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British Literature — page 45
3,897 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 45 of 82.
Troilus and Cressida
William Shakespeare
The Trojan War serves as a bitter backdrop for a story where heroes are debunked and lovers are unmade. It is a cynical, sprawling exploration of how quickly ideals collapse under the weight of human appetite and time.
Two Burlesques of Lord Chesterfield's Letters.: The Graces (1774), The Fine Gentleman's Etiquette (1776)
Unknown
An obsessively polished aristocrat attempts to sculpt his awkward son into a smooth courtier, only to find that obsessive elegance collapses into absurd, petty micromanagement.
Urith: A Tale of Dartmoor
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
A wild, atmospheric tale where hot-headed pride and deep-seated vengeance clash against the unforgiving landscape of seventeenth-century Dartmoor.
Captain Brassbound's Conversion
Bernard Shaw
A vengeful pirate's lifelong obsession with punishing his corrupt judge uncle dissolves when a remarkably serene Englishwoman treats them both like unruly schoolboys.
Sketches in Lavender, Blue and Green
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
Human nature rarely changes, though every generation invents new excuses for its vanity, absurdity, and quiet acts of grace.
The Belton Estate
Anthony Trollope
A woman trapped between the cold calculations of an aristocratic engagement and the unvarnished devotion of her cousin must choose how to inherit her own life.
The dream: A novel
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
In a radiant future, a rested scientist slumbers and re-imagines an entire, squalid existence in the muddled industrial dark of twentieth-century England.
The Getting of Wisdom
Henry Handel Richardson
A young girl’s journey through a rigid boarding school reveals that true wisdom comes not from books, but from the messy, often painful process of learning who one really is.
The small bachelor
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
A quiet, terrible painter falls instantly in love with an uptown society girl, setting off a chaotic sequence of mistaken identities, stolen jewels, and hilarious social maneuverings across Prohibition-era New York.
Charles Dickens' Children Stories
Charles Dickens
Childhood holds the ultimate measure of mercy, where small, vulnerable hands routinely carry the heavy weight of an unfeeling adult world.
Dream Days
Kenneth Grahame
The boundaries of childhood are guarded by rules and adult authority, yet every corner of an overgrown garden or forgotten outhouse holds the raw materials for a glorious, self-governed empire.
Fighting with French: A Tale of the New Army
Herbert Strang
A reluctant volunteer and his factory-worker comrades enlist in Kitchener's New Army, mastering trench warfare while untangling a dangerous network of German spies in wartime France.
Lovers' Saint Ruth's, and Three Other Tales
Louise Imogen Guiney
Four distinct studies of love, fate, and quiet human sacrifice reveal how nobility and sorrow intertwine across centuries of hidden struggle.
My friend the murderer
Arthur Conan Doyle
Driven by a sense of deep injustice for his exile, an unrepentant killer recount his futile quest to escape the relentless consequences of turning Queen's evidence.
Poemata
John Milton
Before achieving immortality through English blank verse, a young poet tests his wings in Latin, Greek, and Italian, weaving classical myth, personal grief, and quiet ambition into brilliant early verse.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 22nd, 1890
Various
A rowdy late-Victorian week comes to life in a flurry of parliamentary feuds, public sneers, dialect verse, and music-hall silliness.
The Disentanglers
Andrew Lang
Two young London gentlemen down on their luck hatch an unconventional business venture: an agency dedicated to discreetly breaking off unsuitable romantic engagements for wealthy clients through carefully staged social counter-attractions.
The Ghost: A Modern Fantasy
Arnold Bennett
A young doctor stumbles into the dazzling, treacherous world of grand opera, where a legendary soprano is haunted by an implacable spirit that wrecks trains, sinks ships, and drives her suitors to terrifying demises.
The Siege of Norwich Castle: A story of the last struggle against the Conqueror
M. M. (Matilda Maria) Blake
In the shadow of the Norman Conquest, a newly wedded countess takes up arms to defend her husband’s fortress against the full, ruthless might of King William.
The Vagabond and Other Poems from Punch
R. C. (Rudolf Chambers) Lehmann
Domestic tenderness, quiet nostalgia, and the dark shadow of the First World War meet in this evocative volume of verse.
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 02
John Dryden
A young empire crumbles under foreign conquest while courtiers scheme in shadowed halls and lovers trade vows in secret. Out of Restoration London’s theatrical fire comes a collection where passion, betrayal, and political ambition clash on every page.
The Young O'Briens: Being an Account of Their Sojourn in London
Margaret Westrup
A family of spirited young Irish siblings is transplanted to a damp, grey London residence, where their irrepressible warmth and humorous resilience transform every dreary obstacle into an adventurous triumph of heart.
