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34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 688 of 714.

Descriptions of New Hylid Frogs From Mexico and Central America
William Edward Duellman
This scientific account details the discovery and classification of five new hylid frog species and one subspecies, mapping the hidden biodiversity of the Mexican and Central American highlands. It provides a precise, technical look at how field research expands our understanding of regional fauna.

Descriptive Pamphlet of the Richmond Mill Furnishing Works: All sizes of mill stones and complete grinding and bolting combined husk or portable flouring mills, portable corn and feed mills
Richmond Mill Furnishing Works
This detailed commercial catalog serves as a technical manual and sales prospectus for 19th-century American milling equipment, offering a window into the industrial infrastructure of post-Civil War grain processing.

Deserted: 1898
Edward Bellamy
A cross-country train journey across the Nevada desert turns into a high-stakes survival ordeal when two companions are accidentally left behind in the wilderness. Their struggle against the elements and a band of onlookers becomes an unlikely test of their budding romance.

Devotional Poetry for the Children. Second Part
Various
The path to a virtuous life is paved with small, consistent choices, where a child’s quiet devotion serves as the foundation for a character built on kindness, industry, and faith.

Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it, in the State of Virginia
St. George Tucker
This legal treatise outlines a systematic, century-long framework for the gradual eradication of slavery in Virginia, arguing that the institution’s persistence threatens the state’s moral and political survival. It serves as a rigorous, if deeply limited, attempt to reconcile the contradictions of a slaveholding…

Down the Chimney
Shepherd Knapp
This imaginative Christmas play bridges the gap between the roof and the hearth, inviting young readers and actors to step directly into the magic of Christmas Eve.

Dr. Rumsey's patient
L. T. Meade
A physician confronts a long-buried crime when he realizes his patient’s recurring nightmares mirror a real-life murder for which an innocent man has been wrongly imprisoned.

Famous Affinities of History: The Romance of Devotion. Volume 2
Lyndon Orr
The lives of history’s most influential figures are often defined not by their public policies, but by the private, often turbulent, attachments that shaped their character and steered their destinies. By peering behind the veneer of crowns and epaulets, we uncover the fragile, human heart at the center of…

Fifty Years of Public Service: Personal Recollections of Shelby M. Cullom, Senior United States Senator from Illinois
Shelby M. (Shelby Moore) Cullom
A seasoned statesman recounts fifty years of political shifts, spanning the rise of the Republican Party, the Civil War, and the emergence of the United States as a global power.

Forest Trees and Forest Scenery
G. Frederick (George Frederick) Schwarz
A quiet, contemplative journey through the American wilderness, this work marries the practical science of forestry with a profound appreciation for the structural beauty, light, and atmosphere of native trees.

Frank, the Young Naturalist
Harry Castlemon
HOOK A young boy navigates the wild woods and river banks of Maine, learning that true mastery of the outdoors requires patience, resourcefulness, and a respect for nature that goes far beyond the hunt.

Friendship and Folly: A Novel
Maria Louise Pool
The volatile intersection of love, duty, and social expectation reveals how easily the heart’s most reckless impulses can dismantle the lives of those caught in their path.

From the Easy Chair, Volume 2
George William Curtis
With a gentle wit and a moral compass set firmly to the nineteenth century, these observations capture the vanishing pulse of an evolving America. They offer a window into a world where public character was still a subject for serious, if conversational, inquiry.

General History of Civilisation in Europe, From the Fall of the Roman Empire Till the French Revolution. A Treatise on Death Punishments
François Guizot
European history is not a chaotic series of accidents, but a grand, coherent progression of distinct forces. This analytical inquiry uncovers the structural evolution of a society built upon the synthesis of diverse traditions.

Goblins and Pagodas
John Gould Fletcher
The poet wanders through an inner landscape of shifting colors and sounds, seeking to reconcile the solitary self with a world caught in the throes of cataclysm. Through the medium of the "symphony," he captures the ephemeral nature of human experience.

Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 48, February, 1854
Various
This volume serves as a vibrant, multifaceted window into the domestic and social expectations of mid-nineteenth-century American life, blending practical instruction with the era’s popular moral fiction.

Godfrey Marten, Undergraduate
Charles Turley
This is a candid, unvarnished account of an ordinary young man navigating the social, academic, and financial currents of Oxford at the turn of the 20th century. It captures the transition from adolescence to adulthood through a series of scrapes, friendships, and hard-won lessons in character.

Harper's Round Table, May 14, 1895
Various
This 1895 periodical captures a vanished world of Victorian youth, offering a vivid time capsule of late 19th-century intellectual curiosity, moral instruction, and daily pastimes.

Hartmann, the Anarchist
E. Douglas (Edward Douglas) Fawcett
A singular airship emerges from the clouds in 1920 to wage war on civilization, challenging a lone narrator to witness the terrifying intersection of visionary technology and radical political violence.

His Heart's Queen
Sheldon, Georgie, Mrs.
A spirited young woman defies her cold-hearted guardians to marry the man she loves, only to be driven into exile by a cruel deception that leaves her believing she is a widow.

Honor of Thieves: A Novel
C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
A desperate shipping tycoon recruits an unlikely partner to stage a high-stakes maritime insurance fraud. What follows is a brutal, cold-blooded descent into piracy on the high seas.

In Fashions: for Him, for Her, in Knits, in Crochets
American Thread Company
Create handmade garments for yourself, a partner, or a friend with this comprehensive collection of vintage knitting and crochet patterns.

Isles of the sea
Oliver Optic
This account of a maritime school’s final Atlantic crossing balances the rigor of nautical discipline with the transformative discovery of the world’s distant archipelagos. It captures the transition from youth to young adulthood through the lens of duty, merit, and the unexpected burdens of sudden wealth.

Jerry Todd and the rose-colored cat
Leo Edwards
The arrival of a promised "rose-colored cat" plunges a group of Illinois boys into an escalating series of mishaps, involving a local "feline rest farm," a string of suspicious strangers, and a criminal conspiracy.

John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10): Southern California
John L. (John Lawson) Stoddard
This travelogue captures the awe of the American West at the turn of the twentieth century, guiding readers through the stark deserts, volcanic wonders, and majestic canyons of a landscape still finding its place in the national imagination.

King of the Air
Herbert Strang
A young inventor takes to the skies in his homemade aeroplane to rescue a British diplomat held captive in the rugged, dangerous mountains of Morocco.

King Richard II
William Shakespeare
A king’s authority is stripped away by his own cousin, leading to a profound meditation on the nature of power and the hollow ache of losing one’s identity along with a crown. This play remains one of the most intimate and haunting explorations of a monarch’s fall ever committed to the stage.

Lady Eureka
Robert Folkestone Williams
This Victorian narrative blends adventurous travel, political idealism, and eccentric humor, following a group of distinct travelers as they navigate encounters with strange societies and their own internal philosophies. It is a work of curious contrasts, moving between high-minded discourse on human nature and the…

Life on the Mississippi, Part 11
Mark Twain
The river remains, but the people who once defined its banks have drifted into memory, leaving behind a world transformed by the passage of time and the erosion of innocence.

Marjorie in Command
Carolyn Wells
A temporary family upheaval tests the resourcefulness of four siblings left to manage their household. Their spirited attempts to balance duty, play, and unconventional charity define this tale of childhood independence.

Mère Giraud's Little Daughter
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A mother’s relentless pride in her daughter’s beauty blinds her to a tragic reality, leading to a journey that uncovers a secret sacrifice. This haunting narrative explores the devastating cost of vanity and the lengths to which love will go to protect a life that has already been lost.

Miles Tremenhere: A Novel. Vol. 2 of 2
Annette Marie Maillard
A portrait of jealousy, misunderstanding, and the slow, painful work of reconciliation, this Victorian narrative follows a husband and wife torn apart by a series of deliberate, malicious deceptions.

