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British Literature — page 80
6,377 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 80 of 133.
Phyllis
Duchess
A young woman’s impulsive marriage to a man of the world descends into a haunting ordeal of secrets, eventually forcing her to confront the fragile nature of her own happiness.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, January 28, 1914
Various
This collection of Edwardian wit captures the fleeting anxieties and absurdities of early 1914, proving that the British appetite for irony remains as constant as a London fog.
Stand Fast, Craig-Royston! (Volume I)
William Black
HOOK A young, idealistic student discovers that the venerable, silver-haired Scottish patriarch he has befriended may be hiding a ruinous secret behind his noble facade.
That Unfortunate Marriage, Vol. 1
Frances Eleanor Trollope
A poignant look at the wreckage left behind by an impulsive union, this narrative examines how social expectations and family secrets shape the destiny of a young woman caught between two disparate worlds.
The Four Corners of the World
A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
These thirteen intricate tales explore the shadowed corners of human experience, where the boundary between rational deduction and haunting obsession begins to blur.
The Gentleman's Model Letter-writer: A Complete Guide to Correspondence on All Subjects, with Commercial Forms
Anonymous
This manual serves as a meticulous bridge between social aspiration and professional necessity, providing the Victorian gentleman with the precise language required for every nuance of public and private life.
The Hall and the Grange: A Novel
Archibald Marshall
The quiet landscape of an English estate becomes a battlefield of pride and misunderstanding when a long-standing fraternal bond fractures over a trivial grievance. This is a story of how easily the foundations of a life—family, home, and legacy—can shift under the weight of petty, unyielding resentment.
The Lady from Long Acre
Victor Bridges
HOOK A bored British baronet stumbles into a high-stakes conspiracy involving a runaway princess, a sinister prime minister, and a desperate race to prevent a forced royal marriage.
The Seaboard Parish Volume 2
George MacDonald
A thoughtful country parson navigates the quiet rhythms of his coastal parish, seeking to mend the fractured spirits of those caught between the shadows of their own doubts and the promise of a deeper faith.
The Tale of Balen
Algernon Charles Swinburne
A fated knight, cursed by an unintended blow, traverses a landscape of tragic beauty in this haunting retelling of an Arthurian legend. It is a meditation on the relentless, invisible threads of doom.
The time spirit: A romantic tale
J. C. (John Collis) Snaith
A secret birth, a rigid class divide, and a young woman’s struggle to claim her own identity define this turn-of-the-century tale of love and inheritance.
Valperga Volume 2 (of 3)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
A relentless conqueror and a noblewoman of iron principle find their childhood love shattered by the violent ambitions of fourteenth-century Italy. Their divergent paths illuminate the tragic chasm between the pursuit of power and the preservation of the soul.
A Discourse Being Introductory to his Course of Lectures on Elocution and the English Language (1759)
Thomas Sheridan
A fervent argument for the necessity of formal elocution instruction, this text advocates for the systematic study of spoken English to restore the oratorical standards of the ancient world.
Clara Hopgood
William Hale White
Two sisters from a quiet Fenland town stake their futures on hard-won independence, testing the limits of social convention and personal integrity. This is a story of quiet, stubborn choices that defy the expectations of their time.
Goody Two Shoes
Unknown
A story of an orphaned girl who turns hardship into a life of virtue, this classic tale follows a journey from barefoot poverty to social standing through intelligence and kindness.
Illustrated Index of British Shells: Containing figures of all the recent species
G. B. (George Brettingham) Sowerby
A meticulous guide to the diversity of British mollusks, this work serves as an essential visual catalog for naturalists seeking to identify specimens found along the coasts, rivers, and hedgerows of the British Isles.
Kate Vernon: A Tale. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Mrs. Alexander
This narrative of gentle, domestic struggle unfolds in the mid-19th century, centering on the quiet resilience of a young woman facing the sudden collapse of her family’s fortune. It is a story of transition, duty, and the bittersweet passage from a sheltered, rural existence to the harsh, impersonal demands of…
Midwinter: Certain Travellers in Old England
John Buchan
This historical adventure captures the melancholy of a lost cause, trailing the footsteps of those caught in the tide of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion as they navigate the shifting landscapes of a winter-bound England.
Mr. Witt's Widow: A Frivolous Tale
Anthony Hope
A suspicious lawyer disrupts a high-society engagement by claiming the bride-to-be is a former convict, sparking a social firestorm that tests the boundaries of truth, reputation, and public scandal in Victorian England.
Portraits of Curious Characters in London, &c. &c.: With Descriptive and Entertaining Ancedotes
Anonymous
This collection of sketches preserves the strange, fading lives of eccentric Londoners, offering a window into the peculiar habits of those who lived on the margins of the early nineteenth-century city.
The Fever of Life
Fergus Hume
This mystery centers on the fierce, hidden past of a woman who infiltrates an English estate to secure a future for her daughter. It explores the collision between Victorian decorum and the reckless, survivalist instincts of those who have lived hard lives.
The Haunted Room: A Tale
A. L. O. E.
HOOK A young family relocates to a decaying, supposedly haunted mansion, only to discover that the true ghosts reside within their own flawed hearts.
The Light Invisible
Robert Hugh Benson
This quiet, atmospheric collection explores the thin border between the mundane and the miraculous through the eyes of an aging, solitary priest. It offers an intimate look at a life defined by spiritual perception and the heavy, holy burden of faith.
The Little Minister
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
A young minister’s quiet life in a Scottish weaving village is upended when a mysterious, spirited woman enters his world, testing the boundaries of his faith and his heart.
