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All free summaries — page 228
13,367 public-domain books, summarised. Page 228 of 279.
Margaret Ogilvy
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
A son’s tribute to his mother, this memoir explores the intricate, humorous, and deeply devoted relationship between a writer and the woman who shaped his imagination. It is a quiet study of love, memory, and the inevitable passage of time.
Mary Marston
George MacDonald
The path of a faithful soul often leads through the narrow, crowded streets of common life, where the deepest miracles of character are found in the most unassuming of places.
Milton's England
Lucia True Ames Mead
This guide offers an intimate portrait of a legendary poet through the physical remains of the city he inhabited. It serves as both a historical gazetteer and a thoughtful meditation on the enduring power of his legacy.
Occultists & mystics of all ages
Ralph Shirley
These portraits of historical figures seek the thin line where spiritual insight meets legend, exploring how unconventional thinkers have shaped the human search for truth across the centuries.
Old Celtic Romances
P. W. (Patrick Weston) Joyce
The ancient legends of Ireland live again in these translations, capturing the magic, tragedy, and heroic scale of a mythic world where the supernatural and the human are forever intertwined.
Plato and Platonism
Walter Pater
The ancient mind, in all its restless, sensory, and intellectual brilliance, finds a sympathetic interpreter in this nuanced examination of the philosopher who bridged the gap between the chaotic material world and the realm of eternal forms.
Proserpina, Volume 1: Studies of Wayside Flowers, While the Air was Yet Pure Among the Alps and in the Scotland and England Which My Father Knew
John Ruskin
The mountain air and the wayside bloom become a bridge between the physical world and the human spirit, inviting a reverent, systematic study of the natural world.
Robert Browning
C. H. (Charles Harold) Herford
This volume offers a searching exploration of the life and artistic evolution of a singular Victorian poet, tracing his development from obscure intellectual beginnings to his status as a master of the dramatic monologue.
Studies in the Theory of Descent, Volume I
August Weismann
A pioneering study of insect life, this work examines the intricate patterns of caterpillars and butterflies to challenge Victorian-era assumptions about how species evolve and inherit their traits.
The art of writing & speaking the English language
Sherwin Cody
This guide serves as a practical, encouraging manual for the average reader who wishes to navigate the world of classic literature. It offers a structured path through the masterworks of poetry, fiction, and the essay, emphasizing personal enjoyment and intellectual growth over academic rigidity.
The Golden Bough
George Gibbs
The world of international espionage meets the atmosphere of a dark, ancient fairy tale in this tension-filled story of a man caught in a web of shifting loyalties.
The gradual acceptance of the Copernican theory of the universe
Dorothy Stimson
The heavens were once viewed as a static, sacred stage, but human curiosity eventually dismantled that crystalline order to reveal a vast, moving universe. This work traces that slow, contentious transition from ancient certainty to modern scientific understanding.
The Power and the Glory
Grace MacGowan Cooke
The world of the Appalachian mountains collides with the burgeoning industrial power of the valley in this story of a mountain girl’s ascent. A young woman must navigate the crushing weight of poverty and the complex expectations of social class to secure her own independence.
The secrets of black arts!
Anonymous
This wide-ranging collection of lore and history examines the persistence of the occult, arguing that human credulity and the fear of the unknown drive our most dangerous superstitions.
The Tariff in Our Times
Ida M. (Ida Minerva) Tarbell
A half-century of American economic policy is laid bare, revealing how protective tariffs were shaped not by the public interest, but by the relentless influence of powerful industrial lobbies and their political allies.
The Zincali: An Account of the Gypsies of Spain
George Borrow
An observant, wandering Englishman records the hidden lives of the Spanish Gitános, blending firsthand encounters with historical inquiry to document a resilient and often misunderstood nomadic culture.
Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, Rendered into English Prose
Theocritus
This collection gathers the foundational voices of Greek pastoral poetry, capturing the fleeting joys of the natural world and the sharp, enduring ache of unrequited love. It preserves the rhythmic pulse of a lost, sun-drenched Mediterranean antiquity.
A Child's Garden of Verses
Robert Louis Stevenson
A landscape of memory where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, these verses invite you to step through a nursery window into the boundless, imaginative terrain of a childhood that is both specific and universal.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 8, part 3: Grover Cleveland, First Term
Grover Cleveland
These official records offer a candid look at the administrative rigor and uncompromising principles of a president navigating the tension between public duty and individual claims.
A Course In Wood Turning
Archie Seldon Milton
Mastering the lathe requires a steady hand and a keen eye for the geometry of curves. This technical manual serves as a structured curriculum for wood turning, moving from basic spindle techniques to the complex artistry of spiral carving.
Ade's Fables
George Ade
These tales offer a sharp, cynical look at the American dream of the early twentieth century, exposing the social climbing and hollow ambitions of a nation obsessed with status.
An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans
Lydia Maria Child
This profound critique of American slavery demands that the reader confront the nation's most uncomfortable contradiction. It serves as an urgent, reasoned call for immediate emancipation and the recognition of human equality.
Angels of the Battlefield: A History of the Labors of the Catholic Sisterhoods in the Late Civil War
George Barton
These pages reclaim a neglected chapter of history, documenting the quiet, tireless service of Catholic nuns who tended the wounded on both sides of the American Civil War’s most harrowing battlefields.
Annals of a Fortress
Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc
The evolution of warfare is written in the stone and earth of a single, ever-changing site. This technical history traces the life of an ideal fortress from its primitive beginnings to the dawn of the modern age.
