate drama of inheritance, hidden agendas, and the fragile nature of trust.
Cripps, the Carrier: A Woodland Tale
R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
A simple man’s quiet life is upended when a mysterious disappearance forces him to navigate a web of local secrets, stubborn prejudices, and long-standing woodland rivalries.
Fragment of a novel written by Jane Austen, January-March 1817
Jane Austen
A spirited, observant young woman journeys to a rising seaside resort, only to find a community defined by its eccentricities, health-obsessed promoters, and the frantic, often absurd, pursuit of social and financial gain.
King Henry V
William Shakespeare
A young king stakes his nation’s future on a desperate gamble across the English Channel, trading the wildness of his youth for the heavy, blood-stained mantle of imperial command.
Philosophy 4: A Story of Harvard University
Owen Wister
Two affluent college students, facing an impending philosophy exam for which they are woefully unprepared, treat the challenge as a sporting event, relying on wit and intuition rather than rote memorization to survive.
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.