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Below are out-of-copyright 19th century books which can be read on smartphone or tablet, as well as desktop.
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Memories of a Militant
by Annie Kenney
1924
Annie Kenney was a militant suffragette in the UK. She held high office in the WSPU and was the only officer from a working-class background.
Elinor’s College Career
by Julia Schwarz
1906
Julia Schwarz attended Vassar College in the 1890s. In this idealised account, she describes student life at a time when education for women was still viewed with suspicion and mistrust.
Mord Em’ly
by William Pett Ridge
1898
A working-class girl in Victorian London starts as a member of a girl-gang, is sent to reform school, and ultimately makes good.
Loom and Spindle
by Harriet Hanson Robinson
1898
The amazing story of how the earliest textile factory girls created a virtual college for themselves, many of whom would go on to become authors and activists.
Campaigns of Curiosity
by Elizabeth L. Banks
1894
An American journalist, recently arrived in London, desperate to sell copy, goes undercover to reveal the conditions of working-class women.
A New England Girlhood
by Lucy Larcom
1889
Lucy Larcom was a Lowell mill girl who went on to become a teacher and author.
The European Slave Trade in English Girls
Alfred S. Dyer
1880
British girls were routinely offered jobs or marriage proposals, sometimes sold by their own parents, only to find themselves enslaved in Continental brothels.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll
1865
A girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures.
Titcomb’s Letters to Young People, Single and Married
by Josiah Gilbert Holland
1858
An old man tells young people how to live their best Victorian lives.
I write historical fiction about contemporary society.
