Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects

Alexander the Great was born on April 6; on that same date he defeated Darius, won a great victory at sea—and died. John Aubrey finds dates that seem less like marks on a calendar than appointments with fate.

Writing in seventeenth-century England, Aubrey gathers historical incidents and personal recollections around the old belief that certain days bring fortune or disaster. He recalls an uncle who foresaw that he would die on his birthday, then turns to his own: November 3, marked by deaths, calamities, and a loss to Aubrey’s family estate. His voice moves between learned citation and intimate unease, weighing coincidence against the possibility of a hidden pattern. When the same date keeps returning to history—and to one man’s life—can it still be dismissed as chance?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.