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All free summaries — page 561
34,093 public-domain books, summarised. Page 561 of 711.
The Case of Mrs. Clive
Mrs. (Catherine) Clive
A celebrated actress takes to the press to challenge the theatrical managers who hold her livelihood hostage, exposing a monopoly that stifles both art and the basic rights of performers.
The Chums of Scranton High
Donald Ferguson
A young baseball captain fights to build a winning team for Scranton High while navigating the social minefields of his town and clearing the name of a misunderstood friend.
The Cries of London: Exhibiting Several of the Itinerant Traders of Antient and Modern Times
John Thomas Smith
A meticulous catalog of London’s disappearing street life, this collection preserves the sights and sounds of the city's itinerant traders through original etchings and observational prose. It captures a vanishing social landscape with the keen eye of a dedicated chronicler.
The Cruise of the Shining Light
Norman Duncan
The story of a grotesque, one-legged mariner and the orphan he raises in a remote Newfoundland harbor explores the complex, often hidden, threads of love and redemption that bind the broken together.
The English Flower Garden: with illustrative notes
Henry Arthur Bright
This meditation on the English garden argues that true horticultural joy comes from intimate acquaintance with individual plants rather than the hollow, fleeting spectacle of mass-market color. It is a quiet call to reclaim the garden as a sanctuary of memory, history, and personal expression.
The Extraordinary Adventures of Poor Little Bewildered Henry, Who was shut up in an Old Abbey for Three Weeks: A Story Founded on Fact
Anonymous
A toddler, separated from his family by a stranger’s cruel deception, finds himself lost and alone in an ancient, ivy-covered abbey for three weeks. This narrative explores his survival through the lens of faith and providence.
The Female Wits
Anonymous
This biting theatrical satire exposes the chaotic vanity of the late seventeenth-century London stage, mocking the over-wrought ambitions of three prominent women playwrights who dared to challenge the masculine monopoly of the theater.
The Great House
Stanley John Weyman
A young woman leaves the poverty of a Parisian attic for the mysteries of an ancestral English estate, only to find herself caught between a fading aristocracy and a nation on the brink of profound change.
The Gun-Brand
James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx
A rugged, high-stakes standoff unfolds in the vast, frozen wilderness, pitting a resolute frontiersman against a cunning criminal mastermind in a battle for the soul of the North.
The Hill: A Romance of Friendship
Horace Annesley Vachell
This story follows a young boy’s formative years at the prestigious Harrow School, exploring the profound, often painful complexities of adolescent loyalty, social ambition, and moral growth. It captures the distinct "strenuousness and sentiment" of English public school life, tracking a friendship that is tested…
The Indian Bangle
Fergus Hume
This Victorian mystery follows a tangled conspiracy of imposture, murder, and political radicalism. When a young woman is coerced into a loveless marriage by a man claiming to be a colonial heir, her friends must unravel a web of deceit to save her inheritance and expose the truth behind a series of violent crimes.
The Indian Lily and Other Stories
Hermann Sudermann
The stories in this collection trace the hollow spaces left behind when desire outlives its object, capturing the precise moment human passion turns to ash. These narratives explore the quiet, often bitter aftermath of romantic pursuit among the German middle class at the turn of the twentieth century.
The Isthmus of Suez Question
Ferdinand de Lesseps
A daring vision of global connectivity, this work argues for the physical unification of the Mediterranean and Red Seas to reshape the economic landscape of the nineteenth-century world.
The Jungle Girl
Gordon Casserly
A young British officer finds his life transformed by a dangerous, forbidden romance and a perilous rescue mission across the rugged, untamed frontiers of the Himalayas.
The king's ring
Zacharias Topelius
A copper ring, rumored to hold the power of invulnerability, binds the fates of a Swedish king and a young Finnish officer across the brutal battlefields of the Thirty Years' War.
