Downloads and Free Reading Options

1Answers to Prayer, from George Müller's Narratives

By A. E. C. Brooks and George Müller

Mr. Brooks, in this compilation, has endeavored to select those incidents and practical remarks from Mr. Müller's Narratives, that show in an unmistakeable way, both to believers and unbelievers, the secret of believing prayer, the manifest hand of a living God, and His unfailing response, in His own time and way, to every petition which is according to His will. (From the Preface)

2Historic Girls

By Elbridge Streeter Brooks

Twelve short stories of real girls who have influenced the history of their times. (Summary by Carmen H)

3Necessity of Atheism

By David Marshall Brooks

Plain speaking is necessary in any discussion of religion, for if the freethinker attacks the religious dogmas with hesitation, the orthodox believer assumes that it is with regret that the freethinker would remove the crutch that supports the orthodox. And all religious beliefs are "crutches" hindering the free locomotive efforts of an advancing humanity. There are no problems related to human progress and happiness in this age which any theology can solve, and which the teachings of freethought cannot do better and without the aid of encumbrances. (Summary from the preface)

This book, published in 1920, analyzes the literary progression of Samuel Clemens and his shortcomings (which are debatable). Brooks attributes Clemens' increasing sense of pessimism to the repression of his creative spirit due largely to his mother and his wife. (Summary by Wikipedia and Lucretia B)

Idomen (1843) is the creative-nonfiction memoir of the beautiful and brilliant American poetess Maria Gowen Brooks, who was compared in the 19th century to Byron and Swinburne. In it she tells the story of an ill-fated love affair she had twenty years earlier while traveling with her young son in Canada following the death of her much older husband. The traumatic breakup led to suicide attempts on her part, which romantic masochist Brooks byronically relates in full, albeit changing everybody's name. Herself she calls Idomen, which is apparently idiomatic Greek for "we shall see" – as indeed we shall! <br><br> (Incidentally, the well-traveled Brooks had inherited a plantation in Cuba upon the death of her brother from malaria and went back there to live after Idomen was published, only to die of the same disease herself not long after.) - Summary by Grant Hurlock

6Wappin' Wharf: A Frightful Comedy of Pirates

By Charles S. Brooks

We had hoped that our drama's scene might lie on a pirate ship at sea. We had wished for a swaying mast, full-set with canvas—a typhoon to smother our stage in wind. We had hoped to walk a victim off the plank, with the sea roaring in the wings. But our plot deals stubbornly with us. Alas, our pirates grow old and stiff. They have retired, as we say, from active practice and live in easy luxury on shore. Yet we shall see that their villainy still thrives. - Summary from Prologue <br>By the way, Section 0 has a buncha interesting explanations by the author on why and how the play came about and is called what it is - with no spoilers. But if you need to get right into the action, just start with Act 1. (ToddHW) <BR><BR>Cast list:<BR> The Duke: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8879">Son of the Exiles</a><br> Patch-Eye: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8425">Larry Wilson</a><br> The Captain: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10614">Leanne Yau</a><br> Red Joe: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10789">Tomas Peter</a><br> Darlin': <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11790">TJ Burns</a><br> Betsy: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11084">Devorah Allen</a><br> Old Meg: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11772">Linda Olsen Fitak</a><br> Sailor Captain: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">alanmapstone</a><br> Stage Directions: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10179">Sonia</a><br> Introduction and Editing: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a>

"Sometimes, in a mood of Spanish castles, there flits across my fancy the vision of an ancient city on a hill-top, with lofty battlements thrust upward from the rock and towers that stand on tip-toe…. Our stage is the square of this ancient city, seen dimly in the night.... The time of our play is remote and I choose to think the world is flat, that comets are of evil prophecy and witches still ride on the windy moon...." Published in the same book as "Wappin' Wharf: A Frightful Comedy of Pirates", this story is subtitled "A Frightful Comedy of Beggars". The play describes skulduggery at the tavern with The Sign of The Greedy Pig. Will the beggars be hung as vagrants? Will true love triumph at the end? - Summary by Author and ToddHW <BR><BR>Cast list:<BR> Twist: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8425">Larry Wilson</a><br> Whimp: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11535">Nemo</a><br> Blat: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10789">Tomas Peter</a><br> Squeak: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10087">Sandra Schmit</a><br> Ballad Monger: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a><br> Mistress Trencher: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11084">Devorah Allen</a><br> Syndic of the University: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8576">Phil Schempf</a><br> Surgeon: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/2156">Roger Melin</a><br> Student: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11417">Eva Davis</a><br> Bombastes: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/11790">TJ Burns</a><br> Jules: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/8169">tovarisch</a><br> Watchman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">alanmapstone</a><br> Apple Woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10614">Leanne Yau</a><br> Yank, the Hangman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">alanmapstone</a><br> Bell-Ringer: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10801">Jim Locke</a><br> A Girl: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4174">Availle</a><br> An Old Woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10995">April6090</a><br> Another Old Woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/12500">Foon</a><br> A Third Old Woman: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/12568">Angelique G. Campbell</a><br> An Old Man: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/3157">TriciaG</a><br> A Voice in the Crowd: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/4174">Availle</a><br> Stage Direction: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/10179">Sonia</a><br> Edited by: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/6754">ToddHW</a>

