The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 291
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 291 of 714.

Pieces of Hate
Heywood Broun
This collection of journalistic essays offers a spirited, opinionated look at the American landscape in the early 1920s. It captures a restless mind grappling with theater, sports, and the persistent absurdities of public life.

Platform Monologues
T. G. (Thomas George) Tucker
This collection of public addresses offers a passionate defense of the literary arts, arguing that the study of great writing is an essential, life-affirming practice for the modern, thinking individual.

Popular Technology
Edward Hazen
This compendium of industrial arts provides a window into the mechanical ingenuity and manual traditions that defined early nineteenth-century labor. It serves as a comprehensive inventory of how things were made before the age of total automation.

Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 12, March 22, 1884: A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside
Various
This weekly journal serves as a vital bridge between the isolated realities of nineteenth-century agricultural life and the burgeoning scientific advancements of the era. It offers a practical, grounded look at the challenges faced by farmers, from managing complex drainage systems to navigating the intricacies of…

Psychic phenomena
Edward T. Bennett
Physical events that defy conventional physics, such as levitating tables and mysterious light, are examined here with a commitment to evidence, aiming to bridge the gap between objective observation and the unexplained.

Sarita, the Carlist
Arthur W. Marchmont
A man caught in the dangerous crossfire of Spanish politics must outwit a ruthless rival to protect the woman who has pledged her life to a lost cause.

Some Distinguished Victims of the Scaffold
Horace Bleackley
These accounts of high-stakes crime and final judgment strip away the sensationalism of the gallows to reveal the stark, human realities behind eighteenth-century notoriety.

Some Old Time Beauties: After Portraits by the English Masters, with Embellishment and Comment
Thomson Willing
These biographical sketches revisit the lives of eighteenth-century English society’s most celebrated women, capturing the intersection of artistic immortality and the often-volatile realities of aristocratic existence.

Stories of Invention, Told by Inventors and their Friends
Edward Everett Hale
Creative sparks define human progress, and this collection captures the spirit of discovery through the lives of those who turned ideas into reality. It invites readers to explore how curiosity and perseverance reshape the world.

Studies in the Epistle of James
A. T. Robertson
These expository lectures bridge the gap between ancient scripture and the practical challenges of modern living, offering a grounded look at the ethical demands of faith. They invite readers to examine the intersection of belief and action, arguing that a life of integrity requires more than just intellectual assent.

Tales of Chinatown
Sax Rohmer
HOOK In the fog-drenched alleyways of London’s Limehouse, a world of shadows, stolen talismans, and hypnotic danger pulses just beneath the surface of the respectable city.

The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 08
William Curtis
This collection serves as a meticulously illustrated guide for the scientifically curious, capturing the vibrant beauty and complex structures of ornamental plants from across the globe in the waning years of the eighteenth century.

The Cat and the Mouse: A Book of Persian Fairy Tales
Unknown
A cat becomes a "penitent" to lure mice into a trap, while in other tales, a poor boy saves a princess and a fisherman outwits royalty with cleverness.

The Corner House Girls: How they moved to Milton, what they found, and what they did
Grace Brooks Hill
When four orphaned sisters inherit a mysterious, sprawling estate, they must navigate sudden wealth, local legends of a ghost, and a greedy interloper who claims the property belongs to her family instead.

The Curious Book of Birds
Abbie Farwell Brown
Why do the robin’s breast glow red and the kingfisher wear the color of the sky? This collection gathers the ancient, global legends that explain the world’s birds through the eyes of those who first watched them take flight.

The Firelight Fairy Book
Henry Beston
These tales are not mere diversions, but windows into a realm where the ordinary laws of the world—time, weather, and identity—bend to the whims of magic and the courage of the true-hearted.

The Golden Treasury of American Songs and Lyrics
Unknown
This collection gathers the finest lyrical voices of a young nation, curating a definitive selection of American verse designed to endure beyond the fleeting popularity of any single poem or poet.

