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Free Fiction eBooks
Browse fiction books in the Public Pages library. Compare titles and authors, explore each book’s description, and choose an online reading edition or an available download.
434 books · Page 18 of 19
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
Mr. Jeremy Fisher sets out across a pond to catch fish for a dinner party. His expedition encounters uncomfortable weather, uncooperative fish, and a danger lurking beneath the water.
Antonina; Or, The Fall of Rome
As Rome faces invasion, Antonina, the daughter of a strict Christian, becomes involved with a young Gothic warrior. Family loyalties and religious conflict complicate their relationship as danger approaches the city.
The Ambassadors
Lambert Strether travels from Massachusetts to Paris to bring a young man home to the family business. As he enters Chad Newsome’s circle, his judgments about duty and the life he has missed begin to change.
What Katy Did at School
Katy Carr and her sister Clover leave home for boarding school, where new friendships, rules and daily adventures test their independence. The sisters learn to navigate both classroom life and the society around them.
Under the Lilacs
A runaway circus boy and his trained dog find shelter in a New England village. New friends offer Ben a chance to build a different life while he searches for news of his father.
Jack and Jill
A sledding accident leaves two close friends recovering through a long New England winter. Their neighbours and schoolmates bring companionship, projects and occasional trouble to the sickroom.
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Five children and their widowed mother make a lively home despite very limited means. Their fortunes change when a friendship connects the little brown house with the wealthy King family.
The Magnificent Ambersons
George Amberson Minafer grows up certain of his family’s place at the centre of town society. New industry, changing relationships and his resistance to change gradually unsettle that world.
Vumani: A Novel
It was always the case. Vumani Mzondeki verily believed he would not live beyond adolescence. He accepted this possibility and made peace with it. His age notwithstanding, he secretly went to the cemetery to identify his grave. As luck would have it, or perhaps unluckily so, he did not die when he…
Flow: FicSci 01
The first FicSci collection brings creative writing into conversation with scientific research on flow. Stories, poems and experimental pieces explore movement, change and the relationship between imaginative practice and scientific ideas.
Rock-time (Vol. 4 in the FicSci Series)
What is science communication? This collection, the fourth in the series, continues to argue that it can be creative writing aimed at the heart, rather than information directed to the mind.FicSci playfully subverts the term ‘science fiction’ to offer an experimental process that explores the limits of…
Riches have wings; or, A tale for the rich and poor
T. S. Arthur follows the changing fortunes of people whose expectations rest on wealth and social position. Their encounters examine family responsibility, ambition and the consequences of financial reversals.
Salammbo
Mercenary soldiers rebel against Carthage after the First Punic War, drawing the city and the household of Hamilcar into a prolonged struggle. Gustave Flaubert follows the soldier Matho and Hamilcar’s daughter Salammbô through siege, ritual, desire and divided allegiances.
Gigolo
Edna Ferber’s stories follow people negotiating ambition, affection, work and the changing circumstances of American life. The collection moves between households and communities, examining the distance between outward success and the private experiences of its characters.
The Day of the Beast
A wounded soldier returns from the First World War to find his home town and its relationships changed. Zane Grey follows his attempts to resume civilian life, reconnect with people he once knew and make sense of the expectations surrounding him.
Actions and reactions
Rudyard Kipling brings together stories and accompanying poems about households, work, machines and the lives of communities. The collection includes both everyday settings and imagined situations, moving between social comedy, adventure and speculative fiction.
The Three Clerks
Three young men working in London encounter the opportunities and pressures of office life, friendship and romantic attachment. Anthony Trollope follows their differing ambitions and the consequences of decisions about money, reputation and family.
Mr. Justice Maxell
Edgar Wallace follows a criminal case into the relationships between those who investigate, those who judge and those who have something to conceal. Conflicting accounts and private motives complicate the effort to establish what has happened.
The Hidden Children
Robert W. Chambers follows a young man’s search for his origins during the American Revolutionary period. His relationships and discoveries unfold amid military expeditions, frontier settlements and the changing fortunes of the people around him.
Ben-Hur: A tale of the Christ
A young Judean’s life is transformed by a betrayal that sends him into Roman slavery. Lew Wallace follows Ben-Hur through escape, adoption, rivalry and his encounters with the people and events surrounding the life of Jesus.
All Roads Lead to Calvary
A young woman’s ambition to work as a journalist brings her into the social and personal changes surrounding the First World War. Jerome K. Jerome follows her relationships, decisions and changing understanding of responsibility.
The Hill of Dreams
Lucian Taylor grows up in the Welsh countryside and pursues a life in literature. Arthur Machen follows his intense responses to landscape, his imaginative ambitions and the increasingly difficult circumstances of his life in London.
Vanity Fair
Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley take very different paths through marriage, money and social life during and after the Napoleonic period. William Makepeace Thackeray follows their households through ambition, reversals and the careful presentation of appearances.
The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies
John Buchan brings together tales and poems that move between Scotland, earlier historical periods and unfamiliar imaginative settings. Adventures, remembered places and unusual encounters sit alongside verses that extend the collection’s range of voices and moods.