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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 51 of 714.

Cover of The Arabian Nights Entertainments

The Arabian Nights Entertainments

Andrew Lang

These enduring tales of wonder, transformation, and wit weave a tapestry of Eastern folklore, transporting readers from the bustling streets of Bagdad to the furthest reaches of the magical world.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

George MacDonald

A young man crosses the threshold from his mundane room into a realm of shifting forests and marble palaces, where his desires and shadows become the primary geography of his journey. This is a dream-vision of spiritual maturation, told with the haunting, fluid logic of a fever dream. It has endured as a…

British Literature7 min read
Cover of The Radio Boys Trailing a Voice

The Radio Boys Trailing a Voice

Allen Chapman

Young amateur radio enthusiasts leverage their technical ingenuity to outsmart criminals in this classic tale of early wireless technology and spirited teenage adventure.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)

The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12)

Edmund Burke

The first volume of this collected edition offers a foundational encounter with one of the most articulate voices in Western political thought. These writings illuminate the intellectual evolution of a man grappling with the limits of power, the nature of aesthetics, and the preservation of order in an age of…

British Literature7 min read
Cover of The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898

Unknown

A sprawling archive of colonial administration, these documents reveal the friction between faith and conquest in the early Philippines. They offer a rare, unvarnished look at how a distant empire attempted to govern a world it barely understood.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)6 min read
Cover of 'Drag' Harlan

'Drag' Harlan

Charles Alden Seltzer

A lone rider emerges from the desert haze, carrying a heavy burden of secrets and a past that demands reckoning. He arrives in a land ruled by greed, setting in motion a collision between those who seek power and those who seek peace.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of People's Handy Atlas of the World: 1910 Census Edition

People's Handy Atlas of the World: 1910 Census Edition

Unknown

The world of 1910 sits suspended in these pages, captured in the precise, fading ink of a census-driven snapshot. It serves as a static monument to an era of imperial borders, burgeoning industrial output, and a global geography that was just beginning to feel interconnected.

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference6 min read
Cover of Secret armies

Secret armies

John L. (John Louis) Spivak

An investigative journalist pulls back the curtain on a global network of Nazi saboteurs, secret agents, and propagandists working to destabilize democracies from within.

History - American6 min read
Cover of The Comedies of Terence

The Comedies of Terence

Terence

The intricacies of human vanity and the inevitable collision between generations define these timeless Roman tales, where cunning servants and bickering elders navigate the chaos of love and reputation.

Classics of Literature6 min read
Cover of Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants

Uncle Sam's Boys as Sergeants

H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock

The young soldiers of the Thirty-fourth United States Infantry face the dual pressures of internal suspicion and external danger, proving their mettle through discipline and character.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Hypolympia

Hypolympia

Edmund Gosse

A company of Greek gods arrives in a northern island world that makes immortality feel thin and unreal. Exile turns their habits, loves, and powers into strange, often comic tests of what they are without Olympus.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore11 min read
Cover of The liberty minstrel

The liberty minstrel

George Washington Clark

A desperate, rhythmic call to conscience, this collection of antislavery songs transforms the political agitation of the 1840s into a visceral, musical plea for human dignity and immediate action.

History - American6 min read
Cover of The Outcry

The Outcry

Henry James

The fate of a masterpiece hangs in the balance as an aristocratic family faces an American collector, a desperate suitor, and the sharp, unyielding conscience of a young art expert.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Betty Leicester: A Story For Girls

Betty Leicester: A Story For Girls

Sarah Orne Jewett

A young girl’s summer in a quiet village teaches her that the richest adventures are often found not in travel, but in the steadfast, simple rhythm of making a home for others.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Golden Face: A Great 'Crook' Romance

The Golden Face: A Great 'Crook' Romance

William Le Queux

A former army officer, desperate for work after the Great War, finds himself ensnared as a chauffeur for a cosmopolitan criminal mastermind, eventually leading a double life to protect his employer's daughter from ruin.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The 'Mind the Paint' Girl: A Comedy in Four Acts

The 'Mind the Paint' Girl: A Comedy in Four Acts

Arthur Wing Pinero

The stage lights dim on a world of chorus girls and aristocrats, where the line between a genuine heart and a public performance blurs under the weight of high society’s expectations.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Evolution in Modern Thought

Evolution in Modern Thought

Unknown

The scientific upheaval of the nineteenth century remains a defining chapter in human history, forever changing how we perceive our origins, our ethics, and our place in the natural order.

