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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 442 of 714.
The Last of the Plainsmen
Zane Grey
A rugged, obsessive quest to capture wild animals alive leads a seasoned frontiersman and a curious observer deep into the dangerous, majestic wilderness of the American West.
The Life of the Scorpion
Jean-Henri Fabre
This detailed naturalist’s journal explores the hidden lives of scorpions and various insects, blending meticulous field observation with a profound sense of wonder. It serves as an intimate chronicle of the small, often ignored creatures that share our environment, transforming the study of their habits into a…
The Life of the Weevil
Jean-Henri Fabre
A patient observer turns his magnifying glass toward the humble beetle, revealing a hidden world of extraordinary architectural ingenuity and instinctual complexity.
The Lily and the Cross: A Tale of Acadia
James De Mille
A young New England captain rescues a shipwrecked French noble, only to be thrust into a perilous web of political intrigue and ancestral secrets. Across the rugged landscape of Acadia, he must outwit a ruthless rival to protect the woman he loves.
The Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888, vol I
James Henry Mapleson
A veteran impresario recounts the chaotic, glamorous, and often absurd reality of managing nineteenth-century opera stars across the Atlantic.
The Mission
Frederick Marryat
A young man ventures into the untamed African interior to uncover the fate of his long-lost relatives, facing wild beasts and cultural clashes in a desperate, high-stakes search.
The Moving Picture Girls Snowbound
Laura Lee Hope
In a wintry landscape that doubles as a film set, two sisters navigate the perils of nature and the schemes of a dishonest antagonist to protect their father’s reputation. Through the lens of early cinema, this story captures a bygone era of dramatic adventure and family resilience.
The Pony Rider Boys in New Mexico
Frank Gee Patchin
Four spirited young riders navigate the rugged landscapes of New Mexico, discovering hidden treasure while outsmarting dangerous outlaws in an era of classic frontier adventure.
The Prisoner
Alice Brown
HOOK A man returns to his small-town home after a prison sentence, only to find that his past, his estranged wife, and his own moral evolution are still waiting to be reckoned with.
The Railroad Problem
Edward Hungerford
The American railroad system, once the engine of national growth, faces a perilous intersection of labor unrest, aging infrastructure, and stifling government regulation. This analysis explores how the iron horse must evolve to survive the modern age.
The Relation of Art to Nature
John W. (John Wesley) Beatty
The true purpose of art, stripped of mysticism and myth, is the faithful representation of nature’s inherent character and beauty.
The romantic story of the Mayflower pilgrims, and its place in the life of to-day
A. C. (Albert Christopher) Addison
The Mayflower Pilgrims’ epic journey from English persecution to the harsh, uncertain shores of a New World remains a cornerstone of American identity. This account traces the origins of that movement and the enduring values those settlers brought to their new home.
The story of the universe. Volume 4 (of 4)
Unknown
The natural world is an intricate, balanced machine where even the smallest insect plays a vital role in the survival of the largest beast. Through a collection of essays by esteemed nineteenth-century naturalists, the complexity of life on Earth is unveiled as a unified, marvelous system.
The Training of a Public Speaker
Grenville Kleiser
The mastery of speech is a profound and ancient craft, offering a bridge between the inner workings of the mind and the collective heart of a listening assembly.
The Two Tests: The Supernatural Claims of Christianity Tried by Two of Its Own Rules
Lionel Lisle
Faith in the supernatural often rests on the comfort of tradition, yet this inquiry suggests that rigorous adherence to internal consistency may dismantle the very foundations such faith seeks to protect.
The Vale of Cedars
Grace Aguilar
The shadow of the Inquisition looms over the lives of those forced to hide their heritage in a land of rigid religious conformity. This narrative of peril, sacrifice, and the enduring power of conscience follows a woman whose secret life becomes a target for the cruelest of men.
