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British Literature — page 63
4,542 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 63 of 95.
A Comedy of Masks: A Novel
Ernest Christopher Dowson
A comedy of errors played out in the drawing rooms of London, this novel reveals the heavy, often hidden price of maintaining a perfect social facade. Beneath the polished veneer of Victorian life, characters struggle with long-buried secrets, unrequited devotion, and the crushing weight of their own expectations.
A Houseful of Girls
Sarah Tytler
The departure of children from the family nest is a universal ache, yet when financial ruin forces a household of sisters to abandon their sheltered life, the transition from girlhood to adulthood becomes an urgent, bittersweet adventure.
An Orkney Maid
Amelia E. Barr
HOOK Set in the rugged, storm-tossed islands of Orkney, this tale follows a young woman’s journey through love, loss, and the stern demands of duty during the Crimean War.
Donald Ross of Heimra (Volume 2 of 3)
William Black
A young woman struggles to manage her inherited Highland estate while navigating the deep-seated grievances of a displaced local population. Her path repeatedly crosses with a dispossessed islander whose quiet dignity challenges her charitable ideals.
Prisoners of Conscience
Amelia E. Barr
A man haunted by a blood feud inherits a cycle of spiritual suffering, only for his son to seek a path of grace in the rugged, isolated landscape of the Shetland Islands.
Shrewsbury: A Romance
Stanley John Weyman
A young man is drawn into the dangerous web of Jacobite intrigue, where his survival depends on the shifting loyalties of a powerful, haunted Duke and the manipulations of a treacherous woman.
Sir Brook Fossbrooke, Volume II
Charles Lever
The storm tests the endurance of the island’s inhabitants, but the true tempests are the human deceptions swirling through the halls of justice and high society.
The Foundations (An Extravagant Play)
John Galsworthy
A sharp, satirical look at the chasm between the idle rich and the struggling poor, this play uses a simple misunderstanding to expose the absurdity of class, media, and social reform.
The Man Who Drove the Car
Max Pemberton
Every man should have a master, but for those who prefer a mistress with money and a taste for life, the chauffeur’s seat offers the ultimate vantage point for witnessing the secret dramas of the wealthy.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 287, December 15, 1827
Various
This period anthology captures the spirit of 1827 through a diverse blend of industrial innovation, historical reflection, and wry social commentary. It serves as a vivid window into the curiosity of the Georgian era.
The Stoneground Ghost Tales: Compiled from the recollections of the Reverend Roland Batchel, Vicar of the parish
E. G. (Edmund Gill) Swain
HOOK The ancient, gravel-founded parish of Stoneground harbors secrets that defy the modern world, revealing that the boundary between the living and the departed is far thinner than the local villagers dare to admit.
The Toy Shop (1735) The King and the Miller of Mansfield (1737)
Robert Dodsley
The world is a grand shop where everyone runs mad for rattles, but one man possesses the keys to the cabinet. These two dramatic pieces offer a sharp, moral mirror to the follies of high society and the hidden nobility of the rural heart.
The Works of Henry Fielding, vol. 12
Henry Fielding
This collection gathers the sharp, satirical wit of a master observer, exposing the absurdities of eighteenth-century theater, social pretension, and the messy realities of London life.
A College Girl
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
A vibrant portrait of youth, this story follows a spirited girl’s journey from a sheltered upbringing into the intellectual and social awakenings of university life.
A Hidden Life and Other Poems
George MacDonald
Finding the divine in the smallest of earthly things, this collection of verse explores the quiet sanctity of a life lived in faith. It is a contemplative work that transforms common moments—the growth of a flower, the memory of a father, or the struggle of a lonely soul—into deep meditations on the nature of God…
Fraternity
John Galsworthy
The widening gulf between the comfortable, well-meaning elite and the invisible poor of London creates a precarious peace that threatens to shatter at the slightest human touch.
Inchbracken: The Story of a Fama Clamosa
Robert Cleland
The storm that lashes the Scottish glen of Kilrundle carries with it a burden of scandal, forcing a young minister to choose between his moral duty and the crushing weight of public opinion.
John Inglesant: A Romance (Volume 1 of 2)
J. H. (Joseph Henry) Shorthouse
A haunted, introspective journey through the wreckage of the English Civil War, this narrative follows a young man caught between his Jesuit training and the shifting loyalties of a collapsing monarchy.
Judith Shakespeare: Her love affairs and other adventures
William Black
A spirited young woman navigates the social currents and personal dramas of Stratford-upon-Avon, living in the long, formidable shadow of her world-famous father.
Michael's Crag
Grant Allen
HOOK A haunted man, a secret debt, and the rugged cliffs of Cornwall collide in this atmospheric tale of guilt, engineering ambition, and the fragile line between sanity and divine delusion.
Pamela Censured
Anonymous
A biting critique of moral hypocrisy, this polemic exposes the dangerous gap between a story's virtuous pretense and the erotic thrills it secretly provides its audience. It serves as a rigorous investigation into how literature shapes the desires of the vulnerable.
