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British Literature — page 64
6,377 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 64 of 133.
The Wanderer
Fanny Burney
A refugee from the French Revolution attempts to build a life in England while burdened by a secret, a mysterious husband, and the relentless suspicion of a society that views her independence as a moral failing.
Two Years Ago, Volume I
Charles Kingsley
The heavy air of a stifling summer day, the quiet desperation of a village locked in social stagnation, and the arrival of a man who refuses to look away from the rot beneath the surface.
Barbara Lynn: A Tale of the Dales and Fells
Emily J. Jenkinson
The rugged landscapes of the Westmorland dales provide the backdrop for a quiet, atmospheric meditation on duty, intellectual longing, and the weight of ancestral history.
Dandy Dick: A Play in Three Acts
Arthur Wing Pinero
A dignified clergyman finds his carefully curated life unraveling when he is inadvertently drawn into the disreputable world of horse racing. His struggle to maintain professional decorum amidst mounting chaos forms the heart of this enduring farce.
Foxglove Manor: A Novel, Volume 1 (of 3)
Robert Williams Buchanan
The Reverend Charles Santley, a man of profound intellectual doubt, hides a burning, animal nature behind his clerical robes. His struggle to reconcile his faith with his forbidden desires leads to a psychological unraveling that threatens the peace of his quiet village.
Hard Pressed
Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White
A desperate scramble for fortune and reputation plays out on the English turf, where a web of gambling debts and high-stakes manipulation threatens to destroy an old family’s legacy.
Love's Shadow
Ada Leverson
In the polished drawing rooms of Edwardian London, a group of young socialites discovers that the most dangerous, volatile element in their lives is not scandal, but marriage.
Notes to Shakespeare
Samuel Johnson
A monumental work of critical labor, this collection offers a window into how an eighteenth-century mind grappled with the linguistic puzzles, moral ambiguities, and sheer imaginative power of the Elizabethan stage. It serves as an essential companion for those who wish to see the Bard not as a static monument, but…
Poems and Ballads (Third Series): Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles
Algernon Charles Swinburne
March, master of winds and marshal of storms, commands the opening of this collection, setting a tone of elemental power and relentless energy. The collection moves from the public and the historical to the private and the elegiac, mapping the landscape of a nineteenth-century mind deeply attuned to the rhythms of…
Scenes and Characters, or, Eighteen Months at Beechcroft
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
A house full of sisters and brothers navigates the small, high-stakes dramas of village life, where the impulsive search for excitement often clashes with the quiet, unyielding demands of duty.
The Beautiful Wretch
William Black
On a quiet Brighton afternoon, a young woman’s solitary wanderings lead her into a complex web of social expectations, hidden heartaches, and the subtle, often painful, navigation of romantic duty.
The Coming of the King
Joseph Hocking
A young man is drawn into a web of royal intrigue, hidden marriage contracts, and clandestine religious gatherings during the volatile early years of the Restoration.
The Fair Haven
Samuel Butler
HOOK This work presents a curious intellectual paradox: a sophisticated defense of Christian miracles written by an author who, through the artifice of a fictional persona, simultaneously dismantles the very foundations of his own argument.
The Gentleman's Magazine, January 1731
Various
This collection serves as a foundational archive of early eighteenth-century British public discourse. It captures the frantic, intellectual, and often petty pulse of a nation grappling with its own modernization.
The History of Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 4 (of 7)
Samuel Richardson
This fourth volume of an expansive epistolary saga chronicles the moral and emotional navigation of an English gentleman, Sir Charles Grandison, as he balances duty to his Italian friends with his growing commitment to a beloved woman at home. It explores the intersections of faith, family obligation, and…
The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid
Thomas Hardy
A young dairymaid finds her simple life upended when a mysterious nobleman draws her into a web of social ambition and romantic uncertainty. This atmospheric tale explores the quiet, devastating friction between humble contentment and the allure of a world beyond one’s reach.
The Schoolmistress: A Farce in Three Acts
Arthur Wing Pinero
A school principal’s secret life and a group of mischievous pupils collide in this high-energy farce, where social pretenses unravel amidst a series of chaotic, comedic misunderstandings.
Two Years Ago, Volume II
Charles Kingsley
A sweeping tale of mid-nineteenth-century England, this narrative follows a cast of disparate lives as they collide against the backdrop of a terrifying cholera outbreak. It explores how human pride and spiritual isolation fracture under the pressure of mortal crisis.
Whoso Findeth a Wife
William Le Queux
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.
An Engagement of Convenience: A Novel
Louis Zangwill
Wyndham, a struggling painter living in a haze of poverty and artistic ambition, finds his path crossed by two women who represent the stark divide between his material needs and his romantic ideals. He attempts to navigate a fragile compromise between the security of a loveless engagement and the haunting,…
Barren Honour: A Novel
George A. (George Alfred) Lawrence
A gentleman of integrity finds his life dismantled by a web of calculated social treachery, forcing him to choose between his own happiness and the preservation of a woman’s reputation.
Denzil Quarrier
George Gissing
A man of political ambition attempts to build a life on a foundation of secrecy, only to find that personal integrity and social conventions are unforgiving masters.
Earl Hubert's Daughter: The Polishing of the Pearl - A Tale of the 13th Century
Emily Sarah Holt
The 13th century is a landscape of high-stakes court politics and rigid religious dogma, yet even in such a fractured age, the most profound connections often bloom in the shadows. This narrative weaves together the lives of those navigating the shifting power of the English aristocracy and the precarious existence…
Fires - Book 1: The Stone, and Other Tales
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
These rhythmic, narrative poems peer into the lives of common laborers, finding profound dignity and haunting mystery within the stark realities of their daily toil.
Idols
William John Locke
This is a story about the fragility of human reputation and the hidden, often contradictory, loyalties that govern our lives. It examines how a single, external act of violence can unravel the carefully constructed structures of love and duty in a respectable social circle.
Jane Oglander
Marie Belloc Lowndes
A celebrated war hero returns to England, only to find himself entangled in a web of obsession and betrayal within a refined country estate, where the boundaries between love and cruelty blur.
My Friend Prospero
Henry Harland
The golden sun of an Italian spring casts a long shadow over an ancient castle, where a chance encounter between a young man and a mysterious woman blossoms into a complicated, spirited romance.
Selections from Previous Works: With Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals, and a Psalm of Montreal
Samuel Butler
True science, much like true love, is rarely a smooth path. This collection of essays and critiques exposes the messy, often bitter behind-the-scenes reality of 19th-century intellectual life.
The Guards Came Through, and Other Poems
Arthur Conan Doyle
This collection of verse captures the grit, grief, and persistent spirit of the First World War through the eyes of a writer witnessing his nation’s endurance. It serves as a rhythmic, patriotic testament to the soldiers who held the line and the families who waited at home.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
William Shakespeare
A disgraced knight attempts to seduce two married women, only to find himself the target of an elaborate, humiliating campaign of revenge.
The Widow in the Bye Street
John Masefield
A mother’s lifelong devotion to her only child unravels when a predatory woman lures the young man into a fatal web of jealousy and ruin. This narrative poem traces the devastating collision between a widow’s desperate, sacrificial love and the cruel indifference of the world.
A Family Man
John Galsworthy
A man of status finds his domestic world unraveling when his wife and daughters refuse to be managed, leading to a public scandal that forces him to confront his own brittle authority.
A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope
Colley Cibber
A aging actor-manager finally decides that silence is no longer a virtue, launching a sharp, witty, and deeply personal defense against a literary giant who has spent decades using him as a punchline.
Four Max Carrados Detective Stories
Ernest Bramah
A man of refined tastes and immense wealth turns to detective work, proving that the keenest eyes are those that see nothing at all.
Joanna Godden
Sheila Kaye-Smith
A woman of independent spirit and formidable will navigates the shifting landscapes of her own heart and the rigid social codes of early twentieth-century rural England.
Miscellaneous Papers
Charles Dickens
These writings reveal the keen, restless mind of a Victorian observer navigating the social crises, artistic debates, and personal losses of a rapidly changing century. They offer a rare glimpse into the private convictions that fueled the public crusades of a literary giant.
Pearl-Fishing
Charles Dickens
This collection gathers selected short fiction and moralizing sketches originally published in the influential Victorian journal Household Words. It offers a window into the varied concerns, social anxieties, and imaginative flights that occupied mid-nineteenth-century readers.
Sir Harry: A Love Story
Archibald Marshall
A young man of aristocratic upbringing discovers the profound reality of love and the necessity of sacrifice, finding his place in a changing world that eventually demands his life.
Soldier Stories
Rudyard Kipling
The life of a soldier in British India is defined by grueling marches, harsh terrain, and the heavy, unspoken weight of duty, camaraderie, and the occasional, haunting loss of one’s own soul.
The Disturbing Charm
Berta Ruck
A mysterious parcel arrives for a professor, containing a "Disturbing Charm" that claims to solve the world’s most persistent problem: people falling in love with the wrong partners.
The Everlasting Mercy
John Masefield
A man born to the devil finds his soul transformed through a sudden, overwhelming encounter with grace. This raw, rhythmic narrative chronicles a life reclaimed from the depths of dissipation.
The Lady from Nowhere: A Detective Story
Fergus Hume
A mysterious murder in a quiet London suburb unravels a tangled history of past crimes and hidden identities. This detective story follows the trail of a woman known only as "The Lady from Nowhere.
The Red Room
William Le Queux
A quiet motor-mechanic is pulled into a web of international espionage and murder when his mysterious neighbor invites him to view a corpse. This thriller unfolds as a high-stakes puzzle where nothing—not even the identity of the dead man—is quite what it seems.
The sunny side
A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne
A collection of lighthearted essays and whimsical short stories, this volume offers a charming, witty, and deeply human look at the minor absurdities of early 20th-century life. It remains a classic for its warmth and timeless, conversational humor.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 15
Robert Louis Stevenson
This collection brings together four dramatic works that explore the shadows of human character and the fragile mask of social respectability. These plays delve into the "double life," where the upright citizen and the desperate rogue often occupy the same soul.
Voices in the Night
Flora Annie Webster Steel
The city of Nushapore breathes with a restless, smoke-choked anxiety as the British administration and its Indian subjects drift toward a collision. A web of misunderstandings, religious tensions, and buried colonial history creates an atmosphere where an uprising feels, to many, like an inevitable, looming storm.
A call
Ford Madox Ford
A secret phone call, a mysterious silence, and the quiet tearing apart of upper-class London lives.
A Girl in Spring-Time
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
HOOK A headstrong schoolgirl finds her summer plans upended, only to discover that her greatest trial becomes the unexpected anchor of her life.