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34,093 public-domain books, summarised. Page 92 of 711.

The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories
Mark Twain
The honest citizens of a prideful town meet their match when a slighted stranger introduces a trap that unmasks their hidden greed. This collection of stories explores the frailty of human virtue with biting, clear-eyed humor.

The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 301-398
James Mooney
This foundational ethnographic work documents the private spiritual and medical traditions of the Cherokee people, preserved in their own hand-written manuscripts. It recovers a complex, systematic worldview where every aspect of life—from hunting and romance to the treatment of illness—is governed by sacred,…

Thorstein of the mere
W. G. (William Gershom) Collingwood
In a landscape of mist, crag, and untamed water, a displaced family of Northmen stakes a claim to a wild valley, fighting to preserve their independence against the encroaching tides of kings and history.

Hawaiian folk tales
Unknown
These legends offer a window into a world where the line between the human and the divine is as thin as the sea mist, and where nature itself pulses with ancient, living power.

Field book of common rocks and minerals
Frederic Brewster Loomis
Hook An invitation to look downward with purpose, this guide transforms the mundane pebbles and outcrops of the landscape into a narrative of the earth’s deep, cooling history.

The Private Life of the Romans
Harold Whetstone Johnston
The world of the ancient Roman is often glimpsed in fragments of epic poetry or political debate, but the domestic reality of those who lived it remains elusive. This foundational study reconstructs the everyday existence of the Romans, providing a clear, grounded view of a civilization through the lens of its…

Wilhelm Meister's apprenticeship and travels, vol. 1 (of 2)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This sprawling, thoughtful chronicle follows a young man’s restless search for meaning as he drifts from his father’s bourgeois expectations into the unstable, enchanting world of the theater, ultimately seeking a more profound, grounded self-realization.

Discovery of Witches: The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster
Potts, Thomas, active 1612-1618
The cry of a desperate widow reaches heaven, yet remains unheard on earth, as neighbors turn upon neighbors in a fever of accusation and fear.

More toasts: Jokes, stories and quotations
Unknown
Wit and wisdom require the right delivery, and this resource offers a collection of quips, toasts, and humorous stories designed to rescue the tongue-tied speaker from the pressures of public performance.

A Voyage to Arcturus
David Lindsay
A man journeys to a distant star only to discover that the struggle between good and evil is a brutal, solitary war for the soul.

Leaves of Life, for Daily Inspiration
Margaret Bird Steinmetz
A collection of daily meditations and timeless wisdom, designed to anchor the spirit and focus the mind through the shifting seasons of the year.

Sacred and legendary art, volume 1 (of 2): Containing legends of the angels and archangels, the evangelists, the Apostles, the doctors of the church, and St. Mary magdalene, as represented in the fine arts
Mrs. (Anna) Jameson
This scholarly guide illuminates the hidden language of Christian art, transforming mysterious religious icons into legible stories of faith, history, and human expression. It acts as an essential bridge between the casual museum-goer and the deep, symbolic traditions of the past.

The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 1
Jonathan Swift
This collection gathers the sharp, metrical wit of a master satirist, offering a window into the political intrigue, social vanities, and biting humor of the early eighteenth century. Through verses that range from playful lampoons to scathing indictments of power, it reveals a mind that found the world as absurd…

Annals of Music in America: A Chronological Record of Significant Musical Events
Henry Charles Lahee
This meticulous chronicle maps the evolution of American musical life, tracing the transformation of a young nation’s scattered cultural outposts into a sophisticated landscape of orchestras, conservatories, and grand opera houses. It serves as an essential record of the first performances and foundational…

Preface to Shakespeare
Samuel Johnson
The primary duty of a critic is not to polish the monuments of the past, but to understand the human nature that built them. This foundational work of English literary criticism treats the playwright’s genius as an essential mirror of real life.

The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917
Various
This foundational collection of scholarly essays and primary documents reconstructs the African American past with rigorous academic intent, challenging the prevailing historical myths of the early twentieth century. It serves as a vital archive of resistance against intellectual erasure.

The Story of a Cat
Emile de La Bédollière
A lonely countess discovers a ragged street cat, sparking a rivalry between her faithful maid and a malevolent steward who plots the animal’s destruction.

Between Pike's Peak and a pickle
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
The boasts of a local cowboy lead to a wager that spirals into a chaotic, slapstick riot. This Western short story captures a town’s absurdity and the inevitable collapse of a man who claims he can ride anything.

Past and Present
Thomas Carlyle
The modern world is a place of smoke, industrial chaos, and moral drift, where humanity has traded its soul for a "Cash-Gospel" and lost its way in a wilderness of its own making.

Franz Liszt
James Huneker
Franz Liszt was more than a pianist; he was a revolutionary force who transformed the keyboard into an instrument of infinite color and dramatic power. This exploration examines his life, his art, and his legacy.

Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete
Washington Irving
A whimsical, sprawling mock-chronicle, this work reimagines the colonial history of New York as a series of absurd, heroic, and deeply human misadventures. It stands as a foundational piece of American satire, celebrated for its wit and playful invention.

Salammbo
Gustave Flaubert
This is a haunting, sensory-drenched epic of a forgotten war, where the luxury of a golden civilization collides with the brutal desperation of those who fought to build it.

The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1. Poetry
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
The wild, mercurial spirit of a legendary poet takes flight in these early verses, where adolescent heartbreak and biting social satire collide with the raw intensity of a singular, untamed voice.

