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British Literature — page 65
4,240 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 65 of 89.
Over the Brazier
Robert Graves
Childhood fantasies of innocent woods, magical beasts, and green-bound poetry books shatter against the frozen mud, stench, and sudden violent death of the Western Front.
Peg Woffington
Charles Reade
An actress in eighteenth-century London discovers that her noble admirer is secretly married, forcing a dramatic confrontation between theatrical illusion and moral truth.
Popular British Ballads, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 3 (of 4)
Unknown
Love, murder, magic, and maritime peril collision-course through a vibrant tapestry of storytelling. These verse tales capture human passion and terror at their absolute extremes.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 105, August 19th 1893
Various
A snapshot of Victorian society at play and in power, caught mid-stride in the late summer of 1893.
Roger Ingleton, Minor
Talbot Baines Reed
When a dying landholder conceals a second heir, a dutiful younger son sets off across Europe to surrender his own inheritance to a ruined long-lost brother.
Stories for the Young
Hannah More
A sharp, moral vision of eighteenth-century English life where everyday choices carry eternal weight, tracing the narrow line between virtue and ruin.
The Daemon of the World
Percy Bysshe Shelley
An ethereal spirit descends to lift a sleeping maiden's soul into the cosmic heavens, revealing the dark errors of humanity's past and a radiant vision of future perfection.
The Rubicon
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A cynical young woman marries for social position, only to find that her callous indifference to life wrecks the happiness of everyone around her.
Tomlinsoniana
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A rogue's guide to human nature reveals that the quickest way to govern men is to master the hidden mechanics of their hypocrisy.
'Twixt Earth and Stars: Poems
Radclyffe Hall
A collection of 20th-century lyric poetry explores the ecstatic peaks and quiet, desolate aftershocks of romance, tracing how passionate devotion surrenders to distance, pride, and the inevitable decay of time.
A Plucky Girl
L. T. Meade
A fierce refusal to slip into quiet, respectable poverty drives a spirited young woman and her mother to open a commercial boardinghouse, but their desperate venture soon entangles them in crushing debts and hazardous social compromises.
And Five Were Foolish
Dornford Yates
A collection of witty, romantic tales from the early 20th century, exploring love, marriage, and the complexities of human relationships.
Countess Kate
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
When a poor parson's orphan niece suddenly inherits a historic peerage, her wildest dreams of wealth crumble against the stiff, unyielding walls of aristocratic Victorian propriety.
Five Little Plays
Alfred Sutro
Five short plays set in early twentieth-century England strip away social polish to reveal the quiet desperation, hidden betrayals, and sharp bargaining driving human relationships.
Frivolous Cupid
Anthony Hope
A collection of sketches and short stories, this volume explores the tangled, often absurd, and always unpredictable nature of romance. Through a series of vignettes, the prose examines how vanity, social expectation, and genuine affection collide in the lives of both ordinary English society and legendary figures.…
It was a Lover and His Lass
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
Scotland’s northern hills frame the grand, half-built folly of Murkley—a roofless, glassless palace where wild exotic pines thrive, while the family inside sits trapped between proud lineage and looming financial decay.
Jezebel's Daughter
Wilkie Collins
When a dead woman’s bell rings in the night, a mother’s murderous scheme unravels, exposing how far ambition will push a desperate soul.
Olinda's Adventures: or the Amours of a Young Lady
Catharine Trotter
A young woman navigates the treacherous waters of romance, court intrigue, and social expectation, resolving to preserve her personal integrity despite the persistent advances of unsuitable admirers.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, Jan. 15, 1919
Various
The end of the First World War brings a sudden rush of relief and absurdity to London's streets and military dugouts.
Quisanté
Anthony Hope
An ambitious woman marries a brilliant, unprincipled politician, only to find that even death cannot free her from his spell.
Roger Trewinion
Joseph Hocking
A grim coastal landscape, an ancestral curse, and a family torn apart by deception frame this classic Cornish melodrama.
Stories of the East
Leonard Woolf
Behind the polished veneer of imperial administration lies a quiet, unsparing examination of human delusion, cultural friction, and the fragile illusions that men construct to survive in unfamiliar worlds.
The City of Pleasure
Arnold Bennett
Behind the dazzling lights and swelling bandstands of a colossal Victorian pleasure park, two wildly different men play a high-stakes game of greed, theatrical pride, and deadly revenge.
The Gayton Scholarship: A School Story
Herbert Hayens
A spirited British schoolboy must navigate sudden poverty, fierce academic competition, and a false accusation of theft while striving to support his family and build a honorable future.
The Indiscretion of the Duchess: Being a Story Concerning Two Ladies, a Nobleman, and a Necklace
Anthony Hope
A young Englishman's sudden journey across Normandy entangles him in a high-stakes duel, a missing diamond necklace, and a dangerous game of love between a headstrong duchess and her rivals.
The Little Nugget
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
When an over-pampered American millionaire's son becomes the most sought-after prize for competing kidnappers at a quiet English prep school, love, honor, and sudden violence collide in unexpected ways.