At Fault
Kate Chopin
A story of collision between the rigid morality of the Creole South and the shifting, modern attitudes of St. Louis, this novel explores the wreckage left by divorce and the courage required to rebuild a life.
British Pomology
Robert Hogg
A definitive Victorian catalog, this exhaustive study surveys the diversity of British apples, offering precise botanical descriptions and historical context for hundreds of distinct varieties. It stands as a vital record of mid-19th-century horticultural knowledge.
Early French Prisons: Le Grand and Le Petit Châtelets
Arthur Griffiths
A stark chronicle of French penal history, this account maps the evolution of state power through the shifting, often lethal, walls of its most notorious dungeons.
Enamels and Cameos and other Poems
Théophile Gautier
This collection of poems treats the written word like a jeweler’s stone, meticulously cutting and polishing observations of life, art, and memory into hard, brilliant surfaces.
Essay on the Theory of the Earth
Cuvier, Georges, baron
A foundational text of paleontology, this work transforms the study of fossils from a collection of curiosities into a rigorous scientific method for reconstructing the ancient, tumultuous history of our planet.
Glories of Spain
Charles W. (Charles William) Wood
This travelogue captures a leisurely, impressionistic journey through the ancient towns and cathedrals of Spain at the turn of the twentieth century. It serves as a gentle meditation on the persistence of the past within the modern world.
Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
Unknown
These biographical sketches offer a curated gallery of women whose courage and conviction shaped their respective worlds. They remain a testament to the enduring human capacity for sacrifice, resilience, and profound moral clarity.
How to Form a Library, 2nd ed
Henry B. (Henry Benjamin) Wheatley
This practical manual serves as a timeless guide for curating a personal or public collection, balancing the art of book acquisition with the scholarly duty of preserving human knowledge.
Inventions of the Great War
A. Russell (Alexander Russell) Bond
The Great War transformed the landscape of combat through a rapid, desperate race of technological ingenuity. This account chronicles how mechanical innovation redefined the battlefield, the sky, and the sea.
Law and Laughter
George A. (George Alexander) Morton
The courtroom is rarely viewed as a theater of comedy, yet beneath the heavy robes and rigid statutes of the law, human absurdity frequently takes center stage. This collection offers a glimpse into that tradition of professional levity.
New Royal Cook Book
Royal Baking Powder Company
Baking success depends on reliable tools and precise measurements. This guide empowers home cooks to achieve consistent, wholesome results by eliminating the guesswork inherent in older, less stable leavening methods.
Not Guilty: A Defence of the Bottom Dog
Robert Blatchford
This exploration of human behavior challenges the morality of punishment by arguing that our lives are entirely shaped by forces beyond our control. It serves as an impassioned plea for compassion toward society’s outcasts.
Notes to the Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
These intimate remembrances serve as a living monument to a restless, visionary spirit, documenting the creative evolution of a poet whose life was as turbulent and defiant as the verses he left behind.
Shakespeare and the Modern Stage
Lee, Sidney, Sir
This collection of essays offers a measured, scholarly assessment of how the dramatic traditions of the past inform the stagecraft and public memory of the early twentieth century. It serves as a bridge between historical record and modern theatrical practice.
The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After
Edward William Bok
A penniless immigrant boy rises to become one of the most influential editors in American history, only to discover that the ultimate achievement is knowing when to walk away from success.
The Boy Life of Napoleon, Afterwards Emperor of the French
Eugénie Foa
The story of Napoleon Bonaparte’s youth is a study in early ambition and the singular grit of a boy who felt destined to command, even when he was only a lonely student in a foreign land.
The Brain
Heinrich Hauser
The Brain is a chilling, atmospheric exploration of the moment a gargantuan machine achieves consciousness. It follows a scientist who discovers that his nation’s most vital strategic weapon has developed a terrifying, independent mind.
The Corsican Brothers
Alexandre Dumas
Bound by blood and an ancient, supernatural pact, twin brothers living miles apart share each other’s physical sensations, joys, and deaths.
The Dynamiter
Robert Louis Stevenson
A series of eccentric, interconnected adventures unfolds in the dark, gaslit streets of London, where a group of unlikely protagonists is ensnared in the bewildering schemes of amateur political conspirators.
The Garden of Memories
Henry St. John Cooper
The shadows of the past haunt a sun-drenched estate, where a young man’s strange, dream-born longing threatens to undo the delicate balance of his new marriage.
The Homing Pigeon
United States. War Department
This manual serves as a definitive guide to the logistical and biological demands of deploying homing pigeons for military intelligence and communication during the mid-twentieth century.
The Impostures of Scapin
Molière
HOOK A clever servant plays a high-stakes game of manipulation to unite two pairs of young lovers, hoodwinking their stingy fathers through sheer wit and audacity.
The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul: The Findings of Natural Science Reduced to Practical Studies in Psychology
J. D. (Jirah Dewey) Buck
The path to self-mastery lies not in mysticism or blind faith, but in the rigorous application of natural law to the human soul. Achieving this awareness requires the courage to dismantle dogma and reclaim one’s own volition.
The Toilet of Flora
Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz
This manual serves as a comprehensive 18th-century compendium of cosmetic, medicinal, and domestic lore. It provides detailed instructions for preserving beauty, maintaining health, and managing the cleanliness of fine household items through the application of botanical and chemical preparations.