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All free summaries — page 319
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 319 of 988.
Foe-Farrell
Arthur Quiller-Couch
The story of a man whose obsession with an enemy slowly erodes his own soul, told in the shadow of the Great War.
Friendly Visiting among the Poor: A Handbook for Charity Workers
Mary Ellen Richmond
Effective charity requires more than a kind heart; it demands the wisdom to address the root causes of distress rather than merely soothing the symptoms of poverty.
Golden Stars in Tatting and Crochet
Eléonore Riego de la Branchardière
A dedicated guide to the delicate fusion of shuttle and hook, this collection preserves the intricate craft of Victorian needlework through precise instructions for creating ornamental stars, diamonds, and wearable trimmings.
Greybeards at Play: Literature and Art for Old Gentlemen
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
This whimsical collection of light verse and nonsense invites readers to abandon the earnest, joyless responsibilities of adulthood and reclaim the simple, imaginative play of childhood. It celebrates the wisdom found in being absurdly, delightfully young at heart.
Indian Creek Massacre and Captivity of Hall Girls: Complete history of the massacre of sixteen whites on Indian creek, near Ottawa, Ill., and Sylvia Hall and Rachel Hall as captives in Illinois and Wisconsin during the Black Hawk war, 1832
Charles Martin Scanlan
The brutal 1832 Indian Creek Massacre and the subsequent ordeal of two young captive sisters stand as a harrowing, foundational chapter of Illinois frontier history. This account reconstructs their survival, rescue, and aftermath through meticulous archival research and family testimony.
Kildares of Storm
Eleanor Mercein Kelly
HOOK A devoted mother stakes her reputation and her life’s work on the redemption of the man who framed her husband’s death, all while raising two daughters in the shadow of a Kentucky family secret.
Lady Byron Vindicated: A history of the Byron controversy from its beginning in 1816 to the present time
Harriet Beecher Stowe
This defensive work serves as a formal, impassioned effort to shield the reputation of Lady Byron from historical revisionism and long-standing public animosity. By documenting the private narrative of a woman caught in a notorious marriage, the text seeks to expose the calculated cruelty of a celebrated poet.
Legends and Tales
Bret Harte
This collection of stories captures the shifting, often surreal spirit of the California frontier, where the mundane realities of pioneer life collide with myth, spectral visitations, and the looming ghosts of history. It serves as a bridge between the earnest missionary past and the frantic, gold-obsessed future.
Lifted Masks
Susan Glaspell
A tapestry of twentieth-century American lives, these stories catch people in the quiet, piercing moments when they realize their own limitations. It is an honest, compassionate look at the distance between what we dream and what we settle for.
Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons
Arabella M. Willson
This chronicle documents the lives of three remarkable women—Ann Hasseltine, Sarah Boardman, and Emily Chubbuck—who each married the pioneering American missionary Adoniram Judson and dedicated their lives to the mission in Burma.
Madame Roland, Makers of History
John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
The life of a brilliant, resolute woman serves as a lens through which to view the rise and fall of the French Revolution, tracing her path from intellectual awakening to her final, defiant end upon the scaffold.
McClure's Magazine December, 1895
Unknown
This December 1895 issue of McClure’s Magazine offers a varied collection of historical inquiry, personal testimony, and short fiction, serving as a time capsule of late 19th-century American literary tastes and intellectual curiosity.
Minimum Gauge Railways
Heywood, Arthur Percival, Sir, bart.
This account details the successful design and operation of 15-inch gauge railways, proving that miniature lines can provide efficient, cost-effective transport for private estates and local industry.
Mysterious Japan
Julian Street
A thoughtful traveler’s guide to the complexities of Japan, capturing the intersection of ancient traditions and a rapidly modernizing society at the turn of the twentieth century.
