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All free summaries — page 287
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 287 of 988.
The Duke in the Suburbs
Edgar Wallace
A titled nobleman and his American companion navigate the social minefield of a London suburb, proving that true aristocratic poise is often found in the most unlikely of places.
The Fifth Ace
Isabel Ostrander
An adventurous young woman, raised in the rough-and-tumble of Mexican mining camps, must navigate the treacherous waters of high-society deception to claim her true identity and the inheritance that belongs to her.
The Five Knots
Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White
A ship-owner’s dark past returns to haunt him through cryptic, knotted strings that appear inside sealed letters, signaling a lethal reckoning from Borneo.
The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes
Israel Zangwill
This collection gathers diverse tales of late-Victorian and Edwardian life, exploring the tension between social facades and the private, often messy, realities of the human heart. It is a portrait of people navigating the constraints of class, ambition, and memory.
The Guns of Shiloh: A Story of the Great Western Campaign
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
The American Civil War unfolds through the eyes of a young soldier whose journey captures the raw, escalating intensity of the Western campaign, leading inevitably to the horrific, pivotal confrontation at Shiloh.
The Invisible Lodge
Jean Paul
The world is an unfinished romance where every life is merely a knot waiting for a resolution beyond the grave. This sprawling, idiosyncratic novel captures the fragile, shifting architecture of human connection through a lens of profound melancholy and whimsical satire.
The Last Trail
Zane Grey
A rugged frontiersman and a spirited woman find their fates intertwined within the perilous, untamed wilderness of the Ohio Valley, where survival depends on sharp instincts and steady nerves.
The Life and Adventures of Bruce, the African Traveller
Head, Francis Bond, Sir
A man of indomitable spirit traverses the perilous, uncharted deserts and highlands of Africa, driven by a singular, obsessive quest to locate the hidden source of the Nile.
The Life of Lord Byron
John Galt
A complex, often misunderstood poet meets his biographer’s scrutiny in this candid exploration of genius, vanity, and the heavy burden of a celebrated name.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891
Caine, Hall, Sir
The mists of legend and the salt spray of the Irish Sea enshroud this portrait of a small, resilient island nation. It invites readers to look beyond the great world’s roar and find the heartbeat of a people who have long lived by their own quiet rhythms.
The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. III. (Complete), 1891
Various
The world of 1891 unfolds through the lens of early scientific inquiry, mapping the unknown reaches of Alaska and the complex political shifts of South America. This volume serves as an early chronicle of global discovery.
The Patriarchs: Being Meditations upon Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job
J. G. (John Gifford) Bellett
These meditations re-examine the foundational figures of Genesis, framing their domestic lives and deep faith as a timeless template for the modern believer’s spiritual walk.
The Poetical Works of Henry Kirk White
Henry Kirke White
A precocious, feverish talent burns bright and vanishes, leaving behind a collection of verse that maps the intersection of intense academic ambition, early religious conversion, and the crushing weight of physical decline.
The Queen Pedauque
Anatole France
The life of a young man, a cook’s son, is irrevocably altered when he falls under the tutelage of a dissolute, brilliant, and deeply human priest. This journey through 18th-century France blends philosophical inquiry with the erratic, often humorous, chaos of a picaresque adventure.
The Relief of Mafeking: How it Was Accomplished by Mahon's Flying Column
Filson Young
This account captures the raw, disorienting reality of the Boer War, moving beyond the headlines of 1900 to document the grit of soldiers and the haunting, silent landscapes of the South African veldt.
The Sisters-In-Law: A Novel of Our Time
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
This novel depicts the transformation of a sheltered San Francisco debutante into an independent woman, tracing her journey through the ruin of the 1906 earthquake, a hollow marriage, and the crucible of World War I.
The Stories Polly Pepper Told to the Five Little Peppers in the Little Brown House
Margaret Sidney
A young girl discovers that her imaginative storytelling is the most valuable currency within her humble home, turning the trials of poverty into moments of warmth and wonder for her siblings.
The Test of Scarlet: A Romance of Reality
Coningsby Dawson
War is a sensory assault that strips away the veneer of civilization, leaving only the raw, red necessity of survival. This account captures the brutal transition from the camaraderie of the trench to the finality of the battlefield.
The Testing of Diana Mallory
Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
A young woman finds her happiness shattered by a long-hidden family secret, forcing her to choose between the man she loves and the integrity of her own conscience.
The Women of the Arabs
Henry Harris Jessup
The threshold of a home weeps forty days when a girl is born, a proverb reflecting the heavy burdens and societal indifference that define the lives of women in nineteenth-century Syria.
Theory and Practice of Piano Construction: With a Detailed, Practical Method for Tuning
William Braid White
This technical guide offers an exhaustive look into the anatomy of the piano, blending historical context with the precise mechanical requirements for building and maintaining the instrument. It serves as a foundational manual for those seeking to understand the complex intersection of acoustics and craftsmanship.
Tom and Some Other Girls: A Public School Story
Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.
Leaving the sheltered comfort of a wealthy upbringing, a young girl discovers that character, not pedigree, is the true currency of the schoolroom. This turn-of-the-century tale traces the humbling and transformative journey of a headstrong newcomer as she navigates the complex social hierarchies of a boarding school.
Under Sail
Felix Riesenberg
The vast, creaking world of the square-rigger comes alive in this account of a young man’s passage around Cape Horn. It is a testament to a vanishing era of wind, salt, and human endurance.
Villa Rubein, and Other Stories
John Galsworthy
These vignettes capture the quiet, often devastating friction between individual desire and the rigid expectations of family and social class.
Wallenstein's Camp: A Play
Friedrich Schiller
The camp is a microcosm of total war, where soldiers of all nations and creeds find their only common bond in the absolute, almost supernatural authority of their commander.