8Hints to Pilgrims

By Charles S. Brooks

In this collection of 17 short essays, Charles S. Brooks (1878-1934), with the usual panache and wit, which he also displays in his comedies, describes funny incidents that can happen to people on holidays or in everyday life. <br> His two "frightful" comedies, "Wappin' Wharf" and "At the Sign of the Greedy Pig", are already in our catalogue as full-cast stage plays. (Summary by Sonia)

9Journeys to Bagdad

By Charles S. Brooks

In these 10 short and witty essays, author Charles S. Brooks (1878-1934) muses on various topics, as wide-ranging as Shakespeare, travelling to foreign countries, or even fashion (night-caps and hoopskirts), to name only a few. - Summary by Sonia

10The Ordeal of Mark Twain (Version 2)

By Van Wyck Brooks

The Ordeal of Mark Twain analyzes the literary progression of Samuel L. Clemens and attributes shortcomings to Clemens' mother and wife. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says, Brooks' work "was a psychological study attempting to show that Twain had crippled himself emotionally and curtailed his genius by repressing his natural artistic bent for the sake of his Calvinist upbringing." Also, Brooks says, his literary spirit was sidelined as "...Mark Twain was inducted (with the success of 'Innocents Abroad') into the Gilded Age, launched, in defiance of that instinct which only for a few years was to allow him inner peace, upon the vast welter of a society blind like himself, like him committed to the pursuit of worldly success." And, still more disturbingly, Brooks maintains... "We shall see that in the end, never having been able to develop, to express itself, to fulfill itself, to air itself in the sun and the wind of the world, it turned as it were black and malignant, like some monstrous, morbid inner growth, poisoning Mark Twain's whole spiritual system. We have now to note its constant blind efforts to break through the censorship that had been imposed on it, to cross the threshold of the unconscious and play its part in the conscious life of this man whose will was always enlisted against it." The implication of all this begs the question, "What might a truly unleashed Mark Twain have produced?" For a recording of a New York Times review of this book, go this link: <a href="https://archive.org/details/marktwain_nyt7_2005_librivox">Review</a> ( John Greenman & Wikipedia)

Older readers will enjoy this book for its portrait of a simpler time, one of magic and modest adventure. Children will enjoy being introduced to Freddy the Pig and his farmyard friends, all rather remarkable for their ability to communicate with one another and to take part, in this book, in Freddy's notion that winter might best be observed in Florida! This novel was later published as "Freddy Goes to Florida." (Summary by KevinS)

I have selected twelve works by American sociologist John Graham Brooks, most of which are articles published in journals between 1892 and 1914. All twelve are sourced from Archive.org and according to this link, all of his work is now in the public domain: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:John_Graham_Brooks. The titles are: Old Age Pensions in England - 1892 The Unemployed in German Cities - 1893 Philosophy and Political Economy - 1893 The Future Problem of Charity and the Unemployed - 1894 The Papal Encyclical Upon the Labor Question - 1894 The Pope and the Encyclical on Labor - 1895 The Social Question in the Catholic Congresses - 1896 Insurance of the Unemployed - 1896 The Label of the Consumers League - 1900 The Issue between the Open and Closed Shop - 1905 The conflict between private monopoly and good citizenship - 1909 The Problem of Syndicalism - 1914 After spot checking a few, it appears that most of the works listed above are less than 2000 words each, except two coming in at about 5200 and 6400. He wrote several full-length books, each having several hundred pages, that would be suitable for future projects.