Peccavi
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
A disgraced clergyman attempts to rebuild his ruined reputation—and his burned-down church—with his own hands, navigating the cold hostility of an unforgiving English village.
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 156, May 7, 1919
Various
This snapshot of London in the spring of 1919 captures the jittery, satirical spirit of a society freshly emerged from the Great War, finding relief in absurdity and biting wit.
The Antiquary
Walter Scott
A grumpy, learned antiquarian finds his quiet life upended when a mysterious young man, a failing baronet, and a wandering beggar pull him into a drama of hidden identities and lost family legacies.
The Golden Grasshopper: A story of the days of Sir Thomas Gresham
William Henry Giles Kingston
A young Dutch refugee discovers the cost of faith and the weight of history while serving a legendary English merchant during the turbulent rise of the Protestant cause.
Tracked by a Tattoo: A Mystery
Fergus Hume
A labyrinthine murder mystery set in late Victorian London, where a detective follows a trail of hidden identities and poisoned needles to uncover a dark family secret.
A Mere Accident
George Moore
The quiet hills of Sussex become a stage for a young man’s collision between his aesthetic devotion to the past and the intrusive, violent demands of the present.
A Woman Intervenes
Robert Barr
A headstrong journalist and a pragmatic mineralogist collide on a transatlantic voyage, setting off a high-stakes competition for control of a Canadian mine.
Arminell: A Social Romance, Vol. 1
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
The rigid hierarchies of the Victorian countryside begin to buckle when a young woman of privilege discovers a secret that threatens to dissolve the distinction between the gentry and the rural poor.
Beside Still Waters
Arthur Christopher Benson
Seeking a life of quiet reflection, one man turns away from the demands of the world to discover his own path. This meditation on personal growth and the pursuit of happiness remains a gentle guide for the introspective.
Dynevor Terrace
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
A young man of idealistic temperament and a dutiful, high-minded woman navigate the crushing weight of family expectations, pride, and poverty. Their journey from stifling social obligations to personal integrity defines this mid-nineteenth-century domestic drama.
English Songs and Ballads
Unknown
These verses capture the heartbeat of a nation’s history, collecting the poems and songs that define the English spirit through love, loss, war, and the quiet rhythms of the countryside. It is a mosaic of voices ranging from anonymous medieval lyrics to the polished stanzas of nineteenth-century masters.
King Henry VI, Part 3
William Shakespeare
The crown is a heavy burden, and in this relentless cycle of vengeance, the path to power is paved with the blood of kin. Only the most ruthless survive to claim a throne that offers little peace.
Man and Maid
Elinor Glyn
A cynical, war-maimed aristocrat seeks a controlled, loveless marriage, only to find his carefully constructed defenses shattered by his own secretary’s hidden passion.
Peter and Jane
S. (Sarah) Macnaughtan
The stakes of a vast inheritance and the weight of a hidden past collide in this atmospheric tale of honor, deception, and the quiet resilience of the English countryside at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Pixie O'Shaughnessy
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
A spirited, impoverished Irish girl finds her footing at an English boarding school, balancing a fierce sense of loyalty with the chaotic, eccentric charm of her noble but fading family.
Salome
Emma Marshall
The story of a young girl navigating the sudden collapse of her family’s fortunes, this narrative explores the quiet weight of domestic responsibility and the enduring influence of a steadfast heart.
The bracelets
Maria Edgeworth
Success in competition often masks deeper character flaws, and true nobility is found not in victory, but in the quiet consistency of a virtuous heart.
The Dust of Conflict
Harold Bindloss
A modest young Englishman, falsely accused of a fatal crime, seeks a fresh start in the crucible of nineteenth-century Cuba.
The Grandchildren of the Ghetto
Israel Zangwill
The children of immigrants navigate the friction between ancestral tradition and the pull of the modern world, searching for a place to belong in the shifting landscape of London’s Jewish quarters.
The King's Achievement
Robert Hugh Benson
Two brothers navigate the violent religious upheavals of Henry VIII’s reign, with one finding sanctity in the monastery and the other becoming an instrument of the King’s ruthless dissolution of the Church.
The Pennyles Pilgrimage: Or The Money-lesse Perambulation of John Taylor
John Taylor
A man sets out on foot from London to Edinburgh with no money, refusing to beg or borrow, relying entirely on the hospitality and serendipity of the road. His journey becomes a candid, rugged record of early seventeenth-century life.
The Untilled Field
George Moore
A haunting portrait of a society in flux, this collection of stories captures the quiet desperation and inevitable departure of those caught in the fading light of rural Ireland.
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's Aunt
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A young woman's heart becomes the battleground of a devoted aunt’s secret strategy to shield her from a scandal-ridden match.
Father Payne
Arthur Christopher Benson
This reflective memoir captures the quiet intensity of a mentor who invited young men to live and learn at his estate. It serves as a gentle exploration of how to live with purpose, sincerity, and intellectual freedom.
From Wealth to Poverty
Austin Potter
The drink curse spares no one, turning paradise into a hell of passions and hate. This narrative serves as a stark testament to the ruin wrought by the liquor traffic upon innocent families and communities.