ffred's nearly-forgotten treasures
In my literary ramblings, occasionally I stumble across old books
that are worth reading, yet are at best available as what I term
"scan-offs:" over-priced, minimally processed cheesy clones of free
online resources. Not so the entries in this list: they are labors of
enthusiasm. These are actual e-texts that I have carefully transcribed,
spell-checked, proof-read, and published on Amazon in Kindle
format.
Last updated: 2024-09-28
- Anastasius
— by Thomas Hope.
Clever, audacious, richly researched historical novel set in the Middle
East during the late 1700's; a masterpiece of prose style.
- Prudence
Palfrey — by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
Witty, entertaining tale of doomed dreams, deception, and romantic
constancy, deftly combining New England satire and Western
adventure.
- An
Elephant's Track, and other Stories — by Mollie Evelyn Moore
Davis.
Richly painted romantic tales about life and death in postbellum Texas
and Louisiana: alternately gritty, comic, tragic, and even
ghostly.
- Phœbe
— by Miriam Coles Harris.
Elegant, sympathetic moral fable; a tragicomedy of errors that delves
deep into the internal misfortunes of miscommunication.
- John
Maribel — by Maria Darrington-Deslonde.
Delightfully well-crafted melodramatic tale, replete with heroes,
villains, tragic victims, and a happy ending. Break out the
popcorn.
- The
Sutherlands — by Miriam Coles Harris.
Historical novel set in 18th century New York Catskills; a tragic tale
of slavery, romance, religious devotion, and brutal murder.
- The
Miller of Silcott Mill — by Maria
Darrington-Deslonde.
Impeccably civilized, yet observant, this novel of the Deep South
examines love, scandal, crime, and class (both real and affected).
- So very
Human — by Alfred Bate Richards.
"A Tale of the Present Day" indeed; a cornucopia of life in the social
strata of Victorian England. Are things so very different today?
- The City
of the Jugglers, and Other Stories — by William
North.
Satire of capitalism and commentary on intellectual enlightenment,
social justice, universal (male) suffrage, and journalistic
integrity.
- Tales
and Fables — by François Fénelon.
Written to entertain and instruct a young prince on such topics as
morality, industry, justice, and avoidance of hypocrisy.
- The
Albigenses — by Charles Maturin.
Historical novel set during the 13th century Albigensian Crusade: a
tale of superstition, bigotry, rapacity, and revenge.
- Helen
Harlow's Vow — by Lois Waisbrooker.
Inspirational exposition on questioning and overcoming social injustice
through personal strength and conviction; a feminist classic.
- The
Nazarene and Adonai — by George Lippard.
Lippard's unfinished sequel to The Quaker City, paired with his most
developed exposition on religion, social justice, and revolution.
- Adventures of
Telemachus — by François Fénelon.
Written privately to instruct a future monarch, yet tremendously popular
when published; a masterpiece of moral and political commentary.
- Washington and his
Generals — by George Lippard.
Popular and influential reverent romance, a sensationalist blend of fact
and fiction posing as a representation of actual history.
- The
Quaker City — by George Lippard.
Controversial Gothic "dreadful," an outrageous tale of lust, corruption,
and violence; America's best-selling novel at the time.
- The
Virginia Comedians — by John Esten Cooke.
Historical romance set in the hard-partying, chivalric, silk-and-velvet
days of colonial Virginia, rose-tinted glasses included.
- The
Money-Maker, and Other Tales — by Jane C. Campbell.
Strait-laced but worthy collection of fables on the follies of vice and
conspicuous consumption and the virtues of quiet domestic life.
- Wensley,
and Other Stories — by Edmund Quincy.
Immaculate, scholarly, sympathetic, and reverently humorous, these tales
speak vividly of times and persons nearly forgotten when written.
- Zoë, or the
Quadroon's Triumph — by Elizabeth D. Livermore.
Ostensibly a tale of racism, more accurately a treatise on feminism and
Unitarianism; long-winded at times, but has enjoyable moments.
- Virginia
in a Novel Form — by Rebecca Brodnax Hicks.
Short, sweet, clever, delightful confection. A witty domestic comedy of
life in the Old Dominion, almost worthy of Oscar Wilde.
- Working a
Passage, and Other Stories — by Charles Frederick
Briggs.
Anthology of novellas and short works, including Working a Passage,
Asmodeus, and selections from The Knickerbocker and Putnam's
Monthly.
- The Wherefore Investigating
Company — by Lois Waisbrooker.
An enjoyable progressive story, examining themes of land laws and their
abuses, marriage, inheritance, slavery, racism, and capitalism.
- Nothing
Like It — by Lois Waisbrooker.
Radical, high-spirited, thought-provoking account of warriors against
injustice; notable as an early depiction of the Social Gospel.
