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All free summaries — page 173
9,354 public-domain books, summarised. Page 173 of 195.
Chronicles of border warfare
Alexander Scott Withers
Blood and hardwood smoke drift through the upper Ohio Valley, where two worlds clash for a continent. In these wilderness chronicles, settlement is bought one clearing, one stockade, and one reprisal at a time.
Democracy, an American novel
Henry Adams
An ambitious New York widow moves to Washington to uncover how power works in America, only to discover that every hand touching the nation's political machinery comes away soiled.
Hippolytus
Euripides
Destructive passion and unyielding pride collide with divine vengeance when mortals dare to deny the gods their due.
History of Ancient Art
Franz von Reber
From the monumental granite tombs of early Egypt to the engineering marvels of the Roman Empire, ancient art evolved not in isolated flashes of inspiration, but as a continuous, methodical inheritance of form and technical skill across Mediterranean and Near Eastern civilizations.
History of Dogma, Volume 2
Adolf von Harnack
A vast transformation remade early Christianity from an enthusiastic, apocalyptic movement into an enduring, institutionalized global Church.
Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Her Life and Letters (1689-1762)
Lewis Melville
An extraordinary eighteenth-century aristocrat defies the rigid social limits of her age, trading London gossip and political maneuvering for daring foreign travel, intellectual freedom, and a lasting place in literary history.
Mary, Help of Christians, and the Fourteen Saints Invoked as Holy Helpers: Instructions, Novenas and Prayers with Thoughts of the Saints for Every Day in the Year
Unknown
Seekers of traditional Catholic devotional structure will find here a comprehensive manual for integrating the intercession of the saints and the Blessed Virgin into a disciplined daily life.
Perfect Behavior: A Guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in All Social Crises
Donald Ogden Stewart
A sharp, straight-faced parody of 1920s American social manuals, where every rule of decorum escalates into absurdity, outrage, or sudden bodily peril.
Philippine Folk-Tales
Clara Kern Bayliss
Across tropical forests, distant heavens, and the underworld, clever tricksters outwit monsters, humble suitors achieve royal impossible tasks, and ancient deities nurture the spirits of the dead.
Popular scientific lectures
Ernst Mach
A quiet act of observation reveals how simple physical movements ripple into the grand laws of nature.
T. De Witt Talmage as I Knew Him
T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage
Through fire, fame, and endless travel, a nineteenth-century preacher reflects on a life spent in pursuit of the pulpit’s reach and the world’s edge.
Tactics, Volume 1 (of 2). Introduction and Formal Tactics of Infantry
W. (William) Balck
Modern warfare demands that brute force yield to precise science, where the geometry of the battlefield and the psychology of men under fire dictate the boundary between victory and annihilation.
The proof
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
A hardened drifter stumbles into a snow-dusted town on Christmas Eve, seeking a lost past only to disarm a brewing tragedy and reclaim his own family.
The Trees of Pride
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
On a remote Cornish estate, three exotic trees loom over a mystery of vanishing men, local superstitions, and a seemingly impossible crime. <Image alt="Book cover of The Trees of Pride by G. K. Chesterton" caption="Cover of G. K. Chesterton's mystery novella." src="imageagenttag2565547035013271987"/
Woman under Monasticism: Chapters on Saint-Lore and Convent Life between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500
Lina Eckenstein
Before modern historiography gave voice to the women of the Middle Ages, thousand-year-old sanctuary walls shielded an autonomous world of female intellect, administrative power, and spiritual creativity.
365 bedtime stories
Mary Graham Bonner
Winter trees whisper their secrets to snow, while prunes and cabbages debate their worth. Every single night brings a fresh, gentle marvel to quiet young minds.
Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Francis Hobart Herrick
An illegitimate child of the French Revolution survives the horrors of Saint-Domingo and Nantes, wanders into the American wilderness, and transforms himself through sheer, stubborn devotion into the greatest bird artist who ever lived.
Charles Peace, or The Adventures of a Notorious Burglar
Anonymous
A dark lantern, a nimble violin, and a trail of broken locks mark the bloody, labyrinthine career of England's most elusive nineteenth-century criminal.
Children of the Night
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Through strict formal structures and sharp dramatic portraits, this volume confronts the spiritual disorientation of late nineteenth-century life. Its speakers probe behind quiet small-town facades, grappling with loss, moral decay, and the persistent search for light amid dark realities.
Deadfalls and Snares: A Book of Instruction for Trappers About These and Other Home-Made Traps
A. R. (Arthur Robert) Harding
A clever trapper needs only a hatchet, a jackknife, and a bit of string to turn the forest itself into an inescapable, self-resetting apparatus.
Eminent literary and scientific men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Vol. 1 (of 3)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Shelley traces the fiery trajectories of Italy’s foundational minds through exile, political ruin, and relentless artistic devotion. It is a luminous collective biography that treats genius not as a passive gift, but as an arduous, bloody struggle against a chaotic world.
Life in a Railway Factory
Alfred Williams
In the roaring heat and deafening clangor of an early twentieth-century locomotive plant, industrial labor is laid bare in all its brutal physical strain, quiet camaraderie, and human vulnerability.
Shakespeare's Roman plays and their background
MacCallum, Mungo William, Sir
Understanding Shakespeare’s Roman plays requires examining how historical facts and ancient biographies transformed into dramatic art through Elizabethan and Jacobean lenses.
