The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 406
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 406 of 714.
Brave and Bold
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A spirited, resourceful boy finds his path to success blocked by a cruel rival and a series of professional setbacks, leading him on a desperate, worldwide quest to reclaim his family's lost fortune and honor.
Bridge
J. B. (Joseph Bowne) Elwell
Bridge is a game of shifting alliances and calculated risks where the outcome is decided not by luck, but by the cold, precise application of logic. Mastery requires a profound intimacy with the score, a firm command of defensive conventions, and the discipline to suppress one’s own personality in favor of the…
Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men
Juliana Horatia Ewing
This collection offers a series of intimate, observant portraits of the animal kingdom, framed by the gentle, inquisitive perspectives of those who share their lives. It captures the quiet dignity of the wild and the domestic alike.
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Sunny South
Laura Lee Hope
A pair of spirited siblings wanders from their parents’ care, finding themselves caught in a series of improbable mishaps during a winter journey to the American South.
Captain Jinks, Hero
Ernest Crosby
The life of a celebrated war hero is less a matter of personal merit than a puppet show choreographed by the press, the state, and the drumbeat of public fervor.
Christmas Eve on Lonesome and Other Stories
Fox, John, Jr.
This collection of short stories captures the rugged, isolated spirit of the Cumberland Mountains and the complex humanity found within the Kentucky hills. It serves as a poignant window into a vanished era of rural American life.
Dead Man's Land: Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain blacks and whites
George Manville Fenn
A group of English explorers seeking ancient treasures in the African interior discovers that survival is far more challenging—and perilous—than the thrill of archaeological discovery.
Division of Words: Rules for the Division of Words at the Ends of Lines, with Remarks on Spelling, Syllabication and Pronunciation
Frederick W. (Frederick William) Hamilton
Precision in language often begins with the humble hyphen, the gatekeeper of legibility at the edge of the printed page. This guide serves as a foundational manual for those tasked with the mechanical craft of typesetting.
Evolution: Its nature, its evidence, and its relation to religious thought
Joseph LeConte
The natural world is not a static stage, but a unfolding drama of continuous growth; understanding this process reveals that the divine is not apart from nature, but the very force driving its development.
Facts and Arguments for Darwin
Fritz Müller
HOOK This field study transforms the observation of minute, tide-swept crustaceans into a powerful, empirical defense of natural selection.
Free, and other stories
Theodore Dreiser
These stories explore the quiet, crushing weight of human desire against the indifferent machinery of society. They capture the precise moment when a life’s long-held illusions finally break under the pressure of reality.
Great Britain and Her Queen
Anne E. Keeling
The Victorian era was a time of unprecedented transformation, defined by the steady hand of a sovereign who reigned over a century of profound global, industrial, and social change.
Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2
James Endell Tyler
This historical study re-examines the character of a legendary monarch, peeling back centuries of myth to reveal a deeply religious, conscientious, and pragmatic ruler governing through a turbulent era.
Historical Lectures and Essays
Charles Kingsley
Great history is not merely the recitation of dry facts, but the courageous exploration of human character and the relentless pursuit of truth across the centuries. These pages offer a series of portraits—scholars, monarchs, and visionaries—whose lives exemplify the eternal struggle between individual conscience…
Illustrations of political economy, Volume 1 (of 9)
Harriet Martineau
This volume collects three distinct tales designed to explain the foundational principles of political economy through the relatable struggles of ordinary people. It bridges the gap between abstract theory and daily life, showing how individual choices—from harvesting ostrich eggs to managing a small farm—reflect…
Jasper Lyle
Mrs. Ward
Amid the wild, untamed landscapes of the Cape of Good Hope, a young woman flees a disastrous marriage, caught in the violent collision between colonial expansion, indigenous resistance, and the relentless demands of the past.
Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru
Albert Réville
This examination of ancient American spirituality argues that the religious instincts of Mexico and Peru reveal a consistent, natural evolution of human belief, independent of the Old World’s traditions.
Leonard Lindsay
Angus B. (Angus Bethune) Reach
HOOK A young man is swept from his ordinary life into the brutal, lawless world of the seventeenth-century Caribbean, where survival depends on wit, steel, and a willingness to defy the Spanish empire.
Life and Death, and Other Legends and Stories
Henryk Sienkiewicz
This collection of allegories and tales weaves together the mystical and the mundane, exploring the weight of human suffering and the enduring power of memory.
Life in South Africa
Lady (Mary Anne) Barker
The vast, sun-drenched landscapes of 1870s South Africa come alive through the eyes of an observant traveler navigating the complexities of colonial domesticity and nature’s unpredictable temperament.
Motor Camping
J. C. (John Cuthbert) Long
The open road is more than a destination; it is a portable lifestyle, inviting the modern motorist to trade the confines of the city for the stillness of the stars and the freedom of the wilderness.
Mystics of the Renaissance and their relation to modern thought, including Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme, Giordano Bruno, and others
Rudolf Steiner
Human consciousness is not a byproduct of biology but a gateway to a universal reality; through self-knowledge, the individual can transcend the division between the inner self and the external world.
Noémi
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
In the rugged cliff-dwellings of medieval France, a young woman’s quest for identity clashes with the brutal cycle of vengeance fueled by local warlords. This historical drama explores the weight of blood ties and the possibility of redemption.
On Guard: Mark Mallory's Celebration
Upton Sinclair
This is a sharp, spirited look at the high-stakes rivalries of West Point, where a band of underdog cadets fights to preserve their dignity against the cruel hazing of their upperclassmen. It captures the relentless, imaginative, and often hilarious war of attrition fought between the "plebes" and the "yearlings.
