The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 47
34,239 public-domain books, summarised. Page 47 of 714.
More Science from an Easy Chair
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Science is a conversation, not a catalog, and these pages invite the reader to pull up a chair and listen to the natural world’s most curious secrets.
Rollo's Museum
Jacob Abbott
A young boy discovers the wonders of the natural world and the complexities of human cooperation when he decides to build a home collection of curiosities.
Sketches
Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
The walls of ancient castles and the shifting tides of Mediterranean politics find common ground in this collection of tales and observations. It is a work that captures the grand sweep of history alongside the intimate intensity of personal romance.
Tales of Fantasy and Fact
Brander Matthews
This collection of short narratives explores the thin, permeable border between the mundane world of Gilded Age New York and the realm of the impossible. These stories challenge our perceptions of reality, suggesting that the fantastic may be hiding in plain sight behind a modern veneer.
Great Pirate Stories
Unknown
This collection presents an unflinching gallery of maritime outlaws, documenting their brutal careers from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. It serves as a stark reminder that the history of the sea is paved with as much violence as discovery.
Rollo in Geneva
Jacob Abbott
A young boy travels through Switzerland with his family, learning practical lessons about safety, observation, and the wonders of the European landscape.
Rootabaga Stories
Carl Sandburg
Rootabaga Stories offers a sprawling, imaginative landscape where logic bends to the whims of the wind and nonsense serves as a map for the soul. These American fairy tales reclaim wonder from the mundane, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel
Samuel W. (Samuel William) Johnson
HOOK This technical guide serves as an essential manual for nineteenth-century landowners, detailing how to transform humble swamp muck into a source of agricultural fertility and domestic heat.
The Epic of Gilgamish: A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform
Stephen Langdon
HOOK The world’s oldest recorded epic captures the primal struggle for meaning, following a legendary king and his wild-born companion as they navigate the brutal, beautiful transition from nature to civilization.
The Wonders of the Jungle, Book One
Sarath Kumar Ghosh
The natural world is a vast, interconnected society governed by instinct, reason, and a complex system of survival that humbles even the most clever human observers.
The Economic Consequences of the Peace
John Maynard Keynes
The fragility of global prosperity rests upon a delicate economic equilibrium that modern political vengeance threatens to destroy. This foundational critique of the 1919 Versailles settlement warns that a vengeful peace will inevitably sow the seeds of future ruin.
Hunters Out of Space
Joseph E. (Joseph Everidge) Kelleam
Hunters Out of Space follows an Earth doctor and his allies into the cavernous depths of an alien world and across the stars to stop a genocidal tyrant. It is a pulpy adventure that blends classic science fiction motifs with the primal rhythms of an epic quest.
The Cauliflower
A. A. (Arthur Alger) Crozier
HOOK A detailed, practical guide to the cultivation, varieties, and care of cauliflower, revealing the challenges and opportunities of growing this often-neglected vegetable in diverse climates and soils.
Poems
Rainer Maria Rilke
This collection of verse traces a poet’s evolution from the intimate, impressionistic sketches of his youth to a profound, rhythmic grappling with the divine and the nature of artistic perception. It is a journey through the "inner voice of things," rendered with precise, painterly observation.
The peace negotiations between the governments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and the representatives of the British government, which terminated in the peace concluded at Vereeniging on the 31st May, 1902
J. D. (John Daniel) Kestell
This account documents the final, agonizing deliberations of the Boer leadership as they faced the collapse of their Republics and the necessity of signing a peace treaty to end the South African War.
Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems (1798)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
A revolutionary collection of poems that redefined the English voice, this work strips away formal artifice to find the extraordinary within the ordinary lives of the forgotten and the outcast.
The American Credo: A Contribution Toward the Interpretation of the National Mind
H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken
The national psyche is a repository of folklore, prejudice, and half-baked axioms that we accept as absolute truth without ever pausing to verify them.
Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1902 to 1903
L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
These stories capture the quiet struggles and small triumphs of rural life at the turn of the century, where steadfast character and a touch of wit resolve even the most stubborn of conflicts.
The Teacher
Jacob Abbott
This guide to classroom management advocates for a shift from authoritarian coercion to a system of moral influence, where the teacher acts as a thoughtful architect of the school environment. It remains a foundational text in the history of American pedagogy, emphasizing the practical, psychological, and ethical…
John Knox
A. Taylor (Alexander Taylor) Innes
This exploration of a pivotal Scottish figure reconstructs the life and inner struggles of a man who transformed a nation’s soul. It bridges the gap between the historical icon and the complex, deeply human individual.
The Flight of Pony Baker: A Boy's Town Story
William Dean Howells
A restless boy finds the suffocating affection and strict rules of his home unbearable, leading him into a series of increasingly elaborate, doomed attempts to run away from his small town.
The Golden Age Cook Book
Henrietta Latham Dwight
A dedicated manifesto for the meatless kitchen, this collection serves as a practical guide to culinary ethics, proving that a compassionate diet can be as sophisticated and indulgent as any traditional spread.
The Monctons: A Novel. Volume 1 (of 2)
Susanna Moodie
This sprawling Victorian narrative explores the psychological toll of social inequality and the hidden secrets of family lineages, where the weight of a name often crushes the spirit of the young.
Gold Out of Celebes
Aylward Edward Dingle
Jack Barry is a master mariner adrift in Batavia, looking for a job and finding instead a high-stakes hunt for gold in the treacherous wilds of Celebes. He soon discovers that the true treasure is far more complex than the dust he seeks.
