myebooksbuy
My Books

The whole shelf

All free summaries — page 224

34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 224 of 714.

Cover of Birds and Man

Birds and Man

W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

A quiet observation of nature reveals a living world far richer, more perceptive, and deeply interwoven with human emotion than our usual hurried glances ever allow us to see.

Nature/Gardening/Animals7 min read
Cover of Byron: The Last Phase

Byron: The Last Phase

Richard Edgcumbe

A fiery, erratic genius undergoes a late-life metamorphosis, leaving behind European dissipation to lead a desperate war for liberty in Greece.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Dinosaurs, with Special Reference to the American Museum Collections

Dinosaurs, with Special Reference to the American Museum Collections

William Diller Matthew

Deep within ancient layers of earth and stone lies the forgotten blueprint of a lost world, where giant reptiles ruled vanished continents.

Science - Biology5 min read
Cover of Edgar Huntly

Edgar Huntly

Charles Brockden Brown

Driven by an obsessive need to uncover the truth behind a friend's mysterious murder, a young man wanders into the nocturnal wilderness of Pennsylvania, only to lose his grip on reality in a nightmare of sleepwalking, violence, and survival.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Farmers of Forty Centuries

Farmers of Forty Centuries

F. H. (Franklin Hiram) King

Sustainable earth-conquest demands learning how East Asian farmers feed vast populations on tiny plots without depleting soil fertility over thousands of years.

Environmental Issues6 min read
Cover of Flowers of Freethought (Second Series)

Flowers of Freethought (Second Series)

G. W. (George William) Foote

Stripping away centuries of pious decoration, a militant freethinker subjects religious dogma to the unrelenting cold light of historical fact and secular reason.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XI.—April, 1851—Vol. II

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XI.—April, 1851—Vol. II

Various

A vibrant snapshot of mid-nineteenth-century thought, culture, and narrative craft, blending commentary on great literary figures with reportage on industrial marvels, historical drama, serial fiction, and political news.

American Literature8 min read
Cover of Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Reading about chivalry until his mind fractures, an aging Spanish country gentleman arms himself with rusted iron, adopts the title Don Quixote, and rides across La Mancha to impose archaic knightly ideals upon a unchivalrous world.

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference5 min read
Cover of Motion pictures, 1974

Motion pictures, 1974

Library of Congress. Copyright Office

This is an exhaustive official ledger of American cinematic output, providing a rigid, bureaucratic snapshot of the moving image as it was registered for legal protection in 1974. It serves as a stark, objective inventory of the commercial, educational, and artistic media produced during a specific year of the…

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries/Reference6 min read
Cover of Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour

Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour

Robert Smith Surtees

An audacious sponger works his way through the English countryside, riding other men’s horses and eating other men’s dinners, in a world where everyone is trying to swindle everyone else.

British Literature9 min read
Cover of Myths and Folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars

Myths and Folk-tales of the Russians, Western Slavs, and Magyars

Jeremiah Curtin

To enter these Eastern European folk tales is to step into a landscape where the ordinary world dissolves, replaced by iron-clawed climbs, golden-maned steeds, and beasts that speak with the voices of men.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore6 min read
Cover of New Poems

New Poems

Francis Thompson

In the quiet, walled spaces of the soul, earthly love and divine hunger tangle until pain becomes the only true measure of grace.

Poetry6 min read
Cover of Opuscula: Essays chiefly Philological and Ethnographical

Opuscula: Essays chiefly Philological and Ethnographical

R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

Philological inquiry often seeks the hidden architecture of human history, tracing the migrations and kinships of distant peoples through the shifting patterns of their speech. This collection of essays serves as a rigorous, scholarly record of such investigations, bridging the gap between clinical observation and…

Archaeology & Anthropology6 min read
Cover of Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language

Preface to a Dictionary of the English Language

Samuel Johnson

An unsparing account of human ambition confronting the chaotic reality of living speech, this masterwork captures a solitary mind attempting to map, order, and preserve an entire national tongue.

British Literature7 min read
Cover of Pussy and Doggy Tales

Pussy and Doggy Tales

E. (Edith) Nesbit

A mother cat spins fables to quiet her restless kittens, while pampered house pets scheme, misbehave, and negotiate life alongside their human masters.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
Cover of Recollections of a Varied Life

Recollections of a Varied Life

George Cary Eggleston

Life in mid-nineteenth-century America moves across trackless prairies and bloody battlefields toward the bustling editorial rooms of New York. Personal memory weaves a nation’s rustic past into its modern literary awakening.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69

Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69

Edward Whymper

Scaling jagged, untamed peaks demands relentless physical grit, a keen eye for terrain, and an unflinching acceptance of deadly risk.