The white doe
Sallie Southall Cotten
A haunting fusion of colonial history and indigenous folklore, this narrative reimagines the fate of the first English child born in America as a legendary transformation amidst the wilderness of the Roanoke colony.
Through the Malay Archipelago
Emily Richings
Lured by the promise of an emerald paradise in the Southern Seas, a traveler embarks on an expansive journey through the Indonesian islands, chasing a vision of beauty that remains forever just beyond reach.
Timon of Athens
William Shakespeare
A wealthy man’s reckless generosity invites betrayal, driving him from the pinnacle of society into a life of absolute, misanthropic isolation in the wilderness.
Urban Sketches
Bret Harte
A collection of observational vignettes captures the elusive, often gritty, and darkly humorous spirit of post-Gold Rush San Francisco. These sketches peer into the quiet lives of outcasts, children, and struggling neighbors.
Waldfried: A Novel
Berthold Auerbach
This sprawling family chronicle navigates the intimate intersections of a private life and the birth of a nation, tracing the echoes of the Franco-Prussian War through the heart of the Black Forest.
We Girls: a Home Story
A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney
The sun sets on one way of life and rises on another, as a family learns that true belonging is not a matter of geography, but of how they build their home together.
Wife in Name Only
Charlotte M. Brame
A nobleman’s secret marriage to a woman of unknown origins unravels into tragedy, testing the boundaries of class, honor, and the possibility of forgiveness. This Victorian melodrama explores the heavy cost of social expectations and the persistence of love against impossible odds.
With Axe and Rifle
William Henry Giles Kingston
HOOK A family’s courageous struggle to establish a home in the untamed American frontier, where survival depends on the sharp edge of an axe and the constant readiness of a rifle.
With Marlborough to Malplaquet: A Story of the Reign of Queen Anne
Herbert Strang
This fast-paced narrative follows a young man’s transformation from a local collier to a seasoned soldier, capturing the tension and heroism of the War of the Spanish Succession. It is a classic tale of adventure, duty, and coming-of-age, set against the backdrop of one of Britain’s most significant historical periods.
A Book Written by the Spirits of the So-Called Dead
Unknown
Communication with the departed offers a window into the afterlife, where spirits share insights on planetary life, social reform, and the inherent nobility of the human soul.
A Lost Leader
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
The path of power is rarely straight, and those who seek to lead often find their greatest obstacles waiting in the shadows of their own past. A man of high principle must weigh the heavy cost of integrity against the glittering promise of high office.
A Man of the People: A Drama of Abraham Lincoln
Dixon, Thomas, Jr.
In the crucible of the American Civil War, a beleaguered President fights to preserve a fractured Union while navigating the political treachery of his own party.
A Study of Pueblo Pottery as Illustrative of Zuñi Culture Growth.: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 467-522
Frank Hamilton Cushing
This foundational study reveals how the harsh desert environment of the American Southwest acted as a crucible, forcing the Zuñi and other Pueblo peoples to evolve their architecture and ceramic arts from simple, survival-based origins into complex, symbolic cultural expressions.
A Trip to the Orient: The Story of a Mediterranean Cruise
Robert Urie Jacob
A cruise across the Mediterranean serves as a gateway to the ancient world, blending the comforts of a modern steamship with the awe of encountering history’s most enduring monuments.
A World of Wonders, with Anecdotes and Opinions Concerning Popular Superstitions
Unknown
The human mind often clings to old errors like winged seeds, spreading superstitions that modern science struggles to eradicate. This wide-ranging exploration of historical oddities invites the reader to replace fear with rational inquiry.
After Life in Roman Paganism
Franz Cumont
Ancient Romans lived in a world where the boundary between life and death was a porous, often terrifying, and deeply contested space. This exploration reveals the complex tapestry of funeral rites, philosophical skepticism, and mystical hope that defined the Roman encounter with the afterlife.
An Annotated Check List of the Mammals of Michoacán, México
E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond) Hall
This checklist documents the diverse wild mammal species of Michoacán, Mexico, offering a foundational record of biodiversity through both original field observations and a synthesis of existing biological literature.
