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All free summaries — page 169
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 169 of 988.
The Stock Exchange from Within
William C. (William Clarkson) Van Antwerp
In an era of relentless public suspicion and political hostility, a veteran broker steps forward to demystify the inner mechanics of the New York Stock Exchange and defend speculation as an essential engine of modern civilization.
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc
Alice Bertha Gomme
Children's street rhymes, ring games, and outdoor contests preserve the ancient customs, courtship rituals, and tribal conflicts of a bygone British world.
Callista
John Henry Newman
A young Greek idol-maker in third-century North Africa finds her weary, intellectual world upended when imperial edicts demand the blood of a local Christian community.
Legends of Ma-ui—a demi god of Polynesia, and of his mother Hina
W. D. (William Drake) Westervelt
Maui is a trickster of light and shadow, whose legendary deeds reshape the world—snaring the sun to slow its course, lifting the sky to make room for man, and pulling islands from the deep ocean floor.
Loss of the Steamship "Titanic"
Great Britain. Court to investigate loss of steamship "Titanic"
A rigorous forensic investigation reconstructs the final hours of an unlosable ocean liner with clinical precision, exposing how legal loopholes and human error converted a glancing blow into a historic catastrophe.
Mazes and Labyrinths: A General Account of Their History and Development
W. H. Matthews
A child's simple question on a sandy summer beach sparks a sweeping, meticulous journey across centuries, continents, and human culture to uncover the origin of mazes.
My Schools and Schoolmasters
Hugh Miller
A working-class stonemason explores the cliffs, quarries, and coastal wilderness of nineteenth-century Scotland, discovering that the true teachers of a human life extend far beyond the walls of any traditional classroom.
Noah Webster: American Men of Letters
Horace Elisha Scudder
Driven by a fierce, stubborn desire to free the new American republic from European intellectual control, a self-made patriot spends decades constructing the linguistic bedrock of a rising nation.
Over the Ocean
Curtis Guild
An observant American journalist sets out on a seven-month European tour, capturing the fine, vivid details that standard guidebooks routinely forget.
Practical taxidermy
Montagu Browne
True craft demands patient determination and a complete rejection of professional secrecy.
Shock and Awe
Harlan Ullman
A quick posture shift can shatter a foe's mental balance before the actual fighting begins.
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Streetwise tricksters, enchanted songstresses, and warring princes navigate a world where sheer cunning outwits the fate written for them.
Tales of the Samurai: Stories Illustrating Bushido, the Moral Principles of the Japanese Knighthood
Asataro Miyamori
Duty, sacrifice, and strict moral honor govern life and death in a world where samurai principles define humanity.
The Boys of '98
James Otis
A swift-moving chronicle of maritime tension and land battles, this volume captures the sudden clash of empires that defined a pivotal year in global power.
The Devil Doctor
Sax Rohmer
A shadow falls across London when the sinister Dr. Fu-Manchu returns from the dead to launch a terrifying new campaign of terror.
The Devourers
Annie Vivanti
A genius-child is a devouring creature, feeding upon the blood, youth, and ambitions of the mother who yields her life to sustain it.
The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century: Two Lectures delivered at the London Institution, February 4th and 11th, 1884
John Ruskin
A passionate nineteenth-century critic examines the darkening skies over England, warning that industrial pollution and moral corruption have altered the natural atmosphere.
Daily Strength for Daily Needs
Mary Wilder Tileston
A year of quiet daily readings gathers centuries of wisdom to steady the heart against routine burdens, small trials, and unexpected griefs.
History of the Revolt of the Netherlands
Friedrich Schiller
A relentless despotic empire attempts to crush a free people's ancient rights, triggering a fierce, multi-decade struggle for liberty that reshapes European history.
Lovers' Vows
Mrs. Inchbald
Desperate family secrets, a son driven to desperation, and the uncompromising demands of honor converge in this intense German drama of social duty and emotional redemption.
On the Prospects of Christianity: Bernard Shaw's Preface to Androcles and the Lion
Bernard Shaw
A provocative, brilliant critique strips away centuries of dogma to evaluate the historical Jesus not as an object of worship, but as a practical socio-political reformer whose radical ideas remain untested.
"Out of the East": Reveries and Studies in New Japan
Lafcadio Hearn
A serene, contemplative journey into late nineteenth-century Japan that captures a rapidly modernizing nation through its timeless spiritual traditions and intimate everyday customs.
Stained glass of the middle ages in England and France
Hugh Arnold
A craft born of fire, sand, and molten metal transforms medieval cathedrals into luminous storybooks that still speak to those willing to pause and look.
The Crisis
Winston Churchill
A divided border city becomes the crucible where a young northern idealist and a proud southern heiress must choose between the ties of heritage and the convictions of a changing nation.
