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All free summaries — page 522
34,093 public-domain books, summarised. Page 522 of 711.
The Great Prince Shan
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
HOOK A sophisticated political thriller set in post-war London, where a noble lord must navigate a web of foreign intrigue and the magnetic, mysterious presence of an Eastern prince.
The Haunted Homestead: A Novel
Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth
A young woman’s skeptical search for spectral encounters in a mysterious residence gives way to a sprawling, tragic meditation on the inescapable chains of the American past.
The Heart of Rachael
Kathleen Thompson Norris
The pursuit of personal happiness often masks a deeper, more destructive restlessness. This story examines the high cost of choosing individual fulfillment over the enduring, complex obligations of marriage.
The Heart of the Rose
Mabel Anne McKee
A young man on the cusp of adulthood learns the heavy cost of casual flirtation through the gentle, urgent guidance of his protective older sister. This quiet moral narrative balances the innocence of youth against the sobering responsibilities of manhood.
The Heiress
John Burgoyne
A satire of manners where love, social status, and legal trickery collide, this play exposes the cold calculations of the wealthy and the quiet resilience of those they underestimate.
The Honey-Bee: Its Natural History, Physiology and Management
Edward Bevan
A scientific inquiry into the natural history and practical care of honey-bees, this work blends eighteenth-century natural philosophy with the foundational observations of early apiarists.
The Imported Bridegroom, and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto
Abraham Cahan
These stories map the collision between Old World piety and the raw, transformative energy of the New York immigrant experience. They capture the intimate friction of lives caught between tradition and modern American independence.
The Jesuit Missions
Thomas Guthrie Marquis
The Jesuit Missions chronicles the rigorous, often fatal, efforts of seventeenth-century missionaries to establish Christianity within the vast, untamed wilderness of New France. It stands as a testament to the endurance of faith under extreme physical and psychological duress.
The man elephant
Unknown
The stories in this collection serve as a bridge to a bygone era of folklore, where the natural world and the supernatural are inextricably linked. They offer a unique lens through which to view human frailties and virtues.
The Man-Wolf and Other Tales
Erckmann-Chatrian
Tales of the uncanny and the wild, these stories bridge the gap between historical reality and the dark, lingering superstitions of the rugged Vosges mountains.
The Miraculous Pitcher: (From: "A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Two humble villagers discover that a simple act of kindness toward disguised gods can transform their world and secure their legacy forever. This retelling of a classic myth balances wonder with a gentle moral lesson on the virtue of hospitality.
The New Forest Spy
George Manville Fenn
The discovery of a starving, pistol-wielding stranger in the New Forest forces a young boy to choose between the safety of his home and the demands of his own conscience.
The octopus
Henry Lee
A curious blend of rigorous scientific observation and Victorian-era storytelling, this work strips away the mythic terror surrounding the octopus to reveal a fascinating, complex creature of the deep.
The poisoned paradise: A romance of Monte Carlo
Robert W. (Robert William) Service
A young artist finds his life unspooling in the glittering, lethal orbit of Monte Carlo. In this atmospheric tale of obsession, a simple man discovers that the price of sudden fortune is often paid in blood.
The Queen Against Owen
Allen Upward
A murder trial becomes a psychological battleground as a young woman’s defense attorney hides a sinister, obsessive agenda behind his courtroom performance.
The Queen of the Pirate Isle
Bret Harte
A imaginative nine-year-old girl leads her playmates on a daring quest, unknowingly discovering a hidden fortune in the California hills.
The Retreat from Mons: By one who shared in it
Arthur Corbett-Smith
The British Expeditionary Force faces an overwhelming enemy tide in the opening weeks of the Great War. This account captures the harrowing, desperate withdrawal from Mons through the eyes of those who endured it.
The Rocket Book
Peter Newell
A mischievous boy’s spark in the basement sends a rogue firework on a chaotic, floor-by-floor ascent through a crowded apartment building. This whimsical, rhyming narrative captures the absurdity of a vertical disaster unfolding in real-time.
The Rover Boys on the Ocean
Edward Stratemeyer
The Rover brothers embark on a spirited maritime pursuit to rescue a friend from a web of kidnapping and criminal conspiracy. This high-stakes chase tests their ingenuity and resolve, blending the camaraderie of school life with the dangers of the open sea.
The Sa'-Zada Tales
William Alexander Fraser
A group of captive animals, gathered in a sanctuary, trade harrowing tales of their past lives in the wild and their eventual encounters with humanity.
The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories
Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell
A series of intense, dramatic tales of love, sacrifice, and the hidden depths of the human heart, where the most formidable obstacles are often the ones we build within ourselves.
The Secrets of the German War Office
Armgaard Karl Graves
A self-proclaimed German spy details the clandestine maneuvers, political intrigues, and military preparations that preceded the outbreak of the First World War.
The Spy
Richard Harding Davis
A man’s accidental arrival in a volatile foreign port leads him into the path of a desperate, boastful young spy. This encounter ends in a violent confrontation that forces a final, tragic truth from the boy's lips.
The Tenants of Malory, Volume 2
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
A web of debt, long-hidden secrets, and the social ambitions of the English aristocracy entangle the inhabitants of a small Welsh town. This intricate mystery chronicles the quiet desperation of those waiting for their pasts to catch up with them.
The Wanderer
Fanny Burney
A refugee from the French Revolution attempts to build a life in England while burdened by a secret, a mysterious husband, and the relentless suspicion of a society that views her independence as a moral failing.
