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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 168 of 714.

Love for Love: A Comedy
William Congreve
A young lover in debt pretends to lose his mind to avoid losing his inheritance, only to find that the woman he adores is playing a far cleverer game of her own.

Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy: Five Essays
George Santayana
Modern intellectual turns—from historical British empiricism to quantum physics, psychoanalysis, and French theology—receive a steady, clarifying appraisal that exposes the human assumptions hiding inside abstract philosophy.

The Boys' Life of Mark Twain
Albert Bigelow Paine
A barefoot boy on the Mississippi riverbanks grows into a celebrated world traveler, channeling his chaotic adventures, wild financial gambles, and deep personal losses into classic American literature.

The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 12
Unknown
Across fifty volatile years, absolute monarchs, religious refugees, and calculating strategists remake the map of Europe and the boundaries of the known world.

The Kaiser's Memoirs
German Emperor William II
To read this self-justifying chronicle is to observe an exiled monarch carefully polishing the armor of his own reputation while rewriting the collapse of an empire.

The Plants of Michigan: Simple Keys for the Identification of the Native Seed Plants of the State
Henry A. (Henry Allan) Gleason
A precise, practical guide for identifying Michigan’s native seed plants, designed to help observers transition from simple curiosity to confident recognition.

The Prussian Officer
D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
Sweat drips beneath heavy helmets on dusty roads, where a sullen, bruised soldier marches behind the arrogant officer who beat him.

The wild duck
Henrik Ibsen
A family built on fragile illusions quietly disintegrates when an idealist demands total truth at any cost.

A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul
George MacDonald
To cry out from the depths of weariness is not to lose faith, but to discover where true strength resides.

An encyclopedist of the dark ages: Isidore of Seville
Ernest Brehaut
By stripping ancient scholarship to its barest components, a seventh-century bishop accidentally built the intellectual bridge that carried Classical antiquity into the Middle Ages.

Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood
George MacDonald
When a newly appointed country vicar arrives at his quiet parish, he expects a simple ministry, only to be drawn into the hidden heartbreaks, deep prejudices, and dark secrets of his flock.

George Washington, Volume I
Henry Cabot Lodge
A human general of quiet, formidable resolves guides a fragile colonial cause through military desperation to national victory.

Jewellery
H. Clifford (Harold Clifford) Smith
A meticulous history traces Western personal adornment across centuries, mapping how precious metals, gemstones, and intricate enameling evolved alongside art, commerce, and human self-expression.

Mythology among the Hebrews and Its Historical Development
Ignác Goldziher
An exploration of Hebrew mythology and its historical development.

The Awakening: (The Resurrection)
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
A careless court sentence sends an innocent woman to Siberia, compelling the wealthy nobleman whose past betrayal ruined her to follow her into exile and rebuild his soul.

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Desire, betrayal, and magic collide across a sprawling maze of nocturnal tales, where a single night's survival hinges on the power of a well-told story.

The Civilization of China
Herbert Allen Giles
An engaging, clear-eyed overview mapping China’s vast geography, ancient social structures, and cultural life to demystify its everyday people for Western readers.

The Decameron, Volume II
Giovanni Boccaccio
A desperate lover risks execution, a cunning trickster outwits his neighbors, and ten young Florentines outrun the plague through the power of invention.

The Lesser Bourgeoisie
Honoré de Balzac
Behind the neat lace curtains of nineteenth-century Paris, ambition, greed, and petty vanity collide as a cunning outsider orchestrates a ruthless scheme to conquer the petty bourgeoisie.

The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850
Albert Henry Smyth
A century of literary ambition unfolds through the dusty pages of early American periodicals, tracing how a young nation struggled to build a culture of its own.

The Student's Life of Washington
Washington Irving
A biographical account of George Washington's life and role in the American Revolution.

A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. II
John Stuart Mill
Human knowledge rests on fragile generalizations, but systematic reasoning can distinguish true scientific discovery from the comforting illusions of casual observation and flawed philosophy.

American Hero-Myths: A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent
Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison) Brinton
By dissecting indigenous folklore through language and nature-based symbolism, this study proves that Indigenous American hero-gods are cosmic personifications rather than historical rulers.

English Poets of the Eighteenth Century
Unknown
Across a century of sweeping literary transformation, the voices of a changing nation echo through courtly satires, quiet country churchyards, and the raw, vital rhythms of the rural plow.

Humour, Wit, & Satire of the Seventeenth Century
Unknown
Unfiltered street jests, tavern songs, and political broadsides capture the raw, boisterous voice of early modern England, exposing the daily anxieties and unruly humor of a society in dramatic transition.

Marquise Brinvillier: Celebrated Crimes
Alexandre Dumas
A cold, chilling portrait of 17th-century aristocratic corruption, this chronicle unmasks how passion, greed, and terrifying chemical craftiness destroyed an entire family from within.

