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All free summaries — page 255
13,367 public-domain books, summarised. Page 255 of 279.
A Double Story
George MacDonald
A spoiled princess and an arrogant shepherd girl find their deepest flaws brought to light by a mysterious, wise woman who seeks to teach them the grace of humility. These two children, each consumed by a different form of self-importance, are led through trials that strip away their pride, revealing the beauty…
A Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases in use in Somersetshire
Wadham Pigott Williams
A meticulous labor of linguistic preservation, this volume catalogs the vanishing vernacular of 19th-century Somerset, capturing the rhythms and archaic echoes of a rural world being rapidly transformed by industrial modernity.
Autobiography of an Androgyne
Ralph Werther
This account offers a stark, unfiltered window into the life of an individual navigating the mid-point of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as a sexual invert, documenting the profound dissonance between societal expectation and internal reality.
Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2): or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand
W. Delisle (William Delisle) Hay
The vast, untamed forests of Northern New Zealand offer a rugged test of character for the hopeful, offering both the promise of independence and the reality of a harsh, relentless frontier life.
My Reminiscences of East Africa
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
This memoir recounts an extraordinary, years-long guerrilla campaign in East Africa, where a small, isolated colonial force successfully defied the superior numbers of the British Empire until the very end of the Great War.
Philipp Reis: Inventor of the Telephone: A Biographical Sketch
Silvanus P. (Silvanus Phillips) Thompson
This historical account restores the reputation of a neglected pioneer, arguing that Philipp Reis invented the telephone long before it became a commercial sensation. It serves as a technical defense of his original work.
Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers
John Burroughs
This collection of essays serves as an intimate, observant field guide to the small mammals of the North American woods, capturing the distinct personalities and survival instincts of creatures both common and elusive. It remains a classic of nature writing for its blend of scientific curiosity and genuine…
The Branding Needle
Eugène Sue
In a volatile age of monarchs and monasteries, a humble community of workers fights to preserve its freedom against the encroaching tyranny of a ruthless queen.
The Chorus Girl and Other Stories
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
These stories capture the quiet collisions of ordinary lives, where fleeting moments of vanity, regret, and sudden clarity reveal the profound depths hidden within the mundane. They offer an unsparing, compassionate look at the distance between what people desire and what they actually manage to endure.
The Happy Family
B. M. Bower
This collection of interconnected tales captures the spirited, often mischievous camaraderie of a Montana cow-camp. It offers a vivid, humorous window into the rugged lives and evolving bonds of the men of the Flying U.
The Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phrenology and Physiology
O. S. (Orson Squire) Fowler
By treating the human skull as a topographical map of the soul, this nineteenth-century manual promises that anyone can read the hidden character of a stranger simply by tracing the contours of their head.
The Kingdom of Heaven
Edward Burbidge
The Kingdom of Heaven explores the historical and spiritual definition of the Church as the earthly manifestation of Christ’s reign. It offers a systematic examination of biblical teaching to clarify the nature of Christian faith and unity.
The Untroubled Mind
Herbert J. (Herbert James) Hall
True wellness requires more than medicine for the body; it demands an untroubled mind, which can only be achieved by looking beyond oneself toward a larger, more serene connection with the world.
Virginia Under Charles I And Cromwell, 1625-1660
Wilcomb E. Washburn
This account explores the evolution of Virginia from a struggling corporate outpost into a self-governing society, tracing the tensions between royal authority, local autonomy, and the insatiable demand for land and tobacco.
Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General
Charles Lever
This collection of essays and character sketches captures the wandering spirit of a mid-nineteenth-century observer who has traded the rigid life of a barrister for the observant, often cynical freedom of a "diverting Vagabond." It offers a witty, skeptical, and deeply personal tour through the political and social…
Desert Gold
Zane Grey
The desert is a crucible, burning away the superficial layers of civilization to reveal the raw, often violent, nature of the human spirit.
