Below are links to free vintage novels, mostly published from the mid-1800s to 1923. They include bestsellers in a range of genres. This page is one of 10 containing links to 300+ novels. Use the Vintage Novels Directory to access the other 9 pages.
Vintage Novels Directory
Authors G & H
Miss Lulu Bett; an American Comedy of Manners
Audio Book
Gale, Zona (1874-1938)
A story of middle Western life centering about a spinster who longs for sympathy and an escape from a cheerless life of drudgery in her sister’s household.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
Romance Island
Gale, Zona (1874-1938)
The Forsyte Saga
Audio Book 1
Audio Book 2
Audio Book 3
Galsworthy, John (1867-1933)
Young Jolyon, the most discerning one of the Forsytes, makes this commentary on them: “The Forsytes are the middlemen, the commercials, the pillars of society, the cornerstones of convention. . . . They possess . . . the power of never being able to give yourself up to anything soul and body, and the sense of property.” The story of their intricate relationships is told in three long novels.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Moccasin Ranch; a Story of Dakota
Garland, Hamlin (1860-1940)
1883. A dramatic story of a settler and his wife and their domestic troubles, with some other characters, on the Dakota prairie, when the virgin soil was being taken up by the immigrants, whose wild, hard life and physical and moral trials are strongly depicted.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
The Middle of the Road
Gibbs, Philip (1877-1962)
A picture of England after the European war. The characters of this novel matter very little as individuals. The author’s aim has been to bring before us all the various currents and counter-currents of opinion, and the economic or social causes, which have kept and still keep Europe in a ferment.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
The Battle-Ground; a romance of the war of the rebellion
Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson (1872-1945)
First part a sympathetic and oft-times humorous portrayal of the life of wealthy Virginians before secession; the second half a vivid picture of the war. Impressionist; rather the mournful underside of war than the heroic; halts and bivouacs, hospitals, the miseries of non-combatants and the like. Fair to both sides, though as a whole a representation of the Southern tragedy.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Vicar of Wakefield
Audio Book
Goldsmith, Oliver (1728-1774)
No figure in our literature is at once so simple and so impressive, so ideal and so human as the Vicar, and the acquaintance of the Primrose family once made, they and their misfortunes become a dear and imperishable memory.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Vintage fiction arranged by authors, names D-E-F
Sir Christopher; a Romance of a Maryland Manor in 1644
Goodwin, Maud W. (1856-1935)
Pioneer life, and a manorial grant to a Calvert. Ralph Ingle the famous pirate figures, and an account is given of the Catholic and Protestant settlers along the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
White Aprons; a Romance of Bacon’s Rebellion: Virginia 1676
Goodwin, Maud Wilder (1856-1935)
The title recalls the sobriquet bestowed on the rebels for their cowardly ruse in putting the wives of Governor Berkeley’s officers in front of the works until the fortifications were completed. Bacon represented the cause of popular liberty, and while his cause waned with his death, Berkeley was afterwards recalled by Charles II and popular government restored.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Desert Gold
Grey, Zane (1872-1939)
The scene is the border between Arizona and Sonora, and the action takes place in large part in the desert itself. The time is that of the recent fighting and outrages along the border between the United States and Mexico.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
The Short-Stop
Audio Book
Grey, Zane (1872-1939)
“A transcript from life on the diamond. The young hero tiring of his factory grind starts out to win fame and fortune as a professional ball player. His hard knocks at the start are followed by such success as clean sportsmanship, courage and honesty ought to win. The story is told by one intimately acquainted with the game and players and contains a helpful handling of the Sunday-game situation.”
– The Book Review Digest
Before Zane Grey became an immensely popular novelist and screen-writer, writing about the American West. He was a star baseball player for the University of Pennsylvania, and afterward a minor league ballplayer for several years.
Guinea Gold
Grimshaw, Beatrice (1870-1953)
An absorbing tale of love and gold-hunting in the vivid setting of New Guinea shores and forests.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
King Solomon’s Mines
Audio Book
Haggard, Sir Henry Rider (1856- 1925)
A highly-colored romance of adventure in the wilds of central Africa in quest of King Solomon’s Ophir.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Man without a Country
Audio Book
Hale, Edward Everett (1822-1909)
A fictitious memoir of an American officer who said he wished never to hear of the United States again, and for punishment had his wish fulfilled.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
Audio Book
Hardy, Thomas (1840-1928)
A story of innocence betrayed. Tess is the helpless victim of circumstances, but circumstances in her case are of society’s devising, not of nature’s. Every episode in the tragedy, even the beauty of the surroundings, adds to the dignity and pathos of the wronged woman.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Iola Leroy, or, Shadows Uplifted
Audio Book
Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins (1825-1911)
Frances Watkins was born in Baltimore to free African-American parents and was educated at the Academy for Negro Youth to age 13. She worked for a time as a domestic, taught school for two years in Ohio and Pennsylvania, then began a career as a traveling speaker on the abolitionist circuit. She helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad and wrote frequently for anti-slavery newspapers. She was a prolific writer and poet, and published several successful collections of poems as well as several novels. Iola Leroy appeared in 1892. During Reconstruction she was an activist for civil rights, women’s rights and educational opportunities for all, and headed several organizations created to achieve progress on these goals.
