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Discourses: Biological and Geological

Read by Barbara Baker


Thomas Henry Huxley


Thomas Henry Hux­ley was an English biologist (comparative anatomist). He was the most effective supporter of Darwin's Theory of Evoluti…

The English Language

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Logan Pearsall Smith


A description and history of the development of the English Language and reflections on the influences that changed the language. - Summary …

The Novels of Jane Austen

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George Henry Lewes


An 1859 essay by the prominent philosopher and literary critic, G. H. Lewes, who was an enthusiastic promoter of the novels of Jane Austen a…

The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. I (version 2)

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James Boswell


This is the first of four volumes of a what was a new, intimate, type of biography when it was first published in 1791 and which has been an…

Hieroglyphic Tales

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Horace Walpole


Surreal and satirical, these stories by the eighteenth century man of letters, Whig politician, art historian and antiquarian are '"...…

Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay

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Thomas Babington Macaulay


An review essay of "Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay". The Edinburgh Review, January, 1843. Reprinted in vol. iii of Macaulay'…

Recollections of the Revolution and the Empire

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Henriette Lucie Dillon, marquise de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet


An aristocratic Frenchwoman's personal record of the dazzling extravagance of the Ancien Régime, of the court of Marie Antoinette, of…

Italian Hours

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Henry James


A loving recollection of the writer’s experiences, over many decades, of Italian places, people and art. - Summary by barbara2

The Desirable Alien at Home in Germany

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Ford Madox Ford and Violet Hunt


A travel journal of a year the author spent in Germany. With a preface and two additional chapters by her partner, the novelist Ford Madox F…

Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia and Letter to a Friend

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Thomas Browne


Selections from the varied writings of a 17th century English doctor with a well-stocked mind, an interest in the new science of his age and…

Horace Walpole's Letters: a selection

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Horace Walpole


Horace Walpole, 4th earl of Orford, was a cultivated participant in, and observer of, the social and political life of Georgian England. His…

The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. II (version 2)

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James Boswell


This is the second of four volumes of a what was a new, intimate, type of biography when it was first published in 1791 and which has been a…

The Letters of Madame de Sévigné to Her Daughter and Friends

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Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, Marie De Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise De Sévigné and Marie De Rabutin-Chantal


Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (5 February 1626 – 17 April 1696) was a French aristocrat famous for the precisi…

Mrs. Piozzi's Thraliana

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Charles Hughes


"It is many years since Dr. Samuel Johnson advised me to get a little book, and write in it all the Anecdotes which might come to my kn…

Glimpses of Italian society in the eighteenth century

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Hester Lynch Piozzi


Selections from the "Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany" by Hester Ly…

The Early Diary of Frances Burney, Vol. 1

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Frances Burney and Annie Raine Ellis


Vol. 1 of Diaries and letters of the young Fanny Burney. The diaries give a lively and accurate account of her experiences in the literary a…

Reminiscences and Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers - Banker, Poet and Patron of the …

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Samuel Rogers


Samuel Rogers was a renowned conversationalist who associated with the most distinguished persons of his time. This volume contains fascinat…

Handel and Music, part 1

In The Note-Books of Samuel Butler

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Henry Festing Jones and Samuel Butler


Early in his life Samuel Butler began to carry a note-book and to write down in it anything he wanted to remember; it might be something he …