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All free summaries — page 514
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 514 of 988.
The story of Santa Klaus
William S. Walsh
Centuries of lore, pagan ritual, and global tradition merge into the single figure who fills stockings on Christmas Eve.
The Sword of Gideon
John Bloundelle-Burton
A cashiered officer rides into the Spanish Netherlands under a dead man’s name to rescue a young heiress, only to find that every step toward her drags them both deeper into the machinery of war.
The triumph of the cross
Girolamo Savonarola
A solitary faith builds its case not on emotional fervor, but on the cold, irresistible weight of systematic reason.
The White Ladies of Worcester: A Romance of the Twelfth Century
Florence L. (Florence Louisa) Barclay
A twelfth-century prioress believes her early vows of love were broken by death, but the knight she once betrothed returns from the Crusades to claim her from behind convent walls.
Three Centuries of a City Library: an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Norwich Public Library Established in 1608 and the present Public Library opened in 1857
Geo. A. (George Arthur) Stephen
A meticulous record of civic stewardship, this history traces three centuries of municipal reading in Norwich, where local determination transformed a modest seventeenth-century room of divinity into a modern, rate-supported library.
Three Sides of Paradise Green
Augusta Huiell Seaman
A persistent village rumor, a misplaced journal, and a strange French visitor turn three young neighbors into historical detectives in quiet, early twentieth-century New England.
Tracked by Wireless
William Le Queux
A young radio engineer uses his revolutionary listening apparatus to unmask a globe-trotting criminal syndicate step by step across interwar Europe.
Trees, Shown to the Children
C. E. Smith
A field guide transformed into a gentle conversation, this work turns the quiet trees of countryside and common into living, familiar neighbors.
Tropical Africa
Henry Drummond
Dense forests, quiet lakes, and a continent in transition unfold through the eyes of a Victorian scientist who observes both the wonders of natural adaptation and the devastation of the Arab slave trade with quiet, measured intensity.
U.S. Copyright Renewals: Artwork 1960-1964: Catalog of Copyright Entries
Library of Congress. Copyright Office
A meticulous administrative registry of mid-century visual culture becomes, in aggregate, an accidental census of American imagination and commercial design.
Under the dragon flag
James Allan
Swept into a foreign conflict by a ruined fortune, a young Englishman finds himself marooned along the bloody coastline of East Asia.
Under Wellington's Command: A Tale of the Peninsular War
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
Amid the artillery smoke and fractured alliances of the Peninsular War, a resourceful young Irish officer leads a regiment of irregulars through daring escapes, bloody sieges, and the chaos of Napoleonic Spain.
Veronese
François Crastre
A luminous city finds its ultimate champion in an artist who transforms light, canvas, and theatrical splendor into a boundless celebration of human vitality.
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 02
Unknown
A spirited tapestry of Scottish life, where desperate rievers, pious Covenanters, and star-crossed lovers navigate a world governed by moonlight raids, rough justice, and capricious fate.
Winding Paths
Gertrude Page
A soul in turmoil searches for a straight path through the world, only to learn that life moves forward across winding ways.
"1914"
John Oxenham
An comfortable English suburb watches its young men scatter into the storm of August 1914, discovering that the tidy, optimistic world they built cannot protect them from the tragedy unfolding across Europe.
A Book o' Nine Tales
Arlo Bates
This collection of nine short stories, interspersed with brief, whimsical interludes, explores the intersection of the mundane and the mysterious in late 19th-century life. With a sharp eye for social artifice and a penchant for the uncanny, the narratives navigate the delicate boundary between a well-ordered…
A brief Journal of what passed in the City of Marseilles, while it was afflicted with the Plague, in the Year 1720
Pichatty de Croislainte
A daily record of a city’s collapse and survival, this journal tracks Marseilles as it faces the catastrophic outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1720.
A Comic History of the United States
Livingston Hopkins
A dryly irreverent chronicle parodies the grand narrative of American nation-building, transforming monumental historical milestones into a procession of absurd misunderstandings, petty squabbles, and outrageous tall tales.
A Middy in Command: A Tale of the Slave Squadron
Harry Collingwood
A young midshipman takes charge of a prize vessel in hostile waters, where a single miscalculation means mutiny, shipwreck, or a pirate's cage.
A Political Diary, 1828-1830, Volume II
Ellenborough, Edward Law, Earl of
A nation's cabinet room becomes a arena of quiet desperation as an empire struggles to hold its footing against domestic unrest and continental collapse.
A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 3: Taken from a View of the Education and Discipline, Social Manners, Civil and Political Economy, Religious Principles and Character, of the Society of Friends
Thomas Clarkson
Conscience and worldly power engage in a quiet, relentless trial of endurance, where true victory belongs not to those who inflict force, but to those who bear its weight without retaliation.
A Short History of H.M.S. Victory
W. J. L. (William James Lloyd) Wharton
Beneath the famed glory of Britain’s most iconic warship lies a decades-long chronicle of desperate blockades, tactical gambles, and quiet persistence across global seas.
