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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 267 of 714.
The Leading Facts of English History
D. H. (David Henry) Montgomery
History is not merely a collection of dead events, but a living foundation upon which the present day is built. Through a sweeping survey of Britain’s long evolution, this volume traces how a collection of scattered tribes and contested lands gradually forged a unified nation defined by law, representative…
The New Magdalen
Wilkie Collins
A woman born into the margins of society seizes a chance at a new identity, only to find that the past is a ghost that refuses to be buried. This gripping tale of imposture and redemption explores the fragility of social standing and the radical power of forgiveness.
The Parent's Assistant
Maria Edgeworth
The instruction of children is a delicate art, requiring the gentle bending of the twig to ensure the tree grows straight. This collection of stories offers a moral compass for the morning of life.
The Pearl of India
Maturin M. (Maturin Murray) Ballou
The "Pearl of India" is a sprawling, observational account of 19th-century Ceylon, capturing a landscape of tropical abundance, ancient ruins, and colonial influence. It serves as a vivid time capsule for those curious about the history and natural beauty of a fabled island.
The Plastic Age
Percy Marks
College is a promise of discovery that often delivers a bewildering clash of high-minded tradition and hollow, performative social ritual. The transition into adulthood is rarely the clean, noble journey one expects.
The Preface to Aristotle's Art of Poetry
André Dacier
This foundational text reclaims the rigid structural integrity of classical drama, arguing that the true purpose of tragedy is to refine human passions through reason and moral instruction. It serves as a vigorous defense of the ancient rules of poetry.
The Weird Orient: Nine Mystic Tales
Henry Iliowizi
Across the arid landscapes of the East, ancient legends and spectral figures collide in a series of nine mystical narratives that blend history, folklore, and the supernatural. These tales explore the fragile boundary between the mortal realm and the unseen world, where vanity is punished, faith is tested, and the…
Thistledown: A Book of Scotch Humour, Character, Folk-lore, Story & Anecdote
Robert Ford
The Scottish character is a tapestry woven from wit, practicality, and an unshakable, often irreverent, belief in the spirit of the people. This collection gathers the sharpest threads of that heritage, capturing a nation through the voices of its own sons and daughters.
Top-of-the-World Stories for Boys and Girls: Translated from the Scandinavian Languages
Emilie Poulsson
These tales from the far North reveal a world where the line between the everyday and the enchanted is as thin as a winter frost. Through these stories, the wonders of the Scandinavian landscape meet the universal dreams and struggles of childhood.
Visits to Monasteries in the Levant
Robert Curzon
The search for ancient, forgotten texts provides an excuse for adventure across the Levant. Amidst the shifting sands and crumbling ruins of the nineteenth-century East, a traveler uncovers history hidden in the silence of remote cloisters.
William E. Burton: Actor, Author, and Manager: A Sketch of his Career with Recollections of his Performances
William L. (William Linn) Keese
This archival portrait reconstructs the life and theatrical dominance of an influential nineteenth-century actor-manager, whose comedic genius and scholarly devotion to the stage defined a golden era of New York performance.
William Harvey and the Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood
Thomas Henry Huxley
A rigorous examination of how intellectual honesty and experimental method transformed our understanding of the human body, tracing the life and monumental achievement of the man who discovered the circulation of the blood.
With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American Effort
Edward Hungerford
A testament to American logistical ingenuity and humanitarian zeal, these pages chronicle the monumental effort to sustain the spirit and health of soldiers on foreign soil during the First World War.
Wolfville Nights
Alfred Henry Lewis
A weathered cattleman recounts the rugged, often violent, and darkly humorous chronicles of an Arizona frontier camp, where justice is swift and a man’s word is his only currency.
A Brief History of Element Discovery, Synthesis, and Analysis
Glen W. Watson
This chronicle traces the evolution of human knowledge regarding the chemical elements, from ancient philosophy to the sophisticated nuclear synthesis of the modern era. It balances the wonder of scientific discovery with the stark realities of atomic-age technology.
