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British Literature — page 68
5,898 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 68 of 123.
The Spinners
Eden Phillpotts
In a small Dorset mill town, the rigid hierarchies of the early twentieth-century textile industry collide with the messy, unyielding realities of human desire and the struggle for personal dignity.
A Day Well Spent: A Farce, in One Act
John Oxenford
A runaway apprentice and his fast-talking foreman attempt to abandon their shop for a day of mischief, only to find themselves entangled in a series of increasingly absurd cases of mistaken identity.
A Question of Marriage
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
When a medical diagnosis threatens to define a woman's future, she must navigate the boundary between duty and personal happiness. This story follows two friends—Vanna and Jean—as they encounter love, loss, and the quiet, often overlooked, trials of domestic life.
Better Dead
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
A young Scottish intellectual travels to London, determined to "improve" the world by assassinating its most superfluous citizens, only to find his own violent logic eventually unraveling.
Daisy Thornton
Mary Jane Holmes
A young woman’s impulsive decision to annul her marriage triggers a cascade of regret, testing the resilience of love and the limits of forgiveness.
Dodo Wonders--
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A restless, indomitable socialite navigates the fading glamour of the British aristocracy as the First World War dismantles her world, forcing her to confront the absurdity of her own privilege.
Eli's Children: The Chronicles of an Unhappy Family
George Manville Fenn
This is a story of how rigid, judgmental moralizing can dismantle a family from within, leaving its members to navigate the ruin of their own making.
In Kedar's Tents
Henry Seton Merriman
In the shadow of a volatile Spanish civil war, a quick-witted Englishman becomes entangled in a dangerous web of political conspiracy, secret letters, and a love that tests the limits of loyalty.
Isabel Clarendon, Vol. 1 (of 2)
George Gissing
HOOK A refined widow of the English upper class finds her carefully ordered life disrupted by an intense, melancholic stranger who has retreated into the countryside.
John Bull, Junior
Max O'Rell
An immigrant teacher navigates the peculiar landscape of the English classroom, offering a witty, observant guide to the misadventures of learning a language and the irrepressible spirit of the British schoolboy.
Peter Plymley's Letters, and Selected Essays
Sydney Smith
These letters and essays offer a masterclass in the power of wit as a weapon against institutional injustice, proving that a sharp mind can dismantle political bigotry more effectively than a formal decree.
Philippa
Mrs. Molesworth
Philippa Raynsworth, a spirited young woman, orchestrates an elaborate, secret deception to assist her sister’s social ambitions, only to discover that the most important truths are those she must eventually confront within herself.
Poetry for children
Charles Lamb
Everyday domestic scenes, sibling squabbles, and childhood moral dilemmas are rendered through structured, instructional verse designed to shape the character of young readers.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, February 11, 1914
Various
This volume gathers the satirical wit, whimsical verse, and sharp political commentary of a storied British institution during the final winter of the pre-war era. It offers a candid, laughter-filled window into a world poised on a precipice.
The Corner of Harley Street: Being Some Familiar Correspondence of Peter Harding, M.D
Bashford, H. H. (Henry Howarth), Sir
The physician’s life in pre-war London is a study of quiet wisdom, shifting social tides, and the profound, unsung responsibility of tending to the human condition. Through a series of reflective letters, a seasoned doctor weighs the march of scientific progress against the enduring simplicity of the heart.
The Cornhill Magazine (Vol. I, No. 4, April 1860)
Various
A single volume of a Victorian periodical gathers the entire arc of human interest into one place, moving without a stumble from domestic betrayals to the cutting edge of science.
The Day's Work - Part 1
Rudyard Kipling
This collection of stories captures the relentless, often brutal, and deeply absorbing labor of men and women tasked with managing the machinery of an empire at the height of its reach. It is a portrait of people defined entirely by the work they do.
The God in the Car: A Novel
Anthony Hope
The cost of ambition is rarely measured in coin alone, but in the slow, irreversible erosion of one’s own heart.
The Other Man
Edgar Wallace
A criminal mastermind threatens the global order from a hijacked warship, forcing a relentless Scotland Yard detective into a high-stakes race against time.
The Pigeon: A Fantasy in Three Acts
John Galsworthy
The Pigeon: A Fantasy in Three Acts is a gentle, melancholic examination of the limits of human empathy. It explores the inevitable friction between those who wish to "fix" the poor and those who simply want to live.
The Rat-Pit
Patrick MacGill
A young woman’s migration from a quiet Irish village to the grinding poverty of a Glasgow slum reveals the brutal machinery that strips away dignity and hope.
The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher in Ten Volumes: Volume 01
John Fletcher
These plays define the transition of the English stage, capturing a world where high-flown wit, tragic honor, and sharp, cynical comedy collide in the final echoes of the Elizabethan era.
Watersprings
Arthur Christopher Benson
A sequestered Cambridge don is forced to confront the narrowness of his own existence when he inherits a country estate and falls in love with a woman who challenges his carefully constructed detachment.
Will Warburton
George Gissing
A man of status is forced by ruin into the humble life of a shopkeeper, finding that the dignity he feared to lose is easily outweighed by the quiet truth of his own character.
A Fluttered Dovecote
George Manville Fenn
A self-described "virgin and martyr" records her frantic, romantic, and often disastrous year at a girls' finishing school. This narrative offers a sharp, humorous look at the absurdities of nineteenth-century adolescence and the stifling atmosphere of a "finishing establishment.