Wild Flowers: An Aid to Knowledge of Our Wild Flowers and Their Insect Visitors
Neltje Blanchan
The wild flower is not a passive object to be admired, but a sentient actor in a complex drama of survival, struggle, and sophisticated partnership with the insect world.

An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education: A Liberal Education for All
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Maria) Mason
True education is not a process of molding children from the outside, but a means of nourishing the living mind with a broad, rich, and varied diet of ideas.

Diana Carew
Mrs. Forrester
A young woman’s sudden introduction to the glittering, high-stakes world of the English landed gentry leads to an accidental entanglement with two brothers and a haunting, irreversible tragedy.

Dolly Reforming Herself: A Comedy in Four Acts
Henry Arthur Jones
A frivolous, debt-ridden wife attempts to reform her spending habits alongside her husband, only to discover that their resolutions are as flimsy as their bank accounts. This comedy explores the cyclical nature of human folly with sharp, witty precision.

Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers: Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, Rockeries, and Shrubberies
J. G. (John George) Wood
Hardy, reliable, and possessed of a quiet, enduring beauty, old-fashioned perennials offer the garden a timeless structure that requires far less maintenance than their fleeting annual counterparts.

Legends, Tales and Poems
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Shadows of the past and the restless stirrings of the human heart converge in this haunting collection. Through a blend of prose legends and lyrical verse, the reader enters a world where the boundary between the material and the supernatural dissolves, leaving only the indelible mark of mystery.

The Popular Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India, Vol. 1 (of 2)
William Crooke
A vast, intricate archive of the rural spirit, this work captures the living mythology of Northern India, where ancient deities and village superstitions weave together into a single, enduring tapestry of belief.

Broad Grins: Comprising, With New Additional Tales in Verse, Those
George Colman
These narrative verses serve as a boisterous antidote to the era's overwrought gothic romances, skewering superstition with sharp wit and a healthy dose of slapstick absurdity.

The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents: Dresden Edition—Twelve Volumes
Robert Green Ingersoll
The mind that refuses to be shackled by ancient dogma finds its truest liberation in the light of reason and the steady, unyielding pursuit of human kindness.

Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy
A spirited, independent woman inherits a farm and finds her life entangled with three very different men, setting the stage for a dramatic collision between impulsive passion and steady, enduring devotion.

The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes
This volume presents a foundational attempt to map the entirety of human knowledge through the rigorous application of materialist philosophy. It argues that all phenomena, from the movement of celestial bodies to the workings of the human mind, must be understood as the effects of matter in motion.

The Hound of Heaven
Francis Thompson
This is a narrative of a soul’s desperate flight from the divine, depicted as a pursuit by a relentless, loving force that refuses to let the wanderer escape into self-destruction. It is a profound, musical exploration of the tension between human autonomy and spiritual surrender.

Propaganda
Edward L. Bernays
Modern democratic society is not governed by the people, but by an invisible cabinet that orchestrates the habits and opinions of the masses to ensure a functional, orderly existence.

The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism
Bertrand Russell
The Russian Revolution represents a seismic shift in human history, yet its promise is marred by a brutal methodology that threatens the very goals it seeks to achieve.

The Caravan Route between Egypt and Syria
Archduke of Austria Ludwig Salvator
The shifting dunes of the Sinai desert guard the ancient path between Egypt and Syria, a route marked by mirages, palm-shaded wells, and the enduring remnants of forgotten empires.

The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
These collected verses trace the intricate path of the human soul through the landscapes of history, memory, and the enduring beauty of the natural world.

Flappers and Philosophers
F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald
The pursuit of status and the friction between youthful idealism and cold reality drive these characters, who often find that their greatest obstacles are the rigid expectations they place upon themselves.

Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of H. G. Wells: Hyperlinks to all Chapters of all Individual Ebooks
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
This digital index offers a comprehensive gateway into the vast, restless bibliography of one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and inquisitive minds. It serves as a navigational roadmap to the varied literary landscape produced by a writer who moved fluidly between speculative science fiction, social…

Astrology: How to Make and Read Your Own Horoscope
Sepharial
The movements of the planets hold a map to the human experience, offering a structured method for uncovering the hidden patterns of one’s life. By aligning the celestial bodies with the personal history of an individual, a clearer picture of destiny emerges.

Japan: From the Japanese Government History
Unknown
This volume traces the evolution of Japan from its mythical origins under the Emperor Jimmu to its emergence as a modern world power following the Russo-Japanese War.

Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life
Jersey, Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers, Countess of
A spirited account of a life lived in the heart of the Victorian era, spanning from the twilight of the nineteenth century to the dawn of the twentieth.

The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women
Edward Carpenter
The human spectrum of love and temperament defies the simple binary of male and female, revealing a profound, often misunderstood diversity of spirit that shapes the core of our social existence.

The Legends and Myths of Hawaii: The fables and folk-lore of a strange people
Kalakaua, David, King of Hawaii
This collection captures the vibrant, supernatural spirit of ancient Hawaii through the eyes of its final reigning monarch, weaving together ancestral mythology and the dramatic history of a shifting island kingdom.

U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1972 January - June
Library of Congress. Copyright Office
This volume offers a meticulous, archival record of intellectual property renewals for a pivotal window in American literary and legal history. It serves as a primary source documenting the mid-century life of books, serials, and academic texts.

Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
René Descartes
The search for certainty begins by casting aside every belief that can be doubted, leaving only the undeniable fact that a thinking mind exists to perform the questioning.