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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 399 of 714.

The Isles of Scilly
Jessie Mothersole
This evocative account captures the unique geography, history, and daily life of the Isles of Scilly. It serves as an affectionate, artistic portrait of an isolated archipelago, blending practical travel observations with deep local lore.

The man who married the moon, and other Pueblo Indian folk-stories
Charles Fletcher Lummis
This collection of Pueblo Indian folk-stories brings to life a world where animals speak, magic hums in the landscape, and every natural wonder has a name and a history.

The Mountainy Singer
Joseph Campbell
The world of these verses is one of elemental struggle, where the sacred and the savage exist side by side beneath the heavy, shifting skies of the Irish hills. It is a song of labor, land, and the enduring pulse of a people tethered to the soil.

The Mystery Girl
Carolyn Wells
The mystery of a locked-room death in a New England college town hinges on a young woman who refuses to explain her presence or her past. A master detective must untangle a web of inheritance, secret relationships, and academic scandal to uncover the truth.

The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne
Anthony Trollope
The rugged beauty of the Devonshire moors frames a quiet, intense struggle between a determined clergyman’s daughter and a man who seeks to possess what he cannot truly value.

The Pearl Story Book: A Collection of Tales, Original and Selected
Mrs. (Pamela Chandler) Colman
This nineteenth-century miscellany gathers together gentle narratives and rhythmic verses meant to instruct, comfort, and stir the moral imagination of young readers. It is a quiet, earnest book that bridges the gap between folklore and the domestic realities of childhood.

The Planet Mars and Its Inhabitants, a Psychic Revelation
J. L. Kennon
This account of a utopian Martian society, channeled by a spiritual medium, offers a radical blueprint for terrestrial reform through the lens of divine, extraterrestrial wisdom. It serves as a visionary manifesto for those seeking to reconcile technological advancement with profound spiritual enlightenment.

The Red Mouse: A Mystery Romance
William Hamilton Osborne
A marriage unravels against the backdrop of high-stakes gambling and political corruption, forcing a husband and wife to redefine their lives through the harsh lens of poverty and redemption.

The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign, from the Beginning to the Entering into the Gates of the Holy City, According to the Commandment
Joseph Bates
A devout mid-19th-century believer argues that the seventh-day Sabbath was never abolished, urging fellow Christians to return to the original commandment to prepare for the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ.

The Star-Chamber: An Historical Romance, Volume 2
William Harrison Ainsworth
A young knight battles the corrupt machinations of a notorious extortioner in the treacherous, intrigue-filled court of King James I.

The Station
William Carleton
The traditions of rural Ireland are captured here with a sharp, observant eye, revealing the strange intersection of profound religious devotion and the earthly, often chaotic, realities of peasant life.

The Story of Manhattan
Charles Hemstreet
This book traces the transformation of a small, precarious Dutch fur-trading outpost into the bustling, foundational city of a new nation. It captures the rapid layering of history upon the geography of Manhattan.

The Three Fates
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
A young writer navigates the treacherous waters of professional obscurity, social ambition, and the unpredictable nature of the heart in late nineteenth-century New York.

The Tracer of Lost Persons
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
A mysterious detective agency uses elaborate, orchestrated coincidences to nudge hesitant, mismatched, and often bewildered lovers into each other’s arms.

The War With the United States
William Wood
The struggle of 1812 serves as a grim reminder that when nations trade peace for the perceived necessity of conflict, the resulting chaos often defies the intentions of those who summoned it.

The Weathercock: Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias
George Manville Fenn
The village of Mavis Greythorpe serves as the stage for a young inventor’s restless mind, where mechanical curiosity and clashing personalities turn a quiet life into a series of unintended, high-stakes adventures.

The Widow's Dog
Mary Russell Mitford
This account of a widow, a young boy, and a spaniel captures the quiet, enduring bonds between people and their animals in a remote English hamlet. It is a gentle, observational work that finds profound significance in the simple life of a struggling household.

The World's Great Sermons, Volume 04: L. Beecher to Bushnell
Unknown
These are the voices of the pulpit’s most formidable architects, charting the intersection of the finite human spirit and the infinite demands of the divine.

The Young Engineers in Arizona
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
Young civil engineers, far from home and facing a treacherous desert landscape, must outmaneuver corrupt local gamblers and saboteurs to finish a vital railroad line. Their grit and technical skill determine whether the project succeeds or is swallowed by the earth.

Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 1 (of 5)
Heinrich Barth
A sprawling, meticulous chronicle of an mid-19th-century expedition into the heart of Africa, capturing both the vast, unforgiving desert and the intricate lives of those who traverse it.

Type Cases and Composing-room Furniture: A Primer of Information About Type Cases, Work Stands, Cabinets, Case Racks, Galley Racks, Standing Galleys, &c
A. A. (Alexander A.) Stewart
HOOK This technical primer provides a foundational look at the physical architecture of the early twentieth-century printing office, detailing the essential storage and workstations required for the craft.

Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 04
Unknown
These collected narratives preserve the fading echoes of the Scottish Borders, weaving history, folklore, and personal struggle into a tapestry of life at the edge of the Highlands.

Working Women of Japan
Sidney Lewis Gulick
A firsthand account of Japanese women navigating the harsh realities of a rapidly industrializing society, this 1915 study details the struggles of laborers, domestic servants, and factory workers.

Yule Logs: Longmans' Christmas Annual for 1898
Unknown
A collection of eleven adventurous tales from the waning years of the nineteenth century, these stories capture the rugged spirit of global exploration, military conflict, and daring rescues across land and sea.