The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 1
Walter Scott
A young woman’s desperate journey to save her sister from the gallows reveals the crushing weight of law, conscience, and the unforgiving nature of a society driven by strict religious and civil codes.

The Hermitage, Home of General Andrew Jackson
Mary C. (Mary C. Currey) Dorris
This archival guide offers an intimate portrait of a legendary American home, tracing the legacy of Andrew Jackson from his formative years to his lasting impact as a national symbol. It serves as both a historical record and a reverent preservation of the life and times of the seventh President.

The History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks. Chapters I. to IV
Kâtip Çelebi
This chronicle offers a disciplined, eyewitness-level view of the Ottoman Empire’s maritime expansion, detailing the strategic maneuvers and naval campaigns that shaped the Mediterranean world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic
William Hickling Prescott
A grand, sweeping chronicle of a transformative epoch, this work captures the rise of Spain from a fractured collection of territories into a unified, formidable power under its most iconic monarchs.

The Lone Ranger Rides
Fran Striker
The lone, masked rider patrols the Texas frontier, a phantom force for justice whose identity remains hidden even after his work is done. He is a defender of the defenseless, bound by a vow to right wrongs wherever he finds them.

The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume II: Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia Thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &c. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns
Pöllnitz, Karl Ludwig, Freiherr von
A restless aristocrat chronicles his journey across eighteenth-century Europe, offering a sharp, witty guide to the continent’s grandest cities and most curious courtly characters.

The National Being: Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity
George William Russell
The soul of a nation is not found in the halls of parliament, but in the everyday labor and shared purpose of its people. This vision proposes a radical, cooperative path toward an Irish identity.

The Pilgrim's Progress in Words of One Syllable
John Bunyan
The spirit finds its way through a treacherous landscape, carrying the heavy burden of earthly error until it reaches a promised light. This is a journey of the soul, rendered in the simplest language for those beginning their path.

The Pillar of Light
Louis Tracy
A stalwart lighthouse keeper and his two daughters endure a treacherous hurricane, only to find their isolated rock becoming a sanctuary for survivors—and a crucible for long-buried family secrets.

The pleasant historie of the conquest of the VVeast India, now called new Spayne: atchieued by the vvorthy Prince Hernando Cortes, marques of the Valley of Huaxacac, most delectable to reade
Francisco López de Gómara
This account captures the dramatic rise and fall of the Aztec Empire, detailed through the eyes of a sixteenth-century chronicler who documents the raw ambition, religious fervor, and tactical maneuvers of the Spanish expedition.

The poisoned chocolates case
Anthony Berkeley
A group of amateur sleuths gathers to solve a baffling poisoning, only to discover that the most dangerous crime is the one committed by those who think they know everything.

The Political Songs of England: From the Reign of John to That of Edward II
Unknown
These centuries-old verses reveal the visceral, unfiltered pulse of a nation grappling with the fragile boundary between royal power and the rights of its people. Through sharp satire and mournful ballad, the voices of the medieval English—from high-minded clerics to weary, overburdened husbandmen—come alive to…

The Private Library: What We Do Know, What We Don't Know, What We Ought to Know About Our Books
Arthur Lee Humphreys
A book is not merely a possession; it is a living, breathing companion that requires care, thoughtful arrangement, and, above all, the respect due to a silent friend.

The Right to Ignore the State
Herbert Spencer
The right to withdraw from political society is the ultimate test of true individual freedom. If citizenship is not voluntary, it is merely a form of coercion that contradicts the foundational principles of moral law.

The Roman Question
Edmond About
A sharp-eyed travelogue through the Papal States, this critique of nineteenth-century Roman governance exposes the systemic dysfunction and economic stagnation inherent in a country ruled by an absolute religious hierarchy.

The Root of Evil
Dixon, Thomas, Jr.
A young lawyer’s moral integrity is tested by the seductive power of extreme wealth and a woman who chooses gold over true love.

The Splendid Spur: Being Memoirs of the Adventures of Mr. John Marvel, a Servant of His Late Majesty King Charles I, in the Years 1642-3
Arthur Quiller-Couch
A young man is thrust into the chaos of the English Civil War, carrying a secret letter that makes him a target for both king and rebel.

The Story of My Heart: An Autobiography
Richard Jefferies
A man discovers the profound, untapped capacity of his own spirit by retreating to the wild, sun-drenched hills of England to seek a deeper connection with the cosmos. This meditative work serves as a passionate, poetic manifesto for the expansion of human consciousness beyond the limitations of traditional thought.

The Weird of the Wentworths: A Tale of George IV's Time, Vol. 1
Johannes Scotus
This Victorian-era romance tracks the collision between fragile, idealized romantic dreams and the cold, often cynical realities of life among the British aristocracy during the reign of George IV. It is a portrait of obsession, social maneuvering, and the struggle to maintain moral rectitude in a world governed by…

The world's leading conquerors
Wilson Lloyd Bevan
The history of the world is often written in the footsteps of those who sought to master it. This survey examines the lives of the most formidable military figures who reshaped the maps and social structures of their eras.

Tom Grogan
Francis Hopkinson Smith
A resolute widow fights to keep her husband’s business alive against the corruption of local power. She stands as a solitary force, defending her family’s dignity and future in a changing industrial landscape.

What happened to Inger Johanne, as told by herself
Dikken Zwilgmeyer
A thirteen-year-old girl navigates the small-town scandals, family mishaps, and impulsive adventures of her youth in turn-of-the-century Norway. This episodic memoir captures the irrepressible spirit of a clever, observant, and often mischievous narrator.

Where I Wasn't Going
Walt Richmond
HOOK When a massive space-station project goes rogue, its crew finds themselves trapped in a political nightmare that threatens to bring the world beneath them to its knees.

With Edged Tools
Henry Seton Merriman
Ambition, legacy, and the corrosive weight of secrets collide in a high-stakes race for fortune across the untamed landscapes of West Africa. This is a story of two men, linked by a woman and a mission, who discover that the true price of success is often paid in blood and the sacrifice of one’s own soul.

Women of England
Bartlett Burleigh James
This historical survey traces the evolving status, labor, and domestic lives of British women from prehistoric times to the dawn of the twentieth century. It examines how shifting social, religious, and economic structures redefined the feminine experience.

Young People's Pride: A Novel
Stephen Vincent Benét
This novel captures the fragile, restless spirit of a post-World War I generation caught between the rigidity of their parents’ social expectations and the lure of a bohemian life abroad. It is a sharp, atmospheric portrait of youth in transition.

A Biographical Sketch of some of the Most Eminent Individuals which the Principality of Wales has produced since the Reformation
Robert Williams
This collection presents a focused gallery of Welsh historical figures, demonstrating the intellectual and cultural contributions of a nation often overlooked by contemporary English audiences. It serves as both a testament to individual achievement and a reclamation of regional identity.

A Day in Old Athens
William Stearns Davis
Stepping into the vibrant, sun-drenched streets of the fourth century B.C., one experiences the daily pulse of an extraordinary civilization. It is an invitation to walk alongside the citizens of a city at its zenith.

A Floating Home
Cyril Ionides
A family’s audacious pivot from landlocked cottage life to a repurposed sailing barge offers an intimate, salt-sprayed look at the resilience required to thrive upon the shifting tides of the Essex coast.

A Gallant of Lorraine
H. Noel (Hugh Noel) Williams
A courtier of immense charm and martial spirit navigates the shifting sands of power in 17th-century France, serving a king whose favor is as volatile as the political landscape itself.

A History of China
Wolfram Eberhard
This history traces the transformation of a civilization from its earliest tribal origins to the complex, modern nation-state of the mid-twentieth century. It offers a panoramic view of the cycles of power that have defined Chinese society for millennia.