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All free summaries — page 676
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 676 of 714.
The Briary Bush: A Novel
Floyd Dell
The briary bush of the title is a metaphor for the thorns of early adulthood and the complexities of a marriage built on high-minded ideals rather than domestic reality.
The Brooklyn murders
G. D. H. (George Douglas Howard) Cole
An aging theatrical titan’s birthday celebration ends in carnage, pulling his niece and her resourceful partner into a labyrinthine investigation where the obvious clues are the most dangerous deceptions.
The Cabala
Thornton Wilder
The story of an impressionable young American finding his footing among the ruins and high society of post-World War I Rome, this novel explores the fragile intersection of ancient tradition and human frailty.
The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows
Margaret Vandercook
HOOK In the quiet, snow-swept hills of New Hampshire, a group of young women attempts to build a life of self-reliance, service, and sisterhood within the walls of a rustic mountain cabin.
The Canadian Commonwealth
Agnes C. Laut
Canada stands at a crossroads of destiny, transitioning from a vast, rugged frontier into a modern industrial power while grappling with its identity as a young nation.
The Cat's Paw
Natalie Sumner Lincoln
A high-society murder in Washington, D.C., unravels a web of greed, hidden wills, and deadly secrets. Two lovers must outpace a cunning killer to clear their names and secure their future.
The Colonists
Raymond F. Jones
The search for the perfect colonist leads not to the desperate or the criminal, but to those with the courage to build anew without the need to flee the old.
The Count of Nideck: adapted from the French of Erckmann-Chartrian
Erckmann-Chatrian
A physician arrives at a remote, snow-bound castle only to find his patient—the formidable Count of Nideck—plagued by a haunting, bestial madness that defies medical explanation. This dark, gothic mystery pulls the reader into the heart of the Black Forest, where ancient bloodlines and spectral legends converge.
The Country House (with Designs)
Alexis de Châteauneuf
An architectural treatise framed as an intimate correspondence, this work explores the marriage of classical design, landscape harmony, and interior refinement in the creation of an ideal English country home.
The Cruise of the Make-Believes
Tom Gallon
The wealthy Gilbert Byfield creates an elaborate, artificial fairy tale to rescue a young woman from poverty, only to find that the boundary between performance and reality is dangerous to cross.
The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act: An Appeal To The Legislators Of Massachusetts, Anti-Slavery Tracts No. 9
Lydia Maria Child
The truth of heaven is often committed to voices deemed feeble, and such a voice here demands an end to the moral compromise of a state acting as a handmaid to human bondage.
The Essentials of Logic, Being Ten Lectures on Judgment and Inference
Bernard Bosanquet
Logic is not a dry exercise in symbols, but the living architecture of how we understand the world. By examining the bridge between our inner thoughts and external reality, this work reveals how human judgment constructs the very fabric of our knowledge.
The Fight for Constantinople: A Story of the Gallipoli Peninsula
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
A young naval officer finds himself behind enemy lines during the Gallipoli campaign, embarking on a high-stakes race to survive and disrupt the German and Turkish defenses.
The Flemmings and "Flash Harry" of Savait: From "The Strange Adventure of James Shervinton, and Other Stories" - 1902
Louis Becke
This collection offers a gritty, firsthand glimpse into the lawless frontier of the late 19th-century Pacific, where survival hinges on grit, navigation, and the shifting loyalties of island life.
The Gentleman Who Vanished: A Psychological Phantasy
Fergus Hume
A man commits a murder, then vanishes into a stolen body to escape the law. But the soul he inhabits is trapped in a web of occult secrets and a treacherous valet’s blackmail.
The Gnomes of the Saline Mountains: A Fantastic Narrative
Anna Goldmark Gross
A collection of melancholic, atmospheric tales explores the intersection of love, class, and the crushing weight of social ambition in the early twentieth century.
The Golden Amazons of Venus
John Murray Reynolds
A stranded explorer encounters a civilization of warrior women on a cloud-veiled Venus, only to find himself embroiled in an ancient prophecy of destruction and a war against reptilian invaders.
