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Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 9
428 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 9 of 9.
An Essay on Comedy and the Uses of the Comic Spirit
George Meredith
The Comic Spirit is not merely the impulse to laugh, but a discerning, luminous intelligence that pricks the vanity and affectation of a society. It acts as a watchful guardian against the delusions of the human heart.
Free Thought and Official Propaganda
Bertrand Russell
This lecture stands as a trenchant diagnosis of the modern mind, arguing that freedom of thought is currently imperiled not by the stake or the rack, but by the far more efficient tools of state education, mass propaganda, and economic coercion.
Hours in a Library, Volume 1: New Edition, with Additions
Leslie Stephen
Deep reading is a quiet act of companionship, transforming solitary study into a dialogue across centuries with the ghosts of literature. This collection of essays invites the reader to sit in the archives and re-evaluate the giants of the past with a sharp, discerning eye.
Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol 1 of 2)
John Addington Symonds
To illuminate the origins of Western literature, one must journey through the sacred myths, the lyrical outbursts, and the dramatic heights of the ancient Greek soul. This survey traverses the evolution of a civilization’s voice from its earliest epics to its final, sophisticated decline.
Field and Hedgerow: Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies
Richard Jefferies
The English countryside comes alive through these observant, meditative essays, capturing the fleeting nuances of nature and the vanishing rhythms of rural life. They offer a profound intimacy with the earth, rendered with the precision of a naturalist and the soul of a poet.
A Novelist on Novels
Walter Lionel George
The modern novel faces a precarious existence, caught between the indifference of a mass-market public and a restrictive, puritanical culture that stifles true artistic sincerity.
The Friendly Road: New Adventures in Contentment
David Grayson
The open road offers a simple, transformative cure for the weary soul, proving that the most profound adventures are found not in distant lands, but in the quiet, unexpected encounters of daily life.
The Theory of the Theatre, and Other Principles of Dramatic Criticism
Clayton Meeker Hamilton
The stage is not a place for literature meant for the solitary reader; it is a living mechanism designed to captivate a crowd. This volume dissects the unique architecture of the theater, separating the art of the play from the art of the novel.
For Every Music Lover: A Series of Practical Essays on Music
Aubertine Woodward Moore
Music is not a cloistered study for the elite, but a universal language that reflects the inner life of humanity. This collection of essays serves as a guide for the listener and student to move beyond mere technical display toward a deeper, soulful appreciation of the art.
Letters of Two Brides
Honoré de Balzac
Two women navigate the divergent paths of marriage and motherhood through a lifelong correspondence that reveals the hidden emotional costs of their societal roles.
Ways of Nature
John Burroughs
Science and sentiment collide as a seasoned naturalist dismantles the modern tendency to project human intellect and morality onto the wild behavior of birds and beasts.
Glimpses of Three Coasts
Helen Hunt Jackson
This collection of travel essays captures the vanishing traditions and natural splendor of the late nineteenth century, spanning from the sun-drenched missions of California to the rugged, mist-covered fjords of Norway.
Overtones, a book of temperaments
James Huneker
A collection of critical portraits, this book explores the intersection of creative temperaments, dissecting the lives and works of composers and writers with a keen, searching intelligence.
The works of the Rev. John Wesley, Vol. 01 (of 32)
John Wesley
This volume collects the foundational sermons of an eighteenth-century English clergyman whose radical insistence on personal experience and social holiness sparked a global religious movement. It provides a primary-source window into a transformative era of theological thought.
Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: Second Series
Lafcadio Hearn
A refined observer wanders through the vanishing feudal landscapes and quiet domestic interiors of late nineteenth-century Japan, capturing the fleeting spirit of a culture standing at the threshold of modernity.
Iconoclasts: A Book of Dramatists: Ibsen, Strindberg, Becque, Hauptmann, Sudermann, Hervieu, Gorky, Duse and D'Annunzio, Maeterlinck and Bernard Shaw
James Huneker
The stage is a mirror held up to the human soul, revealing the turbulent, often unspoken struggles of the modern individual. This collection of essays serves as a rigorous, passionate guide to the playwrights who reshaped the landscape of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Character Building: Being Addresses Delivered on Sunday Evenings to the Students of Tuskegee Institute
Booker T. Washington
These addresses serve as a blueprint for moral fortitude and practical self-reliance, capturing the guiding philosophy of a foundational American educator speaking to the students he helped shape.
Musical Myths and Facts, Volume 2 (of 2)
Carl Engel
Musical history is as much a collection of folklore and persistent fables as it is a study of scores and instruments. This volume navigates the boundary between legendary anecdote and verifiable fact to illuminate the human side of the art.
The Future in America: A Search After Realities
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
HOOK A curious, searching traveler traverses the vast expanse of the early twentieth-century United States to determine if the nation is merely a chaotic engine of industrial growth or a true cradle for a higher human civilization.
Advice to Young Men: And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject
William Cobbett
True wisdom is not found in books of theory, but in the hard-won lessons of a life lived with industry, temperance, and a stubborn devotion to one’s own hearth.
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers
Henry David Thoreau
This collection captures the restless, uncompromising spirit of a writer who found as much to challenge in a brief excursion across the Canadian border as he did in the political crises of his own country.
