Free summaries
General — page 2
143 public-domain general books, summarised. Page 2 of 3.
Civilization and its discontents
Sigmund Freud
Civilization is a profound, uneasy pact: humans trade their primitive instinctual freedom for the relative security of communal life, only to find that this exchange breeds a permanent, unavoidable sense of unhappiness and guilt.
The facts about rejuvenation
Morris Fishbein
The quest for eternal youth is a perennial human folly, and this investigation serves as a sharp, clinical correction to the snake-oil promises that frequently exploit the aging and the desperate.
How to read and correct proof
Lloyd E. (Lloyd Edwin) Smith
To catch the minute errors that evade the casual reader, one must cultivate a patient, trained mind and a relentless eye for detail. This guide reveals how the professional corrector ensures that what reaches the page is as accurate as humanly possible.
Select letters of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
The Atlantic becomes a bridge between worlds in these dispatches, where the wonder of new horizons collides with the encroaching shadows of political betrayal and personal ruin.
Outline of Mexican popular arts and crafts
Katherine Anne Porter
Deep within the Mexican craftsman lives an ancient, unbroken impulse to shape utility into beauty, merging indigenous soul with foreign influence into an enduring personal diary.
Oscar Wilde in outline
Charles Joseph Finger
A provocative stylist challenges Victorian complacency with biting paradox, proving that beneath his sparkling superficiality lies a rigorous, deeply intentional critique of modern society.
The German Arctic expedition of 1869-70, and narrative of the wreck of the "Hansa" in the ice
Karl Koldewey
Bound for the high north in 1869, two German ships set out to conquer the Arctic ice, only to find their destinies shattered and divided in a perilous struggle for survival against the frozen sea.
American honey plants
Frank C. (Frank Chapman) Pellett
Across North America’s meadows, swamps, and forests, the survival of honeybee colonies and the yield of sweet surplus rest on a vast, intricate carpet of nectar-bearing flora.
Whalers and whaling
E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton
A chronicle of the peril, industry, and changing technology that defined the global hunt for leviathans, from the hazardous era of wooden sailing ships to the rise of modern steam-powered fleets.
The Little Review, October 1917 (Vol. 4, No. 6)
Various
This October 1917 edition of a pioneering literary magazine captures the sharp, defiant spirit of international modernism at the height of the First World War. It serves as a vital artifact of a moment when experimental art met global catastrophe.
A brief grammar of the Portuguese language with exercises and vocabularies
John Casper Branner
Mastering the Portuguese language requires navigating both its structured grammar and its living, regional variations. This instructional volume serves as a practical, foundational guide for English speakers seeking to gain a working command of the tongue.
Collected works of Padraic H. Pearse
Padraic Pearse
Sacrifice and uncompromising devotion shape this urgent collection of political writings and speeches. Padraic H. Pearse outlines a revolutionary vision designed to break foreign rule and spark a national rebirth through total dedication to complete independence.
Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 2 (of 2)
Arthur Cleveland Bent
Across rocky coastlines, windswept tundra, and vast prairie marshes, wild shorebirds journey thousands of miles along fragile avian highways.
The life of John Eliot
Nehemiah Adams
An early American minister braves the New England wilderness to translate the Bible into an indigenous tongue, bridging two distant worlds through patient devotion.
Figure piping
Russell, F., M.C.A.
This specialized guide introduces the intricate, decorative craft of "figure piping"—the art of using icing to create detailed, illustrative scenes on cakes and confectionery. It serves as a practical manual for ambitious bakers seeking to elevate their work through artistic representation.
Gestalt psychology
Wolfgang Köhler
Perception is not a collection of isolated sensations, but an organized whole where mind and environment actively shape one another.
![Cover of Believe it or not! [1929]](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/believe-it-or-not-1929-robert-l-robert-leroy-ripley.webp)
Believe it or not! [1929]
Robert L. (Robert LeRoy) Ripley
Across the globe, human history and nature conspire to produce realities far stranger than any fiction writer could credibly invent.
The natural history of ants
P. (Pierre) Huber
Tiny, relentless architects build subterranean fortresses, wage planned wars, and draft neighboring populations to keep their empires alive.
The psychology of Jung
James Oppenheim
A mind fractured by internal division seeks a framework capable of restoring wholeness beyond the reach of physical medicine.
A book of European statistics
Leo Markun
Numerical snapshots capture a continent suspended between the devastation of a global conflict and the quiet build-up toward another. Tables of wheat, warships, and telephone wires reveal the architecture of interwar Europe.
Memorials of old Nottinghamshire
Unknown
A landscape of ancient oaks, stone spires, and shifting riverbeds holds the memory of a county's forgotten craftsmen and sudden wars.
The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory
Max Planck
This narrative traces the birth of a revolutionary physical concept from the quiet rigor of thermodynamic research to the explosion of modern atomic theory. It is a humble, precise account of how one investigator’s pursuit of a simple radiation formula inadvertently shattered the foundations of classical physics.
How to conquer stupidity
Leo Markun
To act foolishly is a universal human trait, yet we routinely mistake unexamined habits, emotional impulses, and superficial credentials for fixed intelligence. Overcoming our daily lapses requires treating clear thinking not as an innate gift, but as a deliberate discipline.
The wandering Jew
Moncure Daniel Conway
The legend of the immortal wanderer serves as a mirror reflecting the evolving fears, prejudices, and moral aspirations of humanity across the centuries. It traces the transformation of an ancient folktale into a modern critique of dogma.
