Every Boy's Book

Hop-scotch to hare-and-hounds, conjuring to chemistry, rabbits to rowing — the complete Victorian repertoire of things for a boy to do, set down with rules and diagrams.

About the Book

1881Published
Edmund Routledge (ed.)Author
796Games & Pastimes
831Pages on this site

Every Boy’s Book was the great Victorian omnibus of things to do, running from playground games needing nothing at all, through athletic sports, scientific pursuits and the keeping of pets, to a miscellany of conjuring, fireworks and indoor amusements.

It is a period document as much as a games manual: what a nineteenth-century childhood was expected to contain.

This digital edition presents the complete keyed text, one pastime to a page.

This site reproduces the complete text of the original 1881 edition, digitized page by page from the original printing. The book is in the public domain.

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of Every Boy's Book (1881) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.