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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 14
1,315 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 14 of 28.
"About My Father's Business": Work Amidst the Sick, the Sad, and the Sorrowing
Thomas Archer
Seeking the face of God in the faces of the suffering, this collection of essays documents the quiet, often heroic labor of those who dedicated their lives to the destitute of Victorian London. It serves as a somber yet hopeful meditation on the nature of true charity.
Golden Grain Garnered from the World's Great Harvest-field of Knowledge: Comprising Selections from the Ablest Modern Writers of Prose, Poetry, and Legendary Lore
Unknown
HOOK A curated treasury of prose, poetry, and legend, this collection serves as a nineteenth-century literary compass designed to guide readers toward wisdom, reflection, and the enduring beauty of the written word.
Old Fogy: His Musical Opinions and Grotesques
James Huneker
A cantankerous, brilliant relic of a bygone era, the titular narrator offers a blistering, witty defense of the classical canon against the perceived decadence and "noise" of the modern musical world.
The Pulpit Of The Reformation, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4
Hugh Latimer
The voice of the early reformers rings out from these pages, demanding that the faithful prepare their souls for the inevitable arrival of the final judgment. It is a bracing, uncompromising call to moral vigilance and spiritual clarity.
A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
This collection preserves the rigorous, no-nonsense convictions of a nineteenth-century preacher. It offers a window into a faith centered on the literal authority of Scripture and the rejection of modern ecclesiastical innovations.
Every Man His Own University
Russell H. Conwell
The greatest university is not a collection of buildings, but the one you carry under your own hat. Success belongs to those who learn to observe the world for themselves.
Letters to "The Times" upon War and Neutrality (1881-1920)
Thomas Erskine Holland
This collection preserves the rigorous, often dry, public discourse of an era when international law was actively being debated in the columns of the Times of London during the lead-up to the First World War.
Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Written by Mr. William Shakespeare (1736)
Unknown
This eighteenth-century critical essay offers an early, scene-by-scene analysis of a monumental tragedy, evaluating its construction, character logic, and emotional resonance through the refined, rational lens of the Augustan age.
The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
A nation cannot remain indefinitely divided against itself, half slave and half free. This collection chronicles a pivotal struggle to define the moral and legal future of a fractured republic.
Aspects of Literature
John Middleton Murry
The critic must be a sovereign spirit, treating literature not as a collection of static monuments, but as a living, breathing expression of the human soul. This volume serves as an essential map of that conviction.
Of Vulgarity
John Ruskin
Vulgarity is not a matter of social station or loud behavior; it is a fatal deadness of the heart. True refinement, by contrast, is a profound and constant capacity for feeling.
The Pleasures of Ignorance
Robert Lynd
The world is a vast, intricate puzzle, and our failure to recognize the song of a bird or the name of a flower is not a tragedy, but an invitation to wonder.
True Manliness: From the Writings of Thomas Hughes
Thomas Hughes
True Manliness" serves as an earnest, didactic meditation on the intersection of Christian faith and the active life. It gathers the reflections and observations of a writer grappling with how a person of conviction should navigate an increasingly complex, modern world.
Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 3, March 1886
Various
This issue of a late 19th-century monthly serves as a bridge between the spiritual concerns of the Irish diaspora and the shifting political landscape of the British Isles. It captures a moment of transition where old-world traditions, Catholic social teaching, and the nascent urgency of the Home Rule movement…
First and Last
Hilaire Belloc
This collection of essays captures the restless spirit of a traveler, moving between the precise observation of a landscape and the wandering reflections of a philosophical mind. It is a meditation on the permanence of human nature set against the shifting, often illusory, surfaces of modern history and geography.
Hearts of Controversy
Alice Meynell
These essays provide a sharp, discerning lens through which to re-examine the giants of English literature, favoring the enduring truth of a poet’s vision over the fickle fashions of contemporary opinion.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 5, part 1: Presidents Taylor and Fillmore
Unknown
This archival volume documents the pivotal transition of American executive power during the years leading up to the Civil War, capturing the official records of two presidents struggling to maintain a fragile national union.
Literature in the Making, by Some of Its Makers
Unknown
These conversations capture the voices of American writers at the brink of the modern era, revealing the messy, human process of turning contemporary life into lasting literature. It is an honest, unvarnished look at the craft behind the books.
Society, Manners and Politics in the United States: Being a Series of Letters on North America
Michel Chevalier
HOOK A keen-eyed French observer ventures into the raw, restless American wilderness of the 1830s, documenting a nation transforming itself through iron, steam, and unbridled democratic ambition.
The Delicious Vice
Young Ewing Allison
This meditation on the life of an imaginative reader explores the profound, often invisible, bond between a person and the fictional worlds that shape their character. It argues that the "delicious vice" of novel reading is not merely a leisure activity, but an essential, formative experience of the human spirit.
The Footlights, Fore and Aft
Channing Pollock
This account of early twentieth-century American theater serves as a candid, behind-the-scenes guidebook to the machinery of the stage. It demystifies the chaotic, high-stakes industry of the Great White Way, capturing a period when live performance was the dominant form of mass entertainment.
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 57, No. 1, January 1861
Various
This early 1861 edition offers a candid, multifaceted window into the American mind on the brink of the Civil War, balancing polished essays on European travel with the intimate struggles of urban merchants.