Memorials of Old Devonshire
Unknown
This collection of historical sketches offers an intimate, grounded look at the regional heritage of Devonshire, peeling back the layers of time to reveal the lives and legends that shaped its landscape.
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
William Shakespeare
The sea is both a cradle and a coffin in this sprawling, dreamlike adventure where virtue is tested by the caprices of fortune. It is a story of loss, long separation, and the improbable grace of reunion.
The Children's Longfellow: Told in Prose
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This collection breathes new life into classic American verse by recasting iconic narrative poems as accessible, evocative stories. It invites readers to experience the sweeping reach of legend and the quiet depth of human endurance through prose.
The Counterplot
Hope Mirrlees
The literary temperament is a restless, acquisitive force that consumes the people around it to fuel its own creation. This story examines the inner life of an observer who turns her family’s domestic friction into a masterpiece of psychological displacement.
The Go Ahead Boys and the Treasure Cave
Ross Kay
The spirit of discovery lures four friends into a perilous test of survival and wit, as a shipwreck strands them on an uncharted island hiding the secrets of a pirate’s legacy.
The Taming of the Shrew
William Shakespeare
A headstrong woman meets her match in a volatile suitor, leading to a high-stakes battle of wills that tests the boundaries of marriage and social performance.
The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega, Surnamed the Prince of Castilian Poets, Translated into English Verse: With a Critical and Historical Essay on Spanish Poetry and a Life of the Author
Garcilaso de la Vega
Through the lens of a nineteenth-century scholar, these pages revive the voice of a Renaissance master whose lyrical precision shaped the Spanish tongue for centuries.
The World of Ice
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A classic Victorian Arctic adventure, this narrative tracks a perilous whaling expedition that turns into a desperate struggle for survival against the encroaching ice.
Betty Vivian: A Story of Haddo Court School
L. T. Meade
This story follows a spirited newcomer’s struggle to maintain her integrity while navigating the rigid social hierarchy of an elite boarding school. It is a portrait of schoolgirl loyalties, moral dilemmas, and the burden of secrets.
'Charge It': Keeping Up With Harry
Irving Bacheller
A young man’s reckless indulgence in foreign vanities and mounting debt prompts a rural lawyer to stage an intervention, forcing the community to rediscover the dignity of honest, grounded labor.
Remedia Amoris
Ovid
In this manual of emotional detachment, the poet who once taught the world how to fall in love now offers a clinical, darkly witty guide on how to fall out of it. It serves as a practical, if cynical, medical chart for the lovelorn.
Roman Britain in 1914
F. (Francis) Haverfield
This precise and scholarly survey catalogs the archaeological discoveries across Britain in 1914, capturing a singular moment when the quiet work of excavation met the encroaching shadow of the First World War.
Sir James Young Simpson and Chloroform (1811-1870): Masters of Medicine
H. Laing (Henry Laing) Gordon
A young Scottish student watches a surgeon operate and asks: "Can nothing be done to prevent this suffering?" This narrative chronicles how that simple, empathetic question drove a medical revolution.
The Golden Hope: A Story of the Time of King Alexander the Great
Robert H. (Robert Higginson) Fuller
A sweeping historical novel, this tale follows a band of young Greeks swept into the orbit of Alexander the Great as he attempts to forge a vast, unified empire across Asia.
The Mabinogion Vol. 1
Schreiber, Charlotte, Lady
These medieval Welsh tales breathe with the vitality of ancient oral tradition, weaving together supernatural mystery, chivalric duty, and the shifting landscape of a legendary past. They offer a window into a world where magic and mortal courage are inextricably linked.
The Riddle of the Night
Thomas W. Hanshew
A master of disguise, once an underworld legend, returns to the shadows to solve a high-stakes murder that threatens to ruin an innocent family.
The Rogerenes: some hitherto unpublished annals belonging to the colonial history of Connecticut
John R. (John Rogers) Bolles
This history recounts the brutal state-sanctioned persecution of the Rogerenes, a courageous Connecticut sect whose defiant nonconformity challenged the colony’s rigid union of church and state.
