"Enquire Within Upon Everything" by Robert Kemp Philp is a how-to book first published in 1856. This domestic encyclopedia offered Victorian households guidance on everything from etiquette and parlour games to cake recipes and first aid. Organized chaotically and requiring an index to navigate, it became wildly popular, selling over 1.5 million copies through numerous updated editions. The book's promise of accessible, comprehensive knowledge later inspired Tim Berners-Lee to name his precursor to the World Wide Web after this Victorian guide. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.