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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 24
1,315 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 24 of 28.
The Heart of the Wild: Nature Studies from Near and Far
S. L. (Samuel Levy) Bensusan
These accounts of birds and beasts navigate the thin, often violent border between the natural world and the intrusions of humanity.
A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part II., 1793: Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners
Charlotte Biggs
A sharp-eyed witness to the French Revolution captures the unraveling of a society, documenting the terror, hypocrisy, and sudden domestic instability of life under the shadow of the guillotine.
By-paths in Hebraic bookland
Israel Abrahams
This collection of essays explores the quiet corners of Jewish literature and history, offering a scholarly yet accessible invitation to wander through the lives and works that often fall outside the traditional canon.
Mediæval Byways
L. F. (Louis Francis) Salzman
This exploration of medieval life sidesteps kings and battles to uncover the eccentric, gritty, and often humorous realities buried within ancient legal records and forgotten administrative archives.
Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A vibrant, mid-nineteenth-century repository of curious knowledge, this periodical serves as a vital bridge for Victorian scholars, antiquaries, and early photographic pioneers to share their discoveries and solve obscure intellectual puzzles.
The Copyright Question: A Letter to the Toronto Board of Trade
George N. (George Nathaniel) Morang
This sharp, polemical open letter defends the integrity of international copyright, urging Canadian commerce to reject restrictive, isolationist policies that threaten the rights of authors and the standing of the nation’s publishing industry.
Divorce versus Democracy
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
The preservation of the family bond is not merely a private affair, but a vital democratic bulwark against the encroachment of the wealthy and powerful.
English Pharisees, French Crocodiles, and Other Anglo-French Typical Characters
Max O'Rell
This collection of social commentary offers a sharp, witty, and deeply subjective comparison of the English and French characters, written by an author who spent a lifetime observing both.
Parish Papers
Norman Macleod
A collection of thoughtful, earnest sermons and reflections, these writings bridge the gap between rigorous theological inquiry and the personal, everyday anxieties of the Victorian soul. They offer a quiet, steadfast guide for anyone grappling with the complexities of faith in a changing world.
The Patchwork Papers
E. Temple (Ernest Temple) Thurston
This collection of essays offers a contemplative look at the small, often overlooked moments that define the human experience. It serves as a gentle reminder that beauty is not a distant ideal but an inevitable part of everyday life.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 369, July 1846
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, multifaceted window into the intellectual and cultural preoccupations of 1846, capturing the diverse interests of the Victorian reading public through essays, travelogues, literary criticism, and historical reflection.
Life Everlasting
John Fiske
This philosophical inquiry bridges the gap between Darwinian evolution and the human soul, arguing that our deepest hope for survival is a fundamental byproduct of our development as a species.
Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers
Thomas De Quincey
The universe expands, and with it, the mind’s capacity for both scientific wonder and deep, melancholic reflection. These essays bridge the gap between the cold precision of the stars and the warmth of a human life.
The Sea Fogs
Robert Louis Stevenson
This evocative account captures a writer’s intimate confrontation with the natural world, documenting how the shifting, encroaching California mist transforms a rugged landscape into an ethereal, silent ocean.
The Women of Tomorrow
William Hard
Modernity has dismantled the traditional home, leaving women to navigate a new landscape where domestic labor is no longer a full-time occupation and personal autonomy is a complex, hard-won reality.
Theological Essays and Other Papers
Thomas De Quincey
The subtle, invisible influence of faith acts upon the grand machinery of history with the quiet persistence of a forest’s growth or the movement of a watch’s hand.
Untimely papers
Randolph Silliman Bourne
War is the health of the State, a cold truth that transforms a nation’s culture into a machinery of coercion. This collection of essays documents the sudden, painful collapse of democratic ideals during the First World War.
A Year in a Lancashire Garden: Second Edition
Henry Arthur Bright
A quiet, year-long meditation on a private Lancashire estate, this work records the seasonal rhythms of a traditional garden through the eyes of a thoughtful, poetry-loving observer.
Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books: Paper for the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies Conference, 2004
Cory Doctorow
Electronic books are not a futuristic curiosity or a death knell for literature; they are a pervasive, misunderstood medium already woven into the fabric of our daily reading lives. This argument challenges the industry’s fear-based approach to digital text, suggesting that embracing open distribution, rather than…
Freedom Through Disobedience
Chitta Ranjan Das
A clarion call for Indian self-rule, this text argues that true liberation is not granted by colonial powers but forged through the disciplined, non-violent refusal to participate in an unjust system.
On the Significance of Science and Art
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
The pursuit of intellectual refinement is often a mask for human vanity, masking a profound betrayal of the fundamental obligation to labor for one’s own existence.
Parts of Speech: Essays on English
Brander Matthews
The English language belongs to the people who speak it, not to the grammarians who attempt to police its borders or freeze its evolution. This collection of essays serves as a spirited defense of linguistic freedom and a meditation on the American character.
The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume 1, January, 1880
Various
This journal argues that the foundations of the Christian faith are reinforced, rather than challenged, by the rigorous application of scientific observation and common-sense logic.
The Evolutionist at Large
Grant Allen
This collection of essays invites readers to view the natural world through the lens of evolutionary biology, turning everyday hedgerow discoveries into windows onto deep time. It bridges the gap between casual observation and scientific inquiry with warmth and clarity.
