The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 467
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 467 of 988.
International Weekly Miscellany of Literature, Art and Science
Various
This miscellany offers a curated window into the mid-19th-century intellectual landscape, blending literary criticism, scientific curiosities, and a serialized tale of artistic ambition and betrayal. It serves as a fascinating, multi-faceted portrait of Victorian-era sensibilities.
Last Words on Evolution: A Popular Retrospect and Summary
Ernst Haeckel
The biological history of human origins is a hard-won scientific truth, not a matter of faith, and its acceptance signals the triumph of reason over institutional dogma.
Letters to Sir William Windham and Mr. Pope
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Viscount
These collected epistles offer a sharp, polemical defense of a disgraced statesman’s reputation and a series of philosophical meditations on the limits of human knowledge.
Little Folks of North America: Stories about children living in the different parts of North America
Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade
This wide-ranging survey captures the diverse environments and daily habits of children across North America, from the frozen shores of the Arctic to the sun-drenched plantations of the Caribbean. It serves as a gentle, observational guide to the continent at the turn of the twentieth century.
Maezli: A Story of the Swiss Valleys
Johanna Spyri
In a quiet Swiss valley, a widowed mother and her five spirited children find their lives intertwined with the long-shadowed secrets of a desolate, historic castle.
Manual of Taxidermy: A Complete Guide in Collecting and Preserving Birds and Mammals
C. J. (Charles Johnson) Maynard
This manual serves as a meticulous, hands-on guide for the nineteenth-century collector, detailing the precise techniques required to turn wild birds and mammals into preserved scientific specimens or decorative mounts.
Mary Cary: "Frequently Martha"
Kate Langley Bosher
A spirited, orphaned girl navigates the rigid confines of an asylum by balancing her cynical, observant "Martha" side with a growing, hopeful "Mary" spirit after a kind stranger changes her world.
Miscellaneous Pieces, in Prose
Mrs. (Anna Letitia) Barbauld
True intellectual curiosity requires both the rigor to pursue abstract truths and the sensitivity to appreciate the nuances of human experience. This collection offers a bracing, thoughtful companion for those who value clarity of thought.
Miss Esperance and Mr Wycherly
L. Allen (Lizzie Allen) Harker
The quiet rhythms of a Scottish village find new life when two orphaned brothers arrive on the doorstep of a spinster and her reclusive, scholarly boarder.
More Conjuring: Simple Tricks for Social Gatherings
Hercat
This guide offers a collection of accessible illusions designed to enliven quiet evenings with friends and family. It focuses on performance without the need for specialized equipment or complex sleight-of-hand.
On Adventure Island
Bess Moyer
HOOK Two adventurous twin sisters, both skilled pilots, navigate the skies of the Americas to save their family’s livelihood from a greedy, treacherous rival.
Practical Talks by an Astronomer
Harold Jacoby
This collection of essays offers a clear, accessible window into the mechanics of the heavens, written for the curious layperson who prefers genuine science over technical jargon.
Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks: Adapted to the Present State of Great Britain
Edward Wortley Montagu
History offers a mirror to the present, revealing how the virtues that build a nation are often the very ones discarded as it drifts toward ruin.
Rogues and Vagabonds
George R. (George Robert) Sims
A man haunted by a shadowy past finds that the secrets of his former life are never truly buried, even as he attempts to build a respectable future. This is a story of narrow escapes, hidden identities, and the persistent reach of one’s history.
Rosemary and Rue, by Amber
Martha Everts Holden
The world is a tapestry of small, bright mercies and heavy, hidden sorrows, best navigated with a gentle heart and an eye for the quiet grace of a robin’s song or a child’s trust.
San Cristóbal de la Habana
Joseph Hergesheimer
A traveler finds in Havana a mirror to his own soul, discovering a city that feels more like home than the place of his birth.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 531, March 6, 1886
Various
This archival collection captures the Victorian obsession with industrial progress, providing a window into a world where engineering, botany, and physics converged to map the frontiers of human ingenuity.
Sebastian Bach
Reginald Lane Poole
This biography offers a scholarly yet accessible portrait of one of music's greatest masters, tracing his journey from a modest Thuringian organist to the architect of universal sacred art. It is a work of historical reclamation, grounding the life of a legend in the rigorous archival research of the nineteenth…
Sex and Common-Sense
A. Maude (Agnes Maude) Royden
This work invites readers to strip away the veils of Victorian prudery and fear, arguing that sex is a noble, creative force of nature. It serves as a compassionate, rational bridge between traditional Christian morality and the emerging psychological understandings of the early 20th century.
Sonia Married
Stephen McKenna
The weight of the Great War presses upon the private lives of a fractured generation, as a young couple discovers that romantic impulse is a poor foundation for the endurance required by a crumbling world.
Speed the plough : A comedy, in five acts
Thomas Morton
A lively comedy of manners and mistaken identity, this play navigates the social hierarchies and hidden secrets of a rural English estate with warmth, wit, and a touch of dramatic intensity.
Tales of the Sea, and of Our Jack Tars
William Henry Giles Kingston
A young man’s desire for the sea leads him through harrowing shipwrecks, treacherous encounters, and the quiet moral tests of a life spent on the waves.
The Arnold Bennett Calendar
Arnold Bennett
A daily companion for the mind, this collection offers a year of sharp, pragmatic reflections on literature, human nature, and the rigorous discipline required to truly live.
The Bobbin Boy
William Makepeace Thayer
A humble factory worker rises through sheer force of will and self-education to lead his state. This narrative traces the transformation of an ordinary boy into a statesman through the mastery of odd moments.
