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All free summaries — page 536
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 536 of 714.
Goose-Quill Papers
Louise Imogen Guiney
A collection of lightweight, polished essays wanders through the quietly eccentric corners of everyday life, blending classical erudition with a defense of small, forgotten pleasures.
Heather and Snow
George MacDonald
A proud young Scotsman’s pursuit of earthly ambition gives way to spiritual awakening through the steady, unyielding love of a farmer’s daughter.
Herbert Carter's Legacy
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A destitute boy’s quiet integrity and hard labor protect his family from ruin, turning a meager inheritance into lasting prosperity.
Hester: A Story of Contemporary Life, Volume 2 (of 3)
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
In the sleepy provincial town of Redborough, pride, hidden resentments, and reckless ambition silently pull a respectable banking family toward the brink of ruin.
Historical Record of the Seventeenth, or the Leicestershire Regiment of Foot: Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1688, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1848
Richard Cannon
A storied infantry regiment marches through a century and a half of relentless global warfare, forged in the fires of European sieges and expanded across distant empires.
How the Piano Came to Be
Ellye Howell Glover
From a tortoise shell dried on the banks of the Nile to the resonant grand instruments of modern concert halls, the mechanical journey of the piano spans centuries of trial, invention, and human ingenuity.
Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2)
B. B. (Benjamin Bussey) Thatcher
A quiet battle for historical truth runs through this book. Benjamin Bussey Thatcher reconstructs the lives of native leaders who shaped North America, resisting both colonial mythmaking and the easy erasure of indigenous sovereignty.
Joutel's Journal of La Salle's Last Voyage, 1684-7
Henri Joutel
A brave expedition across North America unravels as mutiny, shipwreck, and betrayal dismantle the grand dreams of French empire.
King Henry IV, Part 1
William Shakespeare
A crown won by treason sits uneasily on the head, threatened by the very lords who helped seize it and compromised by an heir who prefers tavern brawls to royal court.
Lady Eureka
Robert Folkestone Williams
In a sprawling 19th-century speculative adventure, a high-minded young merchant sails across uncharted seas to escape heartbreak, only to encounter fraudulent traders, sea fires, and treacherous pirates.
Landscape in History, and Other Essays
Archibald Geikie
Earth’s surface acts as a vast historical archive where natural forces and human history leave their quiet, indelible marks.
Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery: As Exhibited in the Institution of Domestic Slavery in the United States, with the Duties of Masters to Slaves
William A. (William Andrew) Smith
A Southern college president delivers a rigorous defense of domestic servitude, grounding human inequality in natural law, scriptural decree, and the conservative preservation of the American republic.
Leon Roch: A Romance, vol. 2 (of 2)
Benito Pérez Galdós
Dogmatic piety and social hypocrisy collide in the closing chapter of a broken marriage, leaving two lovers to weigh personal happiness against moral order.
Lessons in Life
J. G. (Josiah Gilbert) Holland
A collection of calm, sensible essays offers a practical guide to everyday human behavior, urging readers to choose self-awareness over pride and balance over ideological extremes.
Library Ideals
Henry Eduard Legler
A vision of universal access to books unfolds across early twentieth-century America, proposing that public libraries serve as essential tools for self-education, social equality, and democratic progress.
Little Folded Hands: Prayers for Children
Anonymous
A delicate, timeless collection of child-sized petitions frames the whole of a young life, transforming everyday moments—from waking and eating to falling asleep—into simple, heartfelt acts of communion with God.
Lowestoft in olden times
Francis Davy Longe
A stubborn fishing village perched on the Suffolk cliffs fights for centuries against its larger neighbour to secure its right to the sea.
Madge Morton's Secret
Amy D. V. Chalmers
Four young women spend a autumn getaway aboard a converted canal-boat, only to find themselves cast adrift on the Chesapeake, marooned, and entangled in naval secrets.
Malcolm Sage, Detective
Herbert George Jenkins
In a quiet room off Whitehall, a man with a bald, conical head, gold-rimmed spectacles, and unusually expressive hands sits staring at his finger-nails, untangling the strange and violent crimes of post-war England.
Marion: The Story of an Artist's Model
Onoto Watanna
A spirited girl leaves a cramped home in Montreal for the independence of the American art world, discovering that survival requires as much grit as grace.
Modern Street Ballads
Unknown
Anonymous broadsides gave nineteenth-century Britain its daily news, low comedy, and public protests long before music halls took over the streets.
Mrs. Siddons
Nina H. Kennard
A girl born to a troupe of wandering actors climbs through poverty, harsh rejections, and punishing tours to become the undisputed queen of English tragedy.
My Private Menagerie: from The Works of Theophile Gautier Volume 19
Théophile Gautier
When the young French Romantic writer Théophile Gautier took in his first pets, he could not have anticipated that his Paris home would eventually harbor generations of cats, performing dogs, and carriage horses.
Nelka: Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, 1878-1963, a Biographical Sketch
Michael Moukhanoff
Living across two continents and through a century of sudden, total collapse, one woman searches relentlessly for an inner peace equal to her exterior courage.
