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British Literature — page 82
6,377 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 82 of 133.
Lyre and Lancet: A Story in Scenes
F. Anstey
A comedy of class, mistaken identity, and literary pretension unfolds in the quiet halls of a Victorian country estate.
Pride and His Prisoners
A. L. O. E.
The tangled paths of human vanity lead to ruin, yet even the most hardened hearts may find redemption when the scaffolding of worldly status is stripped away by providence and grace.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, November 20, 1841
Various
A medical mishap, a royal birth, and a haircut on the bench intersect in this sharply satirical dispatch from mid-nineteenth-century London.
The Armourer's Prentices
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
An inheritance denied in the New Forest sends two orphaned brothers to Tudor London, where the clatter of the anvil meets the whisper of heresy.
The Compleat Bachelor
Oliver Onions
A middle-aged bachelor finds his comfortable, tea-sipping existence gently upended when his sister marries and his own long-standing, playful flirtations finally demand a definitive, perhaps inconvenient, answer.
The Provost
John Galt
A cagey, ambitious merchant recounts his rise to civic power in a Scottish burgh, offering a masterclass in the quiet art of manipulating both the law and his neighbors for personal and public gain.
Bertha's Visit to Her Uncle in England
Mrs. (Jane Haldimand) Marcet
A young girl travels from the wild landscapes of Brazil to a structured English home, finding that true education lies in the quiet, methodical observation of the natural world.
His Official Fiancée
Berta Ruck
The most unlikely business arrangements often lead to the most inevitable conclusions. A penniless typist and her stoic employer find themselves tangled in a web of their own making, where the line between pretense and reality dissolves in the quiet of the English countryside.
Neither Jew nor Greek
Violet Guttenberg
This novel explores the tension between ancestral heritage and the desire for personal autonomy, following a young woman navigating the rigid expectations of London’s Jewish society at the turn of the century.
Odette: A Fairy Tale for Weary People
Ronald Firbank
A young girl seeks a miraculous vision in the garden, only to discover a harsh reality beyond the chateau walls. This brief, atmospheric fable explores the collision between childhood innocence and the suffering of the adult world.
Punch, Or the London Charivari Volume 107, November 17, 1894
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of late-Victorian London, offering a witty mosaic of political friction, social posturing, and the trivial amusements that defined a bygone era.
Round About a Great Estate
Richard Jefferies
A quietly resonant study of the English countryside captures the delicate tipping point where centuries of rural tradition yield to the swift march of modern industrial progress.
Tetherstones
Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell
HOOK A lonely governess finds her fate intertwined with a mysterious, brooding man at a remote moorland site known for ancient, sacrificial stones. This tale explores the intense, often painful, pull of destiny between two fractured souls.
The black ship: with other allegories and parables
Elizabeth Rundle Charles
A young family confronts the inevitable mystery of mortality, moving from paralyzing fear to a profound sense of hope and purpose. These allegories explore how faith transforms the experience of suffering and the passage of time.
The chase
William Somerville
A celebration of the hunt, this poem transforms the rugged sport of the eighteenth-century English countryside into a high-minded endeavor of strategy, discipline, and communion with nature.
The doctor, &c., vol. 4 (of 7)
Robert Southey
This sprawling, inquisitive work functions as a vast literary cabinet of curiosities, blending biography, horticulture, and philosophical digression into a singular, conversational exploration of the human condition.
The Garden God: A Tale of Two Boys
Forrest Reid
A solitary man finds his present life anchored to a spectral memory of his youth, where the line between reality and an idealized, pagan dreamland once dissolved entirely. This brief, meditative narrative explores the haunting persistence of early love and the heavy weight of time.
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX. No. 1004, March 25, 1899
Various
This collection of late Victorian life offers a mosaic of instruction, moral guidance, and sentimental fiction, capturing the distinct domestic anxieties and aspirations of the final years of the nineteenth century.
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 Minister's Wife
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
The life of a young woman is irrevocably altered when she becomes entangled with a man whose dark obsession leads to tragedy. This somber narrative examines the heavy cost of choices made in the name of love.
The Purple Fern
Fergus Hume
A determined woman investigates the brutal murder of her guardian, fighting to clear her brother’s name from the shadow of a mysterious, lethal secret society.
The Second Dandy Chater
Tom Gallon
A man finds himself haunted by the shadow of a dead scoundrel, forced to adopt a stranger’s disreputable identity to survive a web of secrets and murder. This atmospheric mystery, set against the desolate, windswept marshes of rural England, balances a tense, suspenseful plot with the emotional stakes of a man…
The Sorceress (complete)
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A young woman’s life is dismantled by a sophisticated interloper who bewitches her father and brother, proving that the most devastating battles often occur within the quiet, polite confines of a respectable household.
Vixen, Volume I
M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
A spirited young woman struggles to find her footing in a changing world after the sudden death of her father and the unexpected shifting of her closest childhood ties.
