David Wales
Trivia (1917) And More Trivia (1921)
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) was an American-born British essayist who was known for his epigrams and aphorisms, often humorous. This re…
The Best Church Hymns
This 1898 book is the result of a survey of 107 hymn-books. The thirty-two hymns are ranked in order of popularity. The texts in this reco…
And Thus He Came
These short stories, perhaps we might call them modern parables, are not the usual fare of warm and fuzzy Christmas stories (pleasing as tho…
Sister Dolorosa
A Carmelite convent in Kentucky in the nineteenth century. A beautiful immature nun. A handsome immature visitor. A chance meeting. Whither?…
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks (1835 - 1893) was one of the finest and most famous clergyman in the nineteenth century; he was acknowledged as a masterful …
Andreas Vesalius, The Reformer of Anatomy
Vesalius (born in Brussels, 1514-1564) is one of the foundation stones of modern medicine. Forsaking the study of anatomy by reading the anc…
The Children's Book Of Christmas
This 1911 collection is of snippets from many different sources and genres: myths, songs. poems, hymns, book sections, etc. The sources are…
Pierrot, Dog Of Belgium
This 1915 novella was published as the First World War raged. "Belgium lies bleeding. Across her level, lush meadows the harsh-shod h…
South-Sea Idyls
The American Charles Warren Stoddard (1843–1909) wrote quite popular travel books, especially those about Polynesia. South-Sea Idyls (1873)…
The Village and The Library
The Village is Crabbe’s corrective to the rosy-tinted view of English village and rural working class life. He was a stark realist, as a pri…
Minstrel Weather
A series of poetically written meditations on the seasons and other nature subjects. Or “ …Minstrel Weather, a series of open-air vignettes…
A Christmas Miscellany
A selection of eight short works, chapters, or poems about Christmas. - Summary by david wales
Hector Berlioz; A Romantic Tragedy
How much more futile is it to attempt on the minuscule scale of the following tiny, if rambling, pamphlet to touch upon even a thousandth of…
Two Diaries From Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February - May, 1865
Two diaries from Middle St. John’s, Berkeley, South Carolina, February – May, 1865. Journals kept by Miss Susan R. Jervey and Miss Charlott…
Three Essays by James Freeman Clarke
Three diverse essays on souls in animals, a comparison of Buddhism and Christianity, and individualism in religion. Born in Hanover, New Ham…
The Romance Of The Commonplace
Thirty four whimsical, tongue-in-cheek, and entertaining essays about not much in particular, published in 1902, by one of the most popular …
A Cathedral Singer
New York City in the early 20th century, a boy with an angelic voice, his devoted mother, the great Episcopal Cathedral of Saint John The Di…
The White Cowl
A Trappist monastery in nineteenth century Kentucky. A young monk. A young woman in distress. Whither? One might want to compare this story …
My Hunt After 'The Captain'
Holmes describes his frantic search through Civil War torn landscapes for his wounded son, the future Supreme Court Justice. Originally publ…
The Pinafore Picture Book: The Story Of H.M.S. Pinafore (Version 2)
Pinafore’s sublimely silly story is made even sillier by this (ostensibly for children) 1908 story version of the 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan …