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All free summaries — page 274
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 274 of 714.
Peeps at Heraldry
Phoebe Allen
A vibrant entry point into the historical visual language of shields, crests, and noble lineages, this volume transforms complex medieval heraldry into an accessible, captivating study.
Polyeucte
Pierre Corneille
A newly converted Christian in Roman Armenia chooses public martyrdom over safety, tearing apart a family trapped between imperial duty, religious zeal, and past desire.
Press Cuttings
Bernard Shaw
Set in a panicked London war office, this satire pitilessly exposes the absurdities of statecraft, military bluster, and gender politics when suffragette agitation threatens to upend the establishment.
Quintus Claudius: A Romance of Imperial Rome. Volume 2
Ernst Eckstein
The Roman Empire trembles as a young aristocrat risks everything to protect the persecuted, caught between a tyrannical Emperor and the quiet, dangerous rise of a new faith.
Salted with Fire
George MacDonald
A proud young theological student, consumed by intellectual vanity and social ambition, abandons the gentle woman he seduced, only to be broken and remade through public disgrace, harrowing guilt, and unexpected grace.
Selected papers on hysteria and other psychoneuroses
Sigmund Freud
A young physician presses his hands against a patient’s forehead, urging forgotten scenes to surface, and uncovers a hidden architecture of repressions, forbidden desires, and buried memories shaping human distress.
Six to Sixteen: A Story for Girls
Juliana Horatia Ewing
A quiet girl comes of age across colonial India and rural England, finding strength not in high drama, but in artistic curiosity, quiet observation, and deep friendship.
Ski-runs in the High Alps
F. F. (François Frédéric) Roget
A father’s purchase of a toy pair of skis for his seven-year-old daughter opens the door to high-altitude winter exploration across the majestic Swiss Alps.
Studies in Contemporary Biography
Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount
Intimate personal acquaintance reveals the mind and character behind the public deeds of Victorian England's most influential figures.
Summer Provinces by the Sea: A description of the Vacation Resources of Eastern Quebec and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, in the territory served by the Canadian Government Railways
Intercolonial Railway (Canada)
Swept by Atlantic winds and framed by historic rivers, eastern Canada’s coastal territories unfold as an interconnected landscape of rugged wilderness, quiet seaside hamlets, and storied colonial cities, inviting travelers into a land shaped by deep waters and ancient forests.
Tales from the Works of G. A. Henty
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
In a single volume, a master of historic high adventure tests human character across high seas, roaring mine shafts, besieged fortresses, and dark, flood-swept valleys.
The Americans in the South Seas: 1901
Louis Becke
An enterprising new republic sends its sailors into uncharted waters, upending British colonial dominance through sheer grit and maritime skill.
The Confessions of a Poacher
Watson, John, F.L.S.
A lifetime spent treading silently through dark woods leaves a man with a rare, detailed intimacy with the natural world.
The Constitution of the United States: A Brief Study of the Genesis, Formulation and Political Philosophy of the Constitution
James M. (James Montgomery) Beck
A steady, unyielding belief in supreme law can rescue a fragile republic from its own worst impulses.
The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems
Hanford Lennox Gordon
Across sweeping verses of Dakota legends and Civil War battlefields, this Victorian collection yields a surprisingly raw, rhythmic view of nineteenth-century American conflict and myth.
The house on the cliff
Franklin W. Dixon
High above the crashing surf of Barmet Bay, a sinister, abandoned house hides a treacherous secret beneath its floorboards.
The House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Ordinary lives flicker and fracture across the vast Russian landscape, where brief moments of quiet illumination collide with the unyielding friction of social isolation.
The Hunters' Feast: Conversations Around the Camp Fire
Mayne Reid
A group of gentlemen hunters and seasoned backwoods guides set out into the American wilderness, sharing dramatic true tales of survival around the campfire as they trek across the plains.
The Minister's Charge
William Dean Howells
A well-meaning rural minister impulsively praises an uneducated farm boy's clumsy poetry, unintentionally launching the earnest young man into a bewildering apprenticeship through the harsh social strata of late nineteenth-century Boston.
The River Motor Boat Boys on the Rio Grande: In Defense of the Rambler
Harry Gordon
Four teenage boys set out down the Rio Grande in an engineered motorboat and find themselves swept into a swift wilderness of border bandits, wild animals, and hidden counterfeiting rings.
The Royal Life Guard
Alexandre Dumas
In 1791, as the ideals of the French Revolution clash with the ancient prerogatives of the Crown, a monarch’s desperate flight across a fractured countryside triggers a catastrophic chain of personal and political betrayals.
The Scouring of the White Horse
Thomas Hughes
A London clerk escapes to the Berkshire countryside, where ancient Saxon history and a raucous village festival collide to change his view of traditional English life.
The Story of Hiawatha, Adapted from Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A heroic leader harnesses supernatural gifts to unite his people, conquer legendary monsters, and guide his nation through an era of profound transformation.
The Vagrancy Problem.: The Case for Measures of Restraint for Tramps, Loafers, and Unemployables: With a Study of Continental Detention Colonies and Labour Houses
William Harbutt Dawson
A rigorous Edwardian plea to replace casual workhouse charity with compulsory detention colonies, transforming the persistent vagrant into an industrious citizen.
