The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 246
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 246 of 714.
The Hoosier Schoolmaster: A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana
Edward Eggleston
A young schoolmaster arrives in a rugged nineteenth-century Indiana settlement, where he must win over a hostile backwoods community and clear his name after being framed for a local robbery.
The Mysteries of London, v. 2/4
George W. M. (George William MacArthur) Reynolds
A sprawling, high-octane Victorian melodrama cuts between the gleaming drawing rooms of Mayfair and the filthy, lightless cellars of London's underworld, pitting total corruption against uncompromising virtue.
The Polar World: A popular description of man and nature in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the globe
G. (Georg) Hartwig
A sweeping survey of polar geography and human endurance, G. Hartwig’s work charts the icy extremes of both ends of the earth. It illuminates how animal life, indigenous cultures, and heroic explorers adapt to the world’s most forbidding realms.
A Journal from Japan: A Daily Record of Life as Seen by a Scientist
Marie Carmichael Stopes
A single-minded British paleobotanist charges through Edwardian Japan with microscope, hammer, and bicycle, finding as much wonder in the microscopic cells of ancient plants as in the vanishing traditions of a rapidly modernizing nation.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare
When young lovers escape rigorous human laws by fleeing into an enchanted forest, they discover that nature and magic possess their own volatile, unpredictable rules.
A Popular History of Ireland
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
A bitter, brilliant account of a nation systematically dismantled, Thomas D'Arcy McGee’s history charts how centuries of confiscation, betrayal, and unyielding resistance forged modern Ireland from the ashes of its ancient principalities.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930
Various
A pulp magazine blends melodrama and raw imagination, taking readers from the abyss of the ocean to the depths of time.
Beyond the City
Arthur Conan Doyle
Three new households settle into a suburban cul-de-sac, where feminist iconoclasm, quiet middle-class domesticity, and financial peril collide in Arthur Conan Doyle’s spirited comedy of Victorian manners and neighborhood ties.
Carolina Lee
Lilian Bell
A proud young heiress loses her family fortune, her mobility, and her faith in God, only to rebuild all three through an unshakeable conversion to Christian Science and a return to her ancestral Southern soil.
Church and State as Seen in the Formation of Christendom
T. W. (Thomas William) Allies
A spiritual authority born in obscurity faces the absolute power of the Roman Empire, transforming the fundamental relationship between human conscience and civil government.
Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady
Samuel Richardson
Clarissa Harlowe stands in the balance between her family’s ruthless social ambition and a manipulative libertine’s dark schemes. Her story becomes a desperate struggle to preserve her personal integrity against a world intent on breaking her.
Deep Waters
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
Scheming dockworkers, scheming wives, and cunning old tars maneuver through the lower-class drawing rooms and muddy Thames wharves of Edwardian England, turning every domestic spat, unpaid bar tab, and stray piece of property into a battle of wits.
Five Mice in a Mouse-trap, by the Man in the Moon
Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
A ethereal narrator watches over five rambunctious children, recording their daily mishaps, imaginative games, and magical midnight journeys across the globe.
Guilds in the Middle Ages
Georges François Renard
Bound to local markets, medieval guilds once safeguarded craft quality, organized labor, and protected members, yet internal corruption and expanding global trade ultimately exposed their rigidities, bringing about their total demise and setting the stage for modern industrial conflict.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. No 1, June 1850
Various
Nineteenth-century print culture comes alive in a wide-ranging, ambitious collection designed to educate, move, and entertain a rapidly growing reading public.
Hunting Dogs: Describes in a Practical Manner the Training, Handling, Treatment, Breeds, Etc., Best Adapted for Night Hunting as Well as Gun Dogs for Daylight Sport
Oliver Hartley
A dog trained for night work must navigate pitch-black swamps, tangled thickets, and cold water while tracking elusive game. This practical manual captures the gritty reality of field sport, revealing how patient training, proper care, and hard-earned woodsman’s logic turn a raw hound into a reliable hunting partner.
If Winter Comes
A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth) Hutchinson
A gentle, reflective man who tries to understand everyone’s point of view finds his tolerance turned against him when personal scandal and wartime hysteria converge.
Intarsia and Marquetry
F. Hamilton (Frederick Hamilton) Jackson
Precision in woodcraft demands both an eye for geometry and a patience for raw materials. This survey maps the quiet, intricate evolution of wood inlay from ancient sarcophagi to modern workshops.
John Ermine of the Yellowstone
Frederic Remington
A white boy raised as a Crow warrior enters the nineteenth-century American military world, only to find that neither frontier culture can fully bridge his divided identity.
Josephine: Makers of History
John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
From a quiet childhood on a Caribbean island to the heights of European royalty, Josephine’s life was shaped by political upheaval and personal sacrifice. Her story captures the tragic vulnerability of a woman caught in the gears of dynamic history.
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Robert Malthus, 1810-1823
David Ricardo
A clash of brilliant minds transforms personal letters into a masterclass on how economic theory shapes the real world.
Library Cataloguing
John Henry Quinn
Sorting collections of books into orderly, accessible records demands absolute clarity, robust principles, and rigorous consistency. John Henry Quinn offers a practical, clear-headed guide to the mechanics, history, and judgment required to construct effective library catalogues.
Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley
A fiercely independent man of science battles Victorian dogma, reshapes public education, and helps establish the modern worldview through sheer intellectual force and relentless public service.