The Song of the Wolf
Frank Mayer
This novel depicts a rugged, high-stakes collision between the refined sensibilities of the East and the raw, dangerous code of the Colorado frontier. It is a story of obsession, transformation, and the eventual surrender to a simpler, more profound existence.
Turner's Golden Visions
C. Lewis (Charles Lewis) Hind
Turner’s life is a journey from the humble, dark corners of a London barber’s shop to the blinding, ethereal light of the sun itself. This chronicle explores how an unpolished, secretive man became the master of atmospheric radiance.
Early Printed Books
E. Gordon (Edward Gordon) Duff
The birth of the printed word remains one of history’s most profound shifts, transitioning from the labor of the scribe to the mechanical precision of the press. This guide serves as a foundational map for navigating that transformative era.
Millions from Waste
Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot
Industrial progress often leaves behind a mountain of discarded potential, turning useful materials into overlooked refuse. This account reveals how ingenuity and science can transform such waste into substantial economic wealth.
The Game of Go: The National Game of Japan
Arthur Smith
This work serves as a foundational bridge, translating the profound strategic complexity of the Japanese game of Go for the Western reader. It is a precise, technical manual designed to move a novice from a rudimentary understanding toward the disciplined, tactical mind of a seasoned player.
The Harp of God: Proof Conclusive That Millions Now Living Will Never Die
J. F. (Joseph Franklin) Rutherford
The modern world stands at the threshold of a divine restoration, where the promise of eternal life is no longer a distant hope but an imminent reality for those now living.
The Little Tea Book
Unknown
Tea is the world’s quiet companion, a beverage that has shaped social rituals and domestic life for centuries. This compendium serves as a cultural history, celebrating the leaf as a harbinger of peace, refinement, and human connection.
A Journal of Impressions in Belgium
May Sinclair
The war’s most profound cruelties are often measured not in miles of territory lost, but in the distance between a person’s grandest intentions and their actual, fragmented experience. This account captures that precise, unsettling displacement.
A Week at Waterloo in 1815: Lady De Lancey's Narrative: Being an Account of How She Nursed Her Husband, Colonel Sir William Howe De Lancey, Quartermaster-General of the Army, Mortally Wounded in the Great Battle
De Lancey, Magdalene, Lady
This private, unadorned journal chronicles a young bride's harrowing journey to find and nurse her husband, a high-ranking British officer, after he is mortally wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.
Goops and How to Be Them
Gelett Burgess
These whimsical, cautionary verses serve as a mirror for children, using grotesque, ill-mannered creatures to illustrate the virtues of polite, thoughtful behavior. By contrasting charmingly behaved children with the chaotic, messy, and rude "Goops," the reader is invited to laugh at the absurdity of the latter…
Indiana
George Sand
A stifled woman trapped in a loveless marriage finds herself caught between the cold brutality of her husband and the hollow, performative passion of a deceptive aristocrat.
The Boy With the U.S. Miners
Francis Rolt-Wheeler
The hazards of the earth and the grit of the men who extract its riches define this classic tale of industrial adventure. It bridges the gap between scientific instruction and the raw excitement of a frontier discovery.
Toward the Gulf
Edgar Lee Masters
This collection of verse is a restless, intellectual pilgrimage through the American landscape and the history of human longing. It is a work of candid observation, tracing the arc from the simple joys of a summer boat trip to the existential weight of a mind confronting its own limitations.
David Balfour: Being Memoirs Of His Adventures At Home And Abroad, The Second Part: In Which Are Set Forth His Misfortunes Anent The Appin Murder
Robert Louis Stevenson
A young man finds himself caught in the lethal machinery of 18th-century Scottish politics, forced to navigate dangerous loyalties to save an innocent life and protect his own integrity.
Europe Revised
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
** Eschewing the dry, fact-laden approach of traditional guidebooks, this account offers a humorous, irreverent, and deeply personal exploration of European travel at the dawn of the twentieth century.