A Book of Exposition
Homer Heath Nugent
This collection of essays serves as a practical guide to the craft of technical and scientific communication. By curating diverse models of exposition, it demonstrates how complex mechanisms, natural processes, and abstract ideas can be rendered clear, engaging, and precise for a general audience.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 22, August, 1859: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century miscellany captures a singular moment in American intellectual life, blending rigorous literary criticism, natural history, and political commentary with the intimate, often tragic storytelling of the era.
Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne: Twenty-five Letters to a Working Man of Sunderland on the Laws of Work
John Ruskin
A passionate series of letters proposes a radical reconstruction of society, challenging the Victorian reliance on market forces and advocating for a system governed by duty, craftsmanship, and moral order.
Testimony of the Sonnets as to the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays and Poems
Jesse Johnson
An aging, unremembered poet writes verses of desperate devotion to a younger companion, unintentionally leaving behind the true clue to who actually wrote the world’s greatest plays.
The Bridling of Pegasus: Prose Papers on Poetry
Alfred Austin
To harness the power of poetry, one must possess both the imaginative spirit of the winged horse and the restraining, golden discipline of reason to guide it toward greatness.
The Gamekeeper at Home: Sketches of natural history and rural life (Illustrated)
Richard Jefferies
A gamekeeper moves through wet woods and quiet hedgerows, defending his master's preserves while observing the secret, constant machinery of nature.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 7, part 1: Ulysses S. Grant
Unknown
A crucial record of executive power, this collection reveals a nation rebuilding its peace and asserting its global standing through official presidential paper.
Celebration in Baltimore of the Triumph of Liberty in France
William Wirt
A grand street parade in Maryland transforms into a sweeping, philosophical defense of constitutional liberty across the Atlantic Ocean.
Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions
Thomas Henry Huxley
A champion of empirical inquiry confronts clerical authority, dismantling literal interpretations of ancient texts with rigorous scientific evidence and logical precision.
Natural history of intellect, and other papers
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A mind detached from personal anxiety can observe the universe with absolute clarity, finding that human thought and external nature are driven by the exact same underlying laws.
Love—Marriage—Birth Control: Being a Speech delivered at the Church Congress at Birmingham, October, 1921
Dawson, Bertrand Edward Dawson, Viscount
A prominent physician challenges his church to abandon outdated dogma, arguing that physical affection and family planning are essential to modern Christian marriage.
Rambles in Womanland
Max O'Rell
A single glance from a skilled observer can decode a woman long before a man even grasps the surface.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 09, July, 1858: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
Through a tapestry of nineteenth-century voices, this volume captures a culture in dynamic transition, measuring ancient faiths against modern inquiry while weighing the quiet details of rural life beside global horizons.
A Persian Pearl, and Other Essays
Clarence Darrow
To look directly into the eyes of human flaw, fate, and mortality without turning to rigid dogma is the first step toward genuine compassion.
Things to be Remembered in Daily Life: With Personal Experiences and Recollections
John Timbs
An expansive, thoughtful compilation of observations and gathered wisdom offers a steadying guide through the shifting seasons of human existence.
Arrows of Freethought
G. W. (George William) Foote
A blistering late-Victorian critique of established religion that cuts through the hypocrisy, superstition, and social tyranny of orthodoxy to champion reason, human dignity, and freedom of thought.
The Drama
Irving, Henry, Sir
The living actor breathes life into the playwright’s static words, transforming silent text into a shared, vital human reality.
America To-day, Observations and Reflections
William Archer
An ocean liner carries a quiet observer across the Atlantic, where the real journey turns out to be a search for the shared heart of two great nations.
Elizabethan Demonology: An Essay in Illustration of the Belief in the Existence of Devils, and the Powers Possessed By Them, as It Was Generally Held during the Period of the Reformation, and the Times Immediately Succeeding
Thomas Alfred Spalding
Understanding the early modern mind requires reconstructing the invisible world of its deepest fears, where the unseen realm actively shaped daily life.
My Garden Acquaintance
James Russell Lowell
Observing the winged visitors of a quiet yard yields a rich, subtle education, turning a modest plot of land into a livelier and far more intriguing kingdom than the human world outside its fence.
Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists, Volume 3 of 3
Unknown
A collection of essays by 19th-century thinkers explores history, race, language, religion, and politics, offering insights into the complexities of human society and the challenges of understanding the past.
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (June 1913): Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913
Various
An sprawling slice of early twentieth-century life captures a world pivoting rapidly between traditional isolation, classical antiquity, and the raw kinetic momentum of modern industrial power.
Essays; Political, Economical, and Philosophical
Rumford, Benjamin, Graf von
Practical utility meets Enlightenment ambition in this detailed examination of how to manage poverty, heat, and nutrition through scientific, methodical intervention. These essays offer a rare window into the mind of a late eighteenth-century administrator determined to engineer a more efficient society.
McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 2, January, 1896
Various
This mid-winter issue of a prominent late-nineteenth-century periodical captures the pulse of its era through a blend of historical biography, literary portraiture, and high-stakes fiction.
The Open Air
Richard Jefferies
A child’s wild escape into a cornfield leads to a quiet conversation with the wheat, setting the tone for a profound journey through nature’s quiet power and humanity’s restless disconnect.
Wit, humor, reason, rhetoric, prose, poetry and story woven into eight popular lectures
George W. Bain
The platform is a stage for character, a place where sincere conviction and simple storytelling unite to steer the listener toward a life of temperance, faith, and honorable service.