A Supplication for the Beggars
Simon Fish
This is a fierce, polemical petition disguised as a plea from the destitute, aimed at dismantling the immense wealth and influence of the English clergy on the eve of the Reformation. It is a bold, early blast against the monastic system, written with the focused intensity of a man who believed the nation’s…
American Rural Highways
T. R. (Thomas Radford) Agg
Building a functional nation requires more than just ambition; it demands the literal, physical infrastructure to connect field to market and community to community. This technical manual serves as a foundational blueprint for developing the American rural highway system.
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
Lysander Spooner
The true power of a jury lies not in its duty to obey the law, but in its absolute right to judge the justice of the law itself. A trial by jury is the only barrier between the individual and the unchecked tyranny of government.
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, October 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
This collection of scientific and social inquiry captures the intellectual pulse of the turn of the century, offering a panoramic view of late-Victorian thought on progress, charity, and the natural world. It stands as a primary record of an era grappling with the transition from traditional knowledge to empirical…
Bella Donna: A Novel
Robert Hichens
A manipulative woman seeks escape from her failing marriage and social standing, only to find herself ensnared by the dark, alluring mysteries of a stranger in the Egyptian desert.
"Bethink Yourselves!"
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
A profound, searing indictment of humanity’s capacity for self-destruction, this work challenges the moral legitimacy of war during the Russo-Japanese conflict. It remains a timeless, urgent plea for individual conscience over national obedience.
Bonnie Scotland: Painted by Sutton Palmer
A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope) Moncrieff
This fireside tour of the Scottish mainland offers a literary and historical survey of a nation, peeling back surface-level tourist impressions to reveal a complex, multifaceted cultural identity.
Boys and Girls from Thackeray
Kate Dickinson Sweetser
This collection gathers the formative years of celebrated literary figures, peeling back the layers of adult complexity to reveal the spirited, vulnerable, and often defiant children beneath.
Breton Legends: Translated from the French
Anonymous
HOOK These tales capture the wild, rugged spirit of a coastal land where ancient stone monoliths stand guard over a world deeply anchored in Christian faith.
Cinderella Jane
Marjorie Benton Cooke
A quiet, independent woman finds her secret ambitions tested by a marriage built on convenience and a society shifting beneath her feet.
Diary in America, Series Two
Frederick Marryat
A skeptical British naval officer tours the young United States and Canada, documenting the volatile social habits, political dangers, and rapid expansion of a nation he views with profound suspicion.
Dr. Sevier
George Washington Cable
The struggle of a young couple to maintain their dignity and love amidst the crushing poverty and shifting tides of Civil War-era New Orleans serves as the backdrop for an unlikely, redemptive friendship.
Essays of Michel de Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
The ultimate guide to the self, these meditations offer a mirror to the human condition, inviting readers to examine their own contradictions through the lens of a mind that is as restless as it is honest.
From Powder Monkey to Admiral: A Story of Naval Adventure
William Henry Giles Kingston
From the grime of the powder magazine to the dignity of the quarterdeck, this tale traces the rise of a common sailor through the crucible of the Napoleonic Wars. It is a classic study of character rewarded by service, written with an earnest focus on duty and the transformative power of integrity.
Great Indian Chief of the West
Benjamin Drake
The Sauk leader Black Hawk defends his ancestral home in a final, doomed struggle against American expansion, navigating a landscape of broken treaties, colonial encroachment, and the slow erasure of his people's way of life.
History of the State of California: From the Period of the Conquest by Spain to Her Occupation by the United States of America
John Frost
This chronicle captures the rapid, often violent transformation of California from a Mexican territory into a cornerstone of the American Union, fueled by the explosive discovery of gold.
Kitty's Picnic, and Other Stories
Anonymous
A collection of gentle, moralizing tales from a bygone era, these stories explore the small triumphs and heartaches of childhood. They offer a window into a world where lessons in kindness and responsibility are always close at hand.