Washington and His Comrades in Arms: A Chronicle of the War of Independence
George McKinnon Wrong
George Washington emerges here not as a marble statue, but as the steady, pragmatic heart of a fragile revolution, struggling against both a formidable empire and his own fractious, ill-equipped countrymen. This account balances the strategic movements of a global war with the intimate, often agonizing difficulties…
When Valmond Came to Pontiac: The Story of a Lost Napoleon. Complete
Gilbert Parker
A mysterious stranger arrives in a quiet French-Canadian village, claiming a royal heritage that transforms the lives of the simple people around him.
Wild beasts
J. Hampden (John Hampden) Porter
This study examines the temperament, intelligence, and lethal capabilities of the world’s most formidable predators. It offers a grounded, unsentimental look at the complex relationship between human observers and the wild beasts that command our fear and respect.
A Heap o' Livin'
Edgar A. (Edgar Albert) Guest
This collection of verse celebrates the simple, enduring rhythms of domestic life and the profound value found in ordinary, everyday moments. It offers a gentle reflection on the joys of home, family, and honest labor.
A Vagabond's Odyssey: being further reminiscences of a wandering sailor-troubadour in many lands
A. (Arnold) Safroni-Middleton
A wandering musician traverses the globe, finding beauty and profound humanity in the unlikeliest corners of the earth. His journey celebrates the spirit of the vagabond, proving that true wealth lies in memory rather than coin.
Aliens
William McFee
A restless wanderer returns home to find the quiet of his New Jersey neighborhood disrupted by a mysterious, taciturn neighbor whose past is as turbulent as his present is reserved.
Animal Locomotion
James Bell Pettigrew
Nature is a master of economy, and nowhere is this more evident than in the mechanics of movement. Through a rigorous analysis of how animals walk, swim, and fly, this work reveals a hidden, elegant unity in the natural world: that the same principles of rotation, twisting, and wave-like progression govern the foot…
Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries: Volumes I. and II., Complete
William Hogan
HOOK This polemic sounds an alarm against the Roman Catholic Church, framing its clergy and religious orders as clandestine threats to the stability and moral fabric of the American Republic.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Durham: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espiscopal See
Joseph E. (Joseph Emanuel) Bygate
The massive stone walls of Durham Cathedral stand as a testament to centuries of architectural evolution and the enduring presence of Saint Cuthbert. This guide offers a meticulous survey of the site’s history and structural form.
Bring the Jubilee
Ward Moore
In a world where the Confederacy won the American Civil War, a historian seeks to undo his nation’s decline by traveling back to the decisive battle that changed everything.
Chile and Her People of To-day: An Account of the Customs, Characteristics, Amusements, History and Advancement of the Chileans, and the Development and Resources of Their Country
Nevin O. (Nevin Otto) Winter
This vivid, observant travelogue chronicles the dramatic landscape, colonial history, and rapid modernization of a nation caught between its rugged geography and its global ambitions.
Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915
Anonymous
The front lines of the Great War feel immediate and visceral in this quiet, observant account of a nurse navigating the makeshift hospitals and ambulance trains of 1914–1915. It is a rare, unadorned glimpse into the machinery of survival behind the carnage.
Do and Dare
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
After losing his mother’s meager livelihood, a young man leaves his small town to seek his fortune, ultimately finding prosperity through hard work, unexpected friendship, and a series of perilous Western adventures.
Donald and Dorothy
Mary Mapes Dodge
A pair of orphaned twins raised by their uncle navigate the quiet mysteries of their lineage and the vibrant joys of youth in this classic tale of belonging.
Egypt of the Pharaohs and of the Khedivé
F. Barham (Foster Barham) Zincke
This expansive travelogue offers a Victorian clergyman’s philosophical engagement with the landscape, history, and social structure of Egypt, bridging the gap between its ancient monuments and the modern rule of the Khedivé.
Face to Face with Kaiserism
James W. (James Watson) Gerard
This account offers an urgent, firsthand warning from the American diplomat who witnessed the machinery of German imperialism from within during the First World War. It serves as a vital historical record of how a nation’s internal autocracy can threaten global stability.
Farm Gardening with Hints on Cheap Manuring: Quick Cash Crops and How to Grow Them
Anonymous
This practical manual offers turn-of-the-century farmers a roadmap for pivoting from low-profit grain to high-value vegetable crops. It emphasizes intelligent soil management and efficient, large-scale cultivation techniques to maximize cash flow.
Feeding the Mind
Lewis Carroll
We expend immense effort nourishing our bodies, yet we often leave our minds to languish in neglect. This short, witty lecture argues that true intellectual health requires as much discipline and care as our physical diet.
Fifty Years in Chains
Charles Ball
A man is kidnapped from his home and sold into decades of bondage, only to survive by his wits and the desperate hope of reclaiming his stolen family.
From India to the planet Mars: A study of a case of somnambulism with glossolalia
Théodore Flournoy
A pioneering exploration of the subconscious mind, this study meticulously deconstructs the elaborate fantasies of a medium, revealing how the human imagination can manufacture entire worlds and languages when the waking self steps aside.
Gabriel Tolliver: A Story of Reconstruction
Joel Chandler Harris
A boy grows into a man as his Southern town navigates the turbulent, uncertain years following the Civil War. This intimate portrait of Reconstruction captures the friction between a changing society and the enduring heart.
Harper's Young People, January 4, 1881: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
This collection of stories, puzzles, and letters offers a window into the world of American childhood in 1881, capturing the earnest curiosity and inventive play of a bygone era.
How the Poor Live
George R. (George Robert) Sims
A journalist ventures into the dark continent of London’s slums, documenting the harrowing daily survival of the city’s poorest residents to stir the conscience of a comfortable, indifferent public.