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British Literature — page 56
6,377 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 56 of 133.
The Three Perils of Man
James Hogg
A wild, sprawling Border romance, this narrative weaves together history, dark folklore, and the eccentricities of human nature in a singular, unpredictable Scottish tapestry. It captures the rugged spirit of the fourteenth-century marches through a lens of supernatural mystery and earthy, often biting, humor.
Toilers of Babylon: A Novel
B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon
A young man’s devotion to a woman outside his social caste sparks a bitter family estrangement, leading to a long-delayed reconciliation that bridges the divide between the wealthy and the working poor.
Digby Heathcote: The Early Days of a Country Gentleman's Son and Heir
William Henry Giles Kingston
A spirited heir to a grand country estate finds that the true measure of a gentleman lies not in his pedigree, but in the courage, integrity, and discipline he cultivates during his formative years.
Elizabethan & Jacobean Pamphlets
Unknown
These collected pamphlets serve as a vibrant, unfiltered window into the chaotic energy of the English Renaissance, capturing a world where intellectual feuds were fought with ink and wit.
Etheldreda the Ready: A School Story
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
A spirited, impulsive girl faces the sudden loss of her family’s fortune, forcing her to trade a life of privilege for the trials of a local school and the humbling lessons of growing up.
Harry Coverdale's Courtship, and All That Came of It
Frank E. (Frank Edward) Smedley
The narrative follows a spirited, impulsive country gentleman and his gentle wife as they navigate the perils of early marriage, social folly, and the dangerous influence of manipulative opportunists in 19th-century England.
Letters to His Son, 1748: On the Fine Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of
A father’s persistent, meticulous attempt to sculpt his son into a polished statesman and a man of the world, written through the lens of eighteenth-century aristocratic ambition.
Love and hatred
Marie Belloc Lowndes
A stifling English country atmosphere turns deadly when a secret, obsessive love collides with a cold, loveless marriage. This psychological mystery probes the dark, quiet corners of human desire and the terrible cost of liberation.
Monsieur Judas: A Paradox
Fergus Hume
A detective races to solve a complex murder case where the evidence points toward the innocent, unmasking a web of deceit and hereditary madness.
Mrs. Korner Sins Her Mercies
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Korner is a quiet, orderly affair until a misguided conversation about "manliness" leads to a chaotic, single-night experiment in domestic rebellion.
New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future
Corbett, George, Mrs.
A Victorian narrator awakens in a future Ireland transformed into "New Amazonia," a utopian republic governed by women who have engineered a society of perfect health, equality, and rationalist morality.
Tales of War
Lord Dunsany
The world of 1914 is a landscape of shattered fields and broken dreams, where the routine of the trenches collides with the haunting, enduring memories of the villages left behind. This collection captures the stark reality of the Great War, juxtaposing the small, human gestures of soldiers against the vast, cold…
The Half-Hearted
John Buchan
The fate of an empire rests upon a man plagued by the "go-fever" and a crippling sense of his own inadequacy. This story explores whether a life defined by hesitation can find redemption through a singular, fatal act of courage.
The Hampstead Mystery
John R. (John Reay) Watson
A high-court judge is found murdered in his library, sparking a hunt for the truth amidst a tangle of blackmail, secret romances, and misdirected legal blame.
The Vale of Cedars
Grace Aguilar
The shadow of the Inquisition looms over the lives of those forced to hide their heritage in a land of rigid religious conformity. This narrative of peril, sacrifice, and the enduring power of conscience follows a woman whose secret life becomes a target for the cruelest of men.
Timon of Athens
William Shakespeare
A wealthy man’s reckless generosity invites betrayal, driving him from the pinnacle of society into a life of absolute, misanthropic isolation in the wilderness.
Wife in Name Only
Charlotte M. Brame
A nobleman’s secret marriage to a woman of unknown origins unravels into tragedy, testing the boundaries of class, honor, and the possibility of forgiveness. This Victorian melodrama explores the heavy cost of social expectations and the persistence of love against impossible odds.
A Lost Leader
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
The path of power is rarely straight, and those who seek to lead often find their greatest obstacles waiting in the shadows of their own past. A man of high principle must weigh the heavy cost of integrity against the glittering promise of high office.
Angling Sketches
Andrew Lang
The pursuit of trout is less a quest for the fish than a ritual of patience, landscape, and the gentle preservation of one’s own youth. This collection of essays captures the meditative, often humorous essence of an angler’s life in the wilder corners of Scotland.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 383, September 1847
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary digest offers a panoramic view of the Victorian intellect, blending satirical political fiction, historical inquiry, and the rigorous examination of art and travel.
Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn
W. H. (William Henry) Hudson
HOOK A naturalist’s quiet study of a woodland marker unravels a ghost-haunted history of love, betrayal, and the agonizing weight of a king’s murder.
Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 48, No. XVIII, April, 1854
Various
This nineteenth-century periodical serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic mirror of the domestic, social, and aesthetic preoccupations of its era. It captures the rhythm of mid-century American life through a blend of instructional guides, romantic fiction, and rigorous fashion reporting.
King Henry IV, Part 2
William Shakespeare
A kingdom finds itself caught in the exhausting wake of rebellion, while a wayward prince must navigate the final, heavy transition from a life of tavern revelry to the sobering crown of leadership.
Letters on Literature
Andrew Lang
This collection of critical essays invites readers to explore the nuances of classic literature and the pleasures of the book-hunter’s craft. It serves as an intimate guide for those seeking to deepen their appreciation of poetry, fiction, and the eccentric lives of writers.