Dealings with the Dead, Volume 1 (of 2)
Lucius M. (Lucius Manlius) Sargent
This collection of sketches reflects on the somber, strange, and often grim history of death, funeral customs, and legal justice in early America and beyond. It serves as a meditation on how societies handle their deceased and the fallibility of those who sit in judgment.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 479, March 5, 1831
Various
This collection offers a vibrant, eclectic mosaic of early nineteenth-century life, blending historical antiquarianism, scientific inquiry, and emotive verse into a singular weekly digest.
Collected Essays, Volume V: Science and Christian Tradition: Essays
Thomas Henry Huxley
A rigorous investigation into the limits of human knowledge, these essays challenge the permanence of dogma through the relentless application of scientific method to historical and religious tradition.
Essays
Arthur Christopher Benson
A collection of biographical and critical studies, these essays explore the lives and works of writers who possess a subtle, elusive charm. They reflect on the nature of genius, failure, and the dignity of human expression.
Letters of John Calvin, Volume II: Compiled from the Original Manuscripts and Edited with Historical Notes
Jean Calvin
A man of intense intellect and fragile health navigates the fires of sixteenth-century Europe, using the power of the written word to anchor a movement in the face of plague, exile, and theological warfare.
Genius in Sunshine and Shadow
Maturin M. (Maturin Murray) Ballou
The lives of history’s most brilliant minds often reveal a striking paradox: those who illuminate the world with their genius frequently dwell in the deepest shadows of personal suffering, poverty, or eccentricity.
The Young Man and the World
Albert J. (Albert Jeremiah) Beveridge
Success is not the holding of a good hand, but the playing of a poor hand well. This fundamental principle of personal character serves as the cornerstone for navigating the challenges of a complex, indifferent world.
Theological Essays
Charles Bradlaugh
These essays offer a rigorous, uncompromising examination of religious dogma, challenging the foundations of theological belief through the lens of nineteenth-century rationalism. They serve as a provocative call to intellectual independence and secular inquiry.
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 05 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Discussions
Robert Green Ingersoll
There can be no true liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven. Reason and human sympathy must replace the fear of dogma to ensure a just society.
Pirke Avot: The Sayings of the Jewish Fathers
Joseph I. (Joseph Isaac) Gorfinkle
An essential collection of ethical wisdom, this ancient text gathers the practical, moral insights of early Rabbinic scholars to serve as a guide for living a life of integrity, study, and kindness.
Roman Mosaics
Hugh Macmillan
This collection of essays offers a contemplative look at Rome, blending historical scholarship with personal observation to reveal the layered complexity of the Eternal City. It serves as a gentle guide for the curious traveler.
My Unknown Chum: "Aguecheek"
Charles Bullard Fairbanks
A keen-eyed traveler wanders through mid-nineteenth-century Europe, matching the weight of ancient stone against the noise of modern progress.
Gleanings in Buddha-Fields: Studies of Hand and Soul in the Far East
Lafcadio Hearn
Transient beauty, ancestral presence, and the quiet dignity of ordinary life converge in an illuminated portrait of a changing nation.
The Catholic World, Vol. 26, October, 1877, to March, 1878
Various
This Victorian monthly journal offers a rigorous, unapologetic defense of Catholic faith and history, set against the backdrop of late nineteenth-century industrial, political, and scientific upheaval. It serves as an archive of a tradition engaging its rivals.
The Patient Observer and His Friends
Simeon Strunsky
Comfortably at home in the bustling chatter of early twentieth-century New York, an understated urban guide offers a wry, genial tour through the quiet absurdities of everyday life.
Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative
Herbert Spencer
All reality—from cooling planets and microscopic cells to human morality and global commerce—unfolds according to a single unifying law of gradual transformation from simple to complex.
Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews
Thomas Henry Huxley
A fearless defense of empirical observation demands that society dismantle rigid dogma, elevate scientific education, and anchor human progress entirely in verifiable natural facts.
The Unseen World, and Other Essays
John Fiske
When rigorous scientific inquiry meets the deepest philosophical questions, the mind must distinguish between genuine spiritual inquiry and fanciful myths. This collection balances cosmic speculation with sharp literary and historical criticism.
Lay Morals, and Other Papers
Robert Louis Stevenson
Duty, hypocrisy, and the search for a whole heart animate a collection of unvarnished reflections on human conduct.
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 11 (of 12)
William Hazlitt
A fierce intellect tests every dogma, performance, and theory against the bedrock of human experience, unmasking pretension and celebrating genuine feeling wherever it appears.
Letters of Madam Guyon
Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon
An intense, quiet manual of spiritual surrendering shows how absolute self-renunciation opens into an unshakable, expansive inner freedom.
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Robert Green Ingersoll
Democracy relies upon unyielding personal independence, where the right to think and speak freely surpasses all political power.
A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance: With special reference to the influence of Italy in the formation and development of modern classicism
Joel Elias Spingarn
The Renaissance transformed the ancient Greek understanding of poetry into a rigid system of rules, a shift that defined the literary standards of the modern world for centuries to come.