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British Literature — page 80
4,240 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 80 of 89.
A Diary Without Dates
Enid Bagnold
The Great War is often remembered for its grand strategies, but here the focus is the quiet, antiseptic, and harrowing space of a hospital ward, where the war is measured in pain, bandages, and the fragile lives of broken men.
A Doctor of the Old School
Ian Maclaren
A country doctor’s final journey through a brutal winter storm reveals the profound, unspoken love of a community that only fully recognizes his worth as he is laid to rest.
Banked Fires
E. W. (Ethel Winifred) Savi
Amid the isolated outposts of colonial Bengal, a young bride struggles to navigate the stifling conventions of her marriage and the dangerous allure of a charismatic, misunderstood doctor.
Collected Poems 1897 - 1907, by Henry Newbolt
Newbolt, Henry John, Sir
These verses capture the martial spirit of a vanished Empire, blending the rhythmic pulse of naval legend with the quiet, aching nostalgia of a generation shaped by the rigors of the public school and the battlefield.
Country Lodgings
Mary Russell Mitford
A young widow and a mysterious foreign exile find romance in a crumbling country manor, testing the boundaries of social status, personal sacrifice, and the true nature of love.
Cousin Henry
Anthony Trollope
A fragile conscience and a hidden secret collide in a quiet Welsh estate, where the rightful inheritance of a young woman hangs on the morality of a man who lacks the courage to do either good or evil.
Dorothy's Double. Volume 2 (of 3)
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A high-stakes drama of reputation and redemption, this narrative tracks the pursuit of two elusive swindlers across continents while exploring the complexities of social standing and true character in the Victorian era.
Grey Wethers: A Romantic Novel
V. (Victoria) Sackville-West
A haunting, atmospheric tale of two lovers who vanish into the ancient, uncaring landscape of the English Downs, leaving a mystery that lingers long after their departure.
Hathercourt
Mrs. Molesworth
A quiet English rectory finds its rhythm disrupted by the arrival of mysterious, wealthy neighbors, forcing two observant sisters to navigate the delicate boundaries between social duty and their own hidden, independent desires.
Mirk Abbey, Volume 3 (of 3)
James Payn
This domestic drama follows a mother’s desperate masquerade to shield her family from a past that threatens to destroy their social standing and inheritances. It is a story of long-buried secrets, the crushing weight of class expectations, and the lengths a parent will go to keep her children’s lives intact.
My New Home
Mrs. Molesworth
Helena Wingfield, an orphaned girl raised in secluded, sun-drenched happiness by her grandmother, must reconcile her devotion to her past with the daunting, unfamiliar pressures of a new life in London.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, March 18, 1914
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical spirit of British life on the eve of the Great War, offering a witty lens into the political anxieties, social fashions, and daily absurdities of 1914.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 2nd, 1914
Various
The Great War has arrived, and with it, the familiar rhythm of London life begins to stutter, replaced by a strange cocktail of patriotic fervor, anxiety, and sharp, biting wit. This collection of writing captures a nation in the first disorienting month of a conflict that no one yet realizes will redraw the map of…
Tales from Many Sources, Vol. V
Various
The world is a collection of fleeting, interconnected lives, where quiet acts of devotion and sudden, strange turns of fortune define the human experience.
The Admirable Bashville
Bernard Shaw
The stage play of a prizefighter’s romance, this work uses the melodious, rhythmic artifice of Elizabethan blank verse to elevate the gritty, often absurd realities of the boxing ring and the drawing room into a high-spirited comedy.
The Battle of the Bays
Owen Seaman
A sharp-witted collection of satirical verse, this volume masterfully dissects the literary fashions and political postures of the late Victorian era through the art of parody.
The Betrayal of John Fordham
B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon
A man confesses to a murder he cannot remember committing, trapped by a web of deceit woven by those closest to him.
The Chequers: Being the Natural History of a Public-House, Set Forth in
James Runciman
This series of sketches offers an unvarnished, firsthand account of life inside a London public-house, stripping away the romantic myths surrounding the drink trade to reveal the human wreckage left in its wake.
The Crown of Life
George Gissing
A young man’s quiet, obsessive devotion to an unreachable ideal finds its resolution in a world of shifting social expectations and professional ambition. This is a story of the quiet, enduring power of sincerity in a society obsessed with appearances.
The daft days
Neil Munro
A spirited, orphaned American girl arrives in her father’s quiet Scottish hometown, challenging the stuffy, orderly traditions of her Victorian relatives with her own irrepressible wit and warmth.
The Giant's Robe
F. Anstey
The weight of a stolen identity can be heavier than any crown, as a desperate man discovers when he claims a masterpiece as his own. He soon finds that wearing a giant’s robe only exposes the wearer’s true, dwarfish proportions.
The Hollow Land
William Morris
The Hollow Land is a dream-wrought exploration of memory, violence, and redemption, where the borders between reality and the afterlife dissolve into a landscape of shifting, surreal beauty.
The Marbeck Inn: A Novel
Harold Brighouse
This is a story of a young man’s ruthless climb from the shadows of a Manchester working-class neighborhood to the heights of political influence, tracing the moral cost of his ambition.