The Vision of Sir Launfal: And Other Poems by James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
A knight abandons his hollow quest for a relic to find the divine in the service of the poor, while a collection of verse explores the intersection of nature, memory, and the moral demands of citizenship.
The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy"
John MacGregor
A solo sailor guides his tiny four-ton yawl through stormy channels, bustling ports, and river locks, discovering that solitary adventure demands both mechanical resourcefulness and a deep, quiet self-reliance.
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 07: Hale to Farrar
Unknown
A broad spectrum of nineteenth-century pulpit eloquence explores how eternal principles engage with practical life, human suffering, and modern progress.
Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon
Victor Appleton
An ambitious teenager sets out to safeguard the Panama Canal by engineering an unprecedented long-range weapon, contending with saboteurs, volatile explosives, and the unpredictable physics of extreme artillery.
Vermont: A Study of Independence
Rowland Evans Robinson
Hemmed in by competing colonial claims and rugged forests, a fierce mountain populace carved out an independent republic before earning its place as a cornerstone of the American Union.
Vitality Supreme
Bernarr Macfadden
Unlocking genuine bodily power requires no secret remedies, only an aggressive commitment to natural physical discipline. True personal force flows directly from robust internal health and targeted daily habits.
With the French Flying Corps
Carroll Dana Winslow
A young American enters the grueling world of early military aviation, trading civilian safety for the demanding, lethal skies of First World War France.
1914, and Other Poems
Rupert Brooke
Youth, love, and national devotion collide with mortality in a collection that moves from quiet homesickness and tropical beauty to the heroic, tragic heights of wartime sacrifice.
A Ball Player's Career: Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson
Adrian C. (Adrian Constantine) Anson
An early star recounts his frontier upbringing, his rise to fame on the diamond, and the global travels that defined the origins of professional baseball.
A Satire Anthology
Unknown
A razor-sharp edge cuts through centuries of pretension, exposing the timeless absurdities of human vanity, greed, and cultural folly.
A Schoolmaster's Diary: Being Extracts from the Journal of Patrick Traherne, M.A., Sometime Assistant Master at Radchester and Marlton
Patrick Traherne
A idealist schoolmaster records his daily battles against the dry rigidity of British boarding schools, tracking his evolution from an eager young teacher to a devoted husband and father.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 11 to 15
Mark Twain
A boy and a runaway slave drift down the Mississippi River on a raft, seeking freedom while dodging trackers, treacherous wrecks, and the shifting dangers of the night.
An Account of Two Voyages to New-England, Made During the Years 1638, 1663
Josselyn, John, active 1630-1675
Part traveler’s journal, part herbal guide, and part colonial history, this seventeenth-century chronicle captures a world in motion with remarkable observational detail and a sharp, idiosyncratic voice.
Aristotle's works:: Containing the Master-piece, Directions for Midwives, and Counsel and Advice to Child-bearing Women with Various Useful Remedies
pseud. Aristotle
Long before modern gynecology, generations of readers sought answers to the mysteries of human reproduction and bodily health in a single, deeply practical handguide.
Benign Stupors: A Study of a New Manic-Depressive Reaction Type
August Hoch
A psychiatric pioneer examines a mysterious state of total human withdrawal, revealing how profound mental silence is not mere decay, but a temporary psychological retreat.
Captain Kyd
J. H. (Joseph Holt) Ingraham
A proud Irish noble, stripped of his true identity by a dark trade made at his birth, forsakes his honor for a life of piracy on the high seas.
Constantinople old and new
H. G. (Harrison Griswold) Dwight
An intimate, wide-angle portrait of a imperial city on the cusp of modern collapse captures the daily rhythm, architectural majesty, and human tragedy of an empire in transition.
Danny's Own Story
Don Marquis
Abandonment, wanderlust, and small-town schemes shape a boy’s journey across the American landscape as he tries to carve out a name for himself.
Edmund Dulac's Picture-Book for the French Red Cross
Edmund Dulac
A treasure chest of international lore unfolds through dazzling tales, tragic romances, and ancient fables.
Essays in Little
Andrew Lang
Delight in the lively company of a veteran man of letters as he roams through his favorite books, champions forgotten poets, and defends the enduring magic of a well-told tale.
Greenacre Girls
Izola L. (Izola Louise) Forrester
An anxious urban family finds unexpected sanctuary, resilience, and quiet joy when forced to exchange luxury for a run-down countryside farm.
Hammer and Anvil: A Novel
Friedrich Spielhagen
Two generations clash as a headstrong youth journeys from aristocratic smuggling dens and prison walls to master the roaring iron foundries of industrial Germany.
Harry's Ladder to Learning
Anonymous
Gentle farmyard glimpses, beloved nursery rhymes, and outdoor walks weave together in a simple Victorian primer designed to guide young minds into literacy through familiar sights, seasonal shifts, and traditional verse.
Indiscreet Letters From Peking: Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, from Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900—The Year of Great Tribulation
Unknown
The Boxer Rebellion transforms a bustling, ancient capital into a claustrophobic cage, where diplomats and soldiers trade their veneer of civilization for the raw, desperate machinery of survival.