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British Literature — page 83
6,377 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 83 of 133.
King Henry VI, Part 3
William Shakespeare
The crown of England is a heavy, blood-stained prize, and for those caught in its orbit, the cost of holding it is often their own humanity. Amidst the chaos of the Wars of the Roses, a weary king finds that throne and peace are rarely held by the same hands.
Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl: Sister of that "Idle Fellow."
Jenny Wren
A sharp-tongued observer of Victorian life, this collection of essays finds humor in the tedious rituals of high society, from the performative nature of formal calls to the absurdity of the marriage market.
Mike Fletcher: A Novel
George Moore
A charismatic drifter navigates the decadence of late-nineteenth-century London, chasing fleeting beauty and intense experience until the weight of his own detachment finally demands a reckoning.
Our Wonderful Selves
Roland Pertwee
Driven by an insatiable need to prove his worth, a precocious young man abandons his comfortable suburban life to chase the elusive, demanding dream of becoming an artist and a writer.
Peter and Jane
S. (Sarah) Macnaughtan
The stakes of a vast inheritance and the weight of a hidden past collide in this atmospheric tale of honor, deception, and the quiet resilience of the English countryside at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, March 4, 1893
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of 1893 London, where political drama, social anxiety, and refined wit collide in the pages of a legendary periodical.
Sink or swim? : a novel
Mrs. (Matilda Charlotte) Houstoun
The merrie month of May in London proves a perilous playground for the impressionable, as a young woman’s impulsive search for escape leads her to the very brink of ruin.
The Bastonnais: Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76
John Lespérance
An American officer who rides north into frozen French Canada carries more than military ambition; he carries a heart that will split its loyalties between a cause, a friend, and a woman.
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 Golden Scorpion
Sax Rohmer
A sinister shadow falls across London as brilliant minds die of unknown causes, leaving behind only the broken fragment of a golden scorpion's tail.
The Romance of the Coast
James Runciman
This collection of sketches captures the rugged, isolated lives of English coastal dwellers, offering a poignant look at the quiet heroism and profound sorrows found in fishing villages. It serves as a stark, authentic record of a vanishing way of life.
The Station
William Carleton
The traditions of rural Ireland are captured here with a sharp, observant eye, revealing the strange intersection of profound religious devotion and the earthly, often chaotic, realities of peasant life.
The Watchers: A Novel
A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
A man adrift in the aimless society of eighteenth-century London finds his life suddenly tethered to a dark family secret on a remote island. He ventures into a world of hidden treasure, mesmerism, and violent obsession, where the boundaries between the living and the dead begin to blur.
Valerie
Frederick Marryat
A young Frenchwoman endures domestic cruelty, flees into the world under a false name, and quietly carves out a respectable life through grit and musical talent.
Waverley
Walter Scott
A young English officer stumbles into the heart of a Highland rebellion, forced to choose between competing loyalties and contrasting loves as his romantic ideals collide with the unsparing realities of war and treason.
Christmas carols
Unknown
This collection preserves the ancient, earthy pulse of communal song, gathering voices from village squares and churchyards to remind us that celebration is a human necessity as old as the seasons themselves.
Cricket Songs
Norman Gale
The crack of the willow against the leather echoes through these verses, capturing the spirited, sun-drenched obsession of a sport that defines the English summer.
Devereux
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A lifelong seeker of truth navigates the treacherous corridors of European power, only to find that the most profound battles are those waged within the human heart. This narrative chronicles the transformation of a restless spirit from a worldly cynic into a man seeking peace amidst the ruins of his own history.
Halcyone
Elinor Glyn
The myth of Halcyone and Ceyx, who were transformed into sea-birds to sail forever upon a calm summer sea, serves as the guiding spirit for this story of fated, quiet love. It follows a young, ethereal girl living in an ancestral English home and the ambitious man who finds in her a soul his worldly pursuits cannot…
Illustrations of taxation
Harriet Martineau
Told through interconnected vignettes, Harriet Martineau’s fiscal fiction exposes how heavy-handed state taxation disrupts domestic peace, squeezes honest trade, and breeds quiet desperation across early nineteenth-century England.
Light Freights
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
This collection of tales captures the wit and folly of riverside life, where cunning sailors and local schemers trade dignity for a bit of mischief and the hope of easy coin.
Master of His Fate
J. Maclaren (James Maclaren) Cobban
A gifted man maintains his youth by secretly absorbing the vital energy of others, until love reveals his parasitical nature and forces a fatal reckoning.
One Snowy Night: Long ago at Oxford
Emily Sarah Holt
Faithful Christians face severe persecution in medieval England when they dare to place Scripture above church authority.
Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth
George Meredith
This collection explores the deep, often perilous connection between the human spirit and the natural world. It serves as a lyrical map for those who seek wisdom by embracing the earth's cycles of joy and struggle.
Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 109, September 28, 1895
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of late-Victorian England, blending biting social commentary with the whimsical absurdity of a world in transition.
Recollections of Captain Wilkie: A Story of an Old Offender
Arthur Conan Doyle
The art of the con, and the thrill of the criminal mind, are laid bare in an intimate confession shared between strangers on a train.
