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 T, U & V
The Home and the World
Tagore, Rabindranath (1861-1941)
In the story of a Rajah educated in the English way, his young wife whom he has indoctrinated with his views, and an old fellow student of the Rajah’s who has become a leader of the fervent nationalists, the reader gets a poetic vision of the forces which are changing India.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
The Magnificent Ambersons
Audio Book
Tarkington, Booth (1869-1949)
The magnificent Ambersons run the gamut of sudden wealth and gradual deterioration characteristic of so many Middle West families that rose to great local importance in the seventies. The young son has to bear the burden of consequences. Interesting as a social picture of the time.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Vanity Fair, a Novel without a Hero
Audio Book
Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811-1863)
A satiric picture of society presented in a combination of narrative and commentary. It is called a novel without a hero, but has two heroines, the clever scheming Becky Sharp and sweet, appealing, pathetic Amelia.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
The Green Mountain Boys; a Historical Tale of the Early Settlement of Vermont
Thompson, Daniel Pierce (1795-1868)
Embodying hero-tales of Vermont, incidents of the quarrels between Vermont and New York, and stirring episodes like the capture of Ticonderoga, all of them steeped in local colour.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Thousand and One Nights; or, the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments
Audio Book 1 Audio Book 2 Audio Book 3 Audio Book 4
Audio Book 5 Audio Book 6 Audio Book 7
The one book in Arabian literature which has cosmopolitan interest. A collection of entertaining tales of unknown origin: Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and many others. The stories are fantastic, but the portraiture of Oriental life is the most graphic and authentic that we have.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
Called to the Field; a Story of Virginia in the Civil War
Thruston, Lucy Meacham (1862- )
1861-65. Experiences of a young Virginian wife left at home with a handful of negro servants, whilst husband and father are with the Confederates. Very typical and realistic.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Mistress Brent; a Story of Lord Baltimore’s Colony in 1638
Thruston, Lucy Meacham (1862-1938)
Story of the most remarkable woman in the early history of Maryland.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Vintage fiction arranged by authors, names S
War and Peace
Tolstoi, Lev Nikolaevich (1828-1910)
A novel tremendous in its scope dealing with the conflict between Russia and France under Napoleon. War is treated not as a spectacle, but as a symbol of great social forces.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Warden
Audio Book
Trollope, Anthony (1815-1882)
First in “The chronicles of Barsetshire.” The first of a series of novels dealing with the cathedral town of Barchester, the same characters reappearing throughout the series. It is a study of a fine, sensitive old cleric. Followed by Barchester towers (second in the series) which centers around the appointment of a new bishop.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Button’s Inn
Tourgee, Albion Winegar (1838-1905)
ca. 1830. A good account of the rise of Mormonism, with a careful portrait of the Prophet, Joseph Smith. Scene, the Chatauqua Hills in western New York.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
A Place in the World
Turner, John Hastings (1892-1956)
Iris, a Russian butterfly with brains, whose object in life is shocking folks, and Cumbers, business man and church warden of a narrow English village, whose object in life is not to be shocked, are the antagonists in this witty comedy of Suburbia versus Bohemia. The outstanding character is the lovable vicar, whose great heart and rare understanding of human nature, including Iris’s, finally reforms that most delightfully near-wicked young person.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
World’s best literature in audio
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Audio Book
Twain, Mark (pseud.) Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (1835-1910)
An epic of boyhood. Huck Finn, with his dog and his friend, Negro Jim, drifts down the Mississippi into innumerable adventures. The mature mind usually prefers it to Tom Sawyer.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Audio Book
Twain, Mark (pseud.) Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (1835-1910))
A story of boy life at the time of the author’s youth. Full of mischief and fun, to a certain extent autobiographical, it has become the classic of American boyhood. In both of these tales, enjoyed by boys, there are overtones meant for the adult ear.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Audio Book
Twain, Mark (pseud.) Clemens, Samuel Langhorne (1835-1910)
The conceit of a typical Yankee of the nineteenth century dropped down into Arthur’s England gave the author play for all his humor and satire and his fierce crusading . zeal. Even the movies, which modernized it to the extent of a Ford car, could not spoil its spirit.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Scarlet Tanager
Tyson, John Aubrey (1870-1930)
An exceedingly clever secret service tale. The intricate plot laid in the Washington, D. C. of 1930, when malicious and destructive forces secretly attempt to undermine not only our government, but civilization itself.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
Vintage fiction arranged by authors, names W-X-Y-Z
John Charity
Vachell, Horace Annesley (1861-1955)
1837-8. Romance of adventure in Alta California in the ‘thirties. An English gentleman fights under Jean Bautista Alvarado against the Mexican government, and is present at the battles of San Buonaventura and Las Flores.
— Baker, E. A., A Guide to Historical Fiction (1914)
Score by Innings
Van Loan, Charles Emmett (1876-1919)
Lively and convincing. A deal of baseball vernacular, but not enough to make them incomprehensible to the outsider.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas
Audio Book
Verne, Jules (1828-1905)
The story of Captain Nemo and his ingenious electric submarine boat. Much scientific information is worked into this, as in all of Verne’s stories.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
Around the World in 80 Days
Audio Book
Verne, Jules (1828-1905)
An English gentleman undertakes to carry out this project for a wager, but in addition to physical difficulties his enemy puts every sort of impediment and danger in his way, so that from beginning to end he runs the gantlet of incessant peril, though he is finally successful.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
The Prestons
Vorse, Mary Heaton (1874-1966)
Amusing and pathetic episodes told in the first person by the mother of three normal young people who have reached the age of feeling that they know everything better than their elders. Pictures a typical middle class American family.
— Bacon, Corinne, compiler, Standard Catalog: Fiction Section (1923)