myebooksbuy
My Books

The whole shelf

All free summaries — page 36

1,770 public-domain books, summarised. Page 36 of 37.

Cover of The Young Miner

The Young Miner

Alger, Horatio, Jr.

Driven by a desire to rescue his family's farm from foreclosure, a young New Englander sets out for the gold fields of California, testing his wits against claim-jumpers, predators, and the chaotic frontier.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Aztec Treasure-House

The Aztec Treasure-House

Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone) Janvier

Lost in the mountains of Mexico, a band of adventurers hazards everything to find a hidden Aztec city, where ancient faith, vast gold, and deadly peril await.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea: Their rovings, cruises, escapades, and fierce battling upon the ocean for patriotism and for treasure

Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea: Their rovings, cruises, escapades, and fierce battling upon the ocean for patriotism and for treasure

Charles H. L. (Charles Haven Ladd) Johnston

A vast sheet of unknown possibilities stretches away from the land, beckoning daring souls into the fog-bound ocean. Behind every legendary cruise lies a story of fierce battling for patriotism, plunder, and survival.

Adventure7 min read
Cover of Language of Flowers

Language of Flowers

Kate Greenaway

Every petal, stem, and bloom carries an unspoken dialect, transforming silent botanical gifts into articulate messages of love, grief, and devotion.

Art7 min read
Cover of Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen

Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants and Herdsmen

Alexander Chodzko

Underneath the snow-bound forests and enchanted castles of Slavic folklore lies a world where the humblest outcast holds the key to the ultimate reward.

Mythology, Legends & Folklore6 min read
Cover of The Naval History of the United States. Volume 1

The Naval History of the United States. Volume 1

Willis J. (Willis John) Abbot

Rough, rowdy, and unexpectedly lethal, the early United States Navy grew from a ragtag fleet of converted merchantmen into a formidable force that challenged the greatest maritime empire on earth.

History - American8 min read
Cover of Princess Polly At Play

Princess Polly At Play

Amy Brooks

A seashore summer brings a colorful blend of childhood play, high-spirited pranks, and coastal romance as young friends reunite along the ocean.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
Cover of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11

The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11

Unknown

A sweeping tide of change reshaped the world between 1609 and 1660, as old dogmas shattered under the weight of empirical science, religious upheaval, and colonial ambition.

History - European8 min read
Cover of An American Suffragette

An American Suffragette

Isaac Newton Stevens

A woman’s march through Manhattan sparks a romance that soon becomes bound up in a high-stakes murder trial, testing both political ideals and human devotion.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of Civics and Health

Civics and Health

William H. (WIlliam Harvey) Allen

A society's democratic vitality depends on the physical well-being of its citizens, transforming personal hygiene from an individual responsibility into a fundamental civic duty.

Health & Medicine6 min read
Cover of The Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1, No. 1, February 8, 1918: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919

The Stars and Stripes, Vol. 1, No. 1, February 8, 1918: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919

United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces

A military camp newspaper offers an intimate, unvarnished window into the lives of the first American soldiers dispatched to the European front during World War I.

History - American6 min read
Cover of Considerations on Representative Government

Considerations on Representative Government

John Stuart Mill

Democracy functions only when a society actively cultivates the civic energy, intellectual vigor, and moral character of its individual citizens.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of The Great Sioux Trail: A Story of Mountain and Plain

The Great Sioux Trail: A Story of Mountain and Plain

Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

Stripped of its civil war past, the American frontier reveals a harsh wilderness where survival demands absolute courage and unlikely alliances.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of The Nabob, Vol. 2 (of 2)

The Nabob, Vol. 2 (of 2)

Alphonse Daudet

The dazzling heights of Second Empire ambition collapse into ruin when an ostentatious millionaire learns that no amount of gold can purchase genuine social acceptance in a corrupt capital.

French Literature6 min read
Cover of The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings

The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings

John Abercrombie

When human reason attempts to map the landscape of duty, it eventually hits a wall where logic ends and raw, intuitive conviction must take the wheel.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irving

A genial, lazy villager wanders into the misty Catskill Mountains to escape his wife's sharp tongue, only to fall into a magical twenty-year slumber that spans a revolutionary transformation of his entire world.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York

How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York

Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

Densely packed tenements hide millions of working-class families surviving in dark, unsanitary rooms across New York City. A crusading journalist exposes their wretched conditions to demand systemic reform.

