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All free summaries — page 340
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 340 of 714.
Hocus Pocus Junior: The Anatomie of Legerdemain
Unknown
A secret-filled pouch slips open to reveal how sleight-of-hand artists trick the eye, turn ordinary props into wonders, and fool the eager crowds at seventeenth-century country fairs.
In the Permanent Way
Flora Annie Webster Steel
A white watchman stands vigil at an Indian church; a driver sleeps aboard a runaway train; a sightless musician touches a dead keyboard.
In Wildest Africa, Vol. 2
C. G. (Carl Georg) Schillings
In the fading twilight of the East African veld, a naturalist sets his glass-plate cameras, waiting for the wild to reveal itself without bloodshed.
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 4: Zoology
Linnean Society of London
Through microscopic bone examination, precise anatomical cataloging, and field observations across distant tropical islands, Victorian naturalists dismantle long-held assumptions about the animal kingdom to reshape the foundations of evolutionary science and zoological taxonomy.
Life of Sir William Wallace of Elderslie, Vol. 2 (of 2)
John D. (John Donald) Carrick
A fierce defender of Scottish freedom faces foreign tyranny, internal betrayal, and the brutal machinations of an expansionist English crown.
Life of Thomas Paine: Written Purposely to Bind with His Writings
Richard Carlile
A relentless commitment to reason can turn a quiet clerk into the intellectual engine of two world-shaking revolutions.
Massimilla Doni
Honoré de Balzac
A noble Venetian youth finds his ideal love suspended in spiritual purity, only to have his earthly senses awoken by an opera singer in a decaying palace.
Memoirs of the Generals, Commodores and other Commanders, who distinguished themselves in the American army and navy during the wars of the Revolution and 1812, and who were presented with medals by Congress for their gallant services
Thomas Wyatt
A nation’s founding martial triumphs live as much in silver and gold as in ink, where military heroism earns its permanent stamp of public gratitude.
Mink Trapping: A Book of Instruction Giving Many Methods of Trapping: A Valuable Book for Trappers
A. R. (Arthur Robert) Harding
A hidden water-set placed near a hollow log can secure a prize, but one careless footprint on the bank will send the quarry running for days.
Modern Mythology
Andrew Lang
Human folklore does not originate in forgotten linguistic roots, but in the shared mind of primitive humanity.
My mother India
Dalip Singh Saund
An immigrant intellectual writes a passionate defense of his homeland, urging the Western world to cast aside prejudice and recognize the spiritual depth, economic exploitation, and righteous struggle for self-rule defining modern India.
New Mexico Magazine's A Taste of New Mexico Kitchens
Anonymous
A concise sampling of regional culinary heritage captures the spirit of Southwestern home cooking through time-tested recipes from home cooks, traditional Pueblo communities, and legendary local restaurants.
Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A lively snapshot of mid-nineteenth-century intellectual exchange, where readers trade obscure historical facts, untangle literary puzzles, and preserve dying local customs.
Nothing to Eat
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A wealthy New York woman sits down to a lavish multi-course feast and spends the entire two hours complaining that she has nothing to eat.
On the Reception of the 'Origin of Species'
Thomas Henry Huxley
A leading scientist reflects on the bitter public battle that greeted Charles Darwin’s masterwork, charting how a once-abhorred theory converted its fiercest critics to become the foundation of modern biological thought.
Poise: How to Attain It
D. Starke
Self-mastery isn't born from brute force, but from quiet equilibrium. True personal authority emerges when clear self-knowledge, disciplined physical habits, and rational self-examination systematically replace the paralyzing anxieties of timidity and the empty bluster of vanity.
Psyche
Louis Couperus
A winged princess flees her high castle in pursuit of an elusive flying beast, embarking on a tragic, transformative journey across earthly desires and spiritual trials.
Riverby
John Burroughs
Walking through quiet fields and wild mountain slopes reveals a landscape alive with sudden, minute dramas for anyone patient enough to pay close attention.
Runnymede and Lincoln Fair
John G. (John George) Edgar
A young Saxon heir fights through betrayal, civil war, and foreign invasion to reclaim his heritage and protect his country during England's thirteenth-century crisis.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885
Various
This collection of late-nineteenth-century industrial and scientific intelligence captures the relentless ingenuity of an era obsessed with mechanizing the world. It serves as a comprehensive snapshot of Victorian-era progress across engineering, chemistry, and maritime safety.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891
Various
From the mechanics of steam valves to the delicate division between plant and animal life, this late nineteenth-century periodical captures a era where science was rapidly reshaping everyday industry, medicine, and human thought.
Servia, Youngest Member of the European Family
A. A. (Andrew Archibald) Paton
A British traveler charts a journey through the Ottoman borderlands, uncovering a proud nation emerging from the shadow of empire.
Sketches in Lavender, Blue and Green
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
Human nature rarely changes, though every generation invents new excuses for its vanity, absurdity, and quiet acts of grace.