The Hawthorne: A Christmas and New Years Present
Unknown
This collection of mid-19th-century tales serves as a moral compass for the young, using the innocence of flowers and children to mirror the virtues of duty, resilience, and faith. It gathers disparate domestic dramas and historical sketches into a single, cohesive volume intended for holiday gifting.
The history of the London Burkers: Containing a faithful and authentic account of the horrid acts of the noted Resurrectionists, Bishop, Williams, May, etc., etc., and their trial and condemnation at the Old Bailey for the wilful murder of Carlo Ferrari, with the criminals' confessions after trial. Including also the life, character, and behaviour of the atrocious Eliza Ross, the murderer of Mrs. Walsh, etc., etc
Anonymous
The gallows-tree and the dissecting table collide in this grim chronicle of London’s illicit trade in human remains. It documents the desperate, bloody era when the demand for anatomical subjects fueled a series of cold-blooded murders.
The Laird of Norlaw
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
The house of Norlaw stands beneath the ancient Eildon hills, a modest dwelling burdened by the shadow of a ruined, silent castle and the weight of a family’s vanished prosperity. It is a story of endurance, where brothers strive to restore a fallen name and mothers hold fast to their own through the long, quiet…
The last spike, and other railroad stories
Cy Warman
The iron horse barrels across the American frontier, carrying the hopes of a nation and the grit of the men who built its path. These stories capture the dust, the steam, and the relentless drive of a mechanical age.
The Little Red Chimney: Being the Love Story of a Candy Man
Mary Finley Leonard
The Candy Man’s secret life begins with an act of kindness, but his true fortune lies in a chance encounter with a girl who dreams of playing fairy godmother to the world.
The Missionary: An Indian Tale
Morgan, Sydney, Lady
A story of clashing faiths and irrepressible human longing, this narrative follows a Portuguese missionary and an Indian priestess whose forbidden connection threatens to dismantle both their worlds. It is a work that captures the precarious threshold between absolute conviction and the vulnerabilities of the heart.
The Morality of Woman, and Other Essays
Ellen Key
A collection of essays on the evolution of woman’s role, this work argues that true morality in relationships must stem from love rather than legal or social dogma. It challenges the conventional structures of the early twentieth century, insisting that an individual’s integrity is the only foundation for a…
The Motor Boat Club off Long Island
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
The Rocket, a sixty-foot motor cruiser, serves as the nerve center for a high-stakes battle between cunning financiers and the young, resourceful mariners who pilot them through dangerous coastal waters.
The Mystery of the Fires
Edith Lavell
HOOK A young girl detective spends her summer vacation untangling a series of suspicious blazes, only to find herself trapped in a nightmare of mistaken identity that threatens to silence her investigation forever.
The old English dramatists
James Russell Lowell
This collection of lectures explores the immense, untamed genius of the Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights, inviting readers to rediscover a foundational era of English literature through a lens of deep, personal appreciation.
The Other Side of the Door
Lucia Chamberlain
The city of San Francisco is a place of fog, shifting sand, and restless tides, where a young woman’s testimony in a sensational murder trial upends her quiet life. This atmospheric mystery blurs the line between public reputation and private truth.
The Princess of Bagdad: A Play In Three Acts
Alexandre Dumas
A woman’s reckless spending and a millionaire’s calculated obsession collide in a high-stakes drama of debt, reputation, and the fragile bonds of marriage. This play traces the unraveling of a household as its inhabitants face the consequences of a life built on illusion.
The Rebel Chief: A Tale of Guerilla Life
Gustave Aimard
The wild mountains of Mexico serve as the stage for a sprawling, high-stakes game of political intrigue and personal vengeance. A desperate struggle for legacy and survival unfolds against a backdrop of shifting loyalties and revolutionary upheaval.
The Rim of the Desert
Ada Woodruff Anderson
The landscape of the Pacific Northwest and the rugged, unmapped wilderness of Alaska collide in this expansive tale of duty, reputation, and the enduring pull of the frontier.