History - American6 min read
Cover of Historic Boys: Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times

Historic Boys: Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times

Elbridge S. (Elbridge Streeter) Brooks

A dozen real historical figures face the trials, temptations, and battlefields of their youth long before assuming adult power.

Children & Young Adult Reading6 min read
Cover of Patty's Success

Patty's Success

Carolyn Wells

A wealthy young woman returning from an idyllic European tour faces the quiet discomfort of her own privilege and vows to earn her own wages to aid an impoverished artist.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Skippy Bedelle: His Sentimental Progress From the Urchin to the Complete Man of the World

Skippy Bedelle: His Sentimental Progress From the Urchin to the Complete Man of the World

Owen Johnson

A fifteen-year-old prep school student navigates the agonizing transition from a woman-hating urchin into a self-proclaimed man of the world through a series of grand inventions, romantic disasters, and absurd social rivalries.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Short-story

The Short-story

Unknown

A beginner's window into American and British fiction, this anthology traces the evolution of short prose from fireside folk legend to the psychological, moral, and suspenseful narratives of the nineteenth century.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Book of the Damned

The Book of the Damned

Charles Fort

Battalions of forgotten phenomena march through a landscape ruled by scientific dogma, challenging our neatest ideas of reality.

Philosophy & Ethics5 min read
Cover of The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome

The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome

Unknown

Across centuries of statecraft, war, and philosophical inquiry, classical Roman writers record how a disciplined republic conquered the Mediterranean world only to watch its own moral foundation crumble into imperial tyranny.

Classics of Literature6 min read
Cover of Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)

Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664)

Robert Boyle

A series of meticulous physical and chemical trials dismantles traditional Aristotelian and scholastic theories, revealing that light and hue are mechanical properties governed by surface texture, refraction, and chemical composition.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)7 min read
Cover of The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

A hard-headed critique strips away comfort and conventional piety to lay bare the brutal mechanics of human ambition, power, and cultural decay.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Land of the Long Night

The Land of the Long Night

Paul B. (Paul Belloni) Du Chaillu

A journey across frozen tundras reveals the raw power of the Far North, where survival depends on human warmth, indigenous wisdom, and sheer endurance.

Adventure6 min read
Cover of Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World.: To which are added rules for determining the precise figure, the degree of beauty, the habits, and the age of women, notwithstanding the aids and disguise of dress

Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World.: To which are added rules for determining the precise figure, the degree of beauty, the habits, and the age of women, notwithstanding the aids and disguise of dress

Anonymous

This curious nineteenth-century volume offers a sweeping, anecdotal survey of how women have been treated, viewed, and evaluated across different cultures and eras, concluding with an eccentric guide to calculating a woman's true physical traits despite her clothing.

Gender & Sexuality Studies6 min read
Cover of The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1: Boule de Suif and Other Stories

The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1: Boule de Suif and Other Stories

Guy de Maupassant

Behind the polished facade of polite nineteenth-century society lies a world driven by hypocrisy, obsession, and unexpected cruelty. Human nature reveals its most raw and unvarnished truths when vanity, fear, or desire takes control.

French Literature7 min read
Cover of Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497

Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497

Julia Cartwright

High Renaissance Italy emerges not merely as an arena of cynical bloodshed, but as a vibrant landscape of artistic devotion, statecraft, and intimate human ties centered on a brilliant young duchess.

Biographies8 min read
Cover of Mr. Opp

Mr. Opp

Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice

A small-town dreamer with grand ambitions steps up to carry a heavy burden of family duty, refusing to lose his optimism or his dignity even as his wild enterprises collapse around him.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Little Folks (December 1884): A Magazine for the Young

Little Folks (December 1884): A Magazine for the Young

Various

A Victorian miscellany weaves together serial dramas of stolen children and lost inheritances with practical craft guides, historical sketches, and natural history lessons for young readers.

Children & Young Adult Reading7 min read
Cover of Clematis

Clematis

Bertha B. (Bertha Browning) Cobb

A neglected city child runs away from her sterile surroundings, only to find that an unexpected journey into the country unlocks the hidden truth of her heritage.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Dawn of Day

The Dawn of Day

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

A solitary figure steps out into the cold, clear air before sunrise to question the moral machinery that governs human behavior. Unbound by traditional dogmas, this inquiry seeks to uncover how inherited habits and unexamined virtues quietly shape the mind.

