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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 263 of 714.

Bobby Blake on a Plantation
Frank A. Warner
The daring rescue of a drowning rival turns into a Southern adventure for three schoolboys, who must navigate dangerous swamps and outwit a cunning land thief to save a family estate.

Buddhist Psalms translated from the Japanese of Shinran Shonin
Shinran
This collection of devotional poetry captures the profound surrender of a seeker who finds ultimate peace not in his own moral accomplishments, but in the boundless mercy of the Infinite. It remains a foundational testament to the Pure Land tradition, articulating a shift from rigorous, self-reliant asceticism to…

Colonel Quaritch, V.C.: A Tale of Country Life
H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
A veteran soldier and a proud, land-poor squire’s daughter find their lives intertwined with a ruthless financier in the fading landscape of rural England. Their struggle for home and heart culminates in a desperate search for a hidden family fortune.

Comic Tragedies: Written by 'Jo' and 'Meg' and Acted by The 'Little Women'
Louisa May Alcott
These exuberant, homemade melodramas reveal the secret creative life of a legendary childhood, capturing the earnest intensity of young writers who turned their attic into a stage for grand, sweeping passions.

Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)
B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts
A resolute defense of faith, this collection gathers a lifetime of arguments, historical reflections, and public rebuttals written to vindicate a religion against its fiercest critics at the dawn of the twentieth century.

Elmer Gantry
Sinclair Lewis
A profane, brawling athlete stumbles into the pulpit and discovers that holiness is the most lucrative and exhilarating racket in America. This scathing portrait of a charlatan follows the rise of a man who masterfully exploits the public’s desperate hunger for spiritual certainty.

General Gordon
Seton Churchill
A soldier of immense moral intensity, this biography traces the life of a man whose unconventional genius and devout faith led him from the trenches of the Crimea to a tragic, iconic death in the Soudan.

Handel
Romain Rolland
A masterful portrait of a musical titan, this study traces the relentless creative spirit of a composer who weathered constant rivalries and near-ruin to reshape the landscape of European music.

Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Volume 3 (of 3)
John Ireland
HOOK This collection serves as a vivid, anecdotal record of a master satirist’s life and work, documenting the friction between artistic genius and the fickle, often ungrateful public of eighteenth-century England.

"I was there" with the Yanks on the western front, 1917-1919
Cyrus Leroy Baldridge
The Great War is often remembered through the lens of official history or polished monuments, but here it is captured in the weary, unvarnished rhythm of the men who stood in line, slogged through the mud, and waited for the next shell to fall. This intimate chronicle offers a rare perspective on the daily…

In the Land of Mosques & Minarets
M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield
Across the Mediterranean from Europe, the sun-drenched landscapes of North Africa offer a complex tapestry of ancient Roman remnants, enduring Islamic traditions, and the encroaching machinery of early twentieth-century French colonial infrastructure. This travelogue serves as a detailed survey of the region’s…

Legends of the Rhine
Wilhelm Ruland
A collection of centuries-old tales, this work captures the romantic spirit and haunting folklore woven into the landscape of the Rhine river valley.

Life and marvelous adventures of Wild Bill, the Scout: being a true an exact history of all the sanguinary combats and hair-breadth escapes of the most famous scout and spy America ever produced
James W. (James William) Buel
HOOK A portrait of the ultimate frontier scout, this account charts the life, lethal precision, and violent end of a man who served as both a lawless wanderer and a necessary instrument of order.

Old Familiar Faces
Theodore Watts-Dunton
These collected recollections offer an intimate, enduring portrait of the great Victorian literary circle, seen through the eyes of one of its most devoted and observant members. They preserve the humanity behind the legendary reputations.

Poems in Prose
Charles Baudelaire
A solitary stroller wanders through city streets and internal landscapes, seeking a new form of expression flexible enough to capture the soul's erratic motions. Across prose vignettes, urban squalor and luminous dreams collide.