Mistress Nell: A Merry Tale of a Merry Time
George Cochrane Hazelton
This brisk, theatrical narrative reimagines the life of the legendary Nell Gwyn, portraying her as a vibrant, quick-witted actress who navigates the intrigue and romantic turbulence of the court of King Charles II.
Tales from the Veld
Ernest Glanville
Old Abe Pike is a local legend whose tall tales of South African frontier life blur the line between the wild, untamed veld and the limits of human imagination.
The Glory of English Prose: Letters to My Grandson
Stephen Coleridge
The greatest inheritance one generation can pass to another is the ability to recognize and cherish the finest expressions of the human spirit. By curating a selection of masterful English prose, a grandfather invites his grandson to claim a literary heritage of strength, beauty, and moral clarity.
The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation
J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
The disappearance of a quarter-million pounds in Russian jewels and the sudden death of a wealthy cousin thrust a practical Yorkshire manufacturer into a web of international intrigue and calculated murder.
A Little Dinner at Timmins's
William Makepeace Thackeray
The struggle to appear wealthier than one truly is often leads to ruin, especially when the battlefield is a cramped Victorian dining room and the opponent is an overbearing mother-in-law.
Airy Fairy Lilian
Duchess
This is a story of long-simmering misunderstandings and the gradual, reluctant surrender of the heart, set against the backdrop of a quiet English countryside. It follows a spirited, orphaned heiress and her stern, duty-bound guardian as they navigate the rocky path from mutual suspicion to love.
All's Well That Ends Well
William Shakespeare
A brilliant young woman pursues an unwilling, noble husband across borders, employing wit and deception to bridge the chasm between their stations. It is a complex, often uncomfortable, yet strangely resonant look at desire.
Clocks
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
A whimsical reflection on the absurdity of modern life, this work uses the unreliable nature of timepieces to dissect the grand, hollow performance of human pretense.
King Henry V
William Shakespeare
The young King Henry V must transcend his reputation as a wayward youth, uniting a fractured England to claim a crown through a perilous, transformative campaign in France.
Murad the Unlucky, and Other Tales
Maria Edgeworth
These tales explore the tension between character and circumstance, asking whether our outcomes are shaped by an inescapable fate or by the quiet, steady discipline of our own choices. Through the lives of the unlucky and the privileged, the narratives weigh the value of reason against the impulses of the heart.
Nancy Stair: A Novel
Elinor Macartney Lane
A brilliant, unconventional young woman learns that the fire of poetic genius pales beside the quiet, profound fulfillment of motherhood.
Songs of Action
Arthur Conan Doyle
The rugged, rhythmic verses of this collection capture the vitality of Victorian life, exploring themes of duty, sport, and the quiet dignity of the common man. These poems serve as a spirited chronicle of an era defined by empire, camaraderie, and the relentless march of time.
The Mayor of Troy
Arthur Quiller-Couch
The Mayor of Troy is a story of a man whose overblown sense of importance is shattered by a series of bizarre accidents, leading to a long, arduous journey that humbles his spirit.
The Rebel of the School
L. T. Meade
A headstrong Irish newcomer arrives at a prestigious English school, sparking a clandestine rebellion among the underprivileged foundation students against the social hierarchy.
The Spanish Tragedy
Thomas Kyd
A ghost demands vengeance for his own murder, sparking a cycle of blood that engulfs the Spanish court. This foundational tragedy explores the devastating cost of private justice in a world where the law has failed.
When the Birds Begin to Sing
Winifred (Matilda Winifred Muriel) Graham
HOOK A young woman’s desperate pursuit of romance leads her from a quiet farm to the dangerous, sun-drenched wilds of the East.
A Knight on Wheels
Ian Hay
This is a charming, lighthearted Edwardian exploration of a young man’s maturation, balancing the absurdity of adult life against the earnest, often difficult search for personal autonomy and romantic stability.
Alfgar the Dane or the Second Chronicle of Aescendune: A Tale of the Days of Edmund Ironside
A. D. (Augustine David) Crake
This historical chronicle dramatizes the twilight of Anglo-Saxon England through the eyes of those caught between the fading light of a crumbling monarchy and the harsh dawn of a new regime. It transforms the scholarly detachment of the era’s annals into a vivid, human-centered narrative of faith, betrayal, and the…
Anne Hereford: A Novel
Wood, Henry, Mrs.
An orphaned governess finds herself trapped in a labyrinth of family secrets, spectral occurrences, and dangerous legacies within the walls of a grand, forbidding English estate.
Garthowen: A Story of a Welsh Homestead
Allen Raine
HOOK A young wanderer returns to his Welsh homestead to find his family fractured by secrets and broken promises, setting into motion a quiet, pastoral drama of redemption, integrity, and the enduring power of home.
Gutta-Percha Willie: The Working Genius
George MacDonald
HOOK A curious, inventive boy transforms his world through the dignity of labor, discovering that the most profound miracles are found in the careful, everyday work of helping others.
J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
HOOK These tales explore the thin membrane between the tangible world and the encroaching past, where ancient grievances and spectral figures refuse to remain buried.
Kathleen
Christopher Morley
A group of imaginative Oxford students, enchanted by a stranger’s lost letter, concoct an elaborate scheme to track down its author. What begins as a playful literary competition descends into a hilarious, high-stakes comedy of errors.
King Henry VI, Part 3
William Shakespeare
A relentless, blood-drenched struggle for the English throne, this play charts the brutal collapse of a kingdom where family ties are severed by the sword and oaths are mere casualties of war.