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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 673 of 714.

The Devil's Asteroid
Manly Wade Wellman
Abandoned on a twenty-mile pebble of rock, human convicts discover that their Martian jailers have rigged the atmosphere to strip away their humanity, driving them backward down the evolutionary ladder until a disgraced Earthman fights to reclaim their minds.

The Evolution of Modern Band Saw Mills for Sawing Logs
D. Clint Prescott
The transition from crude hand-tools to high-speed industrial machinery defines the progress of the lumber industry. This account chronicles that evolution, detailing the mechanical breakthroughs that finally made the band saw a reliable, high-output tool for the modern mill.

The Gamester (1753)
Edward Moore
Despair, deceit, and the ruinous grip of addiction drag a domestic paradise down into absolute devastation.

The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 353, October 2, 1886
Various
A charming glimpse into Victorian maidenhood, this magazine volume weaves serial fiction, household crafts, and stern advice into a complete guide for self-improvement.

The Gold Thread: A Story for the Young
Norman Macleod
A boy lost in a dark wilderness learns that the only way to reach his father's kingdom is by keeping his hands upon a glowing line of light.

The Hero of Manila: Dewey on the Mississippi and the Pacific
Rossiter Johnson
This biography of Admiral George Dewey traces the arc of a singular naval career, connecting the formative experiences of a Vermont childhood to the decisive victory at Manila Bay. It serves as both a character study and a concise primer on the evolution of the United States Navy in the late 19th century.

The Hispaniola Plate (1683-1893)
John Bloundelle-Burton
A sweeping tale of high-seas adventure, this narrative bridges two centuries to recover a sunken Spanish fortune and settle a score with a murderous, long-forgotten pirate.

The History and Antiquities of Horsham
Howard Dudley
A quiet Sussex market town unfolds through its ancient stones, wooded parishes, and parish registers, revealing centuries of local history, parish memory, and folk tradition.

The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)
Max Duncker
This nineteenth-century historical study reconstructs the intricate political and religious development of the ancient Near East, tracing the interconnected fates of Assyria, Phoenicia, and Israel.

The Hollow of Her Hand
George Barr McCutcheon
Trapped between grief and vengeance, a young widow shields the woman who killed her husband, turning a dark secret into a web of absolute control.

The King of Root Valley: and his curious daughter
Robert Reinick
A tiny, hidden world of moss-dwelling elves collapses when their princess insists on marrying a giant-minded toy soldier.

The Life of Duty, v. 2: A year's plain sermons on the Gospels or Epistles
H. J. (Harry John) Wilmot-Buxton
A steady call to everyday holiness, this Victorian sermon collection frames ordinary human choices against the dramatic horizon of eternity.

The Little Girl Lost: A Tale for Little Girls
Eleanor Raper
Lost in the crowded streets of Peking, a little English girl is spirited away into the Chinese countryside by a family seeking a ransom.

The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 27: Expelled from Spain
Giacomo Casanova
A weary Venetian gentleman wanders the roads of eighteenth-century Spain and Italy, fleeing his past debts, dodging jealous authorities, and finding that even an aging libertine cannot outrun the quiet onset of regret.

The Mentor: Butterflies, Vol. 3, Num. 12, Serial No. 88, August 2, 1915
W. J. (William Jacob) Holland
A butterfly may lead you to the ends of the earth and lose you among the stars, proving that even the smallest creatures possess the power to inspire profound human discovery.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 322, July 12, 1828
Various
A miscellany of Regency curiosity and satire offers a window into the eclectic reading habits of nineteenth-century Londoners.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 352, January 17, 1829
Various
A vibrant snapshot of early nineteenth-century culture, this periodical miscellany balances structural engineering, global sports, literary gossip, and medical curiosities with breezy charm.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 368, May 2, 1829
Various
A window into early nineteenth-century British popular culture, this periodical issue captures the curiosities, architectural histories, news summaries, and poetic sentimentality that captivated reader imaginations in May 1829.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 545, May 5, 1832
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant microcosm of early nineteenth-century British intellectual curiosity, curating news, history, and social commentary for the inquisitive reader. It captures the spirit of an era where scientific advancement, royal biography, and the arts were consumed with equal fervor.

The Mississippi Saucer
Frank Belknap Long
A young shantyboat boy teasing riverboat captains with a bullfrog finds his humble life shattered when an otherworldly craft crashes into the Mississippi.

The Monctons: A Novel. Volume 2 (of 2)
Susanna Moodie
A young man is cast out by his treacherous uncle, only to stumble into a tangled web of family secrets, illicit romances, and the inevitable, crushing weight of retributive justice.

The Mystery Queen
Fergus Hume
When a wealthy man is found murdered with a mysterious insect left at the scene, an amateur sleuth must infiltrate a lethal secret society to save his reputation and his beloved.

The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake
Laura Lee Hope
Summer brings a motorboat, a runaway horse, missing legal papers, and a lake ghost to four lively high school chums.

The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 4 (of 4)
Jane Porter
A fallen statesman’s son struggles to reclaim his family’s honor while navigating the shifting loyalties of European courts and the heavy burden of a father’s tragic, renegade life.

