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All free summaries — page 384
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 384 of 714.
Guide to Hotel Housekeeping
Mary E. (Mary Elizabeth) Palmer
Managing an early twentieth-century hotel requires rigorous organization, unyielding self-discipline, and a mastery of structural maintenance.
Her brother's keeper
Agnes Giberne
When a brother's silent moral decline threatens to undo their shared future, a devoted sister's quiet faith becomes the sole bulwark against ruin.
History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce, 1585e-86a
John Lothrop Motley
In late 1585, England enters a perilous struggle in the Low Countries to halt Spanish domination, only for internal court politics and royal fury to threaten the entire enterprise from its very inception.
In Pastures New
George Ade
An American abroad is a creature of endless confidence and total confusion, marching through the ancient world with a guide book in one hand and a yearning for home cooking in the other.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Rough dust, sun-bleached tracks, and the quiet dignity of working outcasts shape an unsparing portrait of Australia’s bush. These gathered works record the humor, heartbreak, and fierce companionship of people trying to survive at the edge of the world.
Jap Herron: A Novel Written from the Ouija Board
Unknown
The dead speak, but they still need an editor.
John Corwell, Sailor and Miner
Louis Becke
In the unforgiving waters of the eighteenth-century Pacific, a ship captain's dangerous quest for island gold collides with imperial ambition, maritime peril, and sudden, tragic treachery.
Left on Labrador
C. A. (Charles Asbury) Stephens
Four young men buy a schooner, set sail for Hudson Strait, and find themselves marooned on the icy, wind-swept coast of Labrador.
Life of George Washington, volume 3 of 5
Washington Irving
The middle years of the American Revolution demanded a commander whose patience matched his fortitude, turning endless retreats and political interference into a quiet, enduring victory.
Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits
Thomas Hughes
Before the great universities ceded their monopoly on learning, a wounded Spanish soldier laid down his armor to erect a global pedagogical network based on rigor, free instruction, and strict centralization.
Marjorie Dean, College Junior
Josephine Chase
Underneath the polite routines of campus life, a quiet battle for the soul of Hamilton College plays out through seasonal tradition, earnest charity, and hidden malice.
Medical Inquiries and Observations, Vol. 3: The Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by the Author
Benjamin Rush
A physician’s rigorous, firsthand account of the devastating yellow fever epidemics in late 18th-century Philadelphia, documenting his controversial pursuit of a cure amidst public panic and professional discord.
Melmoth the Wanderer, Vol. 4
Charles Robert Maturin
A damned soul wanders the earth for centuries, desperate to trade his immortal torment for any human spirit weak enough to accept it.
Memoirs of Arsène Lupin
Maurice Leblanc
This is the story of a young man’s first steps into a life of shadow, chronicling the formative, high-stakes duel between a burgeoning mastermind and a legendary temptress. It explores the dawn of a career defined by audacity, wit, and a refusal to be mastered by anyone.
Money for nothing
P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
Resting beside the Skirme, Rudge-in-the-Vale moves at the pace of a cat stropping its back; only the local chemist keeps the world turning until an exploding oak tree shatters the summer calm.
Natural Philosophy
Wilhelm Ostwald
A single, coherent scientific worldview emerges when human thought abandons loose speculation and anchors itself to empirical laws.
Notes and Queries, Number 196, July 30, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A vibrant forum of Victorian intellectual life, this periodical gathers short essays, historical discoveries, textual debates, and urgent queries from readers across the globe.
Overland Red: A Romance of the Moonstone Cañon Trail
Henry Herbert Knibbs
An adventurous, poetry-quoting vagabond and his young companion crisscross the Southwest, dodging the law while pursuing a hidden gold claim that will change their fortunes forever.
Palmetto-Leaves
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Escaping the harsh winters of the North for a sunny refuge along the St. Johns River, a writer discovers that building a home in Florida requires equal parts patience, labor, and quiet wonder.
Percy Bysshe Shelley as a Philosopher and Reformer
Charles Sotheran
Poetic genius often masks a radical political and philosophical mind, transforming a celebrated artist into an ardent champion of human liberation.
Peter Ruff and the Double Four
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
A high-stakes game of international espionage hinges on a master of disguise who turns the criminal underworld upside down to secure his own fortune and power.
Polly and Her Friends Abroad
Lillian Elizabeth Roy
A wealthy mother attempts to force her unassuming daughter into European nobility, but a lively crew of American art students intervenes with good humor and unexpected detours.
Polly Oliver's Problem
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
Confronted by family hardship and sudden grief, a young woman transforms her love of storytelling into a life-sustaining vocation.
Queechy
Susan Warner
A orphan's quiet strength carries her family through ruin and disgrace, while an English nobleman's silent devotion waits for her to claim her place.
