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All free summaries — page 565
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 565 of 714.

Time out for redheads
Miriam Allen De Ford
HOOK A lonely ticket-seller for a time-travel agency accidentally flees to the past after witnessing a gruesome murder, only to discover that the terrifying crime was not what it seemed.

Under King Henry's Banners: A story of the days of Agincourt
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
Young Geoffrey Lysle, a squire of noble birth, embarks on a perilous quest across the English Channel to rescue his captive father from the clutches of a treacherous Norman baron on the eve of the historic Battle of Agincourt.

Vacuum cleaning systems
M. S. (Maxwell Stephens) Cooley
Vacuum cleaning systems are a vital, often overlooked component of modern building maintenance that demand both engineering precision and architectural foresight. This technical treatise outlines the rigorous requirements for designing effective, long-lasting mechanical cleaning installations for homes and large…

Venereal Diseases in New Zealand (1922): Report of the Special Committee of the Board of Health appointed by the Hon. Minister of Health
New Zealand. Committee of the Board of Health
This official government inquiry provides a stark, unvarnished look at the public health crisis of sexually transmitted diseases in early 20th-century New Zealand. It serves as both a clinical breakdown of the problem and a blueprint for social and legislative reform.

Voyage To Eternity
Stephen Marlowe
The future is a game of high-stakes attrition where those selected for the mysterious "Nowhere Journey" never return, leaving behind only the ghosts of their former lives. This story explores the cost of survival in a universe governed by arbitrary, cold-blooded competition.

Washington and the Riddle of Peace
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
This collection of dispatches captures the raw, immediate struggle to forge a lasting peace in the wake of the First World War, serving as a time capsule of a world teetering between collapse and a new international order.

Waste: A Tragedy, In Four Acts
Harley Granville-Barker
A brilliant, arrogant politician faces the wreckage of his personal and public life after a fleeting affair leads to a tragic, illegal procedure.

Watersprings
Arthur Christopher Benson
A sequestered Cambridge don is forced to confront the narrowness of his own existence when he inherits a country estate and falls in love with a woman who challenges his carefully constructed detachment.

Westminster Sermons: with a Preface
Charles Kingsley
These sermons offer a vigorous, compassionate bridge between traditional faith and the burgeoning scientific discoveries of the nineteenth century, inviting readers to find divine order within the evolving physical world.

Will Warburton
George Gissing
A man of status is forced by ruin into the humble life of a shopkeeper, finding that the dignity he feared to lose is easily outweighed by the quiet truth of his own character.

Withered Leaves: A Novel. Vol. 1 (of 3)
Rudolf von Gottschall
A man of the world attempts to anchor his restless soul in a provincial romance, only to find his past and his present colliding beneath the shadow of a grand East Prussian estate.

You Should Worry Says John Henry
George V. (George Vere) Hobart
A sharp-tongued New Yorker navigates the absurdities of high-society fads and domestic mishaps with a cynical wit that keeps his life—and his dignity—from unraveling entirely.

A Boy Trooper with Sheridan
Stanton P. Allen
The path to the front is paved with broken promises and heavy gear, but the journey home reveals the true weight of a soldier’s sacrifice. This account captures the raw, unvarnished reality of a teenager’s enlistment in the Union cavalry.

A Dominie's Log
Alexander Sutherland Neill
A young teacher finds his voice by turning his private journal into a daring critique of the rigid, joyless schooling system that stifles the children in his care.

A Fluttered Dovecote
George Manville Fenn
A self-described "virgin and martyr" records her frantic, romantic, and often disastrous year at a girls' finishing school. This narrative offers a sharp, humorous look at the absurdities of nineteenth-century adolescence and the stifling atmosphere of a "finishing establishment.

A Little Girl in Old Pittsburg
Amanda M. Douglas
A young girl grows up amidst the rugged beauty and shifting fortunes of a frontier settlement, navigating the complexities of family, identity, and the unsettling transitions of the heart.

A Lover's Complaint
William Shakespeare
A young woman sits alone in the wilderness, mourning the deception of a charismatic suitor. Her story is a confession of how easily even a guarded heart can be dismantled by the masterful performance of desire.

A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."
Gideon Algernon Mantell
Nature writes its own history in the language of fossils, recording the existence of vanished worlds within the silent strata of the earth. This comprehensive atlas presents a meticulous visual catalog of those deep-time inscriptions.

A Volunteer Poilu
Henry Beston
The brutal, quiet intimacy of the front line reveals the strange endurance of the human spirit in the face of industrial-scale destruction.

Addresses on the Revised Version of Holy Scripture
C. J. (Charles John) Ellicott
This collection of addresses serves as a formal, historical argument for the adoption of the Revised Version of the Holy Scriptures within the public worship of the Church of England.

An Essay on Mediæval Economic Teaching
George O'Brien
Modern economic life often feels detached from morality, but centuries ago, a unified framework of law and ethics governed every transaction. This study examines that forgotten, rigorous system.

An island garden
Celia Thaxter
A secluded island garden becomes a sanctuary of beauty and memory, where the quiet labor of cultivation transforms rugged coastal soil into a living testament of joy.

Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, November 1898: Volume 54, November 1898
Various
This volume gathers an expansive collection of scientific reports, philosophical inquiries, and institutional critiques defining the intellectual landscape of late nineteenth-century thought. It serves as a comprehensive snapshot of a world increasingly driven by industrial precision and evolving social theories.

Around the Yule Log
Willis Boyd Allen
HOOK The Yule log glows, and with it comes a tapestry of winter tales where the spirit of Christmas turns the bitter cold of human sorrow into the warmth of unexpected grace.