A Lover's Complaint
William Shakespeare
A young woman sits alone in the wilderness, mourning the deception of a charismatic suitor. Her story is a confession of how easily even a guarded heart can be dismantled by the masterful performance of desire.
First Person Paramount
Ambrose Pratt
A man of sharp intellect and few scruples invents a life of daring deception, finding that the most effective way to control his fate is to become someone else entirely. This is a tale of cold-blooded ambition, identity, and the high-stakes games played by those at the top of the social ladder.
Mad: A Story of Dust and Ashes
George Manville Fenn
The story of Septimus Hardon is a somber, intimate portrait of a man adrift in the unforgiving machinery of Victorian London. It explores the crushing weight of poverty, the fragility of social standing, and the lingering echoes of past secrets.
Our Friend the Charlatan
George Gissing
The ambitious and perpetually posturing Dyce Lashmar drifts through late-Victorian society, trading in hollow philosophies and the favor of wealthy benefactors to build a life of unearned privilege.
Percy: A Tragedy
Hannah More
A tale of star-crossed love and ruin, this drama explores the devastating consequences of parental authority and the destructive nature of unchecked jealousy. Set against the backdrop of historical border feuds, it remains a poignant study of individual virtue trapped in a cycle of vengeance.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, June 24, 1914
Various
A snapshot of pre-war British life, this collection serves as a satirical time capsule, capturing the anxieties and trivialities of 1914 through sharp wit, political sketches, and theatrical burlesque.
Sir Tom
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A quiet domestic stability is shattered when a husband’s hidden past arrives on his doorstep, forcing his unsuspecting wife to navigate a treacherous web of secrets, social ambition, and the fragility of their young son’s life.
The Gentleman Cadet: His Career and Adventures at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich
Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks) Drayson
The path to military distinction is paved with more than just academic rigor, as a young aspirant discovers that surviving his own classmates is the truest test of character.
The Pothunters
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
A series of baffling thefts at an English public school sparks a frantic search for the culprit, testing the loyalty and courage of a group of spirited boys.
The Remarkable History of Sir Thomas Upmore, bart., M.P., formerly known as "Tommy Upmore"
R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
This is the story of a man who possesses a unique, supernatural physical gift—the ability to fly—and his journey to use that talent to defend the honor of his country. It is a whimsical, idiosyncratic satire of 19th-century British politics and the arrogance of scientific pretension.
Trial of John Jasper, lay precentor of Cloisterham Cathedral in the County of Kent, for the murder of Edwin Drood, engineer
England) Dickens Fellowship (London
A playful, high-stakes literary experiment, this transcript captures a 1914 mock trial where prominent writers and critics gather to settle the century’s most famous unfinished mystery. By placing the characters of a stalled masterpiece into a courtroom, the proceedings attempt to definitively answer whether John…
A Fleet in Being: Notes of Two Trips With The Channel Squadron
Rudyard Kipling
This account captures the mechanical grace and human resilience of the late-Victorian Royal Navy, portraying a fleet that is as much a living organism as a collection of steel.
A Gray Eye or So. In Three Volumes—Volume III
Frank Frankfort Moore
A secret marriage and a political scandal collide in a sharp, cynical portrait of aristocratic maneuvering. This narrative tracks the collision between romantic idealism and the cold calculations of high-society life in late 19th-century Britain.
A Wife's Duty: A Tale
Amelia Opie
A quiet study of marital devotion, this narrative explores the boundaries of forgiveness when a husband’s follies repeatedly threaten the stability of his home and the happiness of his wife.
Chants for Socialists
William Morris
A clarion call for social transformation, these poems envision a future where labor is joyful and the fruits of the earth are shared by all, urging readers to embrace the revolutionary struggle required to secure it.
Double Dealing: Sailor's Knots, Part 11
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A chance resemblance leads a vacationing stranger into a bizarre trap, where he must navigate a web of staged debts and familial expectations to escape a case of mistaken identity.
Flemington
Violet Jacob
A young painter finds himself caught between opposing loyalties in the Jacobite Rebellion, navigating a landscape where the only certainty is the shifting nature of men's hearts.
Girls New and Old
L. T. Meade
A spirited schoolgirl finds her loyalties and pride tested when a secret web of rumors threatens her future, forcing her to choose between bitter isolation and the grace of forgiveness.
Parlous Times: A Novel of Modern Diplomacy
David Dwight Wells
Hook A young diplomat finds himself tangled in a web of international intrigue and social maneuvering, where his professional duty to protect state secrets collides with a complicated, unwanted, and potentially ruinous romance.
Salem Chapel, v. 2/2
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A young minister faces a crisis of faith and reputation when his family’s private scandal threatens his position at a provincial chapel. This drama of duty, social pressure, and maternal devotion explores the fragile boundaries between a preacher’s public life and his hidden heart.
The Altar Fire
Arthur Christopher Benson
This meditative diary fiction explores the silent, internal landscape of a man grappling with grief, spiritual exhaustion, and the profound, often painful search for meaning in a world that feels increasingly fragmented and obscure.
The Further Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Under-Graduate: Being a Continuation of "The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman"
Cuthbert Bede
The further adventures of a naive Oxford student offer a lighthearted, episodic look at the trials, escapades, and social learning curve of nineteenth-century university life.
The Greatest English Classic: A Study of the King James Version of the Bible and Its Influence on Life and Literature
Cleland Boyd McAfee
The English Bible stands as a singular monument, bridging the gap between ancient history and the modern literary mind. Its profound legacy remains etched into the very foundation of Western thought and language.