California, the land of sunshine and roses, with its genial climate, its skies as blue as the far-famed skies of Venice, and its pure, life-giving air, invites the lover of nature to take long tramps over hill and dale, mountain and valley, and to search out new trails in the rugged mountains.

(Quote from section 2: Brook and Waterfall).

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th Century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The “Green Knight” offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain’s struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the w...

This collection recognizes Black History Month, February 2007. Two excellent resources for public domain African American writing are African American Writers (Bookshelf) and The Book of American Negro Poetry, edited by James Weldon Johnson. Johnson’s collection inspired the Harlem Renaissance generation to establish a firm African-American literary tradition in the United States.

A collection of works that explore the rich and evocative legend of King Arthur. The exploits of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have been a staple of British literature through the centuries, drawing together themes of pagan wizardry, the search for the Holy Grail, chivalry and of course romance.

This is a collection of public domain works either published in 1912, or written in 1912 and published before 1923. The accent is on non-fiction but a few short stories are included.

A dozen assorted articles from British and American periodicals, including The Atlantic Monthly, Punch, The Chicago Record-Herald, Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, Lippincott’s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, The Library, St. Nicholas, American Missionary, The Great Events by Famous Historians, and The Continental Monthly.

Portion of an article in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, VOL. XXVI July-December, 1829 "The late Earl of Eglinton, a distinguished member of a family not destitute of Celtic blood, and which has even been illustrious honour and patriotic feelings and principles, had a high opinion of the loyalty and bravery of the Canadian Highlanders, and left the following translation of one of their boat songs among his papers, set to music by his own hand."

"The Fall of the Nibelungs" is Margaret Armour's plain prose translation from the middle high German of the "Nibelungenlied", a poetic saga of uncertain authorship written about the year 1200. The story is believed by many to be based on the destruction of the Burgundians, a Germanic tribe, in 436 by mercenary Huns recruited for the task by the Roman general Flavius Aëtius. The introduction to the 1908 edition summarizes the story, "And so 'the discord of two women,' to quote Carlyle, 'is as a little spark of evil passion, which ere long enlarges itself into a crime; foul murder is done; and now the sin rolls on like a devouring fire, till the guilty and the innocent are alike encircled w...

In 2013 is het hondervijftig jaar geleden dat Nederland de slavernij in de West-Indische koloniën (Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen) afschafte. Voordat het in 1863 zover was, is er vanzelfsprekend uitgebreid over gediscussieerd door voor- en tegenstanders. Hierbij een onderdeel van deze discussie: twee redevoeringen, de eerste (1853) van Julien Wolbers en de tweede (1856) van Nicolaas Beets. Beide heren pleiten vanuit hun christelijke levensovertuiging voor afschaffing van de slavernij. Waar Wolbers zich concentreert op de wrede straffen en de ook overigens slechte behandeling van de negerslaven (de vergelijking trekkende met “De negerhut van oom Tom”, waarin de misstanden van de Ameri...

A collection of articles from Good Housekeeping magazine, The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book focuses on the subject of marriage. With instructions and advice from courtship to raising children, this collection aims to assist those with questions and concerns surrounding marriage and the ensuing relationship. Published in 1938.