History - Modern (1750+)6 min read
Cover of The Dawn of Reason

The Dawn of Reason

Weir, James, Jr.

Naturalists and thinkers have long pondered where the instinct of a creature ends and the spark of conscious reason begins. This exploration seeks the origins of intellect in the smallest and most primitive of living things.

Psychiatry/Psychology6 min read
Cover of The World's Greatest Books

The World's Greatest Books

Unknown

This collection serves as a sprawling, Victorian-era survey of classic literature, offering condensed summaries of foundational works across the centuries. It functions as a curated bridge for readers who wish to traverse the vast landscape of Western fiction without committing to thousands of pages of original prose.

Classics of Literature6 min read
Cover of The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson

Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron

The early verses of a master poet capture the fragile threshold between youth’s raw, sensory intensity and the disciplined melancholy of a maturing mind. These poems serve as a luminous map of a developing genius, charting the transformation of youthful impression into enduring art.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Scouting for Boys

Scouting for Boys

Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Baron

A manual for turning idle city and country boys into capable, civic-minded young men, this foundational text serves as a practical guide for the character development that launched a global movement.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

Immanuel Kant

Metaphysics is not a collection of dusty dogmas, but a fundamental structure of human reason that requires a rigorous, new foundation to survive. This work serves as the essential pilot’s guide for navigating the mind’s own limits.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh

Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh

Thomas Carlyle

The world is a grand, shifting masquerade, and what we call reality is merely the clothing we drape over the naked, mysterious spirit of existence. Through a chaotic blend of satire and profound reflection, a philosopher attempts to strip away these outward forms to reveal the eternal truth beneath.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases

Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

This analysis of state-sanctioned violence and mob rule serves as a foundational text in American investigative journalism. It methodically dismantles the prevailing myths used to justify the extrajudicial murder of Black citizens in the post-Reconstruction South.

History - American7 min read
Cover of The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers

Alexander Hamilton

These essays serve as a rigorous, point-by-point defense of the American Constitution, arguing that a unified national government is the only reliable bulwark against internal faction, foreign interference, and the inevitable collapse of the states.

Essays, Letters & Speeches9 min read
Cover of Best jokes of 1927

Best jokes of 1927

Unknown

These jokes capture the frantic, flirtatious, and cynical spirit of the Roaring Twenties. They are a time capsule of a decade obsessed with flappers, bootleggers, and the shifting social codes of a rapidly modernizing world.

Humour6 min read
Cover of A treatise of the cohabitacyon of the faithfull with the vnfaithfull.: Whereunto is added. A sermon made of the confessing of Christe and his gospell, and of the denyinge of the same

A treatise of the cohabitacyon of the faithfull with the vnfaithfull.: Whereunto is added. A sermon made of the confessing of Christe and his gospell, and of the denyinge of the same

Pietro Martire Vermigli

HOOK This work confronts the painful dilemma of conscience during times of persecution, asking whether a believer may safely hide their faith or participate in rituals they fundamentally reject to survive.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)6 min read
Cover of The Marvelous Land of Oz

The Marvelous Land of Oz

L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

A boy’s act of domestic rebellion sets off a chaotic, whimsical journey to restore a deposed king and uncover the hidden truth of a long-lost royal heir.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of The Frozen Pirate

The Frozen Pirate

William Clark Russell

The sea, often a theater of quiet majesty, can turn in an instant into a grave of churning ice and howling wind. Within that cold expanse, a solitary sailor finds a ghost of a ship—and brings its long-dead captain back to life.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Autobiography

Autobiography

John Stuart Mill

This intellectual memoir maps the formation of a singular mind, tracing the evolution from a rigid, logic-bound upbringing to a broader, more empathetic engagement with the complexities of human life and society.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680

Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680

Jasper Danckaerts

A sharp-eyed traveler records his 1679 mission to the American colonies, offering an unvarnished, often critical portrait of early New York, New Jersey, and Maryland through the lens of a pious, exacting observer.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance: Third Edition

The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance: Third Edition

Bernard Berenson

Venetian painting evolved from a tool of religious instruction into a modern art form that celebrated the joy of life, capturing the spirit of a civilization that valued beauty and human experience above all else.