An Essay on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients
John Ogilvie
This scholarly exploration of ancient lyric poetry serves as a thoughtful, mid-eighteenth-century guide to the origins and aesthetics of the Ode. It invites readers to look beyond the mere technical structure of verse to understand how early poets sought to capture the sublime.
An Historical View of the Philippine Islands, Vol 1 (of 2): Exhibiting their discovery, population, language, government, manners, customs, productions and commerce
Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga
This historical chronicle offers a candid, firsthand examination of the Spanish colonial experience in the Philippine Islands, spanning from their initial discovery to the dawn of the nineteenth century. It provides a sobering look at the administrative, social, and commercial realities of a distant empire.
Angling Sketches
Andrew Lang
The pursuit of trout is less a quest for the fish than a ritual of patience, landscape, and the gentle preservation of one’s own youth. This collection of essays captures the meditative, often humorous essence of an angler’s life in the wilder corners of Scotland.
Appreciations of Richard Harding Davis
Various
He was the beau ideal of the American reporter, a man who treated war with the eye of a novelist and lived his own life as a series of gallant, clean-cut adventures.
Bedouin Love
Arthur E. P. Brome (Arthur Edward Pearse Brome) Weigall
A restless wanderer burdened by a loveless marriage seeks escape, only to find himself entangled in a murder mystery that threatens his freedom and his soul. This story charts the collision between the pull of duty and the desperate, primal search for a life of one’s own.
Bismarck: some secret pages of his history (Vol. 3 of 3). Being a diary kept by Dr. Moritz Busch during twenty-five years' official and private intercourse with the great Chancellor
Moritz Busch
This final installment of a twenty-five-year chronicle offers an intimate, often biting look at the power struggles within the German Empire. It captures the fading light of a political titan as his influence wanes.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 383, September 1847
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary digest offers a panoramic view of the Victorian intellect, blending satirical political fiction, historical inquiry, and the rigorous examination of art and travel.
Blue Jackets: The Log of the Teaser
George Manville Fenn
HOOK This high-seas adventure follows three midshipmen patrolling the China Seas aboard the Teaser, where they face pirates, navigate cultural divides, and learn the grim realities of naval duty.
Bred of the Desert: A Horse and a Romance
Charles M. (Charles Marcus) Horton
This narrative traces the life of a remarkable horse from his harsh birth in a Southwest sandstorm to his ultimate role in a young man’s quest for redemption. It is a story of quiet observation, deep affection, and the enduring bond between human and animal.
Charities and the Commons: The Pittsburgh Survey, Part II. The Place and Its Social Forces
Various
This survey documents the stark social and physical realities of early 20th-century Pittsburgh, detailing a city struggling to reconcile its massive industrial output with the basic health and safety of its working-class population.
Concerning Cats: My Own and Some Others
Helen M. (Helen Maria) Winslow
This observational study of feline character and history celebrates the cat not as a submissive pet, but as an individual companion worthy of dignity, affection, and scholarly attention.
Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, immediate dispatch from the heat of the American Civil War, capturing the urgent political anxieties and literary ambitions of the Union in 1863.
Cost of Living
Robert Sheckley
A society where every whim is satisfied by high-tech appliances, yet every citizen is shackled by staggering, intergenerational debt. This story explores the crushing weight of a "convenient" life and the quiet desperation of those living it.
Creatures of the Abyss
Murray Leinster
HOOK When an electronics expert gets caught up in a series of bizarre ocean phenomena, he discovers that the deep floor of the Pacific is being used as a staging ground for an extraterrestrial trade.
David Fleming's Forgiveness
Margaret M. (Margaret Murray) Robertson
The rugged Canadian wilderness becomes a crucible for the human heart as two families, bound by history and grievance, seek a way toward reconciliation. Through patience and quiet labor, they find that the heaviest burdens are often those we choose to carry.