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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 456 of 714.

Missy: A Novel
Miriam Coles Harris
This narrative of quiet domesticity and emotional restraint follows a woman navigating the complications of neighbors, duty, and the unexpected stirrings of the heart. It captures the tension between rigid social codes and the sudden, disruptive arrival of personal desire.

Mont Oriol
Guy de Maupassant
A woman's awakening to passion and betrayal unfolds against the ruthless commercial transformation of an Auvergne spa town.

Mr. Poskitt's Nightcaps: Stories of a Yorkshire Farmer
J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
A cozy fireplace, a glass of toddy, and a host who knows every secret in the valley set the scene for these quiet, surprising tales of rural life.

My Lady of the Chimney Corner
Alexander Irvine
In the dirt-floor cabins of nineteenth-century Ulster, a mother's fierce devotion and earthly wisdom shield her family against the relentless tide of Irish poverty.

Nancy McVeigh of the Monk Road
R. Henry (Robert Henry) Mainer
Her deep-lined face and gray eyes reflect a heart untouched by deceit, devoted to others across the years along a Canadian military road.

Notes and Queries, Number 193, July 9, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A quiet curiosity drives this mid-nineteenth-century miscellany, where scholars, amateurs, and readers exchange notes on everything from classical etymologies and fraudulent aristocrats to early photographic chemical baths and local folklore.

Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A Victorian periodical opens its pages to an open network of scholars, amateur historians, and curious readers exchanging notes on obscure etymologies, regional superstitions, and lost historical sites.

Notes Geographical and Historical, Relating to the Town of Brooklyn in Kings County on Long-Island
Gabriel Furman
This work chronicles the evolution of Brooklyn from a collection of colonial outposts to a burgeoning village, meticulously documenting the legal struggles and land rights that shaped its early identity.

Old John Brown, the man whose soul is marching on
Walter Hawkins
A relentless vow to end human bondage drives a Connecticut farm boy into the bloody skirmishes of Kansas and onto the scaffold at Charlestown.

Oregon Historic Landmarks: Willamette Valley
Daughters of the American Revolution. Oregon Society
Built blockhouse by blockhouse and home by home, the story of the Willamette Valley is the story of early Oregon itself.

Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII (of 8)
John Henry Newman
A soul called by God finds that true obedience requires no grand worldly spectacle, only the quiet, steady surrender of the human will.

Peeps at Many Lands: Canada
J. T. (John Thomas) Bealby
A vast, untamed territory awakens under the gaze of a world expanding westward. Across endless prairies, icy mountain peaks, and bustling river ports, a diverse young nation carves its distinct identity out of raw wilderness.

Practical House, Wagon and Automobile Painter: including sign painting, and valuable hints and recipes
W. F. White
A practical artisan demystifies the trade, offering precise recipes and direct guidance to help painters master everything from house trim to sign lettering and motorcar finishes.

Prescott of Saskatchewan
Harold Bindloss
A stoic Canadian farmer poses as his troubled English friend to save a reputation, only to be dragged into a dangerous web of local murder allegations, police suspicion, and forbidden love.

Rebecca Mary
Annie Hamilton Donnell
A lonely girl, a stern aunt, and a white rooster learn that duty is no substitute for love.

Roughing it De Luxe
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
A middle-aged humorist takes a train across the American Southwest, discovering that modern comfort cannot completely tame the desert, the canyons, or the colorful locals.

Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society
Robert Southey
A quiet scholar sitting late in his Cumberland library is visited by the ghost of a executed chancellor, sparking a deep dialogue on human progress.

Songs of Two Nations
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Light kindles from the ash of collapsed empires, and a nation long left for dead rises to claim its freedom.

Stories Pictures Tell. Book 4
Flora L. (Flora Leona) Carpenter
Living art appreciation turns canvas into community, revealing how a single painting can anchor a child's understanding of human empathy, humble labor, and quiet beauty.

The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile Sources
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Driven by the unresolved mysteries of the White Nile, an intrepid explorer and his indomitable wife journey into Central Africa, braving mutiny, disease, and hostile territory to discover the vast equatorial lake that feeds the river.

The archæology of Rome, Part 8
John Henry Parker
Ancient engineering meets meticulous fieldwork in a study that traces Rome's water supply to reveal the hidden mechanics of an empire.

The Banished: A Swabian Historical Tale
Wilhelm Hauff
A young knight’s journey into the turmoil of sixteenth-century German politics becomes a test of personal honor, love, and loyalty to a displaced ruler. The narrative chronicles the struggle for a kingdom through the eyes of those caught in the sweep of history.

The Boy's Book of Heroes
Helena Peake
A gallery of noble lives shows how courage, faith, and duty shape true greatness across centuries of conflict and discovery.

The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Fifth: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Africa
Thomas Wallace Knox
A sweeping journey down the Nile and through the heart of nineteenth-century Africa reveals a continent rich in diverse cultures, formidable landscapes, and complex history.