Micah Clarke: His Statement as made to his three grandchildren Joseph, Gervas and Reuben During the Hard Winter of 1734
Arthur Conan Doyle
An elderly Puritan soldier sits by his hearth in 1734 to record how he fought, suffered, and survived the bloody Monmouth Rebellion of 1685.

Philosophical Letters of Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
A human mind seeks absolute truth through pure reason, only to discover that the physical body continuously shapes, sustains, and limits every flight of thought.

Rollo on the Rhine
Jacob Abbott
A boy watches an old wooden crane atop an unfinished cathedral spire and marvels that it stood untouched for centuries. That quiet moment of curiosity captures the essence of a mid-nineteenth-century European journey seen through youthful eyes.

Textiles, for Commercial, Industrial, and Domestic Arts Schools: Also Adapted to Those Engaged in Wholesale and Retail Dry Goods, Wool, Cotton, and Dressmaker's Trades
William H. (William Henry) Dooley
A comprehensive guide to textiles for commercial, industrial, and domestic arts education.

The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891
Ireland) Trinity College (Dublin
Tracing three centuries of academic life, this volume captures the quiet power and human drama of a great university through its internal disputes, intellectual triumphs, and architectural changes.

The Butterfly Book: A Popular Guide to a Knowledge of the Butterflies of North America
W. J. (William Jacob) Holland
A natural urge compels many young minds to collect nature's wonders, yet without proper guidance, their eager labors produce little more than fleeting recreation.

The Cambridge Book of Poetry for Children: Parts 1 and 2
Unknown
A carefully chosen collection opens a gateway into the expansive territory of verse, guiding young minds toward the enduring joy of English poetry.

The Heir of Redclyffe
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
A fiery young heir, burdened by his family’s dark temper, enters the home of his easygoing guardian, where his sudden arrival reorders every life he touches.

The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne
William John Locke
A pedantic schoolmaster inherits a fortune, leaves his classroom to cultivate a life of quiet philosophy, and finds his detached existence upended when he shelter a beautiful, naive young refugee from the Ottoman Empire.

The Story of the Great War, Volume 1: Introductions
Unknown
Before the battlefields of the First World War stabilized into trench lines and artillery bombardment, a comprehensive chronicle captured the geopolitical rivalries, military doctrines, and failed dispatches that brought Europe to total ruin.

The Works of Frederick Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
A grand clash between human freedom and absolute necessity echoes through history, drama, and philosophy, revealing how the human spirit achieves its ultimate dignity when pushed to the edge of ruin.

The Wrong Box
Robert Louis Stevenson
Two scheming brothers, a missing corpse, and a mislaid piano converge in a Victorian farce where everyone is pursuing a fortune no one can quite manage to grasp.

With the Boer Forces
Howard Clemens Hillegas
An eye-opening, eyewitness account of ordinary farm families taking up arms to defend their homeland, offering an intimate and fair-minded chronicle of the Boer ranks during the South African War.

Wonderful Balloon Ascents
Fulgence Marion
A soaring chronicle of human ingenuity, Fulgence Marion’s work captures the brave, fragile beginnings of flight and the unyielding dream of navigating the sky.

A Bunch of Cherries: A Story of Cherry Court School
L. T. Meade
To win a life-changing prize, a schoolgirl must choose between absolute honesty and saving her impoverished mother from ruin.

A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance
Charles Lever
A romantic young Irishman journeys across Europe, endlessly reimagining his own identity to escape his humble origins and chase an impossible, grander life.

A Discourse Presented to the Most Serene Don Cosimo II., Great Duke of Tuscany, Concerning the Natation of Bodies Vpon, and Submersion In, the Water
Galileo Galilei
An ancient debate over why objects float or sink becomes a masterclass in experimental physics, replacing vague philosophical assertions with precise mathematical principles.

Castles of Ireland: Some Fortress Histories and Legends
Constance Louisa Adams
Through ages of turbulent conflict and shifting political ties, Ireland’s stone strongholds served as crucial footholds for Norman barons, English deputies, and native Gaelic chieftains. This volume traces the physical and human histories behind these fortresses, documenting how medieval peels, sprawling royal…

Fairy Tales, Volume 1 (of 2)
Unknown
A carefully curated gathering of classic folklore strips away modern embellishments to reveal the stark, timeless beauty of traditional storytelling. In these unadorned tales, cleverness and kindness consistently overcome monstrous obstacles.

Footprints of the Red Men: Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them
Edward Manning Ruttenber
A dense, painstaking piece of historic topography reconstructs the early geography of New York through the names indigenous inhabitants gave to its landscape.

How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves: Updated to 1900
William Henry Giles Kingston
A sweeping, plain-spoken chronicle tracks how a vulnerable island kingdom built, maintained, and repeatedly revolutionized the floating wooden and iron battlements that secured its global power.

Ideal Commonwealths
Unknown
From ideal ancient republics to advanced scientific islands and satiric gluttonous lands, these foundational visionaries map out humanity's boldest attempts to engineer the perfect society.