Political Women, Vol. 2
Menzies, Sutherland, active 1840-1883
Women of ambition and intellect navigate the treacherous corridors of European power, wielding influence behind thrones to reshape nations and secure their own legacies. This historical study illuminates the intersection of feminine agency and statecraft across the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Rambles of an archæologist among old books and in old places
F. W. (Frederick William) Fairholt
This collection of antiquarian essays invites readers to wander through the forgotten corners of medieval art, from the hidden symbolism of ancient rings to the intricate craftsmanship of Renaissance metalwork.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 799, April 25, 1891
Various
This late-nineteenth-century technical periodical serves as a vital snapshot of an era defined by rapid industrial expansion, mechanical ingenuity, and the confident application of scientific principles to the problems of daily life.

Second Plays
A. A. (Alan Alexander) Milne
This collection presents five plays that explore the quiet intersection of domestic life and the unexpected intrusion of romance, mystery, or social friction. Through sharp dialogue and a penchant for gentle subversion, the writing highlights the absurdity hidden within the ordinary habits of the British…

Sidonia, the Sorceress : the Supposed Destroyer of the Whole Reigning Ducal House of Pomerania
Wilhelm Meinhold
Sidonia von Bork, a noblewoman of striking beauty and relentless spite, descends into a life of dark obsession after the ducal house of Pomerania repeatedly spurns her. Her path from a court favorite to a condemned sorceress becomes a tragic spiral of revenge, magic, and the systematic undoing of a royal dynasty.

Sir Mortimer: A Novel
Mary Johnston
A disgraced knight seeks redemption for a catastrophic wartime failure that cost him his honor, his comrades, and the woman he loves.

Ten months in a German raider
John Stanley Cameron
This is a harrowing, plain-spoken account of a merchant captain and his family held captive for ten months on a German raider during the First World War. It is a rare, intimate look at the surreal, claustrophobic life of prisoners-of-war at sea.

The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, Jan-Mar, 1890
Various
This collection of reports, technical notes, and architectural critiques captures the professional pulse of the American building industry at the dawn of the 1890s. It provides a granular look at the craftsmanship, controversies, and aesthetic debates that defined a period of rapid urban transformation.

The Arena, Volume 4, No. 23, October, 1891
Various
This periodical offers a vital snapshot of late nineteenth-century American thought, capturing a nation grappling with industrial strife, social reform, and the shifting boundaries of religious and political identity.

The Crisis of the Naval War
John Rushworth Jellicoe
This professional retrospective examines the strategic shift from defensive patrol to the convoy system, revealing how the Royal Navy finally strangled the German U-boat threat during the final years of the Great War.

The Cross of Berny
Théophile Gautier
A journey through the wreckage of four intertwined lives, this epistolary chronicle captures the fragile intersection of vanity, romantic obsession, and the devastating cost of misreading the human heart.

The Faith of Men
Jack London
The Far North provides a brutal, unforgiving stage where human nature is stripped to its barest essentials. Here, morality shifts like the drifts, and survival becomes the only absolute law.

The History of the Medical Department of Transylvania University
Robert Peter
Transylvania University’s medical school was once the academic heart of the American West, a beacon of scientific ambition that flourished in Lexington before fading into history. This account reconstructs the rise and eventual dissolution of that storied institution through the eyes of one of its own faculty.

The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man
Ernst Haeckel
The study of human origins serves as the ultimate diagnostic for understanding our place in the natural world. By tracing the biological lineage of humanity, we uncover the mechanical and evolutionary forces that shaped the modern form.

The Life of Jesus of Nazareth: A Study
Rush Rhees
This systematic study offers a careful, scholarly examination of the ministry and person of Jesus, bridging historical inquiry with a deep respect for the gospel narratives. It provides a measured look at a life that defined an era.

The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 1 of 2)
J. Holland (John Holland) Rose
This biographical account traces the rise of a singular force of nature, examining how an ambitious Corsican officer dismantled the old monarchies of Europe to reshape the continent in his own image.