Over Prairie Trails
Frederick Philip Grove
The vast, unforgiving expanse of the Canadian prairies finds its most intimate chronicler in the rhythm of a horse-drawn carriage. This evocative work transforms the lonely, repetitive commute of a teacher into a profound meditation on nature and the human spirit.
Philosophical transactions, Vol. L. Part I. For the year 1757.: Giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labours, of the ingenious, in many considerable parts of the world
Various
This collection of eighteenth-century scientific reports captures the rigorous, often eccentric curiosity of an era grappling with everything from the mechanics of earthquakes to the nature of mineral waters.
Poems
George Meredith
This collection of verse captures the Victorian struggle to reconcile the wild, untamed instincts of the human heart with the cool, rational demands of a modernizing society. It is a work of intellectual rigor and lyrical beauty, mapping the tension between the ancient forces of nature and the disciplined…
Queen Victoria: Story of Her Life and Reign, 1819-1901
Anonymous
A concise portrait of a monarch whose long, transformative reign became a mirror for the rapid modernization, moral earnestness, and imperial expansion of the British nation.
Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: The Moth and the Flame
Clyde Fitch
A socialite’s engagement collapses under the weight of her fiancé’s dark secrets and her own family’s hidden dishonor. This drama exposes the brittle veneer of high society through a series of shattering revelations.
Savage Island: An Account of a Sojourn in Niué and Tonga
Basil Thomson
The colonial administrator’s keen eye for local custom turns a routine diplomatic mission into a poignant, vivid portrait of island life at the turn of the twentieth century.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898
Various
This collection of technical, historical, and scientific dispatches offers a vivid, snapshot-like window into the industrial and intellectual preoccupations of the late nineteenth century. It captures a world on the brink of profound modernization.
Secret Band of Brothers: A Full and True Exposition of All the Various Crimes, Villanies, and Misdeeds of This Powerful Organization in the United States
J. H. (Jonathan Harrington) Green
This firsthand account reveals the inner workings of a 19th-century criminal syndicate, exposing how a secret brotherhood manipulated the American justice system and public trust to facilitate widespread gambling and fraud.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This collection captures the intellectual pulse of 1863, blending urgent wartime commentary with profound explorations of history, science, and the evolving spirit of a nation divided against itself.
The Blood of the Arena
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
The life of a celebrity bullfighter is a dance with death, played out before a bloodthirsty crowd that craves his grace as much as his destruction.
The Builders
Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow
A nurse’s professional dedication becomes a crucible for her own heart when she is drawn into the stifling, tragic orbit of a deeply unhappy marriage.
The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, March, 1880
Various
This collection of essays and reflections serves as a vigorous defense of Christian theology against the rising tide of nineteenth-century materialism and evolutionary thought. It argues that modern scientific skepticism fails to account for the origins of morality, the structure of law, and the fundamental…
The Cotton Kingdom, volume 1 (of 2)
Frederick Law Olmsted
A traveler’s meticulous journal reveals the economic and moral exhaustion of a society built upon forced labor. Through precise observation, the narrative exposes how human bondage stifled progress and hollowed out the prosperity it claimed to protect.
The Dollar Hen
Milo Hastings
The poultry industry is a serious business of cold calculation, where romantic notions of "chicken farming" often lead to ruin. Success requires separating agricultural fact from the pervasive, unprofitable myths found in popular literature.
The Girl of the Period, and Other Social Essays, Vol. 2 (of 2)
E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton
These sharp, unsentimental essays dissect the manners and anxieties of Victorian society, exposing the rigid expectations that governed the lives and reputations of men and women alike.
The Gorilla Hunters
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The spirit of nineteenth-century exploration lives in this vigorous account of three companions who venture into the African interior to track the mysterious, formidable gorilla. It is a story of grit, camaraderie, and the relentless pursuit of scientific discovery in a wild, untamed landscape.
The Greene murder case
S. S. Van Dine
An isolated, decaying mansion becomes a claustrophobic stage for a series of unnatural deaths that baffle the police but invite the scrutiny of a brilliant, aristocratic amateur.