A Desperate Game: A Comic Drama in One Act
John Maddison Morton
A determined suitor adopts a ridiculous disguise and a fake identity to frighten his rival into surrendering his claim on a wealthy widow. In this fast-paced farce, love is won through a series of elaborate, high-stakes bluffs.
Arthur Glyn
Ruth Lamb
This collection of stories captures the quiet, moral struggles of Victorian-era characters as they navigate the complexities of faith, class, and duty during the holiday season. It serves as a gentle meditation on finding dignity in humble circumstances.
Captain Sword and Captain Pen: A Poem
Leigh Hunt
A rhythmic, moralizing fable of two commanders, this work pits the destructive, archaic brute force of the sword against the quiet, revolutionary power of the pen to define the future of human governance.
Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley (1782)
Edmond Malone
A sharp-eyed piece of literary detection dismantles a celebrated eighteenth-century hoax, exposing the tragic young poet behind the mask of a medieval monk.
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.
Peace with Honour
Sydney C. Grier
A spirited female physician navigates the perils of a diplomatic mission in a volatile foreign land, where imperial politics and personal heart-matters collide with life-or-death consequences.
Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 109, August 31, 1895
Various
This collection of Victorian wit captures the final days of a summer in 1895, blending sharp political satire with the whimsical musings of a society obsessed with status, commerce, and the quirks of the British character.
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 2: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2
Unknown
The traveler’s gaze is a bridge between the living world and the ghosts of literature, turning stones and soil into stories that transcend their own geography.
The Elder Brother: The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Volume 2 of 10)
John Fletcher
HOOK A scholar who prefers his books to his inheritance, a fop who discovers his inner mettle, and a father blinded by rigid social ambition collide in this sharp, witty seventeenth-century comedy.
The Elect Lady
George MacDonald
A quiet, transformative journey unfolds in the Scottish countryside, where the rigid expectations of class and the hollow rituals of tradition are challenged by the radical simplicity of a life lived in direct obedience to divine instruction.
The emerald of Catherine the Great
Hilaire Belloc
The hunt for a priceless jewel turns into a farce where the only thing missing is a genuine mystery. Behind the polished veneer of an English country house, the upper crust scrambles to hide their own incompetence while a detective inadvertently saves the day with a ludicrous lie.
The escape of Alice: A Christmas fantasy
Vincent Starrett
A literary character steps out of her classic book to experience the chaos of a modern city, only to find that the spirit of Christmas is as elusive as the magic she left behind.
The Old Debauchees. A Comedy
Henry Fielding
A sharp-witted young woman outmaneuvers a predatory cleric who attempts to manipulate her father’s religious guilt for his own carnal gain.
The Stokesley Secret
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
When their parents depart for a medical emergency, a houseful of spirited children must navigate the complexities of character, duty, and truth under the steady guidance of their young governess.
Told in the East
Talbot Mundy
The burning sun of India provides the backdrop for this tale of imperial duty, where individual soldiers—often lonely and far from home—find themselves pitted against the chaotic tide of uprising and rebellion.
Ziska: The Problem of a Wicked Soul
Marie Corelli
Beneath the shadow of the Sphinx, a restless spirit seeks vengeance across the threshold of time. A modern painter finds himself caught in a lethal cycle of obsession, bound to a woman whose beauty hides a dark, ancient secret.
A Tale of a Lonely Parish
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
In a quiet corner of rural England, a tangled web of past secrets and sudden arrivals tests the sturdy, unspoken loyalties of an isolated community. This is a story where the quietude of country life masks the gravity of human endurance.
A waif's progress
Rhoda Broughton
HOOK A young woman navigates the suffocating expectations of high-society guardians, balancing a desperate need for security against the instinct to protect her own complicated history.
Aunt Judith: The Story of a Loving Life
Grace Beaumont
The story follows the spiritual and physical trials of two young friends as they learn to navigate the harshness of others, the onset of tragedy, and the quiet power of selfless faith. It is a portrait of resilience in the face of inevitable sorrow.
College girls
Abbe Carter Goodloe
At the close of the nineteenth century, the American college woman stood at a crossroads of intellectual ambition and traditional expectation. This collection of linked stories maps the quiet, internal revolutions occurring within the ivy-covered walls of women’s academia and the social circles that awaited its…
Flaming June
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
The story of a vivacious American visitor to a sleepy English town, this novel explores the friction between old-world decorum and new-world vitality. It tracks the awakening of an unlikely match-maker and the quiet rebellion of those stifled by rigid social expectations.
For love and life
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
The mantle of nobility fits poorly upon a man whose fortune has vanished, yet this displaced gentleman finds a deeper wealth in the quiet, sacrificial kindnesses he renders to those who have wronged him.
Greatheart
Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell
A young woman caught between two very different brothers must choose between intoxicating passion and steady, sacrificial devotion.
Imogen
Mrs. Molesworth
A young woman’s visit to a country estate becomes a web of social manipulation, misplaced letters, and secret hearts. Through innocence and malice, a quiet, life-altering truth finally emerges.