The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 588
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 588 of 988.
Johnstone of the Border
Harold Bindloss
A quiet, atmospheric thriller of the Scottish coast, this story finds a man of the sea drawn into a web of wartime intrigue by his own sense of duty.
Joseph in the Snow, and The Clockmaker. In Three Volumes. Vol. III
Berthold Auerbach
A quiet, diligent clockmaker faces the slow erosion of his marriage and the crushing weight of isolation, finding his salvation only when a natural disaster forces him and his prideful wife to confront their true selves.
Klytia: A Story of Heidelberg Castle
Adolf Hausrath
HOOK Set against the looming, fortress-like backdrop of Heidelberg Castle, this historical drama navigates the collision between rigid religious zealotry and the desperate, flickering endurance of human love.
Ladies in the Field: Sketches of Sport
Unknown
Women of the late nineteenth century share their expertise in outdoor pursuits, arguing that physical exertion and a connection to the natural world refine character rather than diminish femininity.
Lady Kilpatrick
Robert Williams Buchanan
A long-hidden secret of love and betrayal threatens a noble house, forcing a young man to confront the truth of his birth and a desperate enemy to commit a final, treacherous crime.
Loaves and fishes
Bernard Capes
This collection of stories explores the collision between Victorian polish and the gritty, often desperate undercurrents of English life at the turn of the twentieth century. It captures a world where social standing is fragile, and the line between a gentleman and a scoundrel is frequently drawn in shadow.
Martin Rattler
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
This classic adventure follows a spirited, impulsive boy who finds himself cast into the vast wilderness of South America, where he must trade youthful recklessness for courage and faith to survive. It is a story of profound transformation, set against the backdrop of an untamed continent.
Matins
Francis Sherman
This collection of verse captures the shifting, melancholic beauty of the Canadian landscape and the quiet ache of human longing. It is a meditation on mortality, nature, and the persistence of love beyond the reach of time.
Mrs. Raffles: Being the Adventures of an Amateur Crackswoman
John Kendrick Bangs
A devoted manservant recounts his life of crime under the tutelage of an audacious female thief who navigates high society with the same dexterity she applies to lifting jewels and hijacking fortunes.
Old-Dad
Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
The relationship between an estranged father and his daughter is tested when a sudden scandal forces them together. They find that navigating life’s unexpected fractures requires more humor and honesty than they ever imagined.
Opera Stories from Wagner
Florence Akin
The legends of gods, giants, and dwarves find new life in these accessible retellings, which weave the complex threads of a great musical epic into a clear and flowing narrative for young readers.
Our Holidays: Their Meaning and Spirit
Various
These collected stories and essays explore the history, customs, and civic importance of American holidays, transforming familiar dates on the calendar into lessons about national identity, empathy, and the legacy of the past.
Peeps at People
Robert Cortes Holliday
The world is a stage of peculiar characters, and these brief, observational sketches offer a window into the lives of the neighbors, dreamers, and oddities passing by on the street.
Planet of Dread
Murray Leinster
The survival of a marooned fugitive hinges on his ability to outmaneuver the crew of a space-yacht who intend to abandon him on a world teeming with gargantuan, mutated insect life.
Planet of Sand
Murray Leinster
HOOK Marooned on a desolate, storm-swept world, a disgraced officer must survive a lethal, ancient landscape and a vengeful enemy to reclaim his honor and secure his future.
Plays
Aleksandr Nikolaevich Ostrovsky
This collection of plays captures the volatile, claustrophobic world of 19th-century Moscow’s rising merchant class, where money and moral standing are perpetually at war. It is a sharp, unsentimental portrait of a society built on shaky foundations.
Poems (1686)
Anne Killigrew
The verses of a young woman at the Restoration court reveal a mind steeped in both classical tradition and a singular, searching moral gravity. She does not merely observe her world; she measures it against the weight of eternity.
Points of Humour, Part 1 (of 2)
Unknown
This collection of anecdotes serves as a stage for the illustrations of George Cruikshank, blending historical wit with the earthy, rebellious spirit of traditional folk ballads.
Poitiers
Hilaire Belloc
The Black Prince leads a desperate, outnumbered force through the French countryside, finally turning to face a massive royal army in a fight that secures his legend and cripples the French nobility.
Prayer and praying men
Edward M. (Edward McKendree) Bounds
This collection of devotional reflections explores the spiritual lives of biblical figures to demonstrate that prayer is the fundamental, non-negotiable engine of a righteous life. It argues that success in any divine mission is not a product of human talent, but of the specific, disciplined, and often agonizing…
Prospector's Special
Robert Sheckley
A lonely traveler faces the merciless heat and predatory wilderness of a distant planet, driven by the desperate hope that a single fortune will buy his way back to a life of quiet peace.
Punch or the London Charivari, October 10, 1920
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of British life in 1920, blending political bite, domestic absurdity, and the lingering, jittery wit of a nation freshly emerged from the Great War.
Red Spider, Volume 2 (of 2)
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
A young woman’s quiet strength and self-sacrifice anchor a fractured community, proving that even amidst ancient superstitions and hard-hearted greed, grace can endure.
Samantha on Children's Rights
Marietta Holley
A sharp-witted rural matron turns her gaze toward the stifling conventions of child-rearing, offering a humorous, common-sense critique of how adults often fail the young by prioritizing vanity over genuine connection.
Saul of Tarsus: A Tale of the Early Christians
Elizabeth Miller
This novel weaves the grand, turbulent history of the early Church into the intimate, high-stakes lives of those caught in the shadow of imperial Rome and religious zeal. It is a story of faith, vengeance, and the transformative power of forgiveness.
