Collections and Recollections

George Russell tells a dinner party that his first clear memory is the burning of Covent Garden Theatre in 1856—and watches his listeners mistake it for a fire nearly half a century earlier. Their error, he admits, is flattering: it makes him seem older than he is.

In these late-Victorian recollections, London parlours, schools, and dinner tables become meeting places with an almost unimaginable past. Russell follows the living links between generations: an old lady’s courtly words, Byron’s Harrow days, and a highwayman’s encounter retold by the daughter of the man he held up. With dry wit and an eye for the telling detail, he asks what dates alone cannot preserve: how did history feel to those who lived close enough to touch it?

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.