Three Heroines of New England Romance: Their true stories herein set forth by Mrs Harriet Spoffard, Miss Louise Imogen Guiney, and Miss Alice Brown
Alice Brown
This collection of true histories excavates the lives of three legendary women, blending folklore with historical research to reveal the human stories beneath the polished myths of New England’s past.
Through the school: The experiences of a mill boy in securing an education
Frederic Kenyon Brown
A nineteen-year-old mill worker arrives at a university with little more than three dollars and an unwavering resolve to educate himself. This account traces his journey from a manual laborer to a college graduate, revealing the profound personal costs and triumphs of such an ascent.
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910: The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Alfred Noble
This volume provides an authoritative, technical record of the monumental engineering effort required to extend the Pennsylvania Railroad into the heart of New York City through sub-aqueous tunnels. It is a work of immense structural ambition, tracing the transformation of Manhattan’s subterranean geography through…
Two Thousand Miles Below
Charles Willard Diffin
HOOK When a remote volcanic crater reveals a subterranean civilization armed with lethal fire-projectors, two men must plunge into the earth’s core to avert a global catastrophe.
Two Years Ago, Volume I
Charles Kingsley
The heavy air of a stifling summer day, the quiet desperation of a village locked in social stagnation, and the arrival of a man who refuses to look away from the rot beneath the surface.
Up the Hill and Over
Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
A weary, wandering physician and a spirited schoolteacher find their lives inextricably bound by the secrets and fragile hopes of a quiet Canadian town.
Ways of War and Peace
Delia Austrian
This account captures the sudden, disorienting transition from peacetime travel to the outbreak of the Great War. It offers a rare, firsthand view of the chaos faced by stranded civilians as they navigate a collapsing European order.
Westways: A Village Chronicle
S. Weir (Silas Weir) Mitchell
A village in Pennsylvania becomes a microcosm of a nation divided, as the lives of its inhabitants are irrevocably altered by the gathering storm of the American Civil War.
Where the World is Quiet
Henry Kuttner
This story follows an anthropologist who wanders into a hidden Andean valley, where a temporal rupture has trapped an alien flower-being, her robot, and a parasitic entity that feeds on human minds.
Who Was She?: From "The Atlantic Monthly" for September, 1874
Bayard Taylor
A man receives a series of mysterious letters from an anonymous woman, leading him on a long, introspective quest to identify her among his social acquaintances.
Wilt Thou Torchy
Sewell Ford
The fast-talking, irrepressible private secretary to a New York business tycoon finds himself unexpectedly caught up in a high-seas adventure. This breezy, lighthearted tale follows a young man navigating the complex social circles of his boss, his own burgeoning romance, and the improbable discovery of pirate gold.
With Manchesters in the East
Hurst, Gerald B. (Gerald Berkeley), Sir
The Territorial soldier of the Great War was often a man of humble civilian origins whose quiet devotion to duty, rather than professional martial training, defined his contribution to the global conflict. This account preserves the memory of those citizen-soldiers who served in the East, capturing the mixture of…
A Hand-book of Precious Stones
Meyer D. Rothschild
This guide demystifies the world of gems, blending scientific rigor with the practical wisdom of a merchant to teach readers how to identify, evaluate, and appreciate precious stones.
A Mere Chance: A Novel. Vol. 2
Ada Cambridge
A young woman finds herself trapped in a suffocating engagement to an older, controlling man, only to have her life irrevocably altered by a forbidden, magnetic encounter with a mysterious stranger.
A Soldier of the Legion: An Englishman's Adventures Under the French Flag in Algeria and Tonquin
George Manington
A young Englishman exchanges civilian life for the harsh discipline and jungle skirmishes of the French Foreign Legion.
Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field
Henry W. (Henry William) Fischer
This collection of reminiscences captures the candid, off-the-cuff brilliance of two legendary American humorists during their restless, wandering years abroad.
Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons
John McElroy
A harrowing, firsthand account of life and death within the Confederacy's most notorious prison, this record chronicles the endurance of Union soldiers facing starvation, disease, and the collapse of humanity behind a wooden stockade.
Bamboo Tales
Ira L. (Ira Louis) Reeves
These sketches of military life capture the frantic, brutal, and often absurd reality of the American occupation of the Philippines at the turn of the twentieth century.
Barbara Lynn: A Tale of the Dales and Fells
Emily J. Jenkinson
The rugged landscapes of the Westmorland dales provide the backdrop for a quiet, atmospheric meditation on duty, intellectual longing, and the weight of ancestral history.
Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions
James Boyd Kennedy
A foundational study of how American trade unions evolved from simple labor collectives into complex social safety nets through the development of mutual insurance and benefit programs.
Betsy Gaskins (Dimicrat), Wife of Jobe Gaskins (Republican)
W. I. (William I.) Hood
A cautionary tale of rural hardship in the 1890s, this work blends domestic fiction with a polemical defense of Populist economic theories, centering on a couple caught in the tightening grip of a national financial crisis.
Bowser the Hound
Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess
A lost and weary hound finds his way home through the winter woods, guided not by his own nose, but by the clever, meddling, and surprisingly empathetic interventions of a local crow.
Brenda, Her School and Her Club
Helen Leah Reed
A spirited young Bostonian must navigate the shifting dynamics of her social circle when an unexpected arrival challenges her status as the leader of her close-knit group of friends.