Shelley: An Essay
Francis Thompson
This reflective essay portrays the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley as an eternal, persecuted child whose visionary genius was inextricably linked to his tragic, lifelong isolation from the world of men.
State of the Union Addresses
Andrew Jackson
These annual messages offer a direct window into the governing philosophy of a pivotal American presidency. They detail the executive’s vision for a growing nation, from the expansion of the frontier to the management of its currency.
Studies in Central American Picture-Writing: First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the
Edward S. (Edward Singleton) Holden
This rigorous investigation applies the analytical techniques of modern cryptography to the enigmatic stone inscriptions of Central America, seeking to unlock the meaning of ancient Mayan glyphs through systematic comparison. It serves as a foundational attempt to move beyond speculative interpretation toward a…
Talkers: With Illustrations
John Bate
A guide to the perils and potential of human speech, this collection examines how the tongue can ignite great evils or serve as a vital instrument of wisdom, charity, and truth.
The art of taking a wife
Paolo Mantegazza
Choosing a life partner is the most critical decision a person can make, yet society offers little guidance beyond outdated custom. This volume serves as a candid, worldly-wise manual for navigating the complexities of modern marriage.
The Bird Hospital
Caroline Crowninshield Bascom
This memoir chronicles a life dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and companionship of injured birds and stray animals within a domestic setting. It offers an intimate, often humorous look at the complex social dynamics that emerge when wild creatures and house pets share a single living space.
The Boy Chums Cruising in Florida Waters
Wilmer M. (Wilmer Mateo) Ely
Four unlikely companions seek their fortune in the Florida wilderness, navigating treacherous waters, mysterious smugglers, and the unpredictable forces of nature in a quest for independence.
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, February 1884, No. 5
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
This periodical serves as a time capsule for the late nineteenth-century American drive for self-improvement, offering a structured, rigorous curriculum designed to bring academic and spiritual enlightenment to the home-bound reader.
The Confounding of Camelia
Anne Douglas Sedgwick
Camelia Paton possesses every advantage of charm and social standing, yet she finds that her greatest challenge is not winning a suitor, but winning the genuine respect of the one man who refuses to be charmed.
The Corner House Girls Growing Up: What Happened First, What Came Next. And How It Ended
Grace Brooks Hill
The Corner House girls return to navigate the complexities of adolescence, learning that growing up involves as many misadventures as it does milestones.
The Deaf Shoemaker: To Which Are Added Other Stories for the Young
Philip Barrett
This collection of sketches and moral tales serves as a spiritual map for the young, guiding the reader through the hazards of early life toward a devoted, prayerful existence.
The Fighting Starkleys
Theodore Goodridge Roberts
A family of rural farmers finds their quiet existence transformed by the global upheaval of the Great War as the Starkley brothers trade their plows for the trenches.
The Flower of Old Japan, and Other Poems
Alfred Noyes
To find the true meaning of the world, one must look through a child’s eyes at the "Flower of Old Japan," discovering that the deepest mysteries of existence are often hidden in plain sight.
The Giants From Outer Space
Robert W. Krepps
A captain and his crew encounter impossibly ancient, godlike beings on a desolate asteroid, only to discover that the keys to their survival are as primitive as a handgun and a bottle of spirits. This swift space-faring adventure pits the ingenuity of modern men against the hubris of entities who have haunted human…
The human foot and the human hand
Humphry, George Murray, Sir
The human body is an intricate machine, where the architecture of the foot and hand reveals both our physical purpose and the dignity of our species. Through careful observation, the mundane becomes a study of design.
The Last of the Bushrangers: An Account of the Capture of the Kelly Gang
Francis Augustus Hare
The hunt for Australia’s most infamous outlaws unfolds through the eyes of a police superintendent tasked with dismantling a syndicate that held an entire region in thrall.
The Laurel Walk
Mrs. Molesworth
The Laurel Walk follows three sisters living in genteel poverty as they navigate a long-standing family grudge and the sudden arrival of new neighbors. It is a quiet, thoughtful study of duty, secret heartaches, and the slow thawing of a bitter inheritance.
The Ledge on Bald Face
Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir
A rugged, atmospheric collection of wilderness tales where the survival of man and animal alike hinges on instinct, grit, and the unwavering loyalty of a faithful dog.
The Little Review, February 1915 (Vol. 1, No. 11)
Various
This magazine serves as a vibrant, unfiltered heartbeat for the 1915 modernist avant-garde, capturing the restless, anarchistic spirit of a generation determined to replace traditional authority with the primacy of imagination.
The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman
Charles Dickens
The story of a wayward nobleman and his foreign savior, this work preserves the rough-hewn charm of an ancient street-corner ballad. It captures a timeless romantic legend through the lens of Victorian whimsy and peculiar, rhythmic vernacular.
The Man of the World (1792)
Charles Macklin
A ruthless social climber dictates his family’s fate through calculated deception, only to find his own son has mastered the art of moral resistance. This sharp-witted comedy exposes the hollow mechanics of status, greed, and political patronage.
The Motor Boys Afloat
Clarence Young
Three inseparable friends navigate the early days of motorboating, finding adventure, mystery, and a band of dangerous river pirates along the way.
The Mystery of the Sycamore
Carolyn Wells
A house divided by a state line holds a deadly secret, forcing a young woman into a desperate bargain to save her father from a ruinous past.