The Boy Broker
Frank Andrew Munsey
A courageous Vermont farm boy navigates the cutthroat world of Wall Street, overcoming deception and false imprisonment to prove his worth in the unforgiving machinery of a great city.
The Boy Scouts of Lakeville High
Leslie W. Quirk
A group of high school students navigates the challenges of teenage life, local rivalries, and athletic competition while upholding the principles of the Boy Scout movement.
The Boy Settlers: A Story of Early Times in Kansas
Noah Brooks
Driven by the idealism of the abolitionist movement, three teenage boys leave their Illinois home to claim land in the volatile, untamed territory of mid-1850s Kansas.
The Carter Girls
Nell Speed
When their father falls ill and family finances collapse, five sisters trade their carefree city life for a mountain summer, learning that independence is best earned through hard work and responsibility.
The Ceremonies of the Holy-Week at Rome
Charles Michael Baggs
The streets of nineteenth-century Rome transform each spring, as the city’s ancient basilicas open their doors to reveal the complex, layered pageantry of the Church’s most solemn week. This guide serves as a bridge for the visitor, translating the silent visual language of ritual into a coherent narrative of faith…
The Claims of Labour: An essay on the duties of the employers to the employed
Helps, Arthur, Sir
Great change is never achieved through abstract theories or grand political gestures alone, but rather through the quiet, persistent practice of duty by those who hold power over the lives of others.
The Cruise of the Midge (Vol. 2 of 2)
Michael Scott
A spirited, salt-sprayed chronicle of Caribbean adventure, shifting between the lighthearted camaraderie of naval life and the stark, moral reckonings of the high seas.
The Demi-gods
James Stephens
A band of angels, having fallen from grace, finds itself wandering the Irish countryside in the company of a wily, impoverished tramp and his daughter, discovering the strange comforts and harsh realities of human existence.
The Eagle's Nest: Ten Lectures on the Relation of Natural Science to Art, Given Before the University of Oxford, in Lent Term, 1872
John Ruskin
The boundary between looking at the world and truly seeing it forms the heart of this inquiry into the purpose of art and the limits of scientific pursuit.
The Female Soldier
Anonymous
HOOK Driven by the disappearance of her husband, a determined woman disguises herself as a man to traverse the world, enduring the brutality of war and the hazards of the sea while protecting her secret.
The Game Fish, of the Northern States and British Provinces: With an account of the salmon and sea-trout fishing of Canada and New Brunswick, together with simple directions for tying artificial flies, etc., etc
Robert Barnwell Roosevelt
A passionate angler leads a expedition through Northern wildernesses, insisting that true health and character are forged along fast-flowing salmon streams.
The Girl from the Big Horn Country
Mary Ellen Chase
A spirited ranch girl leaves her Wyoming home to navigate the rigid social expectations of an elite New England boarding school.
The glamour of prospecting
Fred C. (Frederick Carruthers) Cornell
The search for hidden wealth in the unforgiving deserts of South Africa proves that fortune is rarely found, but the pursuit itself is an enduring adventure.
The Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motor-Boat
Ross Kay
Four adventurous teenagers embark on a high-speed summer cruise, only to find themselves entangled with river thieves, stolen bonds, and a high-stakes motor-boat race on the St. Lawrence River.
The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IV
Charles Henry Mackintosh
The call to a life of faith requires a radical, inward departure from worldly values and a total reliance on the completed work of Christ. This examination of Christian identity offers a rigorous, uncompromising path for those seeking to understand the nature of conversion and the responsibilities of the believer.
The Holy Earth
L. H. (Liberty Hyde) Bailey
The earth is not merely a resource to be mined, but a sacred inheritance requiring stewardship, responsibility, and a fundamental shift in how humanity defines its relationship to the planet.
The Interdependence of Literature
Georgina Pell Curtis
This survey traces the hidden threads connecting the world’s great literary traditions, revealing how ancient myths and moral tales flowed across continents to shape the collective consciousness of humanity.
The Last Stroke: A Detective Story
Lawrence L. Lynch
This classic mystery follows an astute investigator as he unravels the murder of a village schoolmaster, uncovering a trail of deception that stretches from a quiet lakeside town to the bustling streets of London.
The letters of Madame de Sévigné
Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de
A woman’s devotion to her distant daughter finds its most enduring expression in these pages, where maternal longing turns into a masterpiece of French literary history. Through vivid, intimate reports from the heart of the seventeenth-century French court, she chronicles a world of shifting fortunes, social…
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 344 (Supplementary Issue)
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, multifaceted window into the literary landscape of 1829, capturing the era’s fascination with romantic poetry, moralizing prose, and the exquisite craftsmanship of the period’s lavish annuals.
The Motor Maids' School Days
Katherine Stokes
A spirited group of high school girls finds their quiet seaside life transformed into a race against thieves when they stumble upon a cache of stolen jewels.
The Moving Picture Girls at Rocky Ranch
Laura Lee Hope
HOOK The DeVere sisters trade the bustling streets of New York for the untamed American West, filming cinematic adventures amid cattle stampedes, prairie fires, and unexpected encounters with local legends.
The Myth of the "Manuscript Found," or the Absurdities of the "Spaulding Story": Eleventh Book of the Faith-promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints
Unknown
The "Spaulding story" has long served as a primary argument against the divine origins of the Book of Mormon, claiming it was plagiarized from a fictional romance. This book systematically dismantles that theory.
The Opened Shutters: A Novel
Clara Louise Burnham
This story of personal transformation follows a young woman who retreats to the Maine coast to heal her broken spirit and ultimately discovers a capacity for profound love.