Downloads & Free Reading Options - Results

1Iola Leroy

By Frances E. W. Harper

This is the story of Iola Leroy, a free-born, mixed-race woman who passed as white. Her true racial identity eventually discovered, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Later freed by the Union Army, she journeyed to find others of her family who had been disunited from each other and strewn across the south by the forces of slavery. In the process she also struggled to improve the economic and social station of African Americans. Iola Leroy is a story about race and gender roles during the antebellum and post-Civil War eras, "passing" and the associated socio-political consequences. (Summary by James K. White)

One man's opinion of woman in 1894. Charles Harper believes in the superiority of the male sex and the subordination of the female. He paints an entire gender with the same brush. He believes all women to be identical in mind (illogical) and body (knock-kneed) and vastly inferior to the male. He presents 'facts' to support his opinions:<br /> "Woman's Mission is Submission" <br /> "for woman has ever been the immoral sex"<br /> "how truly like nature their tongues say 'No,' when their hearts throb 'Yes, yes!'"<br /> "She will have to develop very greatly before she becomes the equal of man, either in mind or muscle"<br /> "Woman is altogether different from and inferior to man: narrow-chested, wide-hipped, ill-proportioned, and endowed with a lesser quantity of brains than the male sex."<br /> "A woman's reason is a notoriously inadequate mental process"<br /> <br /> And these are just from the first chapter!<br /> <br /> He belittles other men who presume to know womankind by stating that they cannot possibly know, being men themselves. Then proceeds to go on (and on, and on) presenting everything he knows about womankind. He is grievously misinformed and extremely opinionated. Today his views are woefully out of date but make for some entertaining reading. <br /> - Summary by Bev J. Stevens

3Summer Days in Shakespeare Land

By Charles George Harper

"Some delights of the ancient town of Stratford-upon-Avon and the country round about, together with a sketch of the life of Mr. William Shakespeare, in which many things both new and entertaining are to be found...and wherein certain fanatics are handsomely confuted." "Certain fanatics" refers to insistent doubters of Shakespeare's authorship of the great literary works attributed to him. The quoted statement appears before the Preface. The book, which was published in 1913, charmingly describes the area's structures, history, and lore. ~ Lee Smalley

4Crocuses

By Frances E. W. Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an African-American abolitionist, suffragist, poet and author. She was also active in other types of social reform and was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which advocated the federal government taking a role in progressive reform. - Summary by Wikipedia

5Poems

By Frances E. W. Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an influential female African American poet. Her poetry often deals with themes of freedom, discrimination, hatred, and injustice. Her poetry remains relevant to this day, and is still widely read. - Summary by Carolin

“Situated as we were at Camp 2, in fine rata bush, with a luxuriant undergrowth of tree-ferns and other plants - which in England would be called semi-tropical vegetation, - it was difficult to believe that we were a mile and a half up and 300 ft. above a glacier. Through an opening in the trees in front of our batwing, lofty snow-capped peaks could be seen a mile away across the valley, rising in precipices from steep slopes, clothed with dark green bush ; while below, a pure white glacier flowed at our feet, presenting as fine an instance of crevassed and broken ice as could be wished.” (Arthur Paul Harper, Excerpt from Chapter 4 describing a view of the Franz Josef glacier.) In Pioneer Work in the Alps of New Zealand Arthur Paul Harper describes his travels, observations and adventures during 1893, 1894 and 1895 when he was employed by the New Zealand Government to explore, survey and map the Westland valleys, peaks and glaciers in the grand and beautiful central portion of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. In the first two years he worked alongside the legendary surveyor and West Coast explorer Charlie Douglas, but had other companions for his travels and also worked much of the time on his own. The work was hard. The travel, food and camping were rough and there were plenty of adventures. They carried, on their backs, all their supplies and equipment for extensive periods of work in remote temperate rain-forest and mountainous country. There were few tracks (trails) to aid their travels through thick forest and scrub, and no maps. Indeed, it was their job to provide the information to form the basis of maps and possibly of road links between the east and west sides of the South Island. At the end, Harper writes “If the foregoing pages induce any persons to make an attempt to visit the Southern Alps for pleasure, or in pursuit of science or adventure, and if they cause the authorities to value properly one of the finest assets in the wealth of the colony, I shall feel that my work has produced some tangible result.” The history and present extent of tourism on the New Zealand West Coast shows that Harper's work has indeed produced tangible results, for better or for worse. Arthur Paul Harper was New Zealand born and received his education in New Zealand and Britain. He was a lawyer, mountaineer (member of the Alpine Club of London and an instigator of the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand) and photographer. His father, Leonard Harper, also was an early European explorer in New Zealand and gave his name to Harper Pass, a link between the east and west coasts. In the South Island of New Zealand, at least 17 places (peaks, passes, glaciers, rivers, rocks, huts) are named after Leonard and Arthur Harper. (summary by Gail Timmerman-Vaughan)

7Minnie's Sacrifice

By Frances E. W. Harper

Minnie, who lives in the South, does not know she is a mulatto. She is sent to the North after her mother's death, and there she marries Louis, who is ironically also of mixed parentage. The story revolves around their discoveries and how they deal with their true identities. (N.B. There are some missing portions of the text.)

8Sowing and Reaping

By Frances E. W. Harper

This novel is subtitled A Temperance Story, which identifies explicitly the focus of the work. Frances Harper is a Christian moralist and uses her writings for didactic purposes. Here she contrast two couples, one, Belle and Paul, who do not drink and whose lives are happier and more productive, and the other, Jeanette and Charles, who lives are destroyed by the demon rum. (N.B. There are some missing portions of the text)

9Trial and Triumph

By Frances E. W. Harper

This novel, like two other novels that Harper serialized in The Christian Recorder, sets forth the principles which make for a meaningful, moral life. In Trial and Triumph, we follow Annette Harcourt through trials and tribulations, which test her resolve, but because she clings to her values, she does after much struggle achieve success and as a further reward also love. (N.B. There are some missing portions of the text.)

10Aeroplane in War

By Claude Grahame-White and Harry Harper

"Although it is still a crude machine—in view of the perfected apparatus which is the aim of thoughtful designers—the aeroplane has demonstrated, in a conclusive way, its value as an instrument of war." - Summary by Authors

11Going East

By Frances E. W. Harper

LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Going East by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.<br> This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 2, 2021. <br> ------<br> Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an abolitionist, suffragist, poet, teacher, public speaker, and writer. She was one of the first African American women to be published in the United States. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland, Harper had a long and prolific career, publishing her first book of poetry at the age of 20. At 67, she published her widely-praised novel Iola Leroy (1892), placing her among the first Black women to publish a novel. - Summary by Wikipedia

"Being some Account of Life and Work in the Province of Canterbury, South Island." <br> A set fo 26 letters covering the Author's period of service in New Zealand as an Anglican priest. They cover his parochial work in Christchurch, on the West Coast, and Timaru. This is interspersed with commentary on Diocesan matters along with accounts of his journeys between New Zealand and England. - Summary by Beeswaxcandle