Notes and Queries, Number 169, January 22, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
An obscure phrase or forgotten historical detail leads to an immediate exchange of letters, theories, and corrections among curious readers. Through thousands of short entries, a vibrant network of nineteenth-century researchers brings forgotten literature, folk customs, and local history to life.
Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850
Various
A mid-nineteenth-century literary forum gathers the period's sharpest antiquarian minds to untangle obscure historical references, linguistic oddities, and disputed folklore.
Old Friends at Cambridge and Elsewhere
John Willis Clark
Behind the solemn facades of nineteenth-century Cambridge, brilliant minds bickered over college rules, mapped the stars, translated ancient texts, and built the intellectual foundations of the modern world.
Old New Zealand: Being Incidents of Native Customs and Character in the Old Times
Frederick Edward Maning
A young Irishman steps ashore into a nineteenth-century tribal world where every stranger is either a prized guest, a target for extortion, or a future meal.
Old Plantation Days: Being Recollections of Southern Life Before the Civil War
N. B. (Nancy Bostick) De Saussure
A quiet home, a vast network of fields, and an entire social order dissolve almost overnight into flight, smoke, and memory.
Oomphel in the Sky
H. Beam Piper
When mass hysteria threatens to engulf an alien planet, a pragmatic reporter realizes that pure logic is useless against fanatical religious superstition—leaving him with only one option: to craft a grander, more useful myth of his own.
Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
The deepest yearnings of the human heart cannot be satisfied by cold intellectual logic alone; true spiritual liberation requires breaking down the cursed barriers of egoism to unlock universal sympathy.
Paste Jewels
John Kendrick Bangs
Young, hopelessly sweet, and completely outmatched by their own domestic staff, a suburban couple learns that running a household requires far more than good intentions.
Phronsie Pepper
Margaret Sidney
The final chapter of a beloved family saga, this volume follows the youngest Pepper sibling as she blossoms into adulthood, navigates a whirlwind romance, and brings her childhood story to a graceful, definitive close.
Poets of the South: A Series of Biographical and Critical Studies with Typical Poems, Annotated
F. V. N. (Franklin Verzelius Newton) Painter
A nineteenth-century regional literature seeks its rightful place in the national memory through biographical sketches, critical commentary, and selected verse.
Prince Charlie
Burford Delannoy
A small seaside town, a web of silent assumptions, and a writer who mistake a child's devoted mother for a woman of loose morals.
Punch, or the London Charivari, July 1, 1914
Various
An anxious world hums on the brink of change, but in this midsummer collection of Edwardian satire, the ordinary absurdities of life take center stage.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, April 9, 1919
Various
A satirical cross-section of British life in the immediate wake of the Armistice, capturing a nation navigating the absurdities of peace with weary humor.
Roger Williams, Prophet and Pioneer of Soul-Liberty
Arthur Barsazou Strickland
A stubborn Puritan minister is banished into a freezing wilderness, only to transform his exile into the founding vision of American religious freedom.
Roma beata
Maud Howe Elliott
A vibrant mosaic of daily life and quiet wonders unfolds through an artist's eyes across the light-drenched squares of turn-of-the-century Italy.
Sand and Canvas: Narrative of adventures in Egypt with a sojourn among the artists in Rome
Samuel Bevan
A sudden leap from London’s yellow fog to the desert air of Egypt begins an unpretentious journey across the Mediterranean. This volume balances the practical scramble of transit work with informal rambles through Italian studios.
Scott Burton on the Range
Edward G. (Edward Gheen) Cheyney
A young greenhorn from Massachusetts takes a Forest Service posting in the Southwest, where he must outsmart a ring of timber thieves and sheep rustlers without losing his moral compass.
Secresy
E. (Eliza) Fenwick
Isolation and forced compliance turn love into a weapon, destroying the very independence a headstrong young woman attempts to claim.
Security Risk
Ed M. Clinton
A cold war between Earth and its rebellious off-world colonies turns desperate when a bureaucrat tries to recruit the banished genius who holds the key to survival.
Short story classics (Foreign), Vol. 2, Italian and Scandinavian
Unknown
In a world where choices echo past their moment, a single decision can rewrite a life entirely.
Six days of the Irish Republic: A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics
Redmond-Howard, L. G., (Louis George)
The sudden outbreak of the 1916 Easter Rising shatters the illusion of Irish political stability, plunging Dublin into six days of tragic violence that redefine the struggle for independence.
Six Plays
Darwin, Florence Henrietta Fisher, Lady
A quiet world of English village life comes to light through gentle domestic comedy, lingering romantic longings, and the stubborn realities of rural poverty.
Slaves of Mercury
Nathan Schachner
A lone survivor returns to a transformed planet only to find his home bound in alien chains.
Slow and Sure: The Story of Paul Hoffman the Young Street-Merchant
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A disciplined street vendor and a hardened street waif navigate the moral traps of Gilded Age New York, proving that steady integrity cuts a truer path than quick crime.