The Mirrors of Washington
Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace) Gilbert
The corridors of power are often inhabited by figures far smaller than their reputations suggest. This collection of portraits strips away the mythic veneer of early twentieth-century American statesmanship to reveal the human failings underneath.
The Mission of Janice Day
Helen Beecher Long
A spirited young woman defies the conventions of her small town to venture into the heart of revolutionary Mexico, determined to rescue her wounded father from the chaos of a distant border conflict.
The Money Box: Odd Craft, Part 1
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
Sailors at sea may dream of thrift, but the shore brings a different reality. This story follows two impulsive men who entrust their wages to a "steady" comrade, only to find that good intentions make for a precarious prison.
The Past Condition of Organic Nature: Lecture II. (of VI.), "Lectures to Working Men", at the Museum of Practical Geology, 1863, on Darwin's Work: "Origin of Species"
Thomas Henry Huxley
Nature’s history is written in mud, yet our record of the past remains profoundly fragmented, forcing us to piece together the story of life from mere scraps of a lost world.
The Pirate Slaver: A Story of the West African Coast
Harry Collingwood
A midshipman’s harrowing survival story unfolds on the dangerous West African coast, where a British naval officer becomes a prisoner to the very slavers he was sworn to suppress.
The Poems of Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
This collection captures the restless, explosive intellect of a young writer finding his voice in the shadow of authority, blending biting social satire with profound philosophical longing. It serves as both a gateway to his dramatic works and a haunting portrait of an artist grappling with the crushing weight of…
The prisoners' memoirs, or, Dartmoor prison
C. (Charles) Andrews
This firsthand account chronicles the harrowing survival of American sailors held within the damp, cold walls of Britain's most notorious prison during the War of 1812.
The Reconstructed School
Francis B. (Francis Bail) Pearson
Common goals and unified thinking transform fragmented schooling into a coherent, life-affirming experience. This work guides educators to look beyond textbooks and toward the cultivation of the human spirit.
The Rifle Rangers
Mayne Reid
The Rifle Rangers is a high-stakes military adventure set against the backdrop of the Mexican-American War. It follows a band of scouts through the perilous landscapes of Mexico, delivering a fast-paced tale of narrow escapes, hidden identities, and the romantic entanglements of soldiers in a foreign land. Its…
The Romance of Rubber
United States Rubber Company
The origins of a quiet industrial revolution are traced from the jungle floor to the factory floor, revealing how a sticky, temperamental tree resin became the foundation of modern life.
The Safety First Club
William Theophilus Nichols
HOOK A group of restless schoolboys discovers that the truest form of courage is not found in recklessness, but in the disciplined practice of caution and personal accountability.
The Savage South Seas
E. Way (Ernest Way) Elkington
A study of the people, customs, and landscapes of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and the New Hebrides, this work offers an immersive, if dated, account of the South Seas during the early twentieth century.
The Search
Grace Livingston Hill
A young soldier navigates the moral chaos of wartime while pursuing an ideal of character and faith. He discovers that finding his own purpose requires a profound, inward transformation that eventually unites him with his beloved.
The Smiling Hill-Top, and other California sketches
Julia M. (Julia Moss) Sloane
California life, with its orange blossoms, rattling earthquakes, and the perennial, adventurous question of "Why not?", offers a fresh start for those weary of rigid East Coast conventions.
The Spanish Cavalier: A Story of Seville
A. L. O. E.
HOOK A young Spanish nobleman risks his life and family honor in the bullring, only to find true salvation through the clandestine pages of a forbidden book.
The Spinners
Eden Phillpotts
In a small Dorset mill town, the rigid hierarchies of the early twentieth-century textile industry collide with the messy, unyielding realities of human desire and the struggle for personal dignity.
The stories editors buy and why
Unknown
A collection of early twentieth-century magazine fiction and editorial philosophy, this anthology captures a fleeting, golden moment when the American short story became a national obsession and a professional craft.