The Devil-Tree of El Dorado: A Novel
Frank Aubrey
An intrepid expedition discovers a hidden, thriving civilization atop the mist-shrouded peak of Roraima, where ancient technology, mythical beasts, and a deadly sentient plant safeguard the secrets of El Dorado.

The Doré Bible Gallery, Volume 5
Unknown
Prophetic warnings, divine miraculous interventions, and historical critical commentaries converge to form a vivid tapestry of ancient faith, political upheaval, and spiritual defiance.

The Fireside Picture Alphabet: or Humour and Droll Moral Tales
Unknown
A playful nineteenth-century abecedarian guide pairs formal dictionary definitions with mischievous rhyming verses to teach children both moral lessons and the English alphabet.

The Flag-Raising
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
A imaginative girl transforms a quiet Maine village through her vivid poetry, fierce loyalty, and spirited rescue of a lost community flag.

The four Corners in Japan
Amy Ella Blanchard
A spirited Southern family sets sail across the Pacific, transforming a season of foreign sightseeing into a journey of unexpected romance, quiet self-discovery, and deep emotional growth.

The German Fleet: Being The Companion Volume to "The Fleets At War" and "From Heligoland To Keeling Island
Archibald Hurd
This historical survey traces the systematic rise of German naval power, examining how the ambition for maritime supremacy transformed the nation’s geopolitical standing and irrevocably altered its relationship with Great Britain.

The Green God's Pavilion: A novel of the Philippines
Mabel Wood Martin
A young American woman arrives in turn-of-the-century Manila seeking independence, only to find herself drawn into the turbulent personal and political forces of an island nation under United States occupation.

The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Part 05
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Driven by tragic poetry and delusional ideals, a bruised knight and his weary squire roam early modern Spain, transforming brutal beatings and public rejections into grand tests of chivalric endurance.

The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Part 32
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
A delusion-blinded knight endures nighttime tricks in a ducal castle while his illiterate squire administers island justice, exposing the comedy and sorrow of human self-deception.

The horror in the burying-ground
H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft
A secluded New England town harbours a dark secret of rival lovers, experimental fluids, and a terrifying double burial that haunts the surviving sister forever.

The Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and Flow
Edward Alfred Steiner
Transatlantic steerage ships hold a living, breathing stream of human hopes that bridges Old World tradition with New World promise.

The Indian: On the Battle-Field and in the Wigwam
John Frost
This collection of historical sketches brings to life the complex, often violent encounters between European settlers and Indigenous peoples during the expansion of the American frontier. It captures the raw spirit of a transformative era through the lenses of both combat and cultural exchange.

The Law's Lumber Room (Second Series)
Francis Watt
A bloody, bizarre journey through obsolete legal practices, where the gallows ends every story and the mob takes the place of justice.

The League of Nations and Its Problems: Three Lectures
L. (Lassa) Oppenheim
A realistic proposal for global governance warns that lasting peace relies on gradual historical steps rather than utopian leaps.

The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth
George Alfred Townsend
A sudden shot in a crowded theater turns a nation's triumph into horror, launching a feverish manhunt for an actor turned assassin and the shadowy conspirators who plotted with him.

The Little Man: A Farcical Morality in Three Scenes
John Galsworthy
A sudden flurry on a train platform leaves a modest traveller holding a stranger's child, turning an everyday journey into a sharp, comic test of human decency.

The Magician's Show Box, and Other Stories
Caroline Sturgis Tappan
A boy's boundless wanderlust leads him into a strange encounter with a gray man who halts his path.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 328, August 23, 1828
Various
A mixed gathering of historical sketches, natural history observations, travel writing, and satirical verse captures the diverse reading tastes of early nineteenth-century Great Britain.

The Mystery of Murray Davenport: A Story of New York at the Present Day
Robert Neilson Stephens
A desperate man undergoes a radical physical transformation to escape his lifelong ill luck, only to find that identity and love cannot be so easily rewritten.

The Mystery of the Hidden Room
Marion Harvey
A rich man lies dead in a locked Manhattan study, his wife holds the smoking gun, and the only man who can unspool the conspiracy is an eccentric private investigator with a penchant for secret panels.

The Negro: What is His Ethnological Status? 2nd Ed
Ariel
A mid-nineteenth-century pseudoscientific tract uses literalist biblical interpretation and racial theory to argue that Black people belong to a distinct species created before Adam, lacking human souls and moral standing.

The New Glutton or Epicure
Horace Fletcher
Natural health is a matter of chemistry, not willpower, and the path to physical vitality begins entirely within the mechanics of the human mouth. By mastering the simple act of chewing, one can unlock a more efficient and energetic way of living.

The North Pacific: A Story of the Russo-Japanese War
Willis Boyd Allen
The Russo-Japanese War serves as the backdrop for this brisk, turn-of-the-century maritime adventure, which captures the era’s fascination with naval technology and the shifting tides of global power.

The Passenger from Calais
Arthur Griffiths
An empty train car bound for Switzerland becomes the staging ground for a high-stakes game of deception, where chivalry is tested against the law and no traveler is quite who they appear to be.