Free summaries
American Literature — page 39
3,609 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 39 of 76.
Marjorie's Three Gifts
Louisa May Alcott
A young girl’s birthday creates a quiet magic in her humble home, while an act of impulsive kindness years earlier blossoms into a lifelong bond of gratitude and grace.
Mermaid
Grant M. (Grant Martin) Overton
HOOK Born of a shipwreck and raised by the rugged men of a Coast Guard station, a mysterious young woman named Mermaid finds her life intertwined with the secrets of a bitter, vengeful sea captain.
Phases of an Inferior Planet
Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
Hook An ambitious intellectual and a vibrant, restless woman collide in the gray streets of New York, testing whether love can survive the crushing weight of poverty and shifting personal ideals.
Sevenoaks: A Story of Today
J. G. (Josiah Gilbert) Holland
A manipulative industrialist learns that power bought through deceit offers no sanctuary, as those he discarded in his climb to the top eventually weave a net of justice around his hollow empire.
The Comstock Club
C. C. (Charles Carroll) Goodwin
This exploration of the American frontier transcends the typical myth of the rough-hewn prospector, revealing instead the quiet intellectualism and deep, hidden nobility of men living on the edge of the wilderness.
The Flag of My Country = Shikéyah Bidah Na'at'a'í
Cecil S. King
A Navajo boy bridges two worlds, using the American flag as a symbolic tether between his traditional life on the reservation and his future in an expanded, modern society.
The Paliser case
Edgar Saltus
The murder of a wealthy, idle socialite triggers a scandal that exposes the hollow morality of New York’s elite. What begins as a tabloid sensation spirals into a web of broken engagements, fraudulent weddings, and lethal secrets.
The Rise of Roscoe Paine
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
The sea-battered shores of Cape Cod serve as the backdrop for a quiet collision between entrenched local pride and the brash, intrusive wealth of the city. A solitary man guarding his independence finds himself at the center of a storm he never sought.
Wild Oranges
Joseph Hergesheimer
The stillness of a stagnant bay serves as the stage for a haunting collision between a solitary voyager and a woman trapped in the decaying shadow of her father’s past.
Better days
Thomas Fitch
The age of industry meets the dream of a perfected society in this sprawling, idealistic tale of sudden wealth and sweeping reform.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Lion and the Mouse: A Story of American Life
Charles Klein
This drama of conscience explores the collision between unchecked corporate power and the moral obligations of the individual, centering on a young woman’s battle to redeem her disgraced father.
The Staircase At The Heart's Delight: 1894
Anna Katharine Green
A nameless young detective confronts a lethal urban conspiracy, risking his life to navigate a hidden mechanism of death. He survives a plunge into the icy river to expose a criminal enterprise operating in the shadows of 1840s New York.
The Wasted Generation
Owen Johnson
In this intimate, searching chronicle, a soldier finds himself caught between the wreckage of his past and the terrifying, transformative necessity of a nation at war. It is a quiet meditation on the high cost of finding one’s way.
Barren Ground
Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
The girl in the orange shawl stands at the threshold of a life defined by the stubborn, broomsedge-choked soil of rural Virginia. She discovers that while love is a fragile spark, the land demands an iron-willed endurance.
Beggars
W. H. (William Henry) Davies
The professional beggar is a craftsman of the road, balancing impudence, wit, and a peculiar brand of freedom against the harsh realities of the lodging-house. This exploration of vagrancy reveals the stark divide between the bold, enterprising American tramp and the timid, struggling English counterpart.
Betty's Happy Year
Carolyn Wells
The spirited daughter of a formerly impoverished family navigates the social complexities of the well-to-do, balancing her natural, impulsive kindness against the rigid expectations of her wealthy relatives.
Brain Twister
Randall Garrett
In this satirical mystery, an FBI agent tasked with finding a telepathic spy discovers that the most powerful mind in the country is trapped in a mental institution under the delusion that she is Queen Elizabeth I.
Daisy Brooks
Laura Jean Libbey
This melodrama traces the harrowing plight of a guileless orphan caught in the machinations of a jealous socialite. It remains a quintessential artifact of the 19th-century American dime novel, where high-stakes romance and villainous intrigue collide in a race against fate.
Emmy Lou: Her Book and Heart
George Madden Martin
The world of a child is a mysterious, rigid, and often baffling place where authority is absolute and logic is rarely what it seems. This quiet, observant chronicle captures the authentic bewilderment of growing up.
John Marsh's Millions
Charles Klein
Inheritance and the predatory reach of the law collide in this dramatic tale of a young woman fighting to reclaim her fortune from corrupt guardians. It is a story of moral awakening, set against the backdrop of New York’s gilded social circles and the harsh realities of institutional power.
John Smith's Funny Adventures on a Crutch: Or The Remarkable Peregrinations of a One-legged Soldier after the War
A. F. (Ashbel Fairchild) Hill
A one-legged Civil War veteran wanders post-war America, navigating the awkward collision of his own sardonic humor, his physical disability, and a public that alternates between profound generosity and baffling insensitivity.
