The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 275
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 275 of 714.
John Lothrop Motley, A Memoir
Oliver Wendell Holmes
A brilliant, high-strung young American sets out to write the epic histories of European liberty, only to find himself entangled in the ruthless machinery of his own nation's politics.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 88, April, 1875
Various
An eclectic mid-nineteenth-century library between two covers, this volume captures a rapidly expanding world through travelogues, theological debates, serialized drama, and domestic social history.
Literary Taste: How to Form It: With Detailed Instructions for Collecting a Complete Library of English Literature
Arnold Bennett
Cultivating a lifelong appreciation for enduring books requires systematic effort, practical strategy, and an honest engagement with the emotions driving all creative expression.
Maiwa's Revenge
H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
A veteran hunter recounted by a Yorkshire hearth tells how a mother’s ferocious grief sparked a jungle war and brought down a bloodthirsty king.
Mary Queen of Scots in History
C. A. Campbell
Religious and political crosscurrents sealed the fate of a sovereign who fought for the unity of her realm, leaving a legacy shadowed by conspiracy, betrayal, and an unyielding commitment to her faith.
Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy
Stephen Leacock
A gentle satirical lens transforms everyday human absurdities and the overblown conventions of early twentieth-century life into a quiet, enduring delight.
My Country
Marie, Queen, consort of Ferdinand I, King of Romania
A royal transplant learns to love a vast, dusty realm of silent plains, carved stone crosses, and centuries of quiet endurance.
My Father as I Recall Him
Mamie Dickens
A daughter offers a gentle, affectionate portrait of her famous father in his private domestic realm, capturing his boundless energy, quiet writing habits, and warmth among his children, pets, and friends.
Not Pretty, but Precious
Unknown
Across these eleven stories, human lives pivot on small misunderstandings, quiet resentments, sudden catastrophes, and the stubborn ghosts—both literal and emotional—that haunt ordinary homes.
Retrospection and Introspection
Mary Baker Eddy
A personal awakening to spiritual law becomes the foundation for an entire religious movement.
Saunterings in and about London
Max Schlesinger
An observant foreigner strolls through Victorian London, capturing the relentless pulse of its streets, its political grandiosity, and the quirky habits of its people.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume XVII, Virginia Narratives
United States. Work Projects Administration
Eyewitness testimony from elderly Virginians captures the brutal reality, unexpected moments of levity, and profound grief of American slavery and its turbulent aftermath.
Strange Stories
Grant Allen
Speculative science, uncanny ironies, and radical shifts of perspective converge in tales that stretch nineteenth-century reason to its absolute limits.
Tales of All Countries
Anthony Trollope
A collection of sharp, comic vignettes that transport Victorian travelers across the globe only to prove that no distance can outrun human narrow-mindedness and vanity.
The Adventures of Johnny Chuck
Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess
Spring brings a strange restlessness to the Green Meadows, driving a plump woodchuck to leave his cozy burrow, test his strength against rivals, and build a quiet family life in a distant orchard.
The Age of Justinian and Theodora: A History of the Sixth Century A.D., Volume 2 (of 2)
William Gordon Holmes
An ambitious empire attempts to reclaim its former glory through endless war, sweeping legal reform, and architectural grandeur, only to drain its people.
The Appendages, Anatomy, and Relationships of Trilobites
Percy E. (Percy Edward) Raymond
A silent, centuries-long debate over delicate fossilized limbs comes alive through painstaking empirical re-examination.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 16, February, 1859: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary journal brings together biting social satire, political upheaval, financial chicanery, and refined textual criticism in one eclectic volume.
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, October 1883
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
This vibrant collection of essays, lessons, and cultural dispatches serves as a time capsule for the late nineteenth-century quest for self-improvement and intellectual community.
The Christian Faith Under Modern Searchlights
William Hallock Johnson
A vigorous, erudite defense of historic Christianity that directly engages twentieth-century biology, psychology, and philosophy to show that modern science enriches rather than undermines orthodox faith.
The Elson Readers, Book 5
William H. (William Harris) Elson
A vintage Fifth Grade classroom primer weaves foundational literary classics, adventurous fables, and patriotic folklore into an instructional tool for early-twentieth-century American schoolhouses.
The Jimmyjohn Boss, and Other Stories
Owen Wister
Youth and authority collide in the high-country West, where a teenage foreman must outsmart a cabin full of rebellious, snowbound cowboys using quiet resolve, sharp wits, and an ironclad sense of timing.
The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2
George Finlayson
An early nineteenth-century British envoy navigates complex royal courts and dense tropical wilderness across Southeast Asia, recording every landscape, interaction, and diplomatic impasse with meticulous empirical detail.
The Mormon Doctrine of Deity: The Roberts-Van Der Donckt Discussion: To which is added a discourse, Jesus Christ, the revelation of God
B. H. (Brigham Henry) Roberts
Two theological visions clash over a single question: is the Almighty an immaterial abstraction or an exalted man with a tangible form?