The Romance of a Poor Young Man: A Drama Adapted from the French of Octave Feuillet
Octave Feuillet
The tale of a disgraced aristocrat who trades his title for a steward’s uniform to support his sister, this classic drama captures the quiet dignity of a man navigating a world that mistakes his poverty for malice. It is a story of endurance, misunderstanding, and the eventual triumph of character over circumstance.
The Rover
Joseph Conrad
A weathered mariner returns to his native shores during the Napoleonic Wars, only to find his final, quiet vigil transformed into a desperate gamble for the lives of those he has come to love.
The Sea Monarch
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
A rogue vessel of impossible power emerges from the fog, forcing a young naval officer to choose between his duty to the Crown and a front-row seat to the future of maritime warfare.
The Sia: (1894 N 11 / 1889-1890 (pages 3-158))
Matilda Coxe Stevenson
This foundational ethnographic study documents the complex religious life, social structure, and intricate cosmogony of the Zia Pueblo people at the close of the nineteenth century.
The Simpkins Plot
George A. Birmingham
The arrival of a stranger in a quiet Irish village triggers an elaborate, absurd, and well-intentioned campaign of social engineering that spirals rapidly out of control.
The storm of London: a social rhapsody
Fernande Blaze de Bury
When London is suddenly stripped of every garment, the city’s rigid social hierarchies dissolve, forcing an entire population to face the raw, unadorned reality of their own humanity.
The story of chamber music
N. (Nicholas) Kilburn
Chamber music offers an intimate, infinite variety of expression, proving that the most profound musical experiences often arise from the slenderest of means. This guide serves as an essential survey for those seeking to understand the historical evolution and enduring appeal of small-ensemble performance.
The Thin Santa Claus: The Chicken Yard That Was a Christmas Stocking
Ellis Parker Butler
A widow discovers a small fortune in her chicken coop on Christmas morning, only to be visited by a desperate, suspicious stranger claiming to be a health inspector.
The Time Mirror
Clark South
This is a brisk, high-stakes science fiction adventure centered on the struggle to reclaim a stolen life from the clutches of time. It explores the intersection of obsession, scientific ingenuity, and the weight of history.
The traitor's way
S. (Sidney) Levett Yeats
This historical narrative explores the psychological decay of a man who chooses betrayal over honor during the volatile religious and political conflicts of 16th-century France. It captures the heavy atmosphere of a nation caught between warring factions, shifting loyalties, and the personal ruin of a nobleman who…
The treasure of Mushroom Rock
Sidford F. (Sidford Frederick) Hamp
Two English schoolboys flee their boarding school to seek their fortune in the American West, only to find themselves ensnared in a desperate struggle for survival against rugged terrain and ruthless outlaws.
The Velvet Glove
Harry Harrison
In a future where the law acknowledges equality but society remains deeply prejudiced, a displaced robot must navigate a web of exploitation and crime to survive. This tense, inventive narrative explores the intersection of systemic bias, labor, and underground resistance through the eyes of a machine struggling…
The Woman & the Priest
Grazia Deledda
A young priest struggles against a forbidden love and the crushing weight of his mother’s devotion. In the remote Sardinian hills, a private moral crisis unfolds into a devastating, inevitable tragedy.
The World in Chains: Some Aspects of War and Trade
John Mavrogordato
War is often framed as a clash of national ideals, but this analysis argues that its true engine is the cynical, borderless machinery of international trade and private profit.
The Wreckers
Francis Lynde
An honest railroad executive struggles to modernize a corrupt Western line while dodging sabotage, political intrigue, and a ruthless syndicate determined to ruin his reputation and his life.
Theology and the Social Consciousness: A Study of the Relations of the Social Consciousness to Theology (2nd ed.)
Henry Churchill King
The growing sense of human interconnectedness acts as a mirror for faith, demanding that religious doctrine evolve to reflect the sacredness of the individual and the fundamental reality of human brotherhood.
Throne-Makers
William Roscoe Thayer
These biographical portraits examine the nineteenth-century "throne-makers"—the powerful individuals whose outsized influence reshaped European nations and defined the political landscape of their era.