Nine Short Essays
Charles Dudley Warner
These essays capture a singular mind reflecting on the substance of art, the habits of history, and the quiet weight of national memory. They offer a refined, observational tour through the cultural landscapes of the nineteenth century.
Rough and Ready
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
The narrative follows a resilient, self-reliant orphan navigating the unforgiving streets of 19th-century New York. Through grit and a series of fortunate encounters, he secures a future far beyond his humble beginnings.
Sea and Shore: A Sequel to "Miriam's Memoirs"
Catherine A. (Catherine Ann) Warfield
This gripping sequel follows a woman’s harrowing journey from a catastrophic shipwreck to an agonizing, mysterious imprisonment. It is a dark, atmospheric tale of survival, endurance, and the triumph of the human spirit over calculated malice.
Stories of a Western Town
Octave Thanet
A small Western town pulses with the ambitions and anxieties of those building a new world on the edge of the frontier. This collection captures the intersection of hard-won decency and the relentless push of progress.
That Pup
Ellis Parker Butler
A man receives an unexpected dog in the mail and spends the rest of his life trying to give it away, triggering a series of absurd, escalating experiments by his meddlesome neighbors.
The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: With the Reports of Congress, and a Description of All Telegraphs Known, Employing Electricity or Galvanism
Alfred Vail
Lightning is harnessed to carry human intelligence across vast distances, transforming the silent transmission of thought into a mechanical reality. This record captures the precise moment humanity conquered time and space through electrical communication.
The Gray Dawn
Stewart Edward White
The frontier spirit finds its moral anchor in a city built on sand, where shifting loyalties and the weight of history test the mettle of those who call the lawless border home.
The Liberty Girl
Rena I. Halsey
A spirited teenager channels her patriotic fervor into community service during the First World War, discovering that even a quiet mountain retreat can become the theater for life-changing heroism and long-hidden family secrets.
The Lost Despatch
Natalie Sumner Lincoln
HOOK A young woman is caught in the crossfire of Civil War espionage, finding herself trapped in a web of shifting loyalties, accusations of murder, and a race to clear her name before the war’s final days.
The Mentor: American Miniature Painters, January 15, 1917, Serial No. 123
Elizabeth Lounsbery
This historical survey examines the delicate, exacting craft of miniature portraiture in America, tracing its evolution from colonial necessity to a refined art form preserved on ivory.
Walter Sherwood's Probation
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
Thrown out of college after his fortune vanishes, a pampered student discovers that true worth is earned, not inherited, through a rugged year of self-reliance on the American frontier.
Americans and Others
Agnes Repplier
A brisk, sharp-witted tour through the social expectations, small vexations, and quiet joys of daily life at the turn of the twentieth century.
Elsie's children
Martha Finley
A mother’s steady hand guides her family through life’s inevitable storms, proving that kindness and faith are the surest anchors in an unpredictable world.
Frances Waldeaux: A Novel
Rebecca Harding Davis
A doting mother’s secret life as a satirical writer funds her son’s lofty, pampered existence, only for her illusions to shatter when he marries into a dark, foreign past.
Gloria and Treeless Street
Annie Hamilton Donnell
A sheltered young heiress discovers a decrepit tenement street and resolves to fix it, only to learn that her own inherited wealth is the source of the misery she seeks to cure.
McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, October 1893
Various
This issue of a prominent late-Victorian periodical offers a wide-ranging survey of the intellectual and social currents defining the 1890s, blending political biography with emerging scientific inquiry and historical storytelling.
One Man's Initiation—1917
John Dos Passos
The innocence of a young man meets the machine-like devastation of the First World War in this haunting, impressionistic chronicle of a volunteer ambulance driver. It is a stark, unadorned meditation on how the machinery of global conflict systematically strips away the illusions of a generation.
Patty's Summer Days
Carolyn Wells
A spirited teenager navigates the social whirlwind of a busy household, finding joy in the simple pleasures of a long, sun-drenched summer of friendship and discovery.
Potash and Perlmutter Settle Things
Montague Glass
Two garment-trade partners navigate the bewildering landscape of post-WWI diplomacy, applying the sharp, pragmatic logic of the New York business world to the grand, often incomprehensible stage of international peace negotiations.
Real Folks
A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney
HOOK This story explores the quiet, often overlooked connections that turn a collection of houses into a genuine community. It finds the extraordinary in the everyday lives of those who choose to live with intention.
The Children's Own Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This collection gathers the most enduring verses of a celebrated nineteenth-century American poet, serving as an accessible introduction to the rhythmic storytelling and moral clarity that defined his literary legacy. It offers readers a window into a bygone era of American verse, where history, folklore, and the…
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 11: Antepenultimata
Ambrose Bierce
The nineteenth-century satirist turns his gaze toward the fraying fabric of American life, offering a collection of essays that dissects the political, social, and moral decay of a nation rushing toward its own obsolescence.
The Haunted Pajamas
Francis Perry Elliott
A gentleman’s mundane life is upended by a mysterious, unwanted gift from China that triggers a series of surreal, identity-blurring transformations.