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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 182 of 714.

Kabuki
Zoë Kincaid
The Japanese stage comes alive in this atmospheric portrait of a centuries-old theatrical tradition defined by its strict conventions, vivid ghost stories, and enduring masculine art.

Military Instructors Manual
J. P. (James Perry) Cole
The modern officer requires immediate, actionable knowledge to meet the urgent demands of the front line. This manual provides that vital bridge between theoretical training and the harsh realities of battlefield command.

Modern marriage and how to bear it
Maud Churton Braby
Marriage is often framed as a static, idyllic state, but this candid, pragmatic guide treats it as a complex, evolving negotiation. It explores why modern men and women struggle to sustain unions, offering a bracingly honest look at the friction between human nature and social custom.

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.

Peter's Rock in Mohammed's Flood, from St. Gregory the Great to St. Leo III
T. W. (Thomas William) Allies
The Church of God stands as a kingdom through the ages, fixed like a mountain range against the shifting tides of doctrinal anarchy and imperial interference. This historical account charts the survival of the Apostolic See.

Seeing Things at Night
Heywood Broun
These essays capture the restless, wry spirit of a journalist wandering through the theater, the nursery, and the city streets, finding adventure in the mundane and absurdity in the high-minded.

Sejanus: His Fall
Ben Jonson
Power is a fragile mask, and the pursuit of it inevitably invites a catastrophic collapse. This historical tragedy strips away the veneer of Roman grandeur to reveal the grinding machinery of ambition and betrayal.

Ten Days That Shook the World
John Reed
A journalist’s vivid, boots-on-the-ground chronicle of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, capturing the chaotic birth of the Soviet state through the eyes of those who lived it.

The art of music. Vol. 01 (of 14)
Unknown
The history of music is the history of human organization, tracing how we moved from the rhythmic beating of primitive drums to the complex, harmonious masterpieces of the modern age. This volume provides a scholarly, sweeping survey of that evolution, mapping the development of musical form, theory, and the lives…

The Forsyte saga, Volume 3 : Awakening
John Galsworthy
A sweeping, melancholic chronicle of a vanishing world, this narrative captures the quiet, inexorable collision between the rigid, possessive values of a Victorian patriarch and the restless, shifting spirit of a modern generation.

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.

The Silent Bullet
Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve
HOOK A university chemistry professor applies rigorous laboratory science to New York City’s most baffling crimes, treating the pursuit of justice as an exact, experimental discipline.

The story of Eros & Psyche (retold from Apuleius)
Edward Carpenter
This retelling of a foundational myth explores the trials of love and the human spirit through a blend of classical narrative and evocative Victorian poetry. It serves as both a fable of transformation and a meditation on the search for meaning in a changing world.

The Viking Blood: A Story of Seafaring
Frederick William Wallace
This maritime coming-of-age story follows a young boy’s journey from a neglected apprentice on a harsh merchant barque to a heroic master mariner and respected leader in a Nova Scotian fishing community.

An Artilleryman's Diary
Jenkins Lloyd Jones
A vivid, day-to-day record of an artilleryman’s service, documenting the grit, monotony, and hard-won camaraderie found within the ranks of the Union Army.

Beautiful Joe: An Autobiography
Marshall Saunders
A scarred, mistreated dog finds safety in a loving home, where he learns the quiet power of human kindness and becomes a witness to the interconnected lives of all creatures.

Death Valley in '49: Important chapter of California pioneer history. The autobiography of a pioneer, detailing his life from a humble home in the Green Mountains to the gold mines of California
William Lewis Manly
A harrowing, firsthand account of the 1849 California Gold Rush, tracking a young pioneer’s desperate survival through the uncharted, lethal heat of the valley that earned its name from his party’s ordeal.

History of Prince Edward Island
Duncan Campbell
This chronicle charts the evolution of Prince Edward Island from a colonial wilderness to a modernized member of the Canadian Dominion. It serves as a meticulous record of the political, social, and economic forces that shaped the territory.

I Walked in Arden
Jack Randall Crawford
An earnest, reflective chronicle of an Anglo-American marriage, this narrative traces the intersections of youthful ambition, the harsh realities of industrial enterprise, and the endurance of love against the backdrop of changing times.

Jacobean Embroidery: Its Forms and Fillings, Including Late Tudor
Ada Wentworth Fitzwilliam
The intricate, winding patterns of Jacobean needlework are more than mere decoration; they are a visual bridge between the medieval world and the dawn of the eighteenth century. This guide invites the reader to look closely at the stitches and symbolic creatures that define a rich, often misunderstood, period of…

Mechanics: The Science of Machinery
A. Russell (Alexander Russell) Bond
Modern machinery acts as the steel-muscled extension of human capability, transforming the raw forces of nature into the engine of our material civilization. This survey captures the evolution of mechanical ingenuity, from primitive tools to the complex power systems defining the early twentieth century.

On Secret Service: Detective-Mystery Stories Based on Real Cases Solved by Government Agents
William Nelson Taft
The federal agent is a quiet hunter, operating in the shadows of the American capital to untangle webs of deceit that threaten the nation. These accounts reveal the meticulous, often lonely labor behind the badge.

Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van: Winkle
Charles Burke
The weary traveler wakes from a two-decade slumber to find his village transformed, his wife gone, and his own life a ghost story whispered by strangers. This enduring American classic captures the poignant bewilderment of a man out of time.

Select Poems of Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray
Elegance and melancholy define these verses, where the weight of history and the inevitability of death are held in perfect, rhythmic balance. A quiet mastery of language transforms the ordinary into the sublime, inviting readers to linger in the hushed spaces between life and memory.