The Taming of Red Butte Western
Francis Lynde
The desert, a place where men go to lose their grip, tests a railroad superintendent’s resolve. He must transform a lawless, broken division before the heat, the corruption, and his own self-doubt destroy him.
The Texan Scouts: A Story of the Alamo and Goliad
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
A young scout navigates the brutal collapse of the Texas Revolution, witnessing the fall of the Alamo and the tragedy of Goliad while fighting for survival against the forces of Santa Anna.
The Unnecessary Man
Randall Garrett
A cynical exploration of power and loyalty, this story reveals how an imperial government maintains control through the calculated sacrifice of its own servants.
The Unseen Bridegroom
May Agnes Fleming
The streets of New York turn cold and dark as a young woman’s life is swept into a vortex of abduction, secret marriages, and high-society intrigue. Innocence is tested, but agency is ultimately reclaimed.
The Veiled Lady, and Other Men and Women
Francis Hopkinson Smith
A collection of observant, world-weary sketches, these tales capture the quiet tragedies and unexpected joys of travelers, laborers, and dreamers found in the corners of the globe.
The Voyageur and Other Poems
William Henry Drummond
The life of the Canadian voyageur lives on in these rhythmic, dialect-driven verses that bridge the divide between the rugged wilderness and the warmth of the parish hearth.
The Wanderings and Homes of Manuscripts
M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James
This guide explores the precarious, multi-century journeys of ancient and medieval manuscripts. It tracks how these fragile vessels of human thought survived wars, fires, and changing fashions to reach the quiet security of modern library shelves.
The Wooden Hand: A Detective Story
Fergus Hume
A young woman discovers her father’s body in the desolate Red Deeps, triggering a dark investigation into a hidden past. This intricate mystery weaves together lost inheritances, stolen diamonds, and the long shadows of a family legacy.
Theodore Roosevelt: An Address Delivered by Henry Cabot Lodge Before the Congress of the United States
Henry Cabot Lodge
This eulogistic address serves as a formal, intimate appraisal of the life and character of Theodore Roosevelt. It captures the trajectory of a man who transformed himself from a physically fragile youth into a national icon, exploring the moral and political principles that defined his public service and his…
Things Mother Used to Make: A Collection of Old Time Recipes, Some Nearly One Hundred Years Old and Never Published Before
Lydia Maria Gurney
This collection offers a rare, direct link to the early American kitchen, preserving a century of domestic knowledge through simple, reliable instructions for the home cook. It captures a time when resourcefulness was the primary ingredient.
Thomas Berthelet, Royal Printer and Bookbinder to Henry VIII., King of England
Cyril Davenport
The royal printer Thomas Berthelet introduced the delicate art of gold-tooling to English bookbinding, crafting enduring masterpieces that mirrored the shifting tastes of the Tudor court. This study serves as a meticulously detailed record of his career, documenting the rise of a craftsman who transformed the…
Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice, or, the Wreck of the Airship
Victor Appleton
HOOK Armed with a map to a hidden valley of gold, a young inventor faces treacherous Arctic ice, rival sabotage, and desperate survival in his quest for wealth.
Twenty-six and One, and Other Stories
Maksim Gorky
The wanderer’s heart, hardened by the harsh realities of the Russian steppes and the waterfront, finds no solace in the structures of society. These tales map the desperate, beautiful struggle for dignity among the dispossessed.
Vanity, All Is Vanity: A Lecture on Tobacco and its effects
Unknown
This lecture serves as a fervent, nineteenth-century diatribe against the consumption of tobacco, framing the habit as a moral and physical catastrophe that enslaves the soul and degrades the human intellect.
Vinzi: A Story of the Swiss Alps
Johanna Spyri
HOOK A young boy finds his true calling in the resonance of mountain music, despite his father’s desperate wish for him to become a simple farmer.
Wild Adventures round the Pole
Gordon Stables
Driven by the romantic spirit of adventure, a band of spirited companions journeys toward the Arctic, facing ice, pirates, and the haunting solitude of the frozen north.