– summarized from the website “Poetry Foundation”
The Bomb
Harris, Frank (1855-1931)
1886. Vivid story of the labor riots at Chicago and the killing of the police, told by the perpetrator of the outrage. In diagnosing the motives that led to the event, Mr. Harris not only gives an interesting psychological study, but writes a kind of pamphlet on the cruel conditions of American industrialism, the brutality of the police, and other social grievances.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Vintage fiction arranged by authors, names I-J-K-L
The Luck of Roaring Camp and other Sketches
Audio Book
Harte, Bret (1839-1902)
These tales are a “unique record at first-hand of the strenuous, lawless times of the gold rush in the fifties.” The title story is the very famous one of the transforming influence of a baby born
in camp.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Blithedale Romance
Audio Book
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864)
Largely idealized reminiscences of the famous “Transcendental Picnic”, the communistic settlement at Brook Farm, West Roxbury, near Boston. Margaret Fuller is said to be the original of the brilliant and passionate Zenobia, and the contemplative Miles Coverdale stands for Hawthorne, who was one of the founders; with C. A. Dana, George Ripley, etc. In the main, a light and joyous tale, in spite of Zenobia’s tragic suicide, after which the book goes off on visionary excursions into clairvoyance, mysticism and the like.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
The Scarlet Letter
Audio Book
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864)
A classic of American literature. A story of Puritan New England, its stern morality, and the relentless workings of conscience in one who seeks to conceal guilt and evade punishment.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Bread-winners
Hay, John (1838-1905)
Novel of rather remarkable force. One of the first works of fiction in which the antagonism of capital and labor were discussed. The scene is in Ohio and the tragedy turns on the iron-workers’ strike. First published anonymously in 1883.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
Selected Stories from O. Henry
Henry, O. (Porter, William Sydney) ( 1862-1910)
The Secret Battle
Audio Book
Herbert, Sir Alan Patrick (1890-1971)
One of the most notable English novels of the war. The theme is a new one, the gradual and inevitable wearing down of a brave man’s nerve until he is shot as a coward. Shows that war relentlessly entails the survival of the fittest to endure filth and slaughtering, those who feel little and doubt never. A moving and convincing picture. The scene is chiefly Gallipoli.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
The Three Black Pennys
Hergesheimer, Joseph (1880-1954)
Tale of three men of successive generations of the ‘Penny’ family, in each of whom a Welsh strain reasserts itself and creates the family type of rebellious and restless individualism. Pictured against the background of the development of the steel industry in Pennsylvania.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay
Hewlett, Maurice (1861-1923)
Boldly imaginative study of life and character of Richard Coeur-de-Lion. While departing from strict accuracy in record of events, the story resuscitates the manners and emotions of the age of tournaments and crusades.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904
The Bay-path: a Tale of New England Colonial Life
Holland, Josiah Gilbert (1819-1881)
1638. A story of the early settlers in the Connecticut Valley, aiming at quiet portraiture of life and character rather than romance. A shrewd but obstinate man set down in a community of decorous and conventional people, and a foolish, excessively scrupulous minister are two characters who form points of interest.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Tempest and Sunshine
Audio Book
Holmes, Mary Jane
Mary Janes Holmes (1825-1907) was a prolific best-selling author who sold over two million books in her lifetime; second only to Harriet Beecher Stowe in the nineteenth century. Her novels examined domestic life and relationships in small-town and rural settings, and also dealt with slavery and the Civil War.
54-40 or Fight
Hough, Emerson (1857-1923)
1844-46. Has to do with the Oregon boundary disputes between the U.S. and Great Britain. President Tyler, John C. Calhoun and others are introduced. The title refers to the parallel, 54 degrees 40 minutes latitude.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
The Purchase Price, or, The Cause of Compromise
Hough, Emerson (1857-1923)
ca. 1855. The slavery question before the Civil War.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Rise of Silas Lapham
Audio Book
Howells, William Dean (1837-1920)
Probably the most popular of his novels. The story of a self-made American, his two daughters, and their contacts with Boston society. Howells excelled in the delineation of older men, and Silas Lapham is one of his most successful characters.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Green Mansions
Audio Book
Hudson, William Henry (1841-1922)
A strangely beautiful idyll of the tragic love of a young naturalist and a native girl in the forest of Guiana. Full of the spirit of place, of symbolism and of wonderful description.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Tom Brown’s School-days
Audio Book
Hughes, Thomas (1822-1896)
Written in 1856, describing Tom’s early days in the country and his life at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, it is the “great classic of English schoolboy life.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Audio Book
Hugo, Victor Marie (1802-1885)
A panorama of medieval life—religious, civic, popular, and criminal—drawn from broad knowledge and an amazing power of creating spectacular effect, forms the setting for a fantastic and grandiose drama of which the personages arc poetic sublimations of human virtues and passions. Quasimodo, the hunchback bellringer of the cathedral, faithful unto death, and Esmeralda, an incarnation of innocence and steadfastness, are the central figures.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Scarlet Shadow; a Story of the Great Colorado Conspiracy
Hurt, Walter
1905-07. Embodies the incidents of the labor war in Colorado, the assassination of Governor Stennenberg (1905) who had called out Federal troops, and the trial of Haywood (1907). Makes much capital out of the ingenious work of newspaper men; Mr. Hurt was on the spot during most of the events described.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)