A high wind in Jamaica
Richard Hughes
A hurricane sweeps away a family’s West Indian plantation, driving five children onto a ship bound for England—where a chance encounter with pirates plunges them into a world where childhood innocence and casual brutality seamlessly overlap.
Captain Rogers: The Lady of the Barge and Others, Part 7
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
The old stone bridge at Riverstone leads into a quiet town, but for one man, it serves as the gateway to a long-deferred reckoning. A fragile peace is shattered when the past, embodied by a ragged, menacing intruder, arrives to claim the spoils of an old, dark secret.
Clubfoot the Avenger: Being some further adventures of Desmond Oakwood, of the Secret Service
Valentine Williams
A former spymaster brings his ruthless, shadow-bound network to the quiet streets of London, forcing a retired British operative back into a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
Daisy: the autobiography of a cat
Miranda Eliot Swan
A poignant, heartfelt testament to the bond between humans and their animal companions, this narrative serves as both a fictional memoir and a plea for the compassionate treatment of all living creatures.
Eleanor
Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
The Campagna at sunset, an impulsive visitor, and a woman who has spent her life being everything to everyone: this is the setting for a quiet, devastating study of sacrifice and the cost of human devotion.
Lancashire Idylls (1898)
Marshall Mather
The harsh beauty of the high Lancashire moors finds a mirror in the rigid, uncompromising faith of the local hill sects. This collection of sketches captures the quiet humanity that struggles to bloom within a landscape of industrial toil and severe, judgmental piety.
Life's Progress Through the Passions
Eliza Fowler Haywood
A man’s lifelong journey through the turbulent currents of desire, ambition, and regret serves as a mirror for the human condition. His story charts the inevitable shifts from the impulsive passions of youth to the measured reflections of age.
Moor Fires
E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young
In the shadow of a vast, indifferent moor, a young woman enters into a secret, ill-fated marriage that defines the boundaries of her life.
Portrait of a Man with Red Hair: A Romantic Macabre
Hugh Walpole
An American tourist's Cornish vacation turns into a struggle against a sadist's madness after he intervenes to rescue a young woman.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, August 26th, 1914
Various
This period anthology captures the fragile, defiant levity of a nation standing on the precipice of the First World War. It is a snapshot of an empire attempting to maintain its composure through relentless, biting wit.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 22, 1914
Various
A weekly chronicle of British life, this collection captures the fleeting anxieties and absurdities of a nation standing on the precipice of the Great War.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 18, 1914
Various
This weekly periodical captures the spirit of a nation at war, blending biting political satire with the absurdities of daily life during the early months of the Great War. It serves as both a historical record of public sentiment and a masterclass in resilient, stiff-upper-lip humor.
Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 23, 1914
Various
A nation’s private habits, public anxieties, and absurdity under fire are recorded in quick strokes.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, August 30, 1890
Various
The London season has ended, the city is sweltering, and the elite have fled to the moors; here, caught in the stagnant heat of 1890, the wit of the age holds its final, biting post-mortem.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, October 25, 1890
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic snapshot of late-Victorian British life, capturing the era’s preoccupations through a sharp, satirical lens. It presents a world where the earnestness of the intellectual classes and the absurdity of the political stage collide with the emerging pressures of modern…
Quotes and Images From The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer
Charles Lever
A restless soldier navigates the absurdities of nineteenth-century military and social life, where an appetite for romance and wine consistently leads him into ridiculous predicaments. This picaresque adventure captures the wit and folly of a young man determined to charm his way through Ireland and beyond.
Stand Fast, Craig-Royston! (Volume III)
William Black
A lover's resolute search across ocean lines ultimately yields to a bittersweet reckoning with family pride and fragile human illusions.
The Actress in High Life: An Episode in Winter Quarters
Sue Petigru Bowen
In the shadow of the Napoleonic Wars, a spirited noblewoman and an enigmatic colonel navigate a web of social performance, military duty, and deepening affection within the desolate winter quarters of Portugal.
The Benefit of the Doubt
Arthur Wing Pinero
When a Victorian divorce court clears a young wife with a compromised verdict, the social reprieve proves far more dangerous than open condemnation.
The Duke of Gandia
Algernon Charles Swinburne
This historical drama peers into the dark heart of the Borgia dynasty, capturing the cold, calculated ambition of a son who would stop at nothing to secure his father’s legacy. It is a chilling study of power, betrayal, and the hollow nature of divine authority.
The Twins: A Domestic Novel
Martin Farquhar Tupper
This domestic tale explores the heavy toll of family secrets and the sharp moral divide between two brothers, set against the backdrop of a quiet English watering place. It is a cautionary, earnest work that weighs the consequences of hidden truths and the redemptive power of faith.
Twelfth Night
William Shakespeare
The storms of the sea and the storms of the heart collide in this vibrant study of longing, where a shipwrecked girl finds herself caught in a tangled web of love, masquerade, and mistaken identity.
A Country Gentleman and His Family
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A headstrong young squire defies his family for an older widow, while his sister’s quiet romance is shattered at the altar by a devastating secret.
Colin Clink, Volume 1 (of 3)
Charles Hooton
Born out of wedlock to a disgraced woman in rural Yorkshire, an spirited young boy faces a hostile world where those in power routinely abuse their authority.
Dynevor Terrace
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
Duty, affection, and social expectation collide as two mismatched English cousins test the bounds of honor and self-denial.