A Soldier's Life: Being the Personal Reminiscences of Edwin G. Rundle
Edwin George Rundle
A plain soldier’s account of life under the British flag offers an unforgettable glimpse into the raw, unglamorized realities of nineteenth-century imperial service.
A Tramp's Sketches
Stephen Graham
Walking alone along the Black Sea and joining thousands of Russian peasant pilgrims on foot toward Jerusalem, a wandering seeker records the songs, storms, and spiritual questionings of the open road.
A True Account of the Battle of Jutland, May 31, 1916
Thomas Goddard Frothingham
Naval operations on May 31, 1916, became tangled in postwar partisan claims, but stripping away the fog of war reveals a clear sequence of command decisions, missing equipment, and missed tactical opportunities.
Adrift in New York: Tom and Florence Braving the World
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A sinister cousin schemed to rob an elderly merchant of his fortune, but he failed to count on a streetwise newsboy and a brave young woman fighting for the truth.
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900
Various
A quiet skepticism runs through this turn-of-the-century science journal, tempering sudden technical euphoria with measured, careful observation.
Automatic Pistol Shooting: Together with Information on Handling the Duelling Pistol and Revolver
Walter Winans
Mastering handguns requires ruthless mechanical discipline, meticulous gear adjustment, and absolute respect for live ammunition.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 354, April 1845
Various
A deep dive into classical art, high-stakes fiction, natural science, and personal memory, offering a rich window into nineteenth-century literary thought.
By the Golden Gate
Joseph Carey
An Eastern clergyman journeys toward the Pacific Ocean, documenting the wonders of the Western landscape and the vibrant, bustling life of early twentieth-century San Francisco.
Captain Richard Ingle: The Maryland "Pirate and Rebel," 1642-1653
Edward Ingle
A merchant captain navigates the volatile boundary between colonial order and Parliamentary rebellion, leaving a disputed legacy across the seventeenth-century Chesapeake.
Careless Kate: A Story for Little Folks
Oliver Optic
Yielding to impulse transforms a minor garden accident into an agonizing night of deceit and guilt, proving that small moments of thoughtlessness can swiftly erode a young girl's moral footing.
Christmas Roses
Lizzie Lawson
Bright verse and domestic wonder transform snowbound winter days into an enduring celebration of childhood innocence, family affection, and imaginative play.
Creatures That Once Were Men
Maksim Gorky
Discards, dockworkers, and outcasts cling to life along the margins of an unforgiving world, holding fast to their humanity even as society casts them aside.
Development of the Digestive Canal of the American Alligator
A. M. (Albert Moore) Reese
The American alligator reveals its biological secrets through the slow, methodical growth of its internal systems, documented here with the precision of early twentieth-century embryological research.
Dominie Dean: A Novel
Ellis Parker Butler
A young minister arrives at a Mississippi River boomtown to find his life shaped by small-town factionalism, wartime divides, and a lifetime of devotion to a community that eventually forgets him.
Double Harness
Anthony Hope
Two people step into marriage expecting absolute romantic fulfillment, only to discover that shared life requires patience, sacrifice, and the quiet surrender of ideal illusions.
Dr. Wortle's School
Anthony Trollope
A combative English headmaster risks his school, his standing, and his peace of mind to protect an American assistant whose secret marriage defies the strict conventions of Victorian society.
Edward MacDowell: A Great American Tone Poet, His Life and Music
John Fielder Porte
A pioneering composer fights for an authentic American classical music, pushing past European traditions to create a fresh sound rooted in his homeland’s natural landscapes and living history.
Freedom, truth and beauty
Edward Doyle
A passionate, blind turn-of-the-century poet surveys the struggle for human liberty across world history, transforming political outrage and spiritual devotion into high-keyed sonnets.
Frontier Boys on the Coast
Wyn Roosevelt
A group of brothers bound for the California coast are ambushed by a ruthless sea captain who intends to mold them into his crew, forcing them into a desperate, high-stakes game of pursuit across mountain trails and coastal waters.
General Catholic Devotions
Unknown
Sacred ritual meets quiet self-examination in a traditional handbook that guides the believer from morning rising through nightfall, sacred altars, and solemn litanies.
Gordon Craig, Soldier of Fortune
Randall Parrish
An out-of-work laborer accepts a mysterious impersonation scheme in Chicago, only to find himself entangled in a southern estate's dark secrets and a high-seas adventure.
Great Mysteries and Little Plagues
John Neal
Observed through an unhurried lens, the untamed logic and sharp disclosures of young children reveal a world far more surprising than adult intellect ever constructs.
Highacres
Jane Abbott
When an urban stranger gets lost on Kettle Mountain, a simple mountain girl's long-cherished dream of seeing the world beyond her quiet valley is set in motion.
In camp and kitchen
Lucy H. (Lucy Helen) Yates
Cooking over a pit of stones or managing a pioneer homestead requires practical knowledge rather than romantic ideals.
John Rawn, Prominent Citizen
Emerson Hough
The rise of a ruthless industrialist collides with the shifting tides of American society, revealing the hollow core of unchecked ambition. This is a study of power, greed, and the human cost of a life measured solely by acquisition.