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British Literature — page 86
6,377 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 86 of 133.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 107, September 15, 1894
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of late-Victorian England, blending lighthearted absurdity with biting social commentary on everything from politics to the literary trends of 1894.
Scarhaven Keep
J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
A theater professional vanishes near a crumbling coastal fortress, pulling a casual acquaintance into a dark web of impostors, hidden inheritances, and maritime intrigue. This brisk mystery navigates the intersections of class, reputation, and the dangerous secrets buried within a remote English village.
Seets i' Paris: Sammywell Grimes's trip with his old chum Billy Baccus, his opinion o' th' French, and th' French opinion o' th' exhibition he made ov hissen
John Hartley
Two Yorkshire chums navigate the unfamiliar grandeur of Paris, relying on stubborn provincial pride and a shared umbrella to survive a trip that highlights the chasm between their expectations and reality.
The Ballad of Ensign Joy
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
This narrative poem captures the dissonance between the romanticized idealism of the home front and the visceral, often shameful, realities of the Great War’s trenches.
The Bigamist
F. E. Mills (Florence Ethel Mills) Young
HOOK A woman’s life is upended when she discovers her seemingly happy marriage is a legal fiction. She must then navigate the crushing weight of public scandal, maternal duty, and a fractured identity.
The bracelets
Maria Edgeworth
Success in competition often masks deeper character flaws, and true nobility is found not in victory, but in the quiet consistency of a virtuous heart.
The Dalrymples
Agnes Giberne
Wealth, inheritance, and the quiet struggle of the conscience define the lives of those caught in the orbit of an old family estate. This narrative explores whether a person can be truly "good" if their kindness is governed by convenience rather than conviction.
The Gay Lord Quex: A Comedy in Four Acts
Arthur Wing Pinero
A high-stakes social collision erupts when an ambitious, common-born manicurist catches a nobleman in a compromising encounter. It is a sharp, witty battle of wits that probes the fragile boundaries of reputation and class.
The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary
Robert Hugh Benson
A serene, medieval tale of a solitary mystic who leaves his peaceful cell to carry an urgent, divine warning directly to the King of England.
The Lady's Walk
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A mysterious, persistent sound along a secluded garden path serves as a supernatural warning for a family clinging to its fading status. This haunting tale examines the heavy toll of duty, the persistence of grief, and the quiet sacrifices made in the name of love.
The pocket George Borrow
George Borrow
A wanderer of singular intellect and brawn walks the roads of nineteenth-century Europe, encountering outcasts and kings alike while arming himself with nothing but a cool head and a stout heart.
Thorpe Regis
Frances Mary Peard
Thorpe Regis depicts a tranquil English village grappling with the encroaching tides of modernity, as its inhabitants navigate the quiet, complex moral tests that define their small-world relationships.
A little maid
Amy Le Feuvre
A spirited, orphaned London girl pursues a life of service, determined to act as a "little home missionary" to those she encounters, while dreamily saving her meager wages for distant, unknown heathens.
An Almond for a Parrot: Being a reply to Martin Mar-Prelate
Unknown
This polemical broadside from the Elizabethan era strikes back at a pseudonymous agitator, employing savage wit and relentless intellectual mockery to defend the established order of the English Church.
Anthony Lyveden
Dornford Yates
A shattered war veteran finds his footing in a world that has moved on, only to be drawn into a mysterious, obsessive struggle over a decaying estate. This story of haunted memory and recovery follows a man whose past refuses to stay buried.
Charles Tyrrell
G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
In a household defined by coldness and sudden tragedy, a young man must navigate the suffocating weight of his family’s reputation to secure a future of his own choosing.
Echoes of the War
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
This collection of short plays offers a poignant, intimate look at the home front during the First World War. It explores how ordinary people—mothers, fathers, and children—navigated the profound grief and sudden isolation brought on by a global conflict.
Eeldrop and Appleplex
T. S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot
Two men retreat to a shadowy, disreputable district to observe the chaotic lives of others, seeking to glimpse the human soul behind the labels society uses to categorize them. This fragmented narrative serves as an intellectual laboratory, testing the limits of detached observation against the messiness of actual…
"England and Yesterday": A Book of Short Poems
Louise Imogen Guiney
This collection of verse captures the quiet, scholarly devotion of a wanderer finding sanctity in the historic landscapes of England. It is a contemplative meditation on the endurance of beauty amidst the inevitable decay of empires and men.
Illustrations of political economy, Volume 2 (of 9)
Harriet Martineau
HOOK This collection of didactic tales dramatizes how the cold, logical principles of political economy shape the daily lives, struggles, and ultimate survival of people living in vastly different corners of the world.
Lover and Husband: A Novel
Mrs. Molesworth
A young woman’s secret past collides with her present marriage in this nuanced study of emotional restraint, hidden motives, and the quiet labor of building a life together.
Miser Farebrother: A Novel (vol. 1 of 3)
B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon
A man of obsessive frugality seizes a decaying mansion to live rent-free, unaware of the local rumors that the property is haunted by its previous owners. Within these cold, guarded walls, a daughter’s yearning for connection clashes against her father’s iron-fisted control and the manipulations of a household…
Neva's choice: A sequel to "Neva's three lovers"
Harriet Lewis
A young heiress struggles to escape a web of greedy conspirators who have abducted her to a remote mountain retreat, while her long-lost father fights to return from the shadows of a foreign prison.