Philosophy & Ethics6 min read
Cover of The day the world ended

The day the world ended

Sax Rohmer

A mysterious voice delivers a chilling three-day ultimatum in a quiet German resort town. To stop a mad visionary from extinguishing human life, three investigators must breach a fortress guarded by synthetic giants.

Science-Fiction & Fantasy7 min read
Cover of The Idler Magazine, Volume III, April 1893: An Illustrated Monthly

The Idler Magazine, Volume III, April 1893: An Illustrated Monthly

Various

A charming, late-Victorian time capsule, this issue blends lighthearted domestic reporting, cautionary literary memoirs, and satirical club room banter with quiet, devastating portraits of urban poverty.

Essays, Letters & Speeches6 min read
Cover of The Toilers of the Field

The Toilers of the Field

Richard Jefferies

Amid the quiet expanse of the English countryside, a bitter, hidden struggle unfolds between those who cultivate the soil and the unforgiving land that dictates their survival.

Essays, Letters & Speeches7 min read
Cover of East of Eden

East of Eden

Isa Glenn

A fragile talent destroyed by the crushing friction between artistic ambition and societal expectations.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Gloucester [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See

Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Gloucester [2nd ed.]: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Espicopal See

H. J. L. J. (Henri Jean Louis Joseph) Massé

The great stone central tower rises high above the valley, surrounded by a complex architectural web where centuries of fires, collapses, and ambitious rebuildings leave their distinct marks on every wall, window, and arch.

Architecture5 min read
Cover of A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections

A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections

Isabel Florence Hapgood

A vast culture shifts from unrhymed folk chants and monastic chronicles to brilliant psychological novels, capturing the turbulent soul of a nation through its changing words.

Russian Literature7 min read
Cover of Daemonologie

Daemonologie

King of England James I

A monarch’s urgent defense of supernatural reality lays bare the theological, legal, and human terrors of early modern witchcraft.

History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)7 min read
Cover of The Flowers of Evil

The Flowers of Evil

Charles Baudelaire

A soul caught between the heights of spiritual longing and the abyss of urban despair seeks beauty in the darkest corners of human experience.

French Literature6 min read
Cover of Health on the Farm: A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene

Health on the Farm: A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene

H. F. (Henry Fauntleroy) Harris

A practical manual reveals how simple changes in daily habits, household structure, and diet can safeguard families against preventable illnesses on the farm.

Health & Medicine7 min read
Cover of A Hungarian Nabob

A Hungarian Nabob

Mór Jókai

An aging magnate's petty, spendthrift nephew ships him a coffin for a birthday joke, triggering a furious campaign of revenge: the old man marries a young citizen's daughter to produce a legitimate heir and strip his rival of his inheritance.

Novels7 min read
Cover of Old Rail Fence Corners: The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History

Old Rail Fence Corners: The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History

Unknown

A lost map of Minnesota’s original territorial roads triggers a years-long effort to gather the oral histories of the men and women who carved towns, farms, and trails out of the Midwestern wilderness.

History - American8 min read
Cover of The Verbalist: A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety

The Verbalist: A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety

Alfred Ayres

A single word, carelessly chosen, can erode the precision of an entire argument. Alfred Ayres offers an antidote in a manual designed to restore clarity, balance, and discipline to everyday language.

How To ...5 min read
Cover of The Cornwall Coast

The Cornwall Coast

Arthur L. (Arthur Leslie) Salmon

A rugged coastline unfolds through ancient myths, screaming gulls, and solitary granite cliffs, inviting the deliberate traveler to bypass modern resort crowds for quiet, timeless sanctuaries.

Travel Writing6 min read
Cover of Charles Carleton Coffin: War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and Statesman

Charles Carleton Coffin: War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and Statesman

William Elliot Griffis

From a rural New Hampshire farm to the blood-soaked battlefields of the Civil War and the bustling trade routes of Asia, one man's life embodies nineteenth-century American drive, moral conviction, and technological enterprise.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Colorado Jim

Colorado Jim

George Goodchild

A rough-hewn American mining millionaire marries an aristocratic English beauty, only to drag her into the unforgiving Klondike wilderness where physical peril and grueling hardship strip away social prejudice to forge genuine love.

British Literature7 min read
Advertisement