The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, multifaceted window into the intellectual and cultural landscape of 1851, blending urgent geopolitical reporting with literary criticism and the refined aesthetics of a bygone century.
St. Cuthbert's
Robert E. (Robert Edward) Knowles
A dedicated minister faces the unraveling of his quiet Canadian parish when the hidden, shameful pasts of his flock collide with the rigid expectations of his congregation.
Ted and the Telephone
Sara Ware Bassett
The curiosity of a young boy and his fascination with the early promise of the telephone bridge the gap between social classes, leading to unexpected growth and the forging of a lifelong, transformative friendship.
Grandmother Dear: A Book for Boys and Girls
Mrs. Molesworth
This is a gentle, immersive portrait of childhood seen through the eyes of a wise, storytelling matriarch, capturing the quiet shifts in perspective that define growing up. It moves with a deliberate, comforting pace that invites the reader to linger alongside its young protagonists.
A Dialogue Between Dean Swift and Tho. Prior, Esq.: In the Isles of St. Patrick's Church, Dublin, On that
Anonymous
Two restless ghosts wander the grounds of St. Patrick’s Church, debating whether Ireland can ever be saved from its own systemic poverty and self-inflicted ruin.
An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses: With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases
William Withering
A quiet, rigorous pioneer in eighteenth-century medicine, this work documents the painstaking discovery of a potent heart medication through years of cautious clinical observation and transparency. It remains a foundational text for the modern scientific method.
Journal of a Visit to Constantinople and Some of the Greek Islands in the Spring and Summer of 1833
John Auldjo
A seasoned traveler navigates the shifting political tides and sensory marvels of 1830s Constantinople, capturing the transient spirit of an empire in transition.
The Common Law
Oliver Wendell Holmes
The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. This foundational work strips away the pretense that legal systems are merely sets of mathematical axioms, revealing them instead as the evolving product of human history.
The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin
John Henry Newman
A definitive meditation on the purpose of higher education, this work argues that a university exists to cultivate the intellect and broaden the mind, rather than merely to provide professional training.
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Ely: A History and Description of the Building with a Short Account of the Monastery and of the See
W. D. (Walter Debenham) Sweeting
This scholarly guide offers a precise, architectural, and historical survey of Ely Cathedral, documenting its evolution from a seventh-century monastery to a masterwork of Norman and Decorated Gothic design.
Patty's Friends
Carolyn Wells
HOOK A young traveler’s sharp wit and penchant for puzzles transform a series of social calls into a high-stakes search for a hidden family inheritance.
John Baptist Jackson: 18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut
Jacob Kainen
John Baptist Jackson was an eighteenth-century printmaker who elevated the woodcut to a refined art form through his pioneering use of chiaroscuro and color. His work remains an essential, if often overlooked, bridge in the history of graphic arts.
Hoodie
Mrs. Molesworth
HOOK A headstrong, misunderstood child searches for affection in a world that seems to exclude her, only to discover that the love she craves is often hidden in plain sight.
A Bird-Lover in the West
Olive Thorne Miller
Seek the hidden lives of winged inhabitants in the untamed spaces of the American West and the lush stillness of the Middle Country. Discover that even the most common birds possess secrets, individual temperaments, and complex dramas rarely noticed by the casual traveler.
Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. Part 1: Texts
Unknown
This scholarly collection captures the raw, evolving spirit of the English language between 1130 and 1250, documenting a pivotal era when the tongue began its transition from Old to Middle English.
New Atlantis
Francis Bacon
A weary crew of European sailors discovers a hidden island society that has mastered nature through rigorous scientific inquiry. Their encounter reveals a vision of human potential fueled by reason, piety, and an organized pursuit of discovery.
The Rover Boys on a Hunt
Edward Stratemeyer
A group of spirited schoolboys find their winter hunting trip transformed into a dangerous investigation when they stumble upon a clandestine nest of enemy agents hidden deep in the woods.
Bloom of Cactus
Robert Ames Bennet
HOOK A desert engineer and a resilient woman navigate a brutal landscape of canyons, bootleggers, and vengeful outlaws to save a young girl from a dark fate.
Eliza
Barry Pain
This series of domestic vignettes follows a punctilious, self-important clerk and his patient wife as they navigate the small struggles, social pretensions, and modest triumphs of lower-middle-class London life.
Louis XIV.: Makers of History Series
John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot) Abbott
A portrait of absolute power, this narrative traces the life of the Sun King from his precarious youth to his hollow final days, revealing the man behind the gilded mask of Versailles.
The Battle of New Orleans: including the Previous Engagements between the Americans
Z. F. (Zachariah Frederick) Smith
The decisive triumph at the Battle of New Orleans remains a testament to the grit of American frontiersmen against the refined, veteran might of the British Empire. This account chronicles the tactical mastery that secured the American frontier.
The Book of Brave Old Ballads
Unknown
The spirit of a bygone England lives in these rhythmic tales of outlaws, wandering kings, and valiant knights. They capture the pulse of a world where justice is settled by the bow and honor is tested by the sword.
Adam Johnstone's Son
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
The past is a foreign language, and sometimes the most difficult words to translate are the ones written by the people we think we know best.
Outlines of Greek and Roman Medicine
Elliott, James, Sir
The roots of modern medicine lie not in a sudden discovery, but in the slow, circular progression of ancient observation, philosophy, and ritual. This survey traces the evolution of the healing arts from the mythological origins of Greece to the complex, often decadent medical landscape of the Roman Empire.