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British Literature — page 74
4,240 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 74 of 89.
Syd Belton: The Boy Who Would Not Go to Sea
George Manville Fenn
A young boy resists his family’s naval legacy, only to discover that his true calling—and his survival—depends on the very skills he once sought to avoid.
The Cabman's Story: The Mysteries of a London 'Growler'
Arthur Conan Doyle
A veteran London cabman shares his dark, hidden history with a passenger during a holiday outing. These tales reveal the city’s shadows from the unique, mobile perspective of a driver who has seen it all.
The fate of Fenella
Unknown
An estranged couple’s volatile past ignites a trail of jealousy, suspicion, and near-fatal misadventures spanning the Atlantic, leaving their fragile reconciliation dangling by a thread.
The Five Nations, Volume I
Rudyard Kipling
The world is a vast, dangerous, and exhilarating stage where the strength of human character is measured against the indifference of nature and the heavy weight of duty. This collection of verse captures the pulse of an expanding global empire at the turn of the twentieth century.
The Garret and the Garden
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A rugged Scottish traveler descends into London’s urban wilderness, where he discovers a hidden sanctuary on a rooftop and a web of intrigue involving an elderly nurse, a streetwise orphan, and a corrupt lawyer.
The Lake
George Moore
A restless Irish priest grapples with the suffocating silence of his vocation, eventually finding that the only way to save his soul is to abandon the life he spent decades building.
The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America
Nathaniel Ward
A self-appointed cobbler from the American wilderness attempts to mend his fractured native country, offering sharp, stinging advice on religious purity, political stability, and the vanity of fashion.
The Winter's Tale
William Shakespeare
A king’s groundless jealousy shatters his family, leading to a long, redemptive journey through loss and winter before grace can be restored.
Under the Storm
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
In a landscape torn by civil conflict, a young boy accepts a solemn charge that will define his life, testing his loyalties and his endurance as his world is systematically undone.
Waltoniana: Inedited Remains in Verse and Prose of Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton
An honest, unadorned legacy of a life well-lived, these scattered remains reveal the private heart of a man whose quiet devotion to friends and faith echoed far beyond his own century. This collection gathers the occasional prose, elegies, and personal documents of a writer best remembered for his contemplative…
Watch-Dogs: Ship's Company, Part 5
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
The quiet lanes of the English countryside are rarely as peaceful as they seem, especially when a well-meaning visitor decides to teach the locals a lesson in virtue. This story follows the inhabitants of the village of Claybury, whose quiet, beer-sipping rhythm is upended by an outsider’s misguided attempt to…
A Century of Roundels
Algernon Charles Swinburne
This collection of one hundred roundels serves as a delicate, rhythmic meditation on the cycles of life, the inevitability of death, and the persistent, healing power of music and memory. It is a work of formal precision, using the constraints of the roundel—a repeating, circular structure—to mirror the repetitive,…
Auriol
William Harrison Ainsworth
A man trades his soul for eternal youth, only to find that immortality is a cage controlled by a sinister tormentor.
Blanche: A Story for Girls
Mrs. Molesworth
Refusing to trade highborn dignity for quiet obscurity, a resilient mother and her daughters face exile, poverty, and trade in nineteenth-century England.
Dr. Jolliffe's Boys
Lewis Hough
HOOK This portrait of English boarding school life reveals the fragile moral boundaries of youth, where the line between a harmless prank and a life-altering transgression is often thinner than ice.
Fairy Gold: Ship's Company, Part 4
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A husband’s scheme to reclaim his wife’s secret savings quickly devolves into a farce of misplaced trust and chimney-side deception.
Herb of Grace
Rosa Nouchette Carey
A young man seeks beauty in the English countryside, only to find the most challenging landscape is the human heart. His journey from an idealized romantic observer to a man of substance and enduring peace defines this story.
Mohawks: A Novel. Volume 3 of 3
M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
In the glittering, deceitful world of Georgian high society, a dying rake and a resolute young couple navigate the dangerous shadows of hidden parentage, past murders, and unforgiving greed.
One Man's View
Leonard Merrick
A bright, ambitious woman casts off a devotion she never fully understood, only to discover that freedom without purpose is merely another kind of exile.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 8, 1890
Various
A sharp look through the lattice of late-Victorian society reveals a world endlessly occupied with its own voices. Party functionaries preen under gaslight, cross-Channel passengers endure midwinter gales, and the literary set trades polite barbs across magazine pages.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, January 17, 1891
Various
This centennial issue of Punch offers a vivid, kaleidoscopic look at the pulse of Victorian life in January 1891, blending razor-sharp political satire with the domestic absurdities of the era.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, December 12, 1917
Various
This volume captures the weary, defiant, and bitingly ironic spirit of wartime Britain in late 1917, where the scarcity of coal and sugar is matched only by the abundance of bureaucratic absurdity. It serves as a time capsule of a nation laughing through the trenches and the home front, finding relief in satire…
Revolving lights
Dorothy M. (Dorothy Miller) Richardson
Alone in the vast, noisy tide of early twentieth-century London, a woman moves between competing philosophies and social circles, searching for an unshakeable sense of self.