The heart of Happy Hollow
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Happy Hollow is a collection of short stories capturing the rhythms, struggles, and quiet dignity of African American life at the turn of the twentieth century. It portrays a world where, amidst both hardship and joy, human character remains the ultimate measure of worth.
The Iowa
Foster, Thomas, of Washington, D.C.
This monograph provides a scholarly, detailed account of the history, migration, and treaty relations of the Ioway people as documented in the late nineteenth century.
The Landlord at Lion's Head
William Dean Howells
A volatile young man struggles to escape his humble origins as a hotel landlord, only to find that his true character remains tethered to the very roots he desperately tries to outgrow.
The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Volume 3 (of 3)
Henry Fuseli
An intellectual journey through the history of Italian painting, this volume blends rigorous formal criticism with a sharp, uncompromising assessment of the decline of contemporary art.
The Man Who Was Good
Leonard Merrick
A woman’s devotion to an actor leads her into a life of abandonment and hardship, where she must navigate the precarious dignity of those who earn their own way. In a world of fleeting opportunities, she discovers that the past is a ghost that refuses to be buried.
The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 2 (of 5): New world idylls and poems of love
Madison Julius Cawein
This collection of verse captures the fleeting alchemy of the human heart, where the changing seasons of the American landscape serve as a mirror for the rise, decay, and haunting memory of romantic love.
The Poetical Works of James Beattie
James Beattie
These verses capture a scholar’s struggle to reconcile the quietude of rural solitude with the turbulent demands of ambition, fame, and the persistent weight of human mortality.
The Snare
Rafael Sabatini
A reckless soldier’s drunken indiscretion spirals into a web of political espionage and murder, testing the limits of honor during the brutal Peninsula War.
The Subtropical Garden
W. (William) Robinson
This guide advocates for a garden defined by architectural grandeur and bold, graceful foliage rather than mere splashes of color, proving that tropical effects thrive in temperate climates.
The Tempering
Charles Neville Buck
The mountain boy who yearns for a life beyond his isolated cabin must forge his identity in the fires of political intrigue, personal loss, and the global upheaval of the First World War.
The Valley of Vision
Henry Van Dyke
This collection of stories and dreams navigates the moral landscape of the First World War, finding that the deepest insights into human nature often emerge from the darkest valleys of suffering.
The War Terror
Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve
A scientific detective navigates the paranoia of the First World War, using laboratory instruments to expose spies, radicals, and criminals hiding behind the masks of modern society.
Zanetto
Willard Gibson Day
This collection presents two distinct one-act operas—Zanetto and Cavalleria Rusticana—bound together as a souvenir libretto. While the former is a delicate, allegorical study of fleeting youth and unrequited longing, the latter is a raw, violent drama of Sicilian honor and betrayal. Together, they offer a stark…
A Book of Marionettes
Helen Haiman Joseph
This graceful, expansive study invites readers into the timeless, whimsical world of the marionette, tracing its journey from antiquity to the early twentieth century. It serves as both a historical record and a passionate defense of an enduring art form.
A Guide to Mythology
Helen A. (Helen Archibald) Clarke
This collection serves as a foundational primer for young readers, bridging the gap between simple storytelling and the structural analysis of comparative mythology. It organizes global traditions into a cohesive exploration of human belief and imagination.
A Manual of Mending and Repairing
Charles Godfrey Leland
Practicality meets the spirit of nineteenth-century ingenuity in this comprehensive guide to restoration. It argues that mending is not merely a chore, but an art and a science, offering readers the technical knowledge to salvage almost anything—from fractured porcelain and delicate books to structural…
Adventures in New Guinea
James Chalmers
The world’s largest island, caught between colonial ambition and ancient tradition, reveals its rugged interior and its people through the eyes of a persistent traveler navigating a landscape of both immense beauty and great peril.