The Man Who Kept His Money in a Box
Anthony Trollope
A chance encounter in the Swiss Alps spirals into a comedy of errors when a missing trunk tests the limits of hospitality, honesty, and common sense among a mismatched group of British travelers.
The present state of wit (1711), and excerpts from The English Theophrastus
Unknown
This volume brings together two distinct but complementary artifacts of early eighteenth-century English intellectual life: a sharp, observational report on the London literary scene of 1711, and a collection of cynical, aphoristic character sketches defining the "manners of the age." Together, they offer an…
The Terriford mystery
Marie Belloc Lowndes
In a serene English village, a beloved local hero faces the shadow of the gallows when his wife dies under suspicious circumstances. This is a story of how a small community’s whispers can distort the truth.
The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 14
John Dryden
A foundational work of classical translation and literary commentary, this volume captures a master poet’s lifelong engagement with the Roman epic, blending technical rigor with a profound, deeply personal appreciation for ancient verse.
A Selection from the Works of Frederick Locker
Frederick Locker-Lampson
These verses capture the fleeting, bittersweet rhythm of ordinary life, where the mundane—an old muff, a child’s toy, or a morning walk—becomes a vessel for profound nostalgia and quiet joy.
A "Temporary Gentleman" in France
A. J. (Alec John) Dawson
A civilian leaves his desk to command men in the mud of France, discovering that the true nature of heroism lies in the quiet, unrelenting care for others.
Imaginary Portraits
Walter Pater
These four elegant, meditative sketches explore the fragile intersection of human desire and historical reality, capturing the brief, luminous lives of individuals who strive for beauty in an indifferent world.
Manners: A Novel, Vol 2
Madame Panache
This second volume of a nineteenth-century social satire navigates the intricate, often treacherous landscape of the English marriage market, where fortune and artifice frequently eclipse genuine sentiment. It offers a sharp, observational lens on the performative nature of high society, exposing the calculated…
Shakespeare's Christmas, and other stories
Arthur Quiller-Couch
This collection of short stories captures the mercurial spirit of the early 20th century, blending historical atmosphere with the sharp, often melancholy ironies of human ambition and sudden loss.
The City of Dreadful Night
Rudyard Kipling
The visitor to 1890s Calcutta finds a city that is simultaneously a monument to colonial majesty and a rotting, labyrinthine sink of human misery. This travelogue captures the sensory overload, moral dissonance, and social stratification of a capital city that exists in a state of permanent, uneasy twilight.
The club of masks
Allen Upward
A consultant physician and his assistant untangle a web of blackmail, secret identities, and exotic poisons after a mysterious death occurs within a clandestine London society.
The Pit Town Coronet: A Family Mystery, Volume 2 (of 3)
C. J. (Charles James) Wills
HOOK A dark, tangled web of secrets and inheritance binds two cousins, where one woman’s past sin threatens to consume the future of an entire family.
The Undying Fire: A contemporary novel
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
When the world seems designed for suffering and every familiar support crumbles, a single man must decide if his inner fire is enough to light the darkness. This profound meditation on faith and purpose reimagines an ancient trial in the shadow of the First World War.
A Gray Eye or So. In Three Volumes—Volume II
Frank Frankfort Moore
The story of a tangled courtship among the upper crust of British society, this novel traces the emotional cost of social maneuvering and the fragility of trust. It is a sharp, atmospheric portrait of a world where appearances govern all.
A Search For A Secret: A Novel. Vol. 1
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A family legacy of religious nonconformity and a massive, contested inheritance drive this Victorian drama toward a collision between rigid social expectations and the impulsive, often ruinous, choices of the young.
Christmas at Thompson Hall
Anthony Trollope
A harried woman, a misplaced mustard plaster, and a series of frantic, snowy misadventures form the heart of this enduring comedy of errors.
Daireen. Volume 2 of 2
Frank Frankfort Moore
A man haunted by a secret past finds himself entangled in the social machinations of colonial society, where his struggle to maintain a facade of normalcy ultimately leads to a tragic and inevitable end.
In the Name of the People
Arthur W. Marchmont
A daring Englishman finds himself entangled in a dangerous web of political revolution and forbidden romance while navigating the treacherous streets of Lisbon.
Israel Rank
Roy Horniman
A chillingly detached narrator navigates the rigid hierarchies of Edwardian society by methodically removing those standing between him and a noble inheritance. This dark, satirical confession explores the cold efficiency of a man who views murder as a mere administrative necessity.
Jeremy and Hamlet: A Chronicle of Certain Incidents in the Lives of a Boy, a Dog, and a Country Town
Hugh Walpole
A small boy’s world is a vast territory where the mundane—a dog’s favorite window, a schoolyard scuffle, or a stolen moment with a book—takes on the weight of an epic journey. Through the eyes of a child, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Little Citizens: The Humours of School Life
Myra Kelly
A young teacher navigates the vibrant, chaotic world of a lower East Side classroom, where immigrant children blend their unique cultural heritage with the challenges of early twentieth-century American life.
Miser Farebrother: A Novel (vol. 2 of 3)
B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon
A desperate, lonely woman is trapped under the thumb of her miserly, manipulative father, while a conniving clerk plots to seize both her hand and her father’s fortune.
Mrs. Dot: A Farce
W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
A wealthy widow orchestrates a sophisticated game of romantic musical chairs to secure the man she loves, all while navigating the rigid social expectations of the Edwardian elite.
Passing By
Maurice Baring
The quiet tragedy of a hidden love unfolds through glimpses of diaries and letters, tracing a path from casual social acquaintance to an irreversible renunciation of the world.