Cagliostro
W. R. H. (William Rutherford Hayes) Trowbridge
A complex portrait of an eighteenth-century occultist, this study dismantles the myth of a grand impostor to reveal a man caught between his own performative vanity and the brutal, shifting politics of pre-revolutionary Europe.
The book of talismans, amulets, and zodiacal gems
William Thomas Pavitt
This guide explores the historical and mystical significance of talismans, amulets, and zodiacal gems, mapping how ancient symbols and planetary alignments have long been believed to influence human fortune and character.
Romantic castles and palaces
Unknown
Stone walls hold the echoes of history, from the silent gaze of a watchful Doge to the iron-willed ambition of a Medici prince, revealing how architecture mirrors the turbulence of human power.
Mysteria
Otto Henne am Rhyn
A quiet hunger for secrecy drives human history. Otto Henne am Rhyn traces how esoteric rites, hidden orders, and mystical dogmas evolved from ancient temple sanctuaries into modern political fraternities.
Theory and practice of the confessional
Caspar E. (Caspar Erich) Schieler
A judge, shepherd, physician, and father must walk a narrow, delicate line between absolute canonical rigor and profound human mercy.
The homosexual in literature
Noel I. Garde
A pioneering 1959 reference work maps over two thousand years of gay literary representation, providing an meticulous blueprint of how male homosexuality moved from classical shadows into modern print.
Holbein's "Ambassadors", the picture and the men
Mary F. S. (Mary Frederica Sophia) Hervey
Through the lens of a single, enigmatic masterpiece, this historical investigation reconstructs the fractured political world of the sixteenth century, revealing the intellectual lives of two French diplomats caught between art, faith, and duty.
The art of the Saracens in Egypt
Stanley Lane-Poole
This authoritative survey illuminates the architectural and decorative splendor of medieval Cairo, revealing a world where art and governance were inextricably linked. It offers a meticulous examination of a civilization that transformed stone, metal, and silk into enduring symbols of power.
Duval's artistic anatomy
Mathias Duval
An essential guide for the visual artist, this volume bridges the gap between cold anatomical science and the expressive, living form of the human figure. It provides a foundational understanding of how internal structure dictates surface appearance.
The education of the women of India
Minna G. (Minna Galbraith) Cowan
The education of women in early 20th-century India serves as a complex crucible where ancient customs, colonial governance, and missionary ambition collide. This study offers a candid glimpse into the systemic hurdles and the quiet, persistent figures driving change across a diverse, rapidly evolving landscape.
Narrative of the operations and recent discoveries within the pyramids, temples, tombs and excavations in Egypt and Nubia
Giovanni Battista Belzoni
A towering Italian circus strongman travels to 19th-century Egypt, pitilessly battling desert sands, Turkish intrigue, and relentless rivals to exhume the lost treasures of the Pharaohs.
Bibliography of the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy
W. H. (William Henry) Wyman
The question of who truly authored the greatest works in the English language remains a stubborn ghost in the machine of literary history. This comprehensive record tracks the rise of the Baconian theory, documenting the intellectual skirmishes between those who uphold Shakespeare’s identity and those who perceive…
Is man a free agent?
James Hawthorne Loryea
The mechanical nature of human choice is the central inquiry of this work. It proposes that what we call free will is actually a series of reflexive responses to environmental cues.
Napoleon and Josephine
Walter Geer
The rise and fall of the French Empire is mirrored in the volatile, enduring, and ultimately tragic union between a Corsican soldier and a Creole widow.
Technique of modern tactics
P. S. (Paul Stanley) Bond
Before a single shot rings out, battles are won or lost in the quiet logic of distance, road space, and written orders.
Bolivia
Marie Robinson Wright
A multi-faceted portrait of a South American republic at a pivotal turning point, blending rich historical analysis, travel observation, and economic evaluation.
Poison mysteries in history, romance and crime
C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel) Thompson
A drop of hemlock, a pinch of white arsenic, or a stray phial of bacteria: the history of human malice is written in quiet, tasteless lethal doses.
The Sultanate of Bornu
Arnold Schultze
The ancient Bornu Empire, once a dominant force in Central Africa, struggles to maintain its identity against the encroaching colonial powers of the early twentieth century. This detailed monograph captures a pivotal moment of transition for a storied, sophisticated state.
Christmas in Storyland
Unknown
This collection of holiday fiction serves as a gentle time capsule, gathering stories from the early twentieth century that capture the wonder, simplicity, and moral earnestness of a bygone Christmas.
Studies of chess : Containing Caïssa, a poem, by Sir William Jones
F. D. (François Danican) Philidor
This seminal guide to chess transforms the board into a rigorous gymnasium of the mind, blending poetic reverence for the game with the precise, cold calculations of a grandmaster.
Impressions of great naturalists
Henry Fairfield Osborn
Twelve remarkable observers of the natural world reveal how humility, patience, and absolute devotion to truth redefine the limits of human knowledge.
The Crown Jewels of England
G. J. (George John) Younghusband
A sacred assemblage of gold, gems, and embroidered robes embodies the endurance of an empire across centuries of turmoil and transformation.
The wilderness hunter
Theodore Roosevelt
The American frontier is a vanished world of vast horizons, where the hunter’s skill and the endurance of the land define the boundaries between civilization and the wild.
List of post offices in Canada, with the names of the postmasters ... 1870
Canada. Post Office Department
This administrative directory preserves the vital infrastructure of 1870 Canada, mapping the precise reach of a national postal network that connected burgeoning settlements across a vast and rugged landscape.