One Man in His Time
Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
The old world of Virginia is not merely shifting; it is being unmade by a new, democratic tide that refuses to respect the hushed elegance of the past.
Our Little Swiss Cousin
Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade
A young boy learns the value of his heritage while tending cattle on the high slopes of the Swiss Alps. This gentle narrative invites readers into the daily rhythm of mountain life at the turn of the twentieth century.
Outa Karel's Stories: South African Folk-Lore Tales
Sanni Metelerkamp
An elderly storyteller gathers children around the fire to share ancient, rhythmic myths of the South African veld, where clever jackals and powerful lions roam.
Outlines of English history from B.C. 55 to A.D. 1895
John Charles Curtis
This concise volume serves as a comprehensive reference guide to the key events, figures, and legislative milestones of English history, spanning from the Roman era to the late nineteenth century. It is a strictly factual, chronologically organized summary designed for clarity and rapid retrieval of information.
Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria
William Westgarth
HOOK A seasoned pioneer reflects on the rapid transformation of the Australian wilderness into a bustling metropolis, tracing the metamorphosis of a colonial settlement into a thriving society.
Playing With Fire
Amelia E. Barr
The heavy, gray atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century Glasgow provides the setting for a personal spiritual transformation. A proud, rigid minister finds his world—and his inflexible theology—shattered by the intrusion of human love and existential doubt.
Prince Eugene, the Noble Knight
L. (Ludwig) Würdig
A young, frail outcast defies the expectations of a king to become Europe’s most formidable military commander. This biography traces the meteoric rise of a man who turned personal rejection into a lifelong pursuit of martial excellence.
Rashi
Maurice Liber
The life of a medieval scholar unfolds in these pages, revealing how one man’s quiet devotion to text and teaching anchored a culture through centuries of displacement.
Religious Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: The Faith of Our Fathers
G. MacLaren (George MacLaren) Brydon
The story of early Virginia is often told through its politics and trade, but this account reveals the vital, underlying architecture of its faith. It tracks the struggle to transplant the Church of England into a raw, untamed landscape, detailing a century of persistence by laypeople and clergy alike to build a…
Representative Women of Deseret: A Book of Biographical Sketches
Augusta Joyce Crocheron
This collection of biographical sketches offers an intimate, inward-looking portrait of nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint women, framing their lives as acts of religious devotion and pioneer endurance.
Satan
Lewis Sperry Chafer
Understanding the nature of spiritual opposition remains a primary concern for those who navigate the complexities of faith in a secular age. This examination of the adversary offers a rigorous, systematic framework for interpreting the unseen conflicts of the Christian life.
Shamar's War
Kris Neville
This tale of political subversion follows an Earth agent tasked with destabilizing an alien world, only to find that the power to topple a regime is a fire that consumes everything it touches. It is a cynical, sharp-edged examination of the volatile intersection between individual agency and bureaucratic control.
St. Peter, His Name and His Office, as Set Forth in Holy Scripture
T. W. (Thomas William) Allies
This theological study rigorously examines the scriptural and historical evidence for the primacy of St. Peter, arguing that his role as the foundational "Rock" of the Church is central to its divine design.
Stammering, its cause and cure
Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue
Stammering is a heavy, isolating burden that often distorts one’s potential, but with the right diagnosis and committed, expert guidance, it is a condition that can be overcome.
Studies in the Out-Lying Fields of Psychic Science
Hudson Tuttle
The human mind possesses a hidden capacity to transcend physical barriers, reaching into a vast, unseen "psychic ether" that connects all living beings and suggests the possibility of life beyond death.
Tales of Humour, Gallantry & Romance, Selected and Translated from the Italian
Thomas Roscoe
These tales serve as a gateway into the vibrant, often precarious world of early Italian life, where wit is a survival skill and irony is the primary language of the streets.
The Adventures of Billy Topsail
Norman Duncan
This collection of sea-faring tales chronicles the maturation of a young Newfoundlander who encounters the lethal indifference of the North Atlantic. It is a portrait of resilience, forged in ice and saltwater.
The Age of Elizabeth (1547-1603)
Unknown
Elizabethan England, a realm defined by religious upheaval, colonial ambition, and the precarious survival of a queen, emerges not through narrative history, but through the raw, unvarnished accounts of the people who lived it.
The archæology of Rome, Part 7
John Henry Parker
The Colosseum was not a sudden creation of a single decade, but a complex, multi-century project built upon centuries of engineering evolution. This technical examination strips away popular mythology to reveal a structure designed for shifting, multi-purpose spectacles.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 35, September, 1860: A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics
Various
This September 1860 issue of a prominent literary magazine captures the intellectual pulse of the mid-nineteenth century. It weaves together diverse threads of American culture, from serious social commentary to the nuances of fiction and literary critique.
The battle of life
A. L. O. E.
The "battle of life" is the inward and outward struggle to live with consistent faith, a challenge that transforms ordinary days into profound tests of character. This collection of linked vignettes examines what it truly means to be a Christian in the nineteenth century, tracing the lives of diverse…
The Bicyclers and Three Other Farces
John Kendrick Bangs
A lighthearted collection of turn-of-the-century comedies, these plays offer a witty, satirical glimpse into the domestic anxieties and social posturing of the American middle class.
The Black Poodle, and Other Tales
F. Anstey
These whimsical Victorian tales explore the collision between ordinary life and the absurd, where a misplaced poodle or a spectral visitor can undo a man’s entire social standing.
The Book of This and That
Robert Lynd
The world is full of odd corners, and this collection of essays invites you to peer into them with a mixture of sharp wit, deep empathy, and an unapologetic penchant for wandering.