Samboe
Mary Ann Hedge
A stolen African child survives the horrors of the middle passage, hardship in the West Indies, and cruelty in London to become an educated advocate for his people.
Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici': An Appreciation
Alexander Whyte
The seventeenth-century physician Sir Thomas Browne invites readers into a quiet, profound dialogue with his own soul. This exploration serves as a timeless meditation on the harmony between scientific curiosity and Christian faith.
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 982, October 22, 1898
Various
Domestic worries, historical anxieties, and practical ambitions converge within the pages of a late-Victorian magazine designed for the self-improvement of young women.
The Octoroon
Dion Boucicault
A Louisiana plantation faces imminent bankruptcy, a villainous overseer schemes for land and human lives, and a doomed love crosses the color line.
The Ship of Stars
Arthur Quiller-Couch
The story follows a young boy’s journey from a sheltered childhood to the harsh, wind-swept coast of Cornwall, where dreams of heroism collide with the realities of love and duty. It is a quiet, lyrical exploration of what it means to grow into a man of integrity while navigating the wreckage of the past.
The Stolen Statesman: Being the Story of a Hushed Up Mystery
William Le Queux
In a bustling Edwardian London, a Cabinet Minister vanishes into thin air after a secret dinner, leaving behind a web of blackmail, political ruin, and long-buried romance.
The Story of a Hare
J. C. (John Coulson) Tregarthen
A delicate leveret steps into the wild edge of nineteenth-century Cornwall, learning that survival demands absolute vigilance and a brilliant mastery of trickery against the relentless teeth of the countryside.
The Tale Of Mr. Peter Brown - Chelsea Justice: From "The New Decameron", Volume III
V. (Victoria) Sackville-West
A chance encounter in a dingy London café spirals into a haunting confession of obsession, betrayal, and a terrifying act of maritime vengeance.
The Wiles of the Wicked
William Le Queux
Bound by a dark trap near the river, a young man loses his sight, only to recover it through a mysterious surgery that hurls him into a web of identity theft and forgotten years.
Wintry Peacock: From "The New Decameron", Volume III
D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
A chance meeting in a snow-bound village pulls an observant stranger into the volatile, private battle between a husband and his wife, a struggle centered on a mysterious letter and a pet peacock.
A Bride from the Bush
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
A wild Australian bushwoman marries into an elevated Thames Valley family, sparking a fiery clash of cultures that tests the bounds of marriage, social expectation, and personal identity.
Aunt Deborah
Mary Russell Mitford
An old woman's endless scolding hides a deep-seated craving for power, until a sudden plunge into a village fish-pond shatters her spite and rewrites her legacy.
Beaumaroy Home from the Wars
Anthony Hope
War breaks down the inner compass; love and a quiet cottage on the heath must rebuild it.
Confessions of an Etonian
I. E. M.
A boy’s tearful night journey to Eton begins a reflective life story defined by early independence, religious misgivings, and an unquenchable wanderlust.
Mountain Moggy: The Stoning of the Witch
William Henry Giles Kingston
Cruel village antics burn a helpless woman’s home, but a young boy’s bitter mistake opens a path to unexpected mercy and lost family.
Mr. Punch's After-Dinner Stories
Unknown
A seat at the Victorian table turns out to be a surprisingly chaotic affair of strict social posturing, outrageous restaurant bills, and the perpetual terror of bad wine.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-03-31
Various
A sharp, laughing look at post-war Britain, where returning soldiers, overwhelmed husbands, and harassed citizens navigate bureaucratic absurdities, modern technology, and the subtle absurdity of everyday domestic life.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 105, July 29th 1893
Various
In an era when Parliament squabbled over the shape of the British Empire and Londoners flocked to water shows, a weekly magazine captured every passing absurdity with unflagging irreverence.
Stories by English Authors: Ireland
Unknown
An Irish servant outsmarts a French host over a missing pan, while elsewhere on the island, agrarian unrest and nocturnal spectres disrupt the quiet routines of rural life.
The Head of the Family: Sailor's Knots, Part 9
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A discharged sailor poses as a grieving mother’s long-lost son to thwart a tyrannical stepfather, only to fall for his fake sister and claim the household by marriage.
The Man with a Shadow
George Manville Fenn
A rural doctor's obsessive pursuit of medical breakthrough drives him to the brink of madness, threatening the very lives and loves he holds dear.
The Master of the Shell
Talbot Baines Reed
A newly appointed house-master faces suspicious boys, rival colleagues, and an unsolved assault that threatens his career at an English public school.
The Nine of Hearts: A Novel
B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon
Desperate to shield his sweetheart from a degrading scandal, a gentleman faces the gallows for a murder he did not commit until a single obstinate juror and a coded playing-card shatter the prosecution's flawless case.
The Real Charlotte
E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville
Her beauty was her only fortune, and in late nineteenth-century Ireland, that made her a pawn for every scheming relative, broken gentleman, and feckless officer in the county.
The Title: A Comedy in Three Acts
Arnold Bennett
A domestic comedy of wartime ambition, where a husband's principles vanish the moment his wife decides she wants to be a baronet's lady.