The Little Princess of Tower Hill
L. T. Meade
Pampered and headstrong, an aristocratic young girl discovers that true nobility lies in empathy and self-sacrifice when a brush with hardship shifts her world.
The Road to Mandalay: A Tale of Burma
B. M. (Bithia Mary) Croker
Driven into exile by his father’s death and his mother’s vanity, a young Englishman seeks his fortune in colonial Rangoon, only to find himself entangled in a vast, dark web of drug trafficking, treason, and hidden vice.
Yorksher Puddin': A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories from the Pen of John Hartley
John Hartley
A rich slice of working-class life, where stubborn husbands, sharp-tongued wives, and well-meaning fools clash, laugh, and scrape by.
Back o' the Moon, and other stories
Oliver Onions
A collection of rugged, atmospheric tales from the Yorkshire dales, where the boundary between folklore, history, and the harsh realities of rural life blurs into something enduringly haunting.
Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush
Ian Maclaren
A quiet, deeply felt portrait of a Scottish village, this collection of tales finds the profound in the everyday lives, sorrows, and steadfast affections of a rural community.
Georgian Poetry 1918-19
Unknown
This anthology serves as a quiet, definitive snapshot of English verse written in the shadow of the Great War, capturing a generation caught between pastoral tradition and the encroaching reality of a broken world. It represents a specific, intentional literary moment, gathering diverse voices that collectively…
Self-Help: Sailor's Knots, Part 3
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A cynical London night-watchman expounds on the perils of good intentions before recounting a chaotic story of three sailors, a fake detective, and a night of backfiring schemes on Tower Hill.
The Beaux-Stratagem: A comedy in five acts
George Farquhar
Two penniless gentlemen arrive in a quiet country town, posing as a wealthy lord and his servant to hunt for an heiress. Their scheme ignites a series of romantic entanglements and social upheavals.
The Day of Wrath: A Story of 1914
Louis Tracy
Caught in the sudden, violent onset of the First World War, two strangers must traverse a crumbling Belgium to survive the German invasion and find their way home.
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 981, October 15, 1898
Various
This volume serves as a quintessential time capsule of late-Victorian domesticity, offering a blend of moral instruction, architectural appreciation, and serialized fiction designed for the young women of 1898.
The Mysterious Mr. Miller
William Le Queux
A web of international crime, stolen identities, and long-buried secrets entangles a man’s life after a mysterious stranger dies in his boarding house.
The Serpent's Tooth
B. M. (Bithia Mary) Croker
HOOK A young woman’s life is defined by the heavy, inherited traits of a difficult mother and a volatile husband. This story of domestic entrapment reveals the painful cost of breaking free.
The Wolves and the Lamb
William Makepeace Thackeray
A witty and satirical play about love, class, and social pretensions in 19th-century England.
A Dog with a Bad Name
Talbot Baines Reed
The shadow of a single impulsive act follows a boy into adulthood, testing whether a man can ever outrun the reputation he earned in his youth. This is a story of redemption, hidden identities, and the quiet weight of conscience.
An English Squire
Christabel R. (Christabel Rose) Coleridge
Caught between two worlds, a young man raised in Spain struggles to claim his inheritance as an English squire, while his devoted brother faces the quiet erosion of his own health and dreams.
Arthur: A Short Sketch of His Life and History in English Verse of the First Half of the Fifteenth Century
Unknown
Legendary kings and ancient loyalties collide in this compact chronicle of a hero’s rise and inevitable fall. It offers a rare, vernacular window into how medieval writers viewed the foundational myths of Britain.
Caught in a Trap
John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson
This Victorian melodrama explores the volatile intersection of inheritance, social artifice, and the ruinous consequences of personal obsession. It is a story of calculated schemes unraveling under the pressure of their own deceit.
Critical Miscellanies, Vol. 1, Essay 3: Byron
John Morley
An English aristocrat becomes the unlikely poet of European revolution, embodying both the era's chaotic spirit and its profound intellectual restlessness. This exploration dissects the man behind the myth, analyzing how a life of excess and political fervor shaped a towering, if often contradictory, literary legacy.
Echoes of the War
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
This collection of short plays offers a poignant, intimate look at the home front during the First World War. It explores how ordinary people—mothers, fathers, and children—navigated the profound grief and sudden isolation brought on by a global conflict.
Hunted and Harried
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Amid the brutal religious persecutions of seventeenth-century Scotland, a group of humble farmers and covenanters risk everything to maintain their faith and protect their own against a tyrannical regime.
Olla Podrida
Frederick Marryat
The world is a collection of fragments, and this assembly of tales and sketches captures the erratic, witty, and often cynical spirit of a nineteenth-century naval officer turned man of letters. It offers a jagged window into a mind that viewed life as a series of performances, whether in a drawing room or on the…
Patricia Brent, Spinster
Herbert George Jenkins
This is a lighthearted comedy of manners about a lonely woman’s desperate bluff and the complicated romance that follows. It offers a charming, witty look at the social anxieties of London life during the First World War.