I assume you’re referring to Safari on iOS. I was able to select all on that Project Gutenberg page with a little-known scrolling trick:
- Scroll to the bottom of the page. Yes, this part is a bit annoying but I was able to do that in 8 seconds with 25 full-screen flicks.
- Long-press near the bottom of the page to start text selection.
- Grab the bottom lollipop and drag it to the end of the page to select the last character.
- Grab the top lollipop and drag it around a little to select more text. Don’t release it, and hold it still.
- With a different finger, tap the status bar at the top of the screen. This is a shortcut for scrolling to the top of the page. Give it a couple seconds to finish scrolling. If you move the lollipop at all while it’s scrolling it will interrupt the scrolling, so keep that finger still until it’s done.
- Now that you’re near the top of the page, drag the lollipop to the very top of the page and release it. The copy option should appear.