The Duchesse of Langeais
Honoré de Balzac
A proud aristocrat plays a dangerous game of seduction with a ruthless general, only to discover too late that calculating flirtation can curdle into a tragedy of absolute loss. <Image alt="19th-century book illustration depicting the Duchesse of Langeais in an elegant gown" caption="The Duchesse de Langeais in…
The Great Indian Epics
Unknown
In a world ruled by inexorable fate, mortal princes and supernatural beings wage colossal wars that alter the destiny of the universe itself.
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : Prolegomena
Unknown
Before the dawn of modern history, human societies charted their existence through mythology, monumental stones, and the rising and falling tides of regional empires.
The Lady of the Barge and Others, Entire Collection
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
Men on the river bank share stories over pipes and mugs of ale, unaware that fate is about to play a trick on them.
The Positive School of Criminology: Three Lectures Given at the University of Naples, Italy on April 22, 23 and 24, 1901
Enrico Ferri
A provocative challenge to the traditional justice system, this work argues that crime is a natural, predictable phenomenon rooted in environment and biology rather than an abstract failure of free will.
Where the strange trails go down
E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell
An adventurous American traveler cuts through early twentieth-century Southeast Asia, uncovering the stark contrasts between colonial administration, lush wilderness, and ancient native kingdoms across the Malay Archipelago.
Yorkshire Dialect Poems (1673-1915) and traditional poems
F. W. (Frederic William) Moorman
Across three centuries of verse and oral tradition, local speech transforms daily labor, rural folklore, and working-class defiance into an enduring literary legacy.
Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making
W. Hamilton (William Hamilton) Gibson
A complete guide to survival, shelter, and self-reliance in the wild, this manual turns woodland lore into an accessible craft for any outdoorsman.
Danger! and Other Stories
Arthur Conan Doyle
A speculative threat turns real, revealing humanity's terrifying vulnerability in a world of rapid mechanical and atmospheric invention.
Field Book of Western Wild Flowers
J. J. (John James) Thornber
A delicate balance of botanical precision and accessibility brings the varied landscapes of the American West to vivid life.
Flowers of Freethought (First Series)
G. W. (George William) Foote
A fearless freethinker turns his intellect against religious dogma, exposing the absurdities of orthodox faith with sharp wit and unyielding logic.
Keely and His Discoveries: Aerial Navigation
Moore, Bloomfield H., Mrs.
Bound by etheric currents and molecular sound waves, an obscure inventor and his dedicated patron attempt to rewrite physics itself. Mrs. Bloomfield Moore presents an ardent defense of John Ernst Worrell Keely's revolutionary vibratory energy.
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 05 (of 10): Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo Lotto
Giorgio Vasari
Master painters, sculptors, and architects wander through Renaissance Italy, chasing perfection while dodging rivals, plagues, and fickle patrons. Genius offers no shield against hardship, envy, or an untimely death.
Love's Pilgrimage: A Novel
Upton Sinclair
A passionate young idealist marries his soulmate in pursuit of high art, only to find their lofty spiritual union crushed by systemic poverty, domestic friction, and the relentless demands of physical life.
Men and Women
Robert Browning
Voices from across centuries speak directly to the mind, laying bare their secrets, rationalizations, and deepest desires. These character studies capture human ambition, faith, doubt, and art with unmatched psychological depth and poetic precision.
Mr. Britling Sees It Through
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
A complacent English household watches its comfortable world shatter as global war transforms private lives into devastating public sacrifice.
Political thought in England from Locke to Bentham
Harold J. (Harold Joseph) Laski
An era of explosive political transformation lies hidden beneath eighteenth-century Britain's facade of quiet stability, awaiting a keen mind to trace its philosophical evolution.
She and Allan
H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
An aging hunter journeys past the edges of known maps, drawn into a web of sorcery, lost tribes, and a legendary queen who commands both life and death.
Taboo and genetics
Melvin M. (Melvin Moses) Knight
Science must replace ancient superstitions to rescue human families from outdated biological myths and irrational social controls.
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 1/2
Arthur Griffiths
For centuries, London’s infamous Newgate Prison served as the grim epicenter of English justice, where squalor, cruelty, and corruption met the city’s most desperate souls.
The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner
Charles Dudley Warner
A calm, dry wit illuminates the full landscape of nineteenth-century American life, tracing a path from rustic New England hearths and wild woods to the restless glitter of Gilded Age wealth and the quiet dignity of a emerging national literature.
The Faith of Islam
Edward Sell
Faith rests upon rigid structural pillars, yet its history is a constant struggle between unyielding canonical authority and the restless, searching human spirit.
The History of Don Quixote, Volume 1, Part 01
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Deluded by romantic tales, an aging Spanish nobleman sets off into the countryside as a knight-errant, determined to right world wrongs despite his complete lack of practical skill or modern sense.
The Orange Fairy Book
Andrew Lang
To step into this collection is to enter a vast world of old tales, where kindness, cunning, and quiet resilience shape every journey.