Some Little People
George Kringle
A headstrong young girl sets off on a series of misadventures in pursuit of a fantasy life far from home, only to discover the quiet strength of family and contentment.
Syndicalism in France
Lewis L. (Lewis Levitzki) Lorwin
A radical movement forged its identity not in parliamentary debates, but in the everyday clashes of the French workshop and the streets.
The Abandoned Farmers: His Humorous Account of a Retreat from the City to the Farm
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
Escaping the city seemed like a dream, until every step toward country living turned into a comedy of self-inflicted errors.
The Aboriginal Population of the San Joaquin Valley, California
Sherburne Friend Cook
Through cold statistics and painstaking historical deduction, a forgotten human landscape emerges from the quiet river valleys of central California.
The Belton Estate
Anthony Trollope
A woman trapped between the cold calculations of an aristocratic engagement and the unvarnished devotion of her cousin must choose how to inherit her own life.
The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume III
John Payne
A world of endless invention awaits inside a book that moves seamlessly from the quick wit of talking beasts to the heavy, heartbreaking trials of secret lovers.
The collected works of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. 09 (of 11)
Henrik Ibsen
A small Norwegian fjord town becomes the battleground where domestic tranquility collides with past ghosts, radical ideals, and the terrifying pull of the untamed sea.
The Dogs of Boytown
Walter A. (Walter Alden) Dyer
Two young brothers raise twin setter pups in a small New England town, guided by an eccentric woodsman and a wealthy kennel owner.
The dream: A novel
H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
In a radiant future, a rested scientist slumbers and re-imagines an entire, squalid existence in the muddled industrial dark of twentieth-century England.
The Framework of Home Rule
Erskine Childers
Erskine Childers presents a rigorous, historical defense of Irish Home Rule, arguing that genuine colonial self-government must serve as the blueprint for lasting peace between Great Britain and Ireland.
The Getting of Wisdom
Henry Handel Richardson
A young girl’s journey through a rigid boarding school reveals that true wisdom comes not from books, but from the messy, often painful process of learning who one really is.
The Golden Helm, and Other Verse
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
A holy hermit's quiet routine is shattered by a tragic shipwreck, casting a grieving maiden into his sea-scourged sanctuary.
The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Charles E. (Charles Edward) Bolton
A strike at an iron plant, a steamship in a mid-ocean storm, and the glittering cities of Europe form the backdrop for a grand industrial reform.
The History of Duelling. Vol. 2 (of 2)
J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen
Honor and lethal force collision on every page of this history, revealing how society protected a deadly custom.
The Life of the Moselle: From its source in the Vosges Mountains to its junction with the Rhine at Coblence
Octavius Rooke
A solitary river journey winds through quiet mountain valleys, ruined castles, and ancient vineyards, uncovering a forgotten corner of Europe.
The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A high-seas mutiny yields no lasting triumph, only a perilous search for refuge on an isolated Pacific isle. There, a small band of sailors and Tahitian women must forge a fragile society out of violent beginnings.
The Radio Planet
Ralph Milne Farley
Stranded on an alien world, an Earth inventor uses primitive raw materials to build advanced radio technology and fight his way home.
The Reign of William Rufus and the Accession of Henry the First, Volume 1 (of 2)
Edward A. (Edward Augustus) Freeman
The second Norman king of England ruled not through the majesty of his father, but through the brute force of his treasury, the sharpness of his military engineers, and the relentless logic of feudal extortion.
The small bachelor
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
A quiet, terrible painter falls instantly in love with an uptown society girl, setting off a chaotic sequence of mistaken identities, stolen jewels, and hilarious social maneuverings across Prohibition-era New York.
The theory and practice of argumentation and debate
Victor Alvin Ketcham
A pragmatic guide to persuasive speech, this manual turns formal logic into an accessible, real-world discipline for public speaking.
The World of Waters, Or, A Peaceful Progress O'er the Unpathed Sea
Osborne, David, Mrs. (Fanny)
The World of Waters A journey across the globe requires nothing more than a curious mind and a dedicated teacher, as a family of armchair explorers proves by navigating the seven seas from the comfort of their own home.
The Young Maiden
A. B. (Artemas Bowers) Muzzey
A quiet moral instruction manual from antebellum America, this text charts a woman’s passage from youth to marriage with solemn urgency, treating daily household conduct as the ultimate crucible of the human spirit.
Through Scandinavia to Moscow
William Seymour Edwards
A honeymooning American traveler journeys across Scandinavia and into early twentieth-century Russia, recording the stark contrasts between progressive Nordic democracies and autocratic imperial oppression.
Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle
M. E. (Mary Edith) Durham
In a world where small events ignite massive global conflicts, one observer travels through the volatile Balkan Peninsula, capturing the whispers, political plots, and ancient feuds that precede the catastrophe of World War I.
Under the Tree
Elizabeth Madox Roberts
A quiet, luminous collection of poems captures the boundless curiosity and vivid interior life of a young child growing up in rural Kentucky.