The Little Minister
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
A young minister faces the clash between his strict, dogmatic congregation and the wild, unpredictable pull of his own heart. This tale of devotion, secrets, and forbidden love unfolds against the rugged backdrop of a nineteenth-century Scottish weaving village.

The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
These records offer a window into the evolving mind of a man navigating the precarious divide between personal loyalty and the hardening fault lines of a nation. They capture the steady, deliberate movement of a political figure shifting from local concerns to the moral stakes of the national stage.

The Potter and the Clay: A Romance of Today
Maud Howard Peterson
A haunting exploration of human frailty, this novel follows two cousins whose lifelong bond is shattered when cowardice and duty collide in the harsh crucible of British India.

The president's daughter
Nan Britton
The private life of a twentieth-century president is laid bare through the eyes of the woman who shared his secret, offering a candid, firsthand account of a hidden domestic reality.

The Rivers and Streams of England
A. G. (Arthur Granville) Bradley
The rivers of England are not merely veins of water but the essential arteries of its history, landscape, and sporting soul. This travelogue captures the character of these streams, weaving together topography, architectural heritage, and the quiet intimacy of the angler’s life.

The Secret of the Reef
Harold Bindloss
In the unforgiving waters of the North Pacific, a determined trio of salvagers stakes their future on a sunken wreck, only to find themselves ensnared in a dangerous rivalry over hidden gold.

The Spirit of the Border: A Romance of the Early Settlers in the Ohio Valley
Zane Grey
This narrative captures the relentless, often brutal struggle for survival and moral clarity on the Ohio frontier at the close of the eighteenth century.

The Tatler, Volume 3
Steele, Richard, Sir
The observations of an imaginary censor offer a sharp, witty lens onto the manners, social hypocrisies, and quiet domestic struggles of early eighteenth-century London.

The Vicomte de Bragelonne: The End and Beginning of an Era
John Bursey
The final installment of the D’Artagnan Romances follows the aging, separated musketeers as they navigate the shifting political landscape of Louis XIV’s France. It is a sprawling, elegiac meditation on the twilight of chivalry and the inevitable erosion of idealism.

The William Henry Letters
Abby Morton Diaz
A boy finds his moral compass while navigating the scrapes and friendships of school life, sharing his growth through candid letters home to his grandmother.

The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.)
Unknown
This collection serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic snapshot of early twentieth-century American temperament, capturing the nation’s shifting moods through the lens of its most popular humorists and storytellers.

The Woman Gives: A Story of Regeneration
Owen Johnson
In the bustling, art-strewn corridors of a New York City tenement, a fallen painter finds his soul through a mysterious, selfless woman. Their collision of lives illuminates the fragile line between artistic genius and human connection.

Thirteen Stories
R. B. (Robert Bontine) Cunninghame Graham
The sun-scorched plains of South America and the dusty edges of empire serve as the backdrop for these restless, wandering portraits of men caught between two worlds.

Water Supply: the Present Practice of Sinking and Boring Wells: With Geological Considerations and Examples of Wells Executed
Ernest Spon
Finding reliable water in a thirsty, growing world is a feat of engineering patience, demanding both a deep knowledge of the earth’s hidden strata and the precision of a master craftsman. This volume serves as a technical manual for the nineteenth-century professional, mapping the complex relationship between…

Woman
Anthony M. (Anthony Mario) Ludovici
This polemic argues that modern industrial society has profoundly damaged the natural instincts of women, leading to a state of widespread cultural and biological decay. It seeks to re-evaluate femininity by challenging contemporary progressive ideals.

A Man's World
Albert Edwards
This autobiographical narrative traces a young man's maturation through the lens of early twentieth-century social reform, offering an unvarnished look at the intersections of poverty, idealism, and human frailty. It serves as a candid record of a life spent witnessing the harsh realities of urban struggle while…

A Voyage of Consolation: (being in the nature of a sequel to the experiences of 'An American girl in London')
Sara Jeannette Duncan
A young woman and her parents set out on a grand tour of Europe to mend a broken heart, only to find that the Old World—and their fellow travelers—are far more complicated than any guidebook suggests.