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All free summaries — page 370
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 370 of 714.
The New Education: A Review of Progressive Educational Movements of the Day (1915)
Scott Nearing
A rallying cry for educational reform, this work advocates for schools that mirror the practical needs of their communities rather than relying on rigid, outdated academic traditions.
The Plays of Philip Massinger, Vol. I
Philip Massinger
These seventeenth-century dramas pulse with the frantic energy of the Jacobean stage, pitting moral clarity against the seductive, destructive allure of political power and romantic obsession.
The Princess Tarakanova: A Dark Chapter of Russian History
G. P. (Grigorii Petrovich) Danilevskii
Trapped between imperial ambition and a forged identity, a mysterious pretender discovers that challenging Catherine the Great’s crown carries a death sentence in the frozen dark of a St. Petersburg fortress.
The Radicalism of Shelley and Its Sources
Daniel J. MacDonald
This examination of Percy Bysshe Shelley traces the intellectual origins of his radicalism, mapping how the poet’s personal history and philosophical influences converged to shape his political and religious ideals.
The Return of the Prodigal
May Sinclair
This collection of short stories captures the quiet desperation and social maneuvering of early twentieth-century life, where the deepest conflicts occur in the spaces between what is said and what is felt. Its narratives move with a sharp, observant intelligence through the drawing rooms and rural retreats of the…
The Revival of Irish Literature: Addresses by Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, K.C.M.G, Dr. George Sigerson, and Dr. Douglas Hyde
Duffy, Charles Gavan, Sir
A collection of three impassioned addresses, this volume serves as a manifesto for the Irish Literary Revival, urging a displaced and demoralized people to reclaim their intellectual heritage as the foundation for true national independence.
The Right Stuff: Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton
Ian Hay
** A rugged, brilliant young Scotsman leaves his hillside home to carve a path in London, eventually discovering that the hardest battles are won not with ambition, but with character.
The Secret Toll
Paul Thorne
HOOK A determined veteran returns home to find Chicago under siege by a ruthless extortion ring, leading him into a dangerous, amateur investigation where he discovers that the truth is buried beneath local superstition and personal desire.
The Sorrows of Belgium: A Play in Six Scenes
Leonid Andreyev
War is a tragedy that forces the soul to confront the impossible. This play captures the fracturing of a nation and a family, tracing the brutal transition from the quiet beauty of a garden to the stark, sacrificial necessity of survival.
The Soul of Susan Yellam
Horace Annesley Vachell
HOOK This poignant narrative explores how a small, tradition-bound village navigates the immense pressures of the First World War, focusing on a mother’s fierce, quiet devotion to her son and his young wife.
The Story of a Piece of Coal: What It Is, Whence It Comes, and Whither It Goes
Edward A. (Edward Alfred) Martin
The miracle of a lump of coal lies in its hidden history, transforming ancient, buried forests into the very fuel, light, and color that define the modern industrial age.
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 25, January 1893: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
This volume represents a preserved snapshot of Victorian intellectual and domestic life, blending rigorous investigative fiction with the whimsical, moralistic, and often idiosyncratic sensibilities of its era. It serves as a time capsule of 1893, capturing how a refined public consumed both its mysteries and its…
The Superstition of Divorce
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
Divorce is not a personal escape, but a political act that threatens the fragile autonomy of the family against the encroaching power of the state.
The Triumph of John Kars: A Story of the Yukon
Ridgwell Cullum
A battle for justice in the desolate Yukon, where a man of iron resolve fights to dismantle a corrupt monopoly and save a family from a hidden, murderous conspiracy.
Their Silver Wedding Journey
William Dean Howells
A middle-aged couple embarks on a European tour to celebrate their silver anniversary, only to find their planned respite from professional burdens repeatedly entangled in the romantic and moral complications of their fellow travelers.
Trail's End
George W. (George Washington) Ogden
A lone stranger steps into a lawless Kansas cattle town, tasked by a woman’s plea to tame a violent frontier. He eventually trades the chaos of the pistol for the quiet redemption of the wheat field.
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Charles M. (Charles Mattathias) Jacobs
This clinical account details the monumental engineering feat of burrowing the Pennsylvania Railroad beneath the Hudson River, forever altering the physical and logistical landscape of New York City at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad
James H. Brace
HOOK This technical chronicle details the immense logistical and engineering feat of excavating the Cross-Town Tunnels, the critical subterranean link for the Pennsylvania Railroad’s expansion into Manhattan.
Turns of Fortune, and Other Tales
Hall, S. C., Mrs.
A sobering exploration of how sudden shifts in fortune expose the fragility of human character, this collection examines the heavy, often tragic, cost of living beyond one's means.
Waysiders, Stories of Connacht
Seumas O'Kelly
The lives of the rural poor in Connacht are etched into the landscape, where the struggle for survival and the weight of tradition transform the mundane into the mythic.
Widger's Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Montaigne
Michel de Montaigne
To read these reflections is to spend time in the company of a mind that finds its greatest subject in the mirror. It is a wandering, honest examination of what it means to be human, written by a man who prefers the truth of his own experience to the certainty of accepted wisdom.
With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance Train
Bennett, E. N. (Ernest Nathaniel), Sir
A firsthand account of the South African War, this narrative offers a sober, unvarnished look at the reality of ambulance service, far removed from the romanticized jingoism of the era.
Yorkshire Vales and Wolds
Gordon Home
This is a meditative exploration of the southern Yorkshire landscape, capturing the quiet dignity of ancient villages, the eroding cliffs of the coast, and the persistent weight of history upon the land.