Adventure5 min read
Cover of Ships of the seven seas

Ships of the seven seas

Hawthorne Daniel

Across thousands of years of human ingenuity, the sea has yielded to muscle, canvas, and steam.

History - Other6 min read
Cover of Sonnets from the Crimea

Sonnets from the Crimea

Adam Mickiewicz

A vast steppe swallows the traveler, where grass falls like foam and only the stars offer a path toward home.

Poetry7 min read
Cover of The Boy Spy: A substantially true record of secret service during the war of the rebellion, a correct account of events witnessed by a soldier

The Boy Spy: A substantially true record of secret service during the war of the rebellion, a correct account of events witnessed by a soldier

Joseph Orton Kerbey

Drifting in a darkened rowboat across phosphorescent Southern waters, a teenager hazards everything to slip past enemy lines and deliver intelligence to an imperiled Union fleet.

Biographies10 min read
Cover of The Captain of the Wight: A Romance of Carisbrooke Castle in 1488

The Captain of the Wight: A Romance of Carisbrooke Castle in 1488

Frank Cowper

A high-spirited teenager leaves his ancestral home to serve a famous lord, plunging into a world of knightly tournaments, dark family secrets, and a doomed military expedition across the English Channel.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast

The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast

William Cowper Brann

A fiery Texas journalist picks up his pen to tear down hypocrisy, bigotry, and corruption across the late nineteenth-century American landscape.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of The Diary of a Freshman

The Diary of a Freshman

Charles Macomb Flandrau

An idealist leaves home for Cambridge, learning that navigating college requires balancing well-meaning parental advice with the realities of friendship, academic slip-ups, and social belonging.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Divine Office: A Study of the Roman Breviary

The Divine Office: A Study of the Roman Breviary

Edward J. Quigley

To pray well is a lifelong labor, requiring as much attention to history and form as to the movements of the heart.

History - Religious7 min read
Cover of The Great War in England in 1897

The Great War in England in 1897

William Le Queux

A hostile coalition launches a surprise invasion of Great Britain, tearing through neglected coastal defences and pushing an unprepared nation into a desperate, bloody fight for its survival.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of The Little Review, January-February 1916 (Vol. 2, No. 10)

The Little Review, January-February 1916 (Vol. 2, No. 10)

Various

Stripping away traditional artistic boundaries, this avant-garde journal captures the electric friction between rising modernists and the rigid cultural norms of early twentieth-century America.

Art6 min read
Cover of The mystery of Easter island: the story of an expedition

The mystery of Easter island: the story of an expedition

Katherine Routledge

Setting sail in a private yacht on the eve of the First World War, an intrepid couple embarks on a voyage to Easter Island to solve the enduring mystery of its giant stone sentinels.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of The Pirates of Ersatz

The Pirates of Ersatz

Murray Leinster

An ambitious young electronic engineer uses cleverness, stolen tech, and opportunistic piracy to outwit feudal lords and galactic authorities.

Humour5 min read
Cover of The Radio Amateur's Hand Book: A Complete, Authentic and Informative Work on Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony

The Radio Amateur's Hand Book: A Complete, Authentic and Informative Work on Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony

A. Frederick (Archie Frederick) Collins

A clear, practical guide to early twentieth-century wireless technology, teaching the home hobbyist how to build, wire, tune, and operate radio receiving and transmitting equipment from scratch.

Engineering & Technology5 min read
Cover of The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1

The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation. Volume 1

Charles Roger

From wilderness trading post to a fractious, bustling colony on the brink of self-rule, this sweeping nineteenth-century narrative chronicles the improbable rise of British North America.

History - American7 min read
Cover of The Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game

Stewart Edward White

A young man goes west to build his fortune in timber, only to find that the law, the forests, and the rules of success are changing beneath his feet.

American Literature8 min read
Cover of The Secret of a Happy Home (1896)

The Secret of a Happy Home (1896)

Marion Harland

A gentle, practical manual for daily living, this 1896 guidebook argues that a peaceful household is built not on great fortunes or grand gestures, but on unselfishness, mutual respect, and quiet daily patience.

