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British Literature — page 85
4,240 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 85 of 89.
Lady Kilpatrick
Robert Williams Buchanan
A long-hidden secret of love and betrayal threatens a noble house, forcing a young man to confront the truth of his birth and a desperate enemy to commit a final, treacherous crime.
Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary
Anne Manning
This is an intimate, reimagined portrait of the domestic life of a giant of English literature, told through the eyes of the women who lived in his shadow. It captures the friction between high-minded intellectual ambition and the mundane, often difficult realities of maintaining a household.
Mrs. Raffles: Being the Adventures of an Amateur Crackswoman
John Kendrick Bangs
A devoted manservant recounts his life of crime under the tutelage of an audacious female thief who navigates high society with the same dexterity she applies to lifting jewels and hijacking fortunes.
Poems (1686)
Anne Killigrew
The verses of a young woman at the Restoration court reveal a mind steeped in both classical tradition and a singular, searching moral gravity. She does not merely observe her world; she measures it against the weight of eternity.
Points of Humour, Part 1 (of 2)
Unknown
This collection of anecdotes serves as a stage for the illustrations of George Cruikshank, blending historical wit with the earthy, rebellious spirit of traditional folk ballads.
Punch or the London Charivari, October 10, 1920
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of British life in 1920, blending political bite, domestic absurdity, and the lingering, jittery wit of a nation freshly emerged from the Great War.
Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 2, 1914
Various
This snapshot of December 1914 captures a nation at the onset of the Great War, blending biting political satire with the absurd, daily realities of a society rapidly reorganizing itself for a long struggle.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 8, 1916
Various
This compilation of weekly satire offers a sharp, candid window into the British home-front psyche during the darkest months of the First World War. It is a portrait of a nation finding its footing through irony.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, July 14th, 1920
Various
A satirical chronicle of post-war British life, this collection captures the skepticism, absurdity, and dry wit of a nation attempting to normalize itself in the summer of 1920.
Red Spider, Volume 2 (of 2)
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
A young woman’s quiet strength and self-sacrifice anchor a fractured community, proving that even amidst ancient superstitions and hard-hearted greed, grace can endure.
Shelley: An Essay
Francis Thompson
This reflective essay portrays the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley as an eternal, persecuted child whose visionary genius was inextricably linked to his tragic, lifelong isolation from the world of men.
Talkers: With Illustrations
John Bate
A guide to the perils and potential of human speech, this collection examines how the tongue can ignite great evils or serve as a vital instrument of wisdom, charity, and truth.
The Confounding of Camelia
Anne Douglas Sedgwick
Camelia Paton possesses every advantage of charm and social standing, yet she finds that her greatest challenge is not winning a suitor, but winning the genuine respect of the one man who refuses to be charmed.
The Elene of Cynewulf translated into English prose
Cynewulf
A Roman emperor seeks a sign of divine favor to win a war, only to discover that the true path to salvation lies buried beneath the dust of the Holy Land.
The Laurel Bush: An Old-Fashioned Love Story
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
A quiet, enduring devotion survives the separation of decades and the weight of lost time. This story follows two lives that remain tethered to one another across the vast, silent distance of the sea.
The Laurel Walk
Mrs. Molesworth
The Laurel Walk follows three sisters living in genteel poverty as they navigate a long-standing family grudge and the sudden arrival of new neighbors. It is a quiet, thoughtful study of duty, secret heartaches, and the slow thawing of a bitter inheritance.
The Life of Mansie Wauch: Tailor in Dalkeith, written by himself
D. M. (David Macbeth) Moir
A small-town tailor finds himself swept into a series of absurd, often harrowing, and frequently comical misadventures, proving that a quiet life is never truly quiet.
The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman
Charles Dickens
The story of a wayward nobleman and his foreign savior, this work preserves the rough-hewn charm of an ancient street-corner ballad. It captures a timeless romantic legend through the lens of Victorian whimsy and peculiar, rhythmic vernacular.
The Man of the World (1792)
Charles Macklin
A ruthless social climber dictates his family’s fate through calculated deception, only to find his own son has mastered the art of moral resistance. This sharp-witted comedy exposes the hollow mechanics of status, greed, and political patronage.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 330, September 6, 1828
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, multifaceted snapshot of 1828, offering a curious reader a window into the intellectual appetites, artistic anxieties, and social pastimes of early nineteenth-century London.
The Pit Town Coronet: A Family Mystery, Volume 1 (of 3)
C. J. (Charles James) Wills
A man of questionable past marries into a respectable country family, only to find his new life shadowed by old debts, social scrutiny, and the looming mystery of a noble inheritance. This drama of Victorian manners and hidden motives begins a three-volume investigation into the secrets of the landed gentry.
The Under-Secretary
William Le Queux
The life of a high-ranking British official unravels when his secret past—marked by treason and cold-blooded murder—threatens to collide with his public stature and the woman he loves.
The Younger Sister: A Novel, Vol. III
Mrs. (Catherine-Anne Austen) Hubback
The social architecture of a provincial town offers little shelter to an orphan whose only currency is her own character. In a web of scrutiny and shifting allegiances, survival depends on navigating the chasm between public reputation and private truth.