Three More John Silence Stories
Algernon Blackwood
A solitary traveler steps off the path into a landscape where the solid world thins, and the human psyche gives form to ancient, forgotten terrors.
Angel: A sketch in Indian ink
B. M. (Bithia Mary) Croker
A hot season in the Indian plains brings out secrets and sudden shifts of heart in a small circle of British officers and their wives.
Between the Larch-woods and the Weir
Flora Klickmann
A gentle wartime sanctuary on the steep hills of the Wye Valley, where a weary London editor finds sanity and humor among larch-woods, wild birds, and domestic misadventures.
David Blaize and the Blue Door
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A boy uses a wooden partridge’s pin-leg to stay awake, finds a secret door beneath his pillow, and enters a wild, absurd nocturnal wonderland.
Hugh Walpole: An Appreciation
Joseph Hergesheimer
An appreciative study of Hugh Walpole’s fiction argues that true creative literature requires both external realism and internal spiritual vision, celebrating an author who captures life's underlying magic.
Johnny Ludlow, Fifth Series
Wood, Henry, Mrs.
A quiet observer moves through provincial England and seaside exile, gathering tales of domestic friction, mysterious thefts, and ghostly anxieties that haunt ordinary lives.
Merkland
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A quiet Scottish parish hides an eighteen-year-old murder that broke two families, drove an innocent heir into exile, and left a silent culprit praying for a redemption he cannot buy.
Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough
Arthur Hugh Clough
Beliefs falter and certainty dissolves, yet life moves forward through the daily necessity of choice, work, and honest, unpretentious human connection.
Pomander Walk
Louis Napoleon Parker
Set in a tranquil riverfront enclave, this Regency romance explores how old secrets, eccentric neighbors, and rekindled flames reshape a quiet London street.
The Bab Ballads, with Which Are Included Songs of a Savoyard
W. S. (William Schwenck) Gilbert
In a world where pomposity reigns supreme, logical absurdity becomes the only sensible response.
The Herd Boy and His Hermit
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
A young herd boy's journey to reclaim his noble birthright during the Wars of the Roses.
The Household of Sir Thomas More
Anne Manning
A devoted daughter chronicles the warmth, intellectual brilliance, and tragic downfall of her father as his unyielding conscience brings him into fatal conflict with his King.
The Idler, Volume III., Issue XIII., February 1893: An Illustrated Monthly. Edited By Jerome K. Jerome & Robert Barr
Various
A varied showcase of late-Victorian popular writing, this issue balances sharp fiction, stage memoirs, and casual editorial banter with effortless readability.
The Poetical Works of Thomas Traherne, 1636?-1674, from the original manuscripts
Thomas Traherne
A lost seventeenth-century visionary reclaims the divine light of early childhood, urging a fallen world to remember its original innocence.
The Privet Hedge
J. E. Buckrose
A small seaside town resists the tide of modernity, but youth and change sweep past the barrier anyway.
The windfairies, and other tales
Mary De Morgan
Magic carries a quiet, exacting tax: true gifts require faithful keeping, selflessness exacts an ultimate cost, and shallow vanity turns every blessing sour.
The Works of Thomas Hood
Thomas Hood
A brilliant mix of slapstick, social observation, and verbal dexterity turns the absurdities of nineteenth-century English life into an unsparingly funny, unexpectedly tender portrait of human frailty.
A Prefect's Uncle
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
A new arrival at Beckford College discovers that his fourteen-year-old uncle is also joining the school, bringing sharp wit, cash, and endless trouble.
Arabella Stuart: A Romance from English History
G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
A secret royal marriage brings brief joy, swift wrath, and ultimate tragedy under the suspicious eye of King James I.
English Jests and Anecdotes, Collected from Various Sources
Various
Sharp, unpredictable, and fiercely brief, this collection captures the irreverent pulse of historical English banter.
King Richard II
William Shakespeare
A fragile monarch misjudges his own divinely sanctioned power, precipitating a bitter rift among his noblemen that ultimately leads to his own downfall and a national crisis of legitimacy.
Leonora
Arnold Bennett
A quiet woman of forty, bound to a reckless, indifferent husband in the industrial English Midlands, discovers that her capacity for deep passion has not died.
My Little Sister
Elizabeth Robins
A quiet country home conceals a mother’s claustrophobic dread, until London exposes the predator waiting just beyond the gate.
The Avenger
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
A high-stakes theft in the West End drags an innocent gentleman into a shadow world of political blackmail, royal secrets, and brutal revenge across London and Continental Europe.
The power of sympathy
William Hill Brown
Love transforms into terror when a young man discovers his intended bride is his secret half-sister.
The Skin Game (A Tragi-Comedy)
John Galsworthy
An escalating feud between a landed aristocrat and a self-made manufacturer turns a quiet English village into a battlefield of blackmail, ruin, and lost honor.