The Poetical Works of Addison
John Gay
A collection of classical translations, courtly panegyrics, instructive fables, and sporting verse captures the changing literary appetites of eighteenth-century Britain.
The Politeness of Princes, and Other School Stories
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
Schoolboy schemes, late-breakfast dodges, and pitch-level cricket battles collide in an early window onto P. G. Wodehouse's comedic genius.
The Queen Who Flew: A Fairy Tale
Ford Madox Ford
A young queen escapes the cage of her cold, political realm on magical wings, choosing the quiet warmth of a humble life over the weight of a crown.
The Red Year: A Story of the Indian Mutiny
Louis Tracy
Across the dust and fury of the Sepoy Mutiny, two lovers navigate a shattered empire of bloody sieges, daring disguises, and treacherous court intrigues.
The Royal Guide to Wax Flower Modelling
Emma Peachey
A master artisan reveals the intricate, patient craft of transforming plain sheets of wax into astonishingly lifelike floral arrangements, offering a meticulous guide that turns natural observation into enduring home ornaments and delicate royal keepsakes.
The Ruling Passion: Tales of Nature and Human Nature
Henry Van Dyke
A quietly resolute collection of wilderness stories showing how human devotion to music, duty, and affection survives the harshest frontier winters.
The Story of the White Mouse
Unknown
When a monarch's obsession with a green-eyed mouse derails his life, only a magical cat and a dose of harsh reality can save him.
They of the High Trails
Hamlin Garland
A world of snow, granite, and sudden violence tests the women and men who make their lives above the line of easy comfort.
Uncle Wiggily's Story Book
Howard Roger Garis
A elderly rabbit in a top hat brings quiet comfort and clever rescue to troubled children and woodland creatures alike.
Under the Hill, and Other Essays in Prose and Verse
Aubrey Beardsley
A singular collection of literary and visual fragments, this volume illuminates the brief, incandescent career of an artist whose wit and aesthetic precision defined the decadent spirit of the late nineteenth century.
Under the Red Crescent: Adventures of an English Surgeon with the Turkish Army at Plevna and Erzeroum 1877-1878
Charles S. (Charles Snodgrass) Ryan
Caught between raw surgical horror and high-society flair, a young Australian doctor finds himself swept into the brutal bloodbaths of the Russo-Turkish War.
Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia?
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov
Seven peasants meet on a high road and fall into an endless argument over a single question: who can live in Russia with happiness and freedom?
Winning the Wilderness
Margaret Hill McCarter
A young couple settles in the unbroken Kansas prairie, only to discover that building a life on the frontier demands decades of resilience against nature, war, and the slow transformation of the wilderness.
A Study of Association in Insanity
Grace Helen Kent
Words mirror the mind, but in illness, the mirroring shifts from common paths into deeply idiosyncratic landscapes.
Bird Biographies
Alice Eliza Ball
A classic field companion translates the vibrant world of eastern American birds into sharp physical descriptions, engaging behavioral observations, and rich literary appreciation.
Countess Vera
Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.
A wronged heiress returns under a false identity to exact vengeance on the cruel relatives who stole her life and the weak-willed husband who abandoned her.
Deadham Hard: A Romance
Lucas Malet
In a sleepy English coastal village, a young woman discovers a secret about her father's past that dismantles her innocence and alters her future.
Dear Brutus
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
A moonlit garden on Midsummer Eve becomes the playground for a mysterious host who grants a group of discontented houseguests their deepest wish: a second chance at life.
Diary of a Pilgrimage
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
Travelling across Victorian Europe to view a sacred spectacle yields a surprisingly modern travelogue filled with luggage misadventures, baffling language barrier mix-ups, and sudden moments of genuine reverence.
Dutch Bulbs and Gardens
Una L. Silberrad
Across the windswept coastal lowlands of Holland, centuries of quiet labor, strict science, and obsessive devotion transformed a modest agricultural enterprise into the world’s premier botanical craft.
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions
G. (Gaston) Maspero
A monumental journey across millennia traces how early human settlements along fertile river basins evolved into the mighty empires that shaped ancient civilization.
Light-Fingered Gentry
David Graham Phillips
Behind the shimmering facades of Gilded Age Manhattan, where financial moguls juggle insurance reserves and societal posturing, a bitter corporate war forces two lovers to decide what their integrity is actually worth.
Light on the Path and Through the Gates of Gold
Mabel Collins
An esoteric guide to spiritual transformation, this brief treatise charts the inner discipline needed to transcend ordinary human desire and cross into divine consciousness.
Lo, Michael!
Grace Livingston Hill
A street urchin dives in front of a bullet to save a millionaire’s infant daughter, launching a lifelong transformation from slum boy to crusading attorney.