Studies of Contemporary Poets
Mary Sturgeon
A vital generation of early twentieth-century poets rejects bookish tradition to forge an art rooted directly in the raw, vibrant, and democratic realities of modern human experience.
The Boston Cooking-School Magazine (Vol. XV, No. 2, Aug.-Sept., 1910)
Various
A vivid snapshot of early twentieth-century domesticity offers practical recipes, systematic household advice, and cultural reflections on everything from community preservation to the ethics of caring for aging parents.
The Chinese theater
A. E. (Adolf Eduard) Zucker
An extraordinary ancient theatrical tradition unfolds through its living stagecraft, rich literary history, and surprisingly modern staging techniques.
The Death of Wallenstein
Friedrich Schiller
When a brilliant commander loses faith in his emperor and turns to the stars for guidance, he learns too late that the hardest trap to escape is the one forged by his own ambition.
The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori, 1816, Relating to Byron, Shelley, etc
John William Polidori
An ambitious young doctor sets out across Europe in the shadow of giants, mapping the landscape, the scandals, and the brilliant minds that define Romanticism.
The Lock and Key Library: The most interesting stories of all nations: American
Unknown
A chilling specimen of early American genre fiction, this collection shows how suspense evolved from dark, gothic atmospheric horror into calculating, logical detective craft.
The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and Pharmacy
C. J. S. (Charles John Samuel) Thompson
Centuries of trial, error, and enchantment shaped the way we heal and harm.
The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1
William Painter
Courts of empire, dark alleys of revenge, and secret bedchambers form a grand tapestry of human passion and betrayal.
The Poems of Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
A vast, exalted canvas of human emotion captures everything from the cosmic ecstasy of universal brotherhood to the melancholic loss of myth and the domestic comic miseries of earthly life.
The Romance of the Milky Way, and Other Studies & Stories
Lafcadio Hearn
Across ancient celestial legends, eerie supernatural hauntings, Victorian philosophy, and quiet wartime observations, a singular voice captures the subtle spirit of a changing world where ghosts and everyday reality merge seamlessly.
The Story of Assisi
Lina Duff Gordon
Amid the olive groves and rugged slopes of Mount Subasio, a medieval city shaped by blood, prayer, and brushstrokes comes vividly into focus.
The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 2
Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'
A sweeping, unsparing assault on religious dogma that strips away celestial illusions to ground human morality, science, and everyday peace firmly in the physical laws of the natural world.
The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
A timid draper’s assistant trades the shop counter for a two-week bicycle holiday across southern England, only to find himself unexpectedly acting as knight-errant to a runaway young woman escaping a deceitful companion.
Warriors of Old Japan, and Other Stories
Yei Theodora Ozaki
Mighty archers, vanquished lords, phantom armies, and hidden princesses leap to life across a legendary tapestry of medieval Japanese heroic tales and gentle domestic wonder.
Clairvoyance
C. W. (Charles Webster) Leadbeater
Perception extends beyond the physical eye to reveal hidden dimensions, distant scenes, and forgotten history. True "clear-seeing" requires systematic discipline to unlock higher planes of existence where unseen forces govern everyday reality.
Letters of a Woman Homesteader
Elinore Pruitt Stewart
Life on a Wyoming claim requires grit, but here it yields a sparkling, bone-deep joy in every meal caught, cabin built, and neighbor welcomed.
Of All Things
Robert Benchley
Modern life is a constant series of small humiliations, and surviving them requires equal parts cynicism and self-deprecation.
Practical Training for Running, Walking, Rowing, Wrestling, Boxing, Jumping, and All Kinds of Athletic Feats: Together with tables of proportional measurement for height and weight of men in and out of condition
Ed. James
A nineteenth-century manual of athletic conditioning offers a rigorous, no-nonsense look at how Victorian competitors prepared their bodies for footraces, rowing matches, and physical feats long before modern sports science.
The Business of Life
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
Wealth, independence, and the quiet weight of old mistakes collide in this lush Gilded Age romance.
The Customs of Old England
F. J. (Frederick John) Snell
Middle English society comes alive not through its grand dynastic wars, but through the strict, curious rituals that governed its medieval churches, classrooms, and courtrooms.
The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume 1 (of 3): To Headwaters of the Mississippi River Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7
Zebulon Montgomery Pike
A single officer leading twenty men into frozen wilderness must rely on discipline, diplomacy, and absolute resolve to keep his company alive.
The Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath
William Walker Atkinson
Air carries more than invisible gases; it holds an energetic essence that, when directed through disciplined rhythm, bridges physical health, mental focus, and spiritual awakening.
The Rainy Day Railroad War
Holman Day
Deep in the Maine woods, a headstrong young engineer discovers that laying six miles of narrow-gauge track takes far more than survey lines—it demands outwitting timber barons, surviving winter kidnappings, and taming the wild northern wilderness.
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 1: Chaldaea: The History, Geography, And Antiquities Of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Parthia, And Sassanian or New Persian Empire
George Rawlinson
Deep beneath the sun-baked mounds of Lower Mesopotamia lie the foundations of humanity's earliest urban civilizations, waiting for modern scholarship to uncover their long-buried voices and restore them to the global historical record.
The story of my house
George H. (George Herman) Ellwanger
Creating a sanctuary of refined living requires blending architecture, personal taste, and nature into a single harmonious life.