Peacock Pie, a Book of Rhymes
Walter De la Mare
A collection of verses that dances between the nursery and the dream-world, this volume captures the elusive, silvery quality of childhood wonder. It is a portal into a landscape where the mundane and the magical are indistinguishable.
The Fire Within
Patricia Wentworth
The shadows of a stagnant old house and the weight of a guilty secret test the bonds of loyalty and the resilience of the human spirit. A quiet strength emerges when the heart is forced to navigate the space between duty and the truth.
The fool of the family
Bracebridge Hemyng
A young boy’s journey from a troubled domestic life to the brutal frontiers of the American West is defined by narrow escapes, shifting allegiances, and the grim reality of survival. Through a series of rapid, episodic conflicts, the narrative tracks an earnest protagonist navigating a world where danger is…
The Haunted Chamber: A Novel
Duchess
The haunted chamber of a grand old castle hides more than just the ghosts of the past; it holds a desperate secret that threatens to destroy the happiness of those who walk its halls. Beneath the veneer of Victorian social graces lies a web of manipulation, jealousy, and a deadly rivalry that culminates in a…
The Interloper
Violet Jacob
A man returns to his ancestral home, only to find himself an outsider in a society governed by unspoken debts and hidden histories. He must fight both pride and prejudice to claim the woman he loves.
The Jester of St. Timothy's
Arthur Stanwood Pier
The arrival of a young master at a venerable boarding school sparks a quiet war of nerves and wits, revealing that growth is often the most difficult lesson of all.
The lost clue
Walton, O. F., Mrs.
A determined man seeks to fulfill his father’s dying wish, only to discover that the secrets of his own birth are tied to a lost letter and a crumbling family legacy.
The Pawns Count
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
In the high-stakes shadows of the First World War, an American woman and an English agent navigate a treacherous web of international espionage where the fate of nations rests on secrets, allegiances, and deception.
The Revolution in Tanner's Lane
William Hale White
A quiet London printer discovers that political passion cannot mend a broken home, nor can a provincial chapel protect a soul from the world's deep loneliness.
The Younger Sister: A Novel, Vol. I
Mrs. (Catherine-Anne Austen) Hubback
This story explores the quiet friction of provincial life, where the weight of social expectations and the sting of family discord test a young woman’s integrity. It captures the struggle to maintain one’s principles when surrounded by those who trade in flattery, status, and petty manipulation.
A Secret Inheritance (Volume 3 of 3)
B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon
A cursed lineage, a dark crime, and the blurred line between sleep and madness threaten to destroy two generations of lovers.
Challenge
V. (Victoria) Sackville-West
The unyielding pull of ambition and romance leads a young aristocrat into political rebellion, where the costs of power and devotion prove tragically high.
Confessions of an Etonian
I. E. M.
A boy’s tearful night journey to Eton begins a reflective life story defined by early independence, religious misgivings, and an unquenchable wanderlust.
Cymbeline
William Shakespeare
A king’s daughter endures exile, disguise, and false accusations, all while her kingdom teeters on the brink of a Roman invasion. It is a sprawling, magical tale of forgiveness and the endurance of love.
Eve's Ransom
George Gissing
In dark industrial towns and bright European streets, two restless souls learn that the highest cost of escaping poverty is the truth they owe to themselves.
Four Pigeons: Captains All, Book 7
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A cunning poacher turns a disastrous shooting accident into a lucrative insurance racket, exploiting the local landlord's wealthy guests and outmaneuvering his own neighbors at every turn.
Great Uncle Hoot-Toot
Mrs. Molesworth
A headstrong, discontented boy learns that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence when he runs away to "find himself" in the country. This narrative serves as a gentle, moralizing lesson on gratitude, the value of home, and the tempering of youthful pride.
Heart and Cross
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A quiet English village becomes the stage for wounded pride and stubborn hearts when a returned Indian officer’s presence forces an independent woman to confront her long-suppressed feelings.
I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales
Arthur Quiller-Couch
Tales of coastal storms, hidden treasures, and hard-earned wisdom emerge from the salt-sprayed parishes of the West Country. These winter stories capture the fragile boundary between desperate human folly and the endurance of the heart.
Lettice
Mrs. Molesworth
A sudden bereavement leaves a young woman holding the reins of her family's future, but her rigid prejudices and headstrong certainty threaten to ruin the very lives she intends to protect.
Peter Paragon: A Tale of Youth
John Palmer
A young man’s romantic and intellectual idealism collides with the messy realities of class, politics, and sexual desire in early twentieth-century Britain.
Punch, or The London Charivari, Volume 105, July 22nd, 1893
Various
London pauses to mock itself, capturing the absurdities of imperial pride and domestic panic in a single midsummer breath.
Squire Arden
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A young heir returns to his ancestral English estate only to find his legitimacy questioned, his father’s past shrouded in bitterness, and his family's lineage built upon fragile secrets.
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 980, October 8, 1898
Various
A Victorian hearth in print, where moral guidance meets suburban domesticity and high-seas adventure across serialized pages.
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.