At home in Fiji
C. F. (Constance Frederica) Gordon Cumming
In the late nineteenth century, a keen observer records her immersion into a rapidly shifting Pacific world, documenting the delicate intersection of colonial administration, missionary zeal, and indigenous tradition. These notes capture a vanishing landscape with the observant eye of a traveler finding beauty in…

Aus meinem Königreich: Tales from the Carpathian Mountains
Carmen Sylva
In these lyrical tales, the rugged peaks of the Carpathians serve as a theater where ancient folklore and the harsh realities of history collide. They capture a vanishing world of mountain spirits, lost kingdoms, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.

Avril: Being Essays on the Poetry of the French Renaissance
Hilaire Belloc
These essays recover the lost vitality of the French Renaissance, tracing a vibrant lineage of poets from the medieval shadows of the fifteenth century to the rigid, polished brilliance of the classical era.

"Back from hell"
Samuel Cranston Benson
A former pacifist crosses the Atlantic to witness the ravages of the Great War, eventually finding himself caught behind enemy lines and accused of espionage.

Bertrand of Brittany
Warwick Deeping
A disfigured, underestimated youth rises from obscurity to become a paragon of chivalry, risking his reputation and his very soul to protect the honor of those who once spurned him.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66, No 405, July 1849
Various
This Victorian periodical serves as a vibrant, opinionated time capsule, capturing the intellectual debates, literary preoccupations, and sharp political anxieties of mid-nineteenth-century Britain.

Buffalo Bill's big surprise
Prentiss Ingraham
A legendary frontiersman confronts outlaws and supernatural rumors in this fast-paced tale of the American West, where every mystery is eventually solved by a well-placed bullet.

Canterbury
William Danks
The mother-city of English Christianity holds a treasure of history in her ancient streets and cathedral stones, waiting for those who seek the echoes of a vanishing world.

Ceres' Runaway, and Other Essays
Alice Meynell
A collection of contemplative essays, this work explores the tension between human artifice and the natural world. It offers a refined, observant look at the quirks of language, childhood, and the rhythms of English life.

Churchwardens' Manual: their duties, powers, rights, and privilages
George Henry Sumner
This handbook serves as a definitive guide for the lay officers of the Church of England, outlining the legal framework and practical responsibilities required to manage parish affairs with precision and decorum.

Color problems
Emily Noyes Vanderpoel
This manual bridges the gap between scientific color theory and the practical needs of artists, decorators, and designers. It serves as a concise, illustrated guide to understanding how we perceive and combine color.

Common sense, how to exercise it
Yoritomo-Tashi
The most vital faculty for navigating life is not brilliance or raw talent, but the quiet, durable mastery of sound judgment.

Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying Cheap
J. Elliot (John Elliot) Ross
This work examines the moral weight carried by the ordinary shopper, arguing that purchasing cheap goods often implicates the buyer in the exploitation of vulnerable laborers. It transforms the act of consumption into an ethical crisis.

Cue for Quiet
T. L. Sherred
A factory worker discovers he possesses a terrifying, godlike ability to silence machines and stop engines with a mere thought. Suddenly, the most ordinary man in America becomes the world’s most dangerous and highly guarded secret.

Dealings with the Inquisition
Giacinto Achilli
A former high-ranking Dominican friar recounts his harrowing imprisonment by the Roman Inquisition and his subsequent break from the Church. This narrative serves as both a personal testament and a scathing critique of mid-nineteenth-century papal authority.

Delco Radio Owner's Manual Model 633
Delco-Remy Corporation
This technical guide provides the essential instructions for installing and maintaining a classic automotive radio system. It serves as a practical window into the mid-century intersection of mobile engineering and home entertainment.

Designs for Crazy Daisy Winder
Esther Parnell Hewlett
A world of delicate, interconnected floral motifs awaits those who look beyond simple needlework to the precision of the winder. This collection of patterns transforms humble thread into intricate, structural beauty.

Dixie Martin, the Girl of Woodford's Cañon
Grace May North
A determined young girl acts as a surrogate mother to her three orphaned siblings in the rugged Sierra Nevada, finding hope and unexpected allies in the shadow of a mountain winter.

Dust: A Novel
Julian Hawthorne
This narrative explores the intersection of ambition and identity in a bustling, post-Napoleonic London, where the sudden rise and fall of fortunes hinge on the shifting sands of social reputation and private morality.

Eve to the Rescue
Ethel Hueston
HOOK A headstrong young woman attempts to reform the world by rejecting the heavy burden of "duty," only to discover that life—and love—are rarely so simple.

First Person Paramount
Ambrose Pratt
A man of sharp intellect and few scruples invents a life of daring deception, finding that the most effective way to control his fate is to become someone else entirely. This is a tale of cold-blooded ambition, identity, and the high-stakes games played by those at the top of the social ladder.

George Borrow in East Anglia
William A. (William Alfred) Dutt
This study explores the life and stubborn spirit of a wanderer who found his soul in the wild heaths of East Anglia. It captures the essence of a man who belonged to the road, not the office.

Happy
Walter Flavius McCaleb
This narrative follows the life of a bee, charting its transformation from a larval state into a worker, explorer, and veteran of a hive’s complex social cycles. It is a meditation on duty, mortality, and the relentless pulse of the natural world.

Holinshed's Chronicles, vol. 1 of 6, slice 9 of 9. England, early history
Raphael Holinshed
The rise and fall of Anglo-Saxon England culminates in the dramatic clash at Hastings, a pivotal moment where divine judgment and human ambition rewrite the fate of a kingdom.