- Alice
Vale — by Lois Waisbrooker.
Didactic, melodramatic, eye-rolling at times, yet delightfully lambastic
treatment of contemporary society.
- The
Second Son — by Margaret Oliphant and Thomas Bailey
Aldrich.
Sometimes genteel, sometimes brutal, an ironic jab at conventions of
sex, class, and inheritance in Victorian England.
- Jamie
Parker, the Fugitive — by Emily Clemens Pearson (as Emily
Catharine Pierson).
Published before Uncle Tom's Cabin, but not as widely-read; a rough,
fiery, unabashed piece of abolitionist muck-raking.
- The
Adventures of Private Miles O'Reilly — by Charles G.
Halpine.
Rare, surviving example of military humor dating from the Civil War; a
satire of wartime bureaucracy, politics, and corruption.
- The
History of Rinaldo Rinaldini — by Christian August
Vulpius, John Hinckley.
Infamous, yet tremendously popular during the early 1800's, widely
imitated, just as quickly forgotten; a premier example of pulp
fiction.
- Bankrupt
Stories — by Charles Frederick Briggs.
Dickensesque, sordid, sardonic tale of fraud, murder, deception, and
dissolution, set in the markets of antebellum New York City.
- Hannah
Thurston — by Bayard Taylor.
Dry and satirical, intelligent, yet unabashedly Victorian romance,
set in upstate New York; an amusing, guilty pleasure.
- Widow
Spriggins, and Other Sketches — by Frances M.
Whitcher.
Companion volume to the hilarious classic Widow Bedott,
containing earlier and later works, including the poignant, unfinished
Mary Elmer.
- Up the
River — by Frederick W. Shelton
Gently humorous and engaging sketches of life in the Hudson River valley
in the early 1850's: a collage of joys, irritants, and chickens.
- Neal's
Charcoal Sketches — by Joseph C. Neal.
Comprehensive compilation of character sketches from one of America's
earliest, foremost, yet all-but-forgotten urban humorists.
- The
Sparrowgrass Papers — by Frederic S. Cozzens.
Amusing anecdotes of an 1850's family moving from the city to a house in
the country.
- The
Attorney — by John Treat Irving, Jr.
Enticing, gritty, melodramatic novel of crime in the mean streets of
antebellum Manhattan; not flawless, but worthwhile.
- The Widow
Bedott Papers — by Frances M. Whitcher.
Priceless conversational sketches of Yankee characters and their
foibles; a hilarious though sometimes unsettling social commentary.
- The Trippings of
Tom Pepper — by Charles Frederick Briggs.
Epic serial satire of antebellum New York, notorious for its
unflattering depiction of the literary scene, and other aspects of urban
life.
- A
Knickerbocker Anthology — by Various Authors
Compilation of noteworthy short prose pieces published in the
Knickerbocker Magazine between 1851 and 1861.
- The Van
Gelder Papers — by John Treat Irving, Jr.
Collection of mixed humorous and tragic short stories of Knickerbocker
country, by a nephew of Washington Irving.
- The Hive
of the "Bee-Hunter" — by Thomas Bangs Thorpe.
Easy-going, fast-shooting antecedent of Mark Twain; an entertaining
collection of essays and tales of the Southwest frontier.
- The Slave
of the Lamp — by William North.
Influential forerunner of New York's Bohemian literary movement:
romantic, bathetic, yet fiercely devoted to intellectual liberty.
- Temple
House — by Elizabeth Stoddard.
Psychological, insightful, and thoroughly entertaining character study,
warts and all: a significant predecessor of modern literature.
- Two
Men — by Elizabeth Stoddard.
Ahead of its time: a brilliant, unflinching dissection of a uniquely
Yankee view of human pride, romance, and racial prejudice.
- The
Knickerbocker Gallery — by Lewis Gaylord Clark.
A feast of short works, many by writers still famous today, in tribute
to the editor of the monthly literary magazine of the early 1800's.
- The Adventures of
Harry Franco — by Charles Frederick Briggs.
Delightful, satirical depiction of Manhattan life and nautical merchants
during the 1830's, notable as an early Abolitionist literary work.
- The Adventures
of Gil Blas de Santillane — by Alain René Lesage,
Tobias Smollett.
First English translation of a widely influential French comic classic:
a prototype of the naif and his adversities in the human jungle.
- Modern
Chivalry — by H. H. Brackenridge.
One of the earliest, yet often overlooked, U.S. novels: a hilarious
picture of politics in Pennsylvania during the Whiskey Rebellion.
- Krilof and his
Fables — by Ivan Krylov, W. R. S. Ralston.
First English prose translation of Russia's celebrated fabulist, whose
works were often political, satirical, penetrating, and elegant.
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