Wild Kitty
L. T. Meade
A vibrant, irrepressible Irish teenager arrives at an English boarding school, only to find her spirited nature colliding with rigid social expectations and the secret, desperate lives of her classmates.
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 11
Unknown
These collected narratives capture the joys, struggles, and moral trials of ordinary Scottish life, painting a vivid portrait of a people shaped by both their rugged landscapes and their deep-seated convictions.
Young Lord Stranleigh: A Novel
Robert Barr
The refined, lethargic aristocrat who seems incapable of exertion proves to be a master of hidden strategy, outmaneuvering cold-blooded financiers to save both his own interests and the national economy.
A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal: The Next Day after Her Death, to one Mrs. Bargrave, at Canterbury, the 8th of September, 1705
Daniel Defoe
This account documents an extraordinary visit from a deceased friend, meticulously detailing a ghostly encounter to persuade the skeptical and offer spiritual comfort through the lens of early eighteenth-century life.
At the Relton Arms
Evelyn Sharp
This narrative explores the restless friction between artistic temperament and domestic obligation, centering on a musician who finds himself perpetually caught between his own impulsive nature and the women who anchor his life.
Ben o' Bill's, the Luddite: A Yorkshire Tale
D. F. E. Sykes
This Yorkshire tale offers a grounded, human look at the Luddite uprisings, capturing the desperation of the Colne Valley weavers as they faced an uncertain industrial future. It is a story of conflict, not just between men and machines, but between the quietude of daily life and the sudden, violent demands of…
Daireen. Complete
Frank Frankfort Moore
A desperate act of devotion sets a young woman on a perilous ocean voyage, where the wreckage of the past collides with the fragile possibilities of a new life.
English and Scottish Ballads, Volume VII
Unknown
This collection preserves the rugged, visceral pulse of centuries of conflict, capturing the shifting loyalties and brutal directness of the borderlands. It serves as a vital archive for anyone seeking the raw, unvarnished spirit of an age where historical memory was forged in song and steel.
King Cole
John Masefield
The life of an artist is a wandering one, paved with hardship and the constant threat of failure. Yet, even in the deepest rain and coldest despair, the spirit can be lifted by a song.
King Henry VI, Part 1
William Shakespeare
As the English empire in France begins to crumble, internal rivalries and dynastic ambitions threaten to dismantle the kingdom from within.
Letters of Edward FitzGerald to Fanny Kemble (1871-1883)
Edward FitzGerald
Letters of this caliber offer a rare window into the quiet, ruminative life of a nineteenth-century intellectual. They capture a decade-long exchange between two old friends, finding beauty in the routine of reading, gardening, and long-standing affection.
Mr. Punch in the Hunting Field
Unknown
The hunting field is a treacherous stage where the ambitious, the incompetent, and the perpetually bruised collide in pursuit of a fox that is rarely, if ever, actually caught.
Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850
Various
This nineteenth-century periodical serves as a communal gathering place for the curious, where scholars and amateurs trade specialized knowledge on everything from ancient etymology to the resting places of forgotten kings.
Patience Wins: War in the Works
George Manville Fenn
HO0K: A young man navigates the escalating dangers of a strike at his family’s new steel works. Through steadfast resolve and courageous action, he gradually transforms a hostile workforce into a loyal community.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 1, 1893
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical heartbeat of late-Victorian London, offering a witty tour through the drawing rooms, political halls, and crowded tearooms of 1893.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 15, 1914
Various
The world of the early twentieth century is captured here in a brisk, kaleidoscopic series of satirical sketches, news snippets, and lighthearted commentary. This collection offers a vibrant snapshot of the cultural and political preoccupations of April 1914.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, August 19th, 1914
Various
As the shadow of the Great War falls across the British summer of 1914, this collection captures a nation’s collective spirit through a lens of sharp, resilient, and occasionally surreal satire.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, April 30, 1919
Various
The aftermath of the Great War finds a weary nation searching for normalcy, turning to satire to reconcile the absurdity of peace with the lingering, chaotic remnants of the conflict.
Seven Poems and a Fragment
W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
The world is a labyrinth of shadows and shifting moons, where the only triumph is the soul’s final, lonely retreat into the truth.
The Children's Pilgrimage
L. T. Meade
A young girl’s unwavering faith and courage guide her little brother and their faithful dog across borders on a perilous, life-defining journey to find a lost family member and a place of belonging.
The Clockwork Man
E. V. (Edwin Vincent) Odle
A bizarre, mechanical stranger crashes into a quiet English cricket match, embodying a future where humanity has sacrificed its natural soul for the cold, efficient convenience of machine-augmented existence.
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 Golden Bowl
Henry James
A wealthy American widower and his daughter marry into Italian nobility, only to discover that their intertwined lives are being quietly dismantled by an affair between their respective spouses.
The Loudwater Mystery
Edgar Jepson
An arrogant nobleman meets a violent end, casting a shadow of suspicion over those he spent his life tormenting. In a web of secrets, the investigator must untangle cold-blooded malice from the messy affairs of the heart.
The Mysterious Three
William Le Queux
A brush with a nameless stranger sets off a cascade of secrets, dragging an ordinary gentleman into a dark web of forgery, hidden mummies, and high-stakes peril.