A Book of Cheerful Cats and Other Animated Animals
J. G. (Joseph Greene) Francis
Whimsical felines and their animated companions embark on surreal escapades, blending nursery-rhyme simplicity with a dry, observational wit that rewards the attentive reader.
A book of the west. Volume 2, Cornwall
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
This travelogue explores the rugged landscape and deep-rooted folklore of Cornwall, capturing a vanishing world where ancient saints, mining ghosts, and defiant local traditions still haunt the cliffs and moorlands.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 2: John Quincy Adams
Unknown
The life and public service of a founding statesman unfold through his own meticulous records, revealing the dense administrative machinery of a young nation finding its footing on the world stage.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 8, part 2: Chester A. Arthur
Unknown
This document serves as a formal historical record of the executive actions, policy recommendations, and legislative communications of the twenty-first President of the United States. It offers a structured window into the administrative machinery of the American government during the early 1880s.
A Guide for the Study of Animals
Worrallo Whitney
This practical manual provides a structured, observational approach to high school biology, moving from simple organisms to complex vertebrates through the lens of ecological adaptation and economic importance.
A Life Unveiled, by a Child of the Drumlins
Anonymous
This intimate memoir traces the evolution of a young woman from her rural childhood among the rolling drumlins of New York to her career as a physician in Boston. It is a quiet, contemplative study of how the formative years shape the adult soul.
A Pirate of the Caribbees
Harry Collingwood
The high seas demand courage, but some men are born to hunt the monsters who turn the ocean into a graveyard of burning timber and broken lives.
A Report upon the Mollusk Fisheries of Massachusetts
Massachusetts. Commissioners on Fisheries and Game
Nature’s bounty is not infinite, and human appetite often outpaces the earth's ability to recover. This examination of Massachusetts' coastal resources serves as a sobering reminder of the consequences of unrestrained harvesting and local neglect.
A Romance of Tompkins Square: 1891
Thomas A. (Thomas Allibone) Janvier
A solitary baker’s pursuit of the perfect honey-cake reveals the fragility of human ambition and the necessity of grace in the face of deep, lingering sorrow.
Aliens or Americans?
Howard B. (Howard Benjamin) Grose
The gates of a young nation stand open to a tide of humanity, raising urgent questions about how a country balances its ideals of liberty against the practical pressures of rapid social transformation.
An Unsentimental Journey through Cornwall
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
HOOK A seasoned traveler leads two young women on a practical, observant tour of Cornwall, favoring quiet discovery over the frantic, superficial pace of modern tourism.
Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659
Mustafa Naima
A panoramic view of an empire in transition, these chronicles chart seven decades of political upheaval, military campaigns, and the relentless machinery of court intrigue within the Ottoman world.
Annie Kilburn
William Dean Howells
A woman of means returns to her small Massachusetts hometown, only to discover that her desire to do good is complicated by the rigid social boundaries and economic tensions of a changing New England.
Artificial and Natural Flight
Hiram S. (Hiram Stevens) Maxim
This account of pioneering aeronautical research details the practical experiments required to achieve mechanical flight at the dawn of the twentieth century. It serves as a pragmatic, hard-won guide to the physics of wings, screws, and engines.
Authors at home: Personal and biographical sketches of well-known American writers
Unknown
These intimate portraits reveal the private studies and daily habits of thirty influential American writers, offering a quiet window into the spaces where classic literature was born at the turn of the twentieth century.
Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence, Vol. 1
Elizabeth Sarah Kite
A master of invention and intrigue, Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais serves as the unlikely architect of French support for the American Revolution. His vibrant, singular life bridges the gap between watchmaker and revolutionary diplomat.
Chasing an Iron Horse
Edward Robins
A daring Union sabotage mission unfolds across the Georgia countryside, where a young recruit and his companions attempt to steal a Confederate locomotive and turn the tide of the Civil War.
Claim Number One
George W. (George Washington) Ogden
Comanche sits at the edge of the world, a temporary tent city where thousands gamble their futures on a government land lottery. Hope and greed collide on the burning white plains, where Claim Number One becomes the obsession of desperate men and a catalyst for a life-altering journey.
Daniel Webster
Henry Cabot Lodge
A titan of American oratory navigates the turbulent expansion of the nineteenth-century Republic, ultimately grappling with the catastrophic fracture of the Union he spent his life defending.
Dutch Life in Town and Country
P. M. Hough
Holland remains a land of miniature cities, winding canals, and enduring traditions, captured here in a meticulous survey of a nation defined by its quiet dignity and unwavering devotion to order.
Fair Margaret
H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
A spirited English merchant’s daughter and her cousin are abducted by a vengeful Spanish nobleman, forcing a daring rescue across the sea and into the dangerous, intrigue-filled courts of medieval Spain.
Geraldine Farrar: The Story of an American Singer
Geraldine Farrar
A celebrated American prima donna recounts her journey from a precocious child in Massachusetts to the center of the world's grandest opera stages.
God the Known and God the Unknown
Samuel Butler
The divine is not an abstraction hovering above the world, but the very pulse of life within it; we are the cells of a singular, evolving organism that we might properly call God.
Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer
Walter Scott
A disinherited heir wanders his family’s ruined estate, unaware that his destiny is entwined with a long-forgotten prophecy and the dark secrets of an aging, vengeful wanderer.
H.M.I.: Some Passages in the Life of One of H.M. Inspectors of Schools
E. M. (Edmund McKenzie) Sneyd-Kynnersley
This account offers a rare, candid glimpse into the vanished world of late Victorian and Edwardian education, told by a man who spent decades traveling the countryside to hold schools accountable to the state. It is a witty, often irreverent record of a civil servant’s life, capturing the tensions of a rigid…