A Cynic Looks at Life
Ambrose Bierce
The world is a stage of fools, and the author is a spectator who has long since grown weary of the performance. Through a series of biting essays and sharp epigrams, this collection exposes the vanity, hypocrisy, and inherent stupidity of the human race.

A Lover's Diary, Complete
Gilbert Parker
A haunting sequence of sonnets, this work maps the terrain of a forbidden, lifelong devotion, where the heart finds its only sanctuary in the quiet, agonizing space between duty and desire.

A Rich Man's Relatives (Vol. 1 of 3)
Robert Cleland
A wealthy man’s inheritance casts a long shadow over his surviving kin, revealing the vanities and hidden struggles of those who covet his fortune. This story of social ambition and domestic maneuvering captures the peculiar tensions of a stratified society.

A Slave is a Slave
H. Beam Piper
The transition of a slave-run society into an imperial province reveals that liberation is often a matter of semantics. A rigid social hierarchy built on centuries of oppression cannot be undone by a simple decree.

A Stake in the Land
Peter A. (Peter Alexander) Speek
A pragmatic guide to the early twentieth-century American dream, this study examines the vital intersection of immigrant settlement, land ownership, and the role of public education in fostering national belonging.

About Peggy Saville
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
The lively, perceptive new girl at a country vicarage discovers that the true measure of character lies not in quick-witted arrogance, but in the difficult, unglamorous work of caring for others.

Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium
George Catlin
HOOK This account captures the disorienting, often humorous friction that occurs when Indigenous travelers from the American frontier encounter the rigid social hierarchies and bustling urban sprawl of mid-19th-century Europe.

Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher
Eleanor Gates
HOOK A devoted cowpuncher navigates the rough-and-tumble life of an Oklahoma frontier town, using his matchmaking instincts to secure his own future with the woman he loves.

An Essay on the Evils of Popular Ignorance
John Foster
Ignorance is not merely a lack of information; it is a profound moral catastrophe that blinds society to its own potential and perpetuates unnecessary human suffering. This urgent analysis examines the systemic failure to educate the masses, arguing that the true cost of neglected minds is a civilization that…

An ice cream laboratory guide
W. W. (Walter Warner) Fisk
This practical manual offers a rigorous, laboratory-based education in the science of frozen confections, bridging the gap between small-batch experimentation and commercial manufacturing. It provides the essential technical foundation for anyone interested in the chemistry and mechanics of professional-grade ice…

Ancient Chinese account of the Grand Canyon, or course of the Colorado
Alexander McAllan
A curious investigation links ancient Chinese geographic records to the geological wonders of the American West. It proposes that cryptic Eastern texts describe the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon with startling accuracy.

Andy Grant's Pluck
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A young man’s sudden departure from school to rescue his family’s farm leads him into a wider world of honest enterprise and unexpected fortune.

Are the Planets Inhabited?
E. Walter (Edward Walter) Maunder
Humanity has long gazed at the stars, wondering if other worlds harbor beings like ourselves. This inquiry examines the physical requirements for life to determine if our neighbors in space could truly be inhabited.

Around the Wicket Gate
C. H. (Charles Haddon) Spurgeon
This urgent, plain-spoken appeal invites those standing at the threshold of faith to take the final, simple step into a new life. It serves as a gentle, guiding hand for the hesitant seeker.

Birds from Coahuila, Mexico
Emil K. Urban
A systematic survey of avian distribution and taxonomy, this work meticulously documents the bird species inhabiting the arid landscapes and isolated mountain ranges of Coahuila, Mexico.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846
Various
HOOK This collection captures the mid-Victorian intellectual spirit, blending rugged Highland travelogues, literary criticism, and serialized romantic fiction into a singular window into the 1846 British world.

Bohemian Days: Three American Tales
George Alfred Townsend
This collection of three short novels and interspersed poetry offers an intimate, often melancholic window into the lives of Americans drifting through the mid-19th century—some as self-imposed exiles in Europe, others navigating the social pressures of home. It is a work of observation, capturing the restlessness…

Buchanan's Journal of Man, March 1887: Volume 1, Number 2
Unknown
This volume serves as a radical manifesto for a "new science" of humanity, blending phrenology, spiritualism, and unconventional medicine into a unified theory of the soul and body. It functions as both a philosophical treatise and a nineteenth-century digest of alternative progress.

Bunyip Land: A Story of Adventure in New Guinea
George Manville Fenn
A young man ventures into the unknown wilds of New Guinea to rescue his long-lost father, discovering that the greatest dangers of exploration are not just the terrain, but the limits of his own courage.

Canzoni & Ripostes: Whereto are appended the Complete Poetical Works of T.E. Hulme
Ezra Pound
The poet finds himself adrift in a sea of history and classical allusion, seeking to forge a new, sharp language from the ruins of the old. It is a restless, intellectual exploration of the tension between ancient beauty and the modern pulse.

Checkmates for Three Pieces
William Brett Fishburne
Solving a game with only three pieces left on the board reveals the stark, geometric elegance hidden within the chaos of a full match.

Child Life and Sex Hygiene: A Remarkable Message
Otterbein Oscar Smith
HOOK This 1912 message urges parents to abandon the "false modesty" of their generation and provide children with scientific, moral guidance regarding their burgeoning physical instincts.

Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: William McKinley
William McKinley
These formal state papers document the pivot point when an isolationist republic transitioned into a global power, centered on the urgent, escalating crisis of the Spanish-American War.

Dead Ringer
Lester Del Rey
A man convinced that humanity is being secretly replaced by invincible aliens discovers that his greatest enemy is not a monster, but the very person he trusted to "cure" his obsession.