Art6 min read
Cover of Silas Marner

Silas Marner

George Eliot

A lonely, disillusioned weaver finds his life transformed when a golden-haired foundling wanders into his cottage, replacing his lost obsession with hoarded coins.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of In the land of the gods

In the land of the gods

Alice Mabel Bacon

Ancient folklore and modern domestic life converge in these tales, where the boundaries between the living, the dead, and the divine remain perpetually porous.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The House of the Seven Gables

The House of the Seven Gables

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A decaying mansion, burdened by a centuries-old curse and the weight of ancestral sins, imprisons the final, fragile remnants of a proud but shattered family.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499

A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499

Ernest Georg Ravenstein

The first maritime expedition to reach India from Europe by sailing around Africa reveals a world of unexpected encounters, precarious diplomacy, and the rigid, enduring ambition of a kingdom determined to dominate global spice trade routes.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)6 min read
Cover of The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer

The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer

The human mind is a battlefield where we fight not for truth, but for victory. This collection of posthumous writings captures a brilliant, cynical, and relentlessly honest map of that struggle.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of The Roman Traitor, Vol. 2

The Roman Traitor, Vol. 2

Henry William Herbert

A desperate conspiracy threatens to topple the Roman Republic, pitting the relentless ambition of a disgraced aristocrat against the unwavering vigilance of a consul sworn to save the state.

Historical Novels6 min read
Cover of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 3, July, 1851

Various

This collection offers a multifaceted glimpse into the mid-nineteenth-century American mind, blending historical reflection, scientific inquiry, and serialized fiction within a single periodical volume.

History - American6 min read
Cover of Makers of British Botany

Makers of British Botany

Unknown

This collection of biographical essays chronicles the evolution of British botanical science, tracing its development from the pioneering taxonomies of the seventeenth century to the complex ecological and physiological research of the early twentieth.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Folk-Lore and Legends: North American Indian

Folk-Lore and Legends: North American Indian

Anonymous

Through a collection of mythic narratives and moral parables, these accounts offer an enduring glimpse into the imaginative landscapes and cultural beliefs of North American indigenous peoples.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore6 min read
Cover of King Solomon's Mines

King Solomon's Mines

H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard

Three men venture into a pathless African wilderness to solve a missing-person mystery, only to discover a hidden civilization and a fabled hoard of diamonds.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Tales of the Malayan Coast: From Penang to the Philippines

Tales of the Malayan Coast: From Penang to the Philippines

Rounsevelle Wildman

The Far East of the late nineteenth century comes alive in this collection of adventurous encounters, where the steaming jungles of Malaya meet the expanding reach of American and British influence.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates

Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates

Plato

A man stands trial in Athens, refuses to abandon his principles in the face of death, and spends his final hours debating the nature of the soul.

Classics of Literature7 min read
Cover of Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War

Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War

Finley Peter Dunne

A sharp-tongued Chicago saloonkeeper offers a running, irreverent commentary on the politics and pretensions of the late nineteenth century. He finds the humor in human folly, whether it lives in the White House or next door.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Of Natural and Supernatural Things: Also of the first Tincture, Root, and Spirit of Metals and Minerals, how the same are Conceived, Generated, Brought forth, Changed, and Augmented

Of Natural and Supernatural Things: Also of the first Tincture, Root, and Spirit of Metals and Minerals, how the same are Conceived, Generated, Brought forth, Changed, and Augmented

Basilius Valentinus

The natural world is a veil, and beneath it lies a hidden, spiritual architecture governed by divine law. To study the transmutation of metals is, for the initiate, to participate in the ongoing creation of God.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of What Is Man? and Other Essays

What Is Man? and Other Essays

Mark Twain

The human being is a machine of flesh, driven by the singular, unyielding impulse to satisfy its own temperament and secure personal contentment. This collection of essays examines the architecture of that internal engine with relentless, inquisitive skepticism.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of An Australian Lassie

An Australian Lassie

Lilian Turner

A spirited, imaginative girl attempts to transform her family’s fortunes by staging a ghostly intervention, only to discover that the complexities of real life are far more demanding than her storybook dreams.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
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