Life's Little Ironies: A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters
Thomas Hardy
Life is a series of quiet, devastating collisions where human intentions are consistently dismantled by the indifferent mechanics of fate.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 20, September, 1877
Various
A Victorian periodical serves as a cultural time capsule, offering an eclectic blend of travelogues, literary criticism, and serialized fiction that reflects the intellectual curiosities and artistic preoccupations of the late nineteenth century.
Looking Back: An Autobiography
Merrick Abner Richardson
HOOK This memoir defies easy categorization, weaving together local color, personal history, and a radical, reimagined narrative of Mary Magdalene to argue that the spiritual world is as tangible as the material.
Men, Women, and Boats
Stephen Crane
Human existence is a fragile vessel tossed upon an indifferent sea, where the only certainty is the struggle against the elements and one’s own mortality. These stories capture the stark, unvarnished truth of men caught in the grip of forces far greater than themselves.
Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human Faculty
George John Romanes
Human reason is not a sudden, mysterious creation separate from nature, but the gradual flowering of animal intelligence through the evolution of sign-making and language.
My Days of Adventure: The Fall of France, 1870-71
Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
A young man’s coming-of-age collides with the collapse of an empire, offering a vivid, ground-level witness to the birth of modern warfare. This memoir captures the chaotic transition from the pomp of the Second Empire to the desperate, shivering reality of the "People's War.
My mortal enemy
Willa Cather
A woman looks back on the life of a charismatic runaway who traded status for love, only to find that the most profound battle in her life was fought against the person she cherished most.
Paper-Cutting Machines: A Primer of Information about Paper and Card Trimmers, Hand-Lever Cutters, Power Cutters and Other Automatic Machines for Cutting Paper
Gray, Niel, Jr.
This foundational technical manual provides a rare, definitive look at the history and mechanical operation of the industrial paper-cutting machine at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Pragmatism and idealism
William Caldwell
This examination of the interplay between pragmatism and idealism investigates how human thought defines reality through practical action, social connection, and the pursuit of truth.
Samantha at the World's Fair
Marietta Holley
This observant narrative chronicles a sharp-witted woman’s excursion to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, blending wide-eyed wonder at technological marvels with a fierce, iron-willed defense of human rights and social justice.
![Cover of Some Short Stories [by Henry James]](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/some-short-stories-by-henry-james-henry-james.webp)
Some Short Stories [by Henry James]
Henry James
The polished surface of high-society life masks a desperate, often invisible, scramble for survival. These tales observe the quiet transactions of those who navigate the world by trade, influence, and the fragile currency of belonging.
St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, No. 08, June 1878: Scribner's Illustrated
Various
This issue of a Victorian children’s periodical gathers vibrant stories, instructional science, and spirited correspondence, offering a preserved glimpse into the intellectual and moral life of nineteenth-century youth.
Tales of the Long Bow
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
A series of impossible, whimsical, and highly orchestrated pranks serves to challenge the rigid, soul-crushing conventions of modern English life. These stories act as a playful rebellion against the crushing weight of institutional absurdity.
Tales, Traditions and Romance of Border and Revolutionary Times
Edward Sylvester Ellis
These chronicles capture the raw, perilous spirit of early American survival, blending the grit of frontier life with the high-stakes drama of the Revolutionary War.
Technic and Practice of Chiropractic
Joy Maxwell Loban
This technical manual serves as an early, foundational guide to the mechanics of chiropractic, detailing the diagnostic palpation, nerve tracing, and physical adjustment techniques developed in the early twentieth century. It bridges the gap between abstract theory and clinical application, offering a comprehensive…
The American Missionary
Various
This collection chronicles the late 19th-century American missionary effort, documenting a period of intense social, racial, and religious transformation through reports from the field and administrative ledgers. It serves as a primary record of the work undertaken by the American Missionary Association to…