How To ...6 min read
Cover of The Settler

The Settler

Herman Whitaker

Over a vast, sweep-washed frontier, a rugged pioneer and an educated young woman navigate the quiet fractures of a hasty marriage, matched against the brutal forces of nature and a changing Canadian prairie.

Novels7 min read
Cover of The Tiger of Mysore: A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib

The Tiger of Mysore: A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib

G. A. (George Alfred) Henty

To a young Englishman in the late eighteenth century, India is an expanse of rumor and peril, where a father can vanish into thin air and a hostile tyrant rules from the fortress of Seringapatam.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The War History of the 4th Battalion, the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1914-1919

The War History of the 4th Battalion, the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), 1914-1919

F. Clive Grimwade

A citizen army of London clerks and tradesmen takes to the mud of the Western Front, writing its history in stubborn resistance and quiet endurance.

History - British9 min read
Cover of The Waterloo Campaign, 1815

The Waterloo Campaign, 1815

William Siborne

Four days in June 1815 decided the fate of Europe, ending decades of imperial ambition and establishing a forty-year peace through blood, mud, and unprecedented military precision.

History - European10 min read
Cover of Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos (Vol. 2 of 2): During the Years 1858, 1859, and 1860

Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos (Vol. 2 of 2): During the Years 1858, 1859, and 1860

Henri Mouhot

A mid-nineteenth-century European explorer braves dense jungles, lethal fevers, and unpredictable mountain passes to chart the ancient temples, hidden waterways, and interior kingdoms of Southeast Asia.

Adventure5 min read
Cover of A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth

A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth

Unknown

A primary, firsthand record of the Plymouth Plantation’s early months, this journal captures the raw struggle, diplomacy, and survival of the small group that established a new life on the Massachusetts coast.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of A Student's History of England, v. 2: 1509-1689: From the Earliest Times to the Death of King Edward VII

A Student's History of England, v. 2: 1509-1689: From the Earliest Times to the Death of King Edward VII

Samuel Rawson Gardiner

This historical account navigates the volatile century and a half that transformed the English monarchy from a personal, absolute rule into a constitutional power shaped by Parliament and the spirit of the Renascence.

History - British6 min read
Cover of A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228

A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola: Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886-1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 3-228

Cosmos Mindeleff

An architectural tradition born of sandstone, mud, and defensive necessity takes root upon the desolate mesas of the American Southwest.

Archaeology & Anthropology5 min read
Cover of A Study of Shakespeare

A Study of Shakespeare

Algernon Charles Swinburne

An ocean cannot be measured with a yardstick, and the depth of poetic genius yields only to the human ear.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of A Thin Ghost and Others

A Thin Ghost and Others

M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James

Quiet English towns and scholarly rectories harbor malevolent, lingering entities that stir when ancient tombs are unsealed, curio cabinets searched, or old fabrics unrolled.

British Literature6 min read
Cover of Antonina

Antonina

Wilkie Collins

An ancient empire crumbles from within as barbarian hordes gather at its gates, forcing a pious young woman and a decadent senator to face the terrifying abyss of human nature.

Historical Novels8 min read
Cover of Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D

Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D

G. R. S. (George Robert Stow) Mead

An examination of the first-century philosopher reveals a world rich in ascetic discipline, temple reform, and mysterious spiritual authority.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Atta Troll

Atta Troll

Heinrich Heine

An escaped dancing bear preaches radical egalitarianism to his cubs, only to be hunted through the Pyrenees by an exiled poet and a half-dead assassin.

German Literature6 min read
Cover of Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt

Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt

Franz Liszt

An intense artistic rescue mission unfolds in intimate letters between a exile in despair and a virtuoso willing to move mountains to bring revolutionary music to the world.

Essays, Letters & Speeches5 min read
Cover of Cricket

Cricket

A. G. (Allan Gibson) Steel

Cricket is a foundational technical manual and historical survey of the sport, offering a comprehensive look at the mechanics of batting, bowling, and field placement as understood by late-Victorian experts. It serves as both a practical guide for the aspiring player and a rich, anecdotal chronicle of the game’s…

History - Other6 min read
Cover of Dialogues in French and English

Dialogues in French and English

William Caxton

Every phrase needed to navigate a medieval marketplace, order a meal, or settle an account sits arranged here in twin columns of Middle English and Early Modern French.

Language & Communication6 min read
Advertisement