Lonesome Town
E. S. (Ethel Smith) Dorrance
A lone Montana cowboy rides into Manhattan to settle a score with Wall Street financial shearers, only to find himself entangled in a high-society mystery of stolen heirlooms, family betrayals, and hidden treasure in Central Park.
My Wife and I
Harriet Beecher Stowe
A young journalist navigates love, career, and radical social change in Gilded Age New York.
Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands
Charles Nordhoff
A mid-nineteenth-century traveler explores the western edge of the American continent and the Kingdom of Hawaii, recording with practical curiosity how people alter landscapes, build industries, and live together.
Ophiolatreia: An Account of the Rites and Mysteries Connected with the Origin, Rise, and Development of Serpent Worship in Various Parts of the World
Edward Sellon
Before the advent of modern historical analysis, ancient cultures across every inhabited continent reached a common, striking impulse: they elevated the serpent into a sacred emblem of creation and vital power.
Original Short Stories
Guy de Maupassant
An old officer insists that every French soldier is fueled by love; an ancient mother exacts a terrible revenge; a philosopher’s corpse frightens his mourners. Human folly, cruelty, and absurdity drive this sharp collection.
Peace on Earth, Good-will to Dogs
Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
A festive, warm-hearted Christmas tale where an irrepressible young woman, a house full of energetic dogs, and a lonely stranger turn holiday traditions upside down.
Piano Tuning: A Simple and Accurate Method for Amateurs
J. Cree (Jerry Cree) Fischer
A precision manual for the working mechanic, this nineteenth-century guide demystifies the intricate mechanical inner workings, acoustic physics, and delicate practical adjustments required to bring house pianos and reed organs into perfect mathematical pitch.
Puck of Pook's Hill
Rudyard Kipling
A ancient land whispers its memories when two Sussex children accidentally summon the oldest magic in Britain.
Rabbi and Priest: A Story
Milton Goldsmith
Two Jewish boys, torn from their family in imperial Russia, navigate divergent paths through persecution, state violence, and the enduring pull of faith.
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
George MacDonald
A boy’s journey toward maturity unfolds in the harsh, beautiful landscape of a Scottish parish, where childhood joys and sorrows serve as the crucible for his developing soul.
Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880: A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science
Various
This single issue captures late-nineteenth-century industrial ambition, where mechanical invention, natural philosophy, and commercial enterprise collide on the eve of a new year.
Tacitus and Bracciolini. The Annals Forged in the XVth Century
John Wilson Ross
The survival of ancient texts often rests on a single manuscript, leaving history vulnerable to brilliant deception.
The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1
Various
A scholarly expedition through ancient ruins and classical texts yields a breathtaking view of human history, where every unearthed potsherd and carved inscription reshapes our understanding of the past.
The Etiquette of To-day
Edith B. (Edith Bertha) Ordway
Good taste relies on consideration, self-control, and an intelligent grasp of social customs rather than rigid adherence to arbitrary rules.
The Expositor's Bible: The Pastoral Epistles
Alfred Plummer
A detailed theological study examines how ancient Pastoral Epistles tackle heretical movements, establish Church leadership standards, and offer practical guidance for Christian living amid social friction and Roman rule.
The Great Return
Arthur Machen
A quiet Welsh coastal town is suddenly transformed when a forgotten medieval legend manifests as a tangible, holy reality, bringing unexpected physical healing and profound spiritual peace to its divided community.
The Lady's Album of Fancy Work for 1850: Consisting of Novel, Elegant, and Useful Designs in Knitting, Netting, Crochet, Braiding, and Embroidery, with Clear and Explicit Directions for Working the Patterns
Unknown
A comprehensive guide to mid-nineteenth-century ornamental needlework, blending historical context with practical directions for home crafters.
The Odes of Anacreon
Thomas Moore
To surrender to a bowl of wine, a crown of roses, and the sudden, sweet ambush of love is to discover that joy outlives every empire.
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
James Wilson Hyde
Beneath the mundane surface of routine correspondence lies a dramatic history of perilous highways, cunning frauds, lost treasures, and the quiet dedication of human beings driving a vast national network.
The secret of the island
Jules Verne
A group of American castaways builds a thriving industrial sanctuary on an uncharted Pacific island, only to discover their survival is secretly orchestrated by a legendary recluse.
The Starling: A Scottish Story
Norman Macleod
A small Scottish village turns upside down when an old soldier's pet bird speaks a few innocent phrases on a Sunday morning, setting a village elder, a rigid minister, and a town outcast on a collision course over faith and mercy.
Thoughts for the Quiet Hour
Unknown
A daily refuge from the noise of the world awaits inside a spiritual practice built on quiet reflection.
Curiosities of Human Nature
Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich
An extraordinary collection of real lives shows that human potential escapes every attempt to standardise intelligence, morality, physical form, or social position.
Chats on Old Sheffield Plate
Arthur Hayden
Old Sheffield Plate represents a remarkable century of English artistry, where craftsmen mastered the delicate fusion of silver and copper to create elegant, affordable treasures that once graced the tables of the discerning.
Hero Tales from History
Smith Burnham
Heroes are the mirrors in which we see our own potential for courage, justice, and resolve. By telling the stories of great figures from ancient times to modern America, these tales transform abstract history into a living, breathing guide for conduct.