The Perpetuation of Living Beings, Hereditary Transmission and Variation: Lecture IV. (of VI.), "Lectures to Working Men", at the Museum of Practical Geology, 1863, on Darwin's Work: "Origin of Species"
Thomas Henry Huxley
When living organisms reproduce, two opposing forces govern their form: a conservative urge to repeat the past and a sudden, unpredictable drive to diverge.

The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio
St. George Rathborne
HOOK Two brothers venture into the untamed Ohio wilderness, battling wolves, forest fires, and frontier enemies to secure a new home and restore their family's tarnished name.

The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
A century of domestic memory and public turmoil comes alive through the eyes of a Boston poet who finds grace in daily life and moral clarity in his nation's greatest crisis.

The Pygmy Planet
Jack Williamson
A desk-bound copywriter answered a desperate call, only to step through a hidden laboratory threshold into an impossibly small world where human intellects inhabit metallic horrors.

The Scottish History of James the Fourth: 1598
Robert Greene
HOOK A King’s reckless obsession with a new love nearly destroys his kingdom, his honor, and his virtuous wife. This classic drama explores the thin line between a ruler’s duty and his dangerous, unchecked desires.

The Second Voice
Mann Rubin
An acclaimed ventriloquist agrees to lend his unique performance range to a military scientific test, only to discover that broadcasting into deep space carries consequences no one anticipated.

The Shrieking Pit
Arthur J. (Arthur John) Rees
On the wild, storm-swept coast of Norfolk, an antiquary is brutally murdered inside a remote inn, leaving a shell-shocked soldier with a blank memory as the prime suspect.

The Speech of Monkeys
R. L. (Richard Lynch) Garner
A pioneering nineteenth-century attempt to decode animal vocalizations reveals how early acoustic technology challenged the sharp boundaries between human speech and brute sound.

The tale of Snowball Lamb
Arthur Scott Bailey
A spirited farmyard lamb stumbles into trouble when his eagerness to play with humans, tease his elders, and dodge farm chores leaves him standing out from the rest of the flock.

The Unpublishable Memoirs
A. S. W. (Abraham Simon Wolf) Rosenbach
These tales trace the exhilarating, often unscrupulous lives of bibliophiles who would risk social standing, personal relationships, and even legal peril to possess the world’s rarest literary treasures.

The White Stone
Anatole France
An intellectual conversation among friends in Rome’s Forum shifts from the ancient past to a vision of a future socialist utopia. This meditative work explores the continuity of human nature across the vast arc of time.

The World English Bible (WEB): Proverbs
Anonymous
A collection of vivid instructions and observational maxims maps out the sharp divide between a life of disciplined integrity and the quiet ruin of self-indulgence.

The Worshippers
Damon Knight
Accidental conquerors make for ironic deities, and absolute power is a fragile delusion when granted by alien whims.

Three Sailor Boys
Verney Lovett Cameron
Three young sailors find themselves cast away in the Pacific after a sudden storm separates them from their cruel shipmates. They must rely on their own ingenuity, resourcefulness, and faith to survive the perils of isolation and hostile encounters.

Toto's Merry Winter
Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
A boy and his menagerie of talking animals transform a quiet winter into a season of warmth, storytelling, and profound companionship. This gentle fantasy celebrates the bonds between the unlikely and the kind.

Trumpeter Fred: A Story of the Plains
Charles King
A young trumpeter finds himself accused of theft and desertion while caught in the dangerous crossfire of a frontier war. This story follows his struggle to clear his name and prove his loyalty.

"Us," An Old Fashioned Story
Mrs. Molesworth
Two orphaned twins try to cover up a tiny childhood mishap, only to fall into the hands of traveling gipsies and spark an desperate, far-reaching search.

We're Friends, Now
Henry Hasse
A retired homicide detective uses his knowledge of classic whodunits to outwit a supercomputer in a murder investigation, risking his own sanity and freedom.

William de Colchester, Abbot of Westminster
Ernest Harold Pearce
A forgotten figure of the Middle Ages emerges from centuries of silence to reveal the complex, practical, and often dangerous life of a high-ranking Benedictine monk.

Writing and Drawing Made Easy, Amusing and Instructive: Containing the Whole Alphabet in All the Characters Now Us'd, Both in Printing and Penmanship
William Chinnery
Command of hand is gained by constant use. This principle serves as the heartbeat of a manual designed to bridge the gap between amateur scribbling and the professional penmanship required for eighteenth-century trade and business.

Young Hilda at the Wars
Arthur Gleason
A young American woman volunteers as a Red Cross nurse in Belgium during World War I, facing danger and hardship to save lives.

Zen
Jerome Bixby
A paleontologist exploring a barren asteroid discovers the ultimate survivor of a shattered world: a tiny, immortal alien desperately begging for death.

A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers
William Penn
This account serves as both a history and a defense of the Society of Friends, detailing their spiritual origins, their emergence as a distinct community, and the specific, inward-looking testimonies that defined their early life.

A Few More Verses
Susan Coolidge
The soul finds its compass in the quiet surrender to a larger design, learning that even the smallest life serves as a vital thread in the tapestry of the divine.