The works of Richard Hurd, volume 4 (of 8)
Richard Hurd
This collection of intellectual dialogues and letters serves as a rigorous inquiry into the foundations of English governance, the merits of European travel, and the historical evolution of chivalric literature. It invites the reader to engage with the refined, often contentious debates of the eighteenth-century…
Tropical nature, and other essays
Alfred Russel Wallace
Tropical environments teem with complex, interconnected life that defies simple explanation. These essays illuminate the mechanics of nature, from the habits of foraging ants to the intricate plumage of birds.
Wondrous Love, and other Gospel addresses
Dwight Lyman Moody
A collection of urgent evangelical sermons, this volume offers a direct, unadorned invitation to embrace faith as a simple act of trust rather than an intellectual or emotional struggle.
About The Holy Bible: A Lecture
Robert Green Ingersoll
The Bible is frequently cited as a divine guide, yet a closer, critical examination of its history, morality, and internal contradictions suggests it is a human product of a long-vanished, primitive age.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 57, No. 352, February 1845
Various
This collection of mid-nineteenth-century essays and reviews captures the Victorian intellectual appetite for global travel, literary critique, and the burgeoning mysteries of the human mind. It serves as a window into the era’s diverse and often conflicting cultural obsessions.
Crankisms
Lisle de Vaux Matthewman
A collection of cynical observations, these meditations on human vanity and social artifice suggest that while we may not be able to change our nature, we might at least learn to laugh at it.
Defenders of Democracy: Contributions from representative men and women of letters and other arts from our allies and our own country, edited by the Gift book committee of the Militia of Mercy
Militia of Mercy (U.S.). Gift Book Committee
This collection of voices stands as a historical testament to a singular moment, gathering the era’s most prominent literary figures to champion a cause of international solidarity. It serves as both a cultural artifact of the First World War and a heartfelt call to action for the home front.
Readers and Writers (1917-1921)
A. R. (Alfred Richard) Orage
Cultural judgment requires the same disciplined continuity as political criticism, grounded in a tireless quest for an ideal prose style that harmonizes the full vitality of the English tongue.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 385, August 15, 1829
Various
This collection of articles and anecdotes captures the wide-ranging curiosity of an early nineteenth-century audience, offering a curated snapshot of history, geography, and cultural trivia. It serves as a fascinating lens into the intellectual preoccupations of 1829.
The Price of a Soul
William Jennings Bryan
To lose one’s integrity for material gain is the ultimate folly, a transaction that leaves a person bankrupt in every way that truly matters. This work explores how the soul is weighed in the balance of daily life, profession, and national character.
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 10 (of 32)
John Wesley
A catastrophic disaster shatters worldly complacency, forcing the human heart to confront its own mortality and seek an unshakeable foundation beyond time.
Willis's Current Notes, No. 13, January 1852
Unknown
This slim 1852 issue of an antiquarian journal captures mid-nineteenth-century literary life through subscriber queries, historical discoveries, and trade announcements.
Children in Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life
Oscar Wilde
Cruelty in prison stems not from individual malice, but from a rigid, unthinking system that mistake routine for righteousness.
Five Sermons
Henry Benjamin Whipple
A steady voice of nineteen-century Anglican faith calls the American republic and the global church back to their founding principles. Through five historical addresses, an early Minnesota bishop frames Christian unity, historical remembrance, and social responsibility as urgent remedies for a changing world.
Goose-Quill Papers
Louise Imogen Guiney
A collection of lightweight, polished essays wanders through the quietly eccentric corners of everyday life, blending classical erudition with a defense of small, forgotten pleasures.
Lessons in Life
J. G. (Josiah Gilbert) Holland
A collection of calm, sensible essays offers a practical guide to everyday human behavior, urging readers to choose self-awareness over pride and balance over ideological extremes.
Library Ideals
Henry Eduard Legler
A vision of universal access to books unfolds across early twentieth-century America, proposing that public libraries serve as essential tools for self-education, social equality, and democratic progress.
Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary forum gathers the period's sharpest antiquarian minds to untangle obscure historical references, linguistic oddities, and disputed folklore.
Roma beata
Maud Howe Elliott
A vibrant mosaic of daily life and quiet wonders unfolds through an artist's eyes across the light-drenched squares of turn-of-the-century Italy.
A Letter to American Workingmen, from the Socialist Soviet Republic of Russia
Vladimir Il'ich Lenin
A revolutionary message sent across the globe calls upon laboring people to join an international struggle against capitalist exploitation and imperialist war.
Ancient Rome in the English novel: a study in English historical fiction
Randolph Faries
Scholarly rigor and artistic imagination converge to determine how the ancient Roman world is reconstructed within the boundaries of modern prose fiction.
Medical Women: Two Essays
Sophia Jex-Blake
Knowledge must be granted based on capacity rather than custom.
Musical Studies
Ernest Newman
An analytical exploration of the tensions between music and literature, this collection examines how composers like Berlioz, Strauss, and Wagner redefined the boundaries of their art.
On Books and the Housing of Them
W. E. (William Ewart) Gladstone
A lover of books faces a rising tide of print, offering practical wisdom and exact calculations to save home libraries from total chaos.