Randy and Her Friends
Amy Brooks
In a sunlit New England village, a generous farm girl brings quiet warmth to everyone she touches, whether sharing simple pleasures at home or stepping into city life.
Rezanov
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
A Russian diplomat hazards a forbidden courtship in Spanish California, risking empire and pride for a young woman who holds the key to his survival.
Round the year with the stars: The chief beauties of the starry heavens as seen with the naked eye
Garrett Putman Serviss
No specialized optical gear or complex equations are required to unlock the deep wonder of the night sky; it calls only for open eyes, a reflective spirit, and an appreciative guide to point out its shifting seasonal treasures.
Saint Patrick: 1887
Heman White Chaplin
Desperate streets breed unconventional mercy, but on a cold March evening in a waterfront mission, two Protestant ministers discover that even competing claims to doing good can end in silent, comical defeat.
Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles
Desiderius Erasmus
Human connections, intellectual disputes, and everyday travel hazards define a scholar navigating the high expectations and turbulent waters of Renaissance Europe.
Sheila of Big Wreck Cove: A Story of Cape Cod
James A. Cooper
A young woman, falsely accused and seeking a clean start, assumes another girl’s identity on Cape Cod, only to discover that love and honesty demand a far harder reckoning.
Sketches of Young Gentlemen
Charles Dickens
A gallery of absurdity, this satire turns a sharp eye on the social posturing and vanity of nineteen-century British manhood.
Smoking and Drinking
James Parton
A sharp, mid-nineteenth-century examination of human habits reveals how tobacco and alcohol quietly dismantle personal ambition, family life, and social progress.
Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems
William Carlos Williams
Winds batter bare branches, city traffic roars outside quiet bedrooms, and cold mud gives way to sudden, sharp blossoms.
"Stops", Or How to Punctuate: A Practical Handbook for Writers and Students
Paul Allardyce
A text without points is a mere puzzle, yet punctuation is less a rigid set of voice-matching pauses than a structural tool for clarifying a writer’s ideas.
Stories by Foreign Authors: Polish, Greek, Belgian, Hungarian
Unknown
This collection of translations brings together quiet human heartbreak, dry domestic comedy, and sweeping historical violence across four distinct European traditions. <Image alt="An open vintage book resting on a wooden surface" caption="Stories from across 19th-century Europe"…
Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage"
Nephi Anderson
Bound for Europe aboard a sea-tossed steamer, a lonely traveler discovers that the father who abandoned him is closer than he thinks.
Struggling Upward, or Luke Larkin's Luck
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A honest boy in nineteenth-century New England faces poverty, false accusations, and the petty malice of his rich rivals, only to rise through his own integrity and the aid of wealthy allies.
Swedish fairy tales
Herman Hofberg
A landscape of mist, dark woods, and hidden valleys comes alive through tales of vengeful noblemen, crafty trolls, and stubborn peasants.
The Bail Jumper
Robert J. C. Stead
A young clerk is accused of a prairie bank-safe robbery, loses his liberty to bail, and flees into the wide Canadian West to rebuild his honor.
The best stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Volume 1 (of 2)
Sarah Orne Jewett
A summer visitor settles into a quiet Maine coastal village, discovering a community of retired mariners and herbalists whose quiet lives hold surprising depth and dignity.
The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes: Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection
Various
A clever piece of courtroom misdirection turns on an altered almanac, while a frightened poet finds unexpected comfort in the comical tale of a runaway rider.
The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 03
William Curtis
A vibrant eighteenth-century survey of exotic and domestic garden flora offers precise horticultural guidance alongside systematic Linnaean classifications, bridging the gap between rigorous scientific taxonomy and the everyday pleasures of practical cultivation.
The Brass Bottle
F. Anstey
Uncorking a long-imprisoned genie brings a London architect infinite gratitude, extravagant wealth, and an endless stream of utterly ruined plans.
The Champlain tercentenary
New York (State). Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission
Across a series of formal dedications and international banquets, two nations gather to honor a shared wilderness past, using the bronze features of Samuel de Champlain to anchor their modern diplomatic friendship.
The Coming of the King
Bernie Babcock
A young Jewish woman’s romantic devotion to the Galilean prophet transforms her understanding of kingdom, power, and sacrificial love.
The Crime and the Criminal
Richard Marsh
An unexpected encounter on a late-night train hurls a quiet London clerk into a labyrinth of identity theft, secret societies, and murder.
The Criminal & the Community
James Devon
Punishment fails because society studies abstract theories rather than the living person, mistaking environmental misery for inherent depravity and institutional routine for genuine reform.
The Cruise of the Land-Yacht "Wanderer"
Gordon Stables
A custom-built horse-drawn caravan rolls through quiet country lanes, offering its traveler absolute freedom and a front-row seat to the changing British landscape.