Book 1

Cycling

by Various Authors

Published 5 May 2016
Directly you are in motion you will feel quite helpless, and experience a sensation of being run away with, and it will seem as if the machine were trying to throw you off

The first bicycle was invented at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but it wasn't...Read more

Book 4

Life in a Bustle

by Various Authors

Published 5 May 2016
"Every age has its own special difficulties and dangers. The disease which specially threatens this generation is restlessness, distraction, dissipation of intellectual and moral power. Its consequence is exhaustion and nervous collapse. And its symptom is Hurry"

Life in a Bustle: Advice to Youth is part of 'Found...Read more

Book 5

One would hear considerably less of hysteria, of morphine-mania, and of other regrettable characteristics of fin-de-siecle existence, if women were to take to fencing as one of the regular occupations of their day

Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, said in 1896: "No matter how...Read more

Book 10

Hints on Etiquette

by Various Authors

Published 3 November 2016
If these 'hints' save the blush but upon one cheek, or smooth the path into 'society' of only one honest family, the object of the author will be attained

Hints on Etiquette is part of 'Found on the Shelves', published with The London Library. The books in this...Read more

Book 11

A Woman's Walks

by Various Authors

Published 3 November 2016
"To anyone of my sex who feels inclined to follow my example and visit Billingsgate Market when it is in full blast, I would recommend the use of Louis XV. heels - the higher the better - in fact, a pair of stilts would not be inappropriate"

From...Read more

Book 12

A colliery explosion, more disastrous than any that can be remembered, took place on Thursday afternoon, the 18th June, 1835

An Account of the Dreadful Explosion in Wallsend Colliery by which 101 Human Beings Perished! is part of 'Found on the Shelves', published with The London Library. The...Read more

Through a Glass Lightly

by Various Authors

Published 3 November 2016
"A drinker's crown of sorrow is remembering wetter days"

The love of drinking was well-developed in the nineteenth-century Englishman. With chapters on port, claret, sherry, champagne, Burgundy, Madeira, wine cellars, glasses and butlers, Through a Glass Lightly is a love letter to wine and everything that came with...Read more

"Never let the heat of action lead you to forget good-temper. Be manly; seek no undue advantage. Science and pluck give advantage enough"

Ned Donnelly, a former prize fighter turned boxing instructor and author (with a lot of help from his literate friends), was a household name as...Read more

"If you give anything to a Norwegian (old meat tins are always thankfully received), he will give your hand a silent grip more expressive than many words"

The Lure of the North is part of 'Found on the Shelves', published with The London Library. The books in this...Read more

On Corpulence

by Various Authors

Published 5 May 2016
Oh! that the faculty would look deeper into and make themselves better acquainted with the crying evil of obesity - that dreadful tormenting parasite on health and comfort

William Banting, a short man who suffered great personal distress from his increasing fatness, finally happened upon a 'miracle cure'....Read more

The Right to Fly

by Various Authors

Published 3 November 2016
"If I am dreaming, let me dream on, - but I defy any one to awaken me! - Let me contemplate the air studded with barques travelling with such rapidity as to humiliate the Ocean and all the locomotives of the Earth!"

The first balloon flight with passengers...Read more

This little body of thought, that lies before me in the shape of a book, has existed thousands of years, nor since the invention of the press can anything short of an universal convulsion of nature abolish it

The London Library's members are, by their nature, interested in...Read more