Shop Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor
** Efficiency is not a matter of human effort alone, but of scientific precision applied to the smallest movements of labor. This foundational text argues that management is an exact art, not a question of personalities.

South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 3 (of 8): From the Battle of Colenso, 15th Dec. 1899, to Lord Roberts's Advance into the Free State, 12th Feb. 1900
Louis Creswicke
This account chronicles the pivotal mid-winter months of the South African War, capturing the desperation of besieged garrisons and the arrival of a massive, multi-national Imperial relief effort.

Tartuffe
Molière
The ultimate portrait of a pious fraud, this play reveals how easily a righteous mask can dismantle a family’s peace. It remains the definitive study of how we let the wrong people hold the keys to our conscience.

The Boats of the "Glen Carrig": Being an account of their Adventures in the Strange places of the Earth, after the foundering of the good ship Glen Carrig through striking upon a hidden rock in the unknown seas to the Southward
William Hope Hodgson
Stranded on a desolate, weed-choked sea, survivors of a shipwreck must defend themselves against nameless, nocturnal horrors while plotting a desperate escape from a forgotten corner of the world.

The city
Robert Ezra Park
The city is a complex organism, a laboratory of human behavior shaped by mobility, commerce, and the relentless breaking of old social ties. It remains a foundational text for understanding urban life.

The Greatest English Classic: A Study of the King James Version of the Bible and Its Influence on Life and Literature
Cleland Boyd McAfee
The King James Version is not merely a religious text; it is the bedrock of the English language and a defining force in Western history. Explore the profound literary and cultural legacy of this classic.

The History of Cuba, vol. 2
Willis Fletcher Johnson
This chronicle meticulously traces Cuba’s evolution from a colonial military outpost into a nascent nation, capturing the complex, often violent interplay between Spanish imperial ambition and the island’s own developing identity. It offers a structured look at the strategic, economic, and social forces that…

The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton
Daniel Defoe
A young man adrift in a lawless world carves his own destiny through desperate survival, improbable riches, and the quiet, persistent pull of conscience.

The unconscious
Morton Prince
The human mind is a vast, hidden territory where forgotten memories and buried emotions operate independently of our conscious will, shaping our behavior in ways we rarely perceive.

Thirteen years at the Russian court: (a personal record of the last years and death of the Czar Nicholas II. and his family)
Pierre Gilliard
The final years of the Romanov dynasty are presented through the eyes of a close observer who watched an imperial family transform into a unit of shared suffering and quiet, steadfast faith.

A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open
Theodore Roosevelt
A seasoned observer explores the world’s remaining wild corners, blending rugged adventure with a profound reverence for the natural history and human stories found in the open spaces of the Americas.

A Handbook of the Cornish Language: chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature
Henry Jenner
This guide offers a practical path for those wishing to reclaim an ancient, near-extinct tongue, bridging the gap between historical scholarship and the living speech of the Cornish people.

A History of Science
Henry Smith Williams
Progress in human understanding is never a solitary march, but a complex, winding journey built upon the stubborn observations and bold challenges of those who dared to question the established order.

Adam Smith
Francis W. (Francis Wrigley) Hirst
This biography chronicles the life and intellectual evolution of the Scottish philosopher who fundamentally reshaped our understanding of political economy and moral philosophy. It traces his journey from a quiet academic existence to global influence.

Cathay
Ezra Pound
This collection of translated verse captures the transient beauty of human connection and the quiet, recurring ache of separation. It is an exploration of lives defined by distance, duty, and the inexorable passage of time.

Edinburgh Under Sir Walter Scott
W. T. Fyfe
The intellectual heart of the early nineteenth century beat in Edinburgh, where a unique confluence of history, law, and literature shaped the life of its most famous son, Sir Walter Scott.

Hi Jolly!
Jim Kjelgaard
A solitary camel driver finds his destiny in the vast, unforgiving American Southwest. This narrative tracks an unlikely partnership between a man and his beast across two continents and a changing frontier.

Hide and Seek
Wilkie Collins
A tender, intricately plotted examination of human isolation, this novel follows the lives of two social outcasts—a young woman born deaf and a brooding, nomadic traveler—whose paths converge through a web of long-held secrets.

Marvels of Scientific Invention: An Interesting Account in Non-Technical Language of the Invention of Guns, Torpedoes, Submarine Mines, Up-to-Date Smelting, Freezing, Colour Photography, and Many Other Recent Discoveries of Science
Thomas W. Corbin
HOOK This guide navigates the ingenious mechanics behind early 20th-century progress, demystifying the complex science that powered everything from deep-sea torpedoes to the miracle of wireless communication.

Paris under the Commune: The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege
John Leighton
Paris under the Commune is a visceral, firsthand account of the 1871 insurrection, capturing a city fractured by revolutionary fervor and the brutal finality of civil war. It serves as a haunting witness to the destruction of a world.

Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living: Some Things That All Sane People Ought to Know About Sex Nature and Sex Functioning
H. W. (Harland William) Long
HOOK This guide seeks to demystify the physical and emotional complexities of marriage by replacing outdated social taboos with practical, scientifically grounded instruction for couples.

The Battle with the Slum
Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis
The slum is not a permanent fixture of the city, but a battlefield where the weapons are light, law, and human kindness. Persistence is the only way to reclaim the lives trapped in the dark.

The festival
H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft
A solitary traveler returns to an ancestral, fog-shrouded New England town to participate in a forbidden, centuries-old Yuletide ritual. What he discovers beneath the earth challenges the very boundaries of his sanity and existence.

The French Impressionists (1860-1900)
Camille Mauclair
The Impressionists captured the fleeting play of light and the essence of modern life, forever altering our perception of what a painting can be.