Richard Coeur de Lion and Blondel
Charlotte Brontë
The twilight stillness of an Austrian riverbank sets the stage for a legendary rescue, where the power of music pierces the silence of a hidden, stone-walled prison. In this lyrical narrative, a king’s voice answers his minstrel’s song, bridge-building across the dark divide of captivity to restore a hero to his…
Shanty the Blacksmith
Mary Martha Sherwood
A penniless, prideful aristocrat and a rugged blacksmith find their quiet lives upended when an abandoned child is left at their door, pulling them into a web of hidden treasure and long-buried secrets.
The Bond of Black
William Le Queux
HOOK A young London gentleman uncovers a diabolical secret society operating in the shadows of the city, where a beautiful, mysterious woman holds a lethal, supernatural power over those who cross her path.
The Clean Heart
A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth) Hutchinson
The search for a clean heart begins when a man flees the crushing weight of his own ego and finds, through layers of tragedy, the heavy cost of living for others.
The Impostor: A Tale of Old Annapolis
John Reed Scott
A man masquerading as a titled aristocrat navigates the perilous social circles of colonial Maryland while harboring a deadly secret from his past.
The lonely house
Marie Belloc Lowndes
A young woman’s visit to her aunt’s villa on the French Riviera descends into a nightmare of hidden motives, suspicious deaths, and the desperate search for safety.
The Master Detective: Being Some Further Investigations of Christopher Quarles
Percy James Brebner
A brilliant, elderly amateur sleuth and his younger police associate navigate a series of high-stakes criminal puzzles, where the truth is often hidden behind elaborate social facades and cold-blooded deception.
The Three Brothers
Eden Phillpotts
HOOK Set against the vast, shifting beauty of Dartmoor, this novel explores the tangled lives, secret burdens, and quiet moral reckonings of a family bound to the stubborn soil of their Devon village.
The unlit lamp
Radclyffe Hall
The life of a young woman is systematically hollowed out by the stifling demands of her family, illustrating the high cost of filial duty. It is a quiet, devastating portrait of a woman who never manages to strike the match of her own existence.
Two Ghostly Mysteries: A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The shadows of an Irish manor conceal secrets more lethal than any ghost. Two women, trapped by the machinations of powerful men, must confront the terrifying realization that the real monsters are those who share their blood and home.
A Traitor in London
Fergus Hume
A young couple’s desperate attempt to marry is thwarted by a sinister foreign agent, sparking a high-stakes game of shadows that stretches from the quiet English countryside to the violent front lines of the Boer War.
Beyond the Black Waters
A. L. O. E.
A devoted wife follows her husband into the isolation of exile, choosing the uncertain path of companionship over the comforts of her former life. This Victorian narrative explores the weight of past sins, the strength of marital loyalty, and the redemptive power of faith amidst the rugged landscapes of Burma.
Dickory Cronke: The Dumb Philosopher, or, Great Britain's Wonder
Daniel Defoe
A quiet Cornwall boy, born without speech, lives six decades in silent observation before regaining his voice for one final night of astonishing wisdom.
Muslin
George Moore
The struggle for a future within the rigid, suffocating confines of Irish landed society is laid bare in this unflinching study of young women as commodified objects. A sharp, unsentimental portrait of a class nearing its end, the narrative tracks the hollow triumphs and inevitable failures of those trapped in a…
Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A Victorian periodical opens its pages to an open network of scholars, amateur historians, and curious readers exchanging notes on obscure etymologies, regional superstitions, and lost historical sites.
Notes and Queries, Number 65, January 25, 1851
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century periodical serves as a vibrant, communal clearinghouse for the era’s intellectual curiosity, bridging the gap between professional scholarship and the passionate inquiries of the Victorian public.
Oranges and lemons
Mary C. E. Wemyss
A child’s illness serves as the unlikely catalyst for a bickering uncle and aunt to bridge a long-standing divide. This story examines the collision of duty, romantic longing, and the stubborn pride that often keeps family members apart.
Our Winnie, and The Little Match Girl
Evelyn Everett-Green
This collection of two distinct narratives explores the spiritual maturation of children facing physical hardship, illustrating the profound impact of small acts of kindness and the search for meaning in the face of inevitable change.
Pixie O'Shaughnessy
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
A spirited, impoverished Irish girl finds her footing at an English boarding school, balancing a fierce sense of loyalty with the chaotic, eccentric charm of her noble but fading family.
Poems (1786), Volume I
Helen Maria Williams
Grief, historical violence, and moral duty press upon these verses, where fragile human ties constantly fracture under the weight of war and conquest.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 107, December 15th, 1894
Various
A vivid, biting snapshot of late-Victorian life, this collection captures the era’s obsessions with stage drama, local politics, and the relentless, witty scrutiny of a world caught between tradition and modern absurdity.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 10, 1892
Various
A razor-sharp mirror of late-Victorian life, this collection captures the skepticism, absurdity, and political maneuvering of 1892 through the eyes of London’s premier satirical voice. It is a portrait of an empire caught between rigid tradition and the frantic, noisy birth of the modern age.