Miller's Mind training for children Book 1 (of 3): A practical training for successful living
William Emer Miller
This practical manual offers parents a series of structured games designed to sharpen a child's sensory perception, focus, and observational powers as a foundation for future success.

Miss Mouse and Her Boys
Mrs. Molesworth
HOOK A gentle, spirited girl finds herself navigating the boisterous, often unruly world of five brothers, learning to reconcile her own need for order with the unpredictable, wild energy of boyhood.

Moon Glow
G. L. Vandenburg
The first men to stand upon the moon find the surface barren, yet one discovery among the lunar dust threatens to turn their triumphant return into a cold, existential confrontation.

My German Prisons: Being the Experiences of an Officer During Two and a Half Years as a Prisoner of War
Horace Gray Gilliland
HOOK A vivid, firsthand account of two and a half years held captive in Germany during the Great War, detailing the relentless struggle for survival and the desperate, high-stakes quest for freedom.

My Three Years in a German Prison
Henri Béland
The Great War began as a distant rumble of news in the Pyrenees and transformed into a three-year crucible of confinement for a Canadian physician trapped behind enemy lines.

Non-combatants and Others
Rose Macaulay
This story follows the restless, searching lives of those left behind in London during the First World War, capturing the peculiar, muffled dissonance of a home front paralyzed by a global catastrophe it cannot touch.

Notes and Queries, Number 139, June 26, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This journal serves as a nineteenth-century clearinghouse for scholars and enthusiasts, gathering obscure historical, linguistic, and genealogical inquiries into a single, collaborative forum. It remains a fascinating artifact of Victorian intellectual curiosity and communal research.

Notes on the Art Treasures at Penicuik House Midlothian
John Miller Gray
This guided tour through the corridors of a historic Scottish estate reveals how a single family’s devotion to art and intellect shaped the cultural landscape of their nation for generations.

Nuala O'Malley
H. (Henry) Bedford-Jones
HOOK Amidst the scorched landscape of Cromwellian Ireland, a displaced nobleman rallies a band of outcasts to dismantle a sinister usurper and win the heart of a fierce sea-roving chieftain.

Observations on the slave trade and a description of some part of the coast of Guinea, during a voyage, made in 1787, and 1788, in company with Doctor A. Sparrman and Captain Arrehenius
Carl Bernhard Wadström
This urgent firsthand account serves as an early, impassioned indictment of the Atlantic slave trade. Written in the late eighteenth century, the work merges travelogue with political advocacy to expose the systemic brutality of human trafficking.

Om: The secret of Ahbor Valley
Talbot Mundy
A seasoned intelligence officer risks everything to track a mysterious Tibetan lama into the forbidden reaches of the Himalayas. This evocative quest transcends mere espionage, pulling the reader into a landscape where ancient secrets and modern duty collide.

Our National Defense: The Patriotism of Peace
George Hebard Maxwell
This proposal for a national defense strategy argues that the United States can achieve true security not through a massive standing army, but by settling citizens on small, productive plots of land.

Phyllis
Duchess
A young woman’s impulsive marriage to a man of the world descends into a haunting ordeal of secrets, eventually forcing her to confront the fragile nature of her own happiness.

Pic the Weapon-Maker
George Langford
A young man cast out from his tribe wanders a dangerous prehistoric wilderness, forming an unlikely alliance with a woolly mammoth and a rhinoceros to survive the brutal elements and savage rivals.

Pitcher Pollock
Christy Mathewson
A young boy finds his footing in a new town through the combined rigors of a hardware store apprenticeship and the high-stakes world of high school baseball.

Poems of love
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The danger of love is a fire that leaves hearts scarred, yet it remains the most intoxicating battle humanity ever dares to fight. This collection explores the perilous rapture of romance and the weight of moral duty in a changing world.