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All free summaries — page 631
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 631 of 988.
The Rocket: The Story of the Stephensons, Father and Son
Helen C. (Helen Cross) Knight
An unlettered pit-boy teaches himself to read by engine-fire, masters mechanical engineering through sheer persistence, and builds the steam locomotive that transforms global travel forever.
The Roly-Poly book
Laura Rountree Smith
A household of round, prone-to-rolling creatures and their accident-prone egg-like companion turn daily routines, missing parents, and bedtime fairy tales into a series of cheerful, chaotic domestic adventures.
The sea horror
Edmond Hamilton
An ancient underwater civilization threatens to drown the world, leaving humanity's survival in the hands of a deep-sea submarine expedition.
The song of the exile
Wilfred S. (Wilfred Stradling) Skeats
An exile sails from his native shore, carried away by a forced separation from the woman he loves and the quiet life he left behind. Across the Atlantic, his restless journey becomes a meditation on duty, faith, and the grand landscapes of a raw, burgeoning young nation.
The Spanish Chest
Edna A. Brown
An American family's winter on the Channel Island of Jersey turns into an enchanting historical mystery filled with coastal tides, old manors, and forgotten royal secrets.
The Taking of Louisburg, 1745
Samuel Adams Drake
A colonial militia of farmers and shopkeepers achieves the impossible, capturing the "Gibraltar of America" through sheer audacity and provincial grit.
The traveller's oracle
John Jervis
An early nineteenth-century guide reveals the intricate mechanics, costs, and social etiquette involved in maintaining a horse-drawn carriage in Regency London.
The Valley of Democracy
Meredith Nicholson
A vibrant portrait of early twentieth-century American heartland identity captures a proud, evolving region balancing its agricultural roots with dynamic urban growth and political ambition.
The White Hecatomb, and Other Stories
W. C. (William Charles) Scully
Boundless violence, ancient customs, and the friction of colonial encounters shape a world where individual choices carry heavy, irrevocable costs.
The World Decision
Robert Herrick
An eyewitness dispatch from the battlefields and political centers of Western Europe that frames the First World War not as a mere geopolitical struggle, but as a defining spiritual conflict for the soul of modern civilization.
Travels in a Tree-top
Charles C. (Charles Conrad) Abbott
In quiet corners of meadow and stream, small wonders reveal an entire world to those who take the time to stop and look.
Under One Flag
Richard Marsh
Behind every theatrical curtain, domestic squabble, and competitive green lies a human being trying desperately to save face.
Victor Ollnee's Discipline
Hamlin Garland
A collegiate athlete discovers his mother is a professional medium, thrusting him into a conflict between his skeptical, modern worldview and the inexplicable, haunting phenomena that define her life and eventually claim it.
Virgil
W. Lucas (William Lucas) Collins
In the grand tapestry of classical literature, one poet’s vision of destiny, duty, and human sorrow shaped the Roman mind and echoed through two thousand years of Western thought.
War Services of the 62nd West Riding Divisional Artillery
Austin Thomas Anderson
Under relentless artillery fire and knee-deep in mud, a division of British gunners turns raw discipline into survival, transforming from unproven recruits into a hardened engine that pushes through the Western Front’s darkest hours.
Watch and ward
Henry James
An awkward bachelor adopts an orphaned twelve-year-old girl with the quiet intention of raising her to become his wife, triggering a complex chain of emotional dependency and misaligned desire.
What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul
Richard La Rue Swain
Uncertainty and intellectual confusion often tear sincere seekers away from faith, forcing them to choose between cold materialism and outmoded dogma.
When Sarah Went to School
Elsie Singmaster
A small-town Pennsylvania girl arrives at a rigid boarding school, where her earnest heart, native rustic dialect, and sheer force of will upend both campus rivalries and administrative expectations.
Wind and Weather
Alexander McAdie
Rushing gusts of air shape daily life, driving storm fronts across continents and steering human history through atmospheric pressure.
With Porter in the Essex: A Story of His Famous Cruise in the Southern Waters During the War of 1812
James Otis
Boys who run away to sea usually expect glory; Ezra McKnight and Philip find hard labor, brutal discipline, and a front-row seat to the bloody collapse of an American frigate.
Yellow Thunder, Our Little Indian Cousin
Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade
A twelve-year-old Native American boy learns the skills, endurance, and spiritual traditions of his ancestors while preparing for manhood in the forest.
A Child of the Orient
Demetra Vaka
This memoir captures the singular experience of a young woman raised within the fading grandeur of the Ottoman Empire, charting her journey from a childhood defined by inherited prejudice to her eventual life as an immigrant in America. It is a work of cultural collision, exploring how one reconciles deep-seated…
A happy half-century, and other essays
Agnes Repplier
A witty, affectionate look at 18th- and 19th-century British intellectual life, from the rise of the novel to the cult of childhood, by a sharp-eyed observer of human folly.
A Lady of Rome
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
A tale of love, secrets, and redemption set in the elegant and treacherous social circles of Rome.
A Narrative of the Life of Rev. Noah Davis, A Colored Man: Written by Himself, At The Age of Fifty-Four
Noah Davis
Driven by a father's radical resolve to liberate his children, a formerly enslaved preacher turns his life story into a tool of redemption, transforming personal testimony into the hard cash required to secure human freedom.
Among the Tibetans
Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird
Driven by an irrepressible curiosity to escape the familiar haunts of Anglo-Indian society, an intrepid Victorian woman journeys past the Himalayan frontier into the high, wind-swept tablelands of Lesser Tibet.
An account of the manner of inoculating for the small pox in the East Indies: With some observations on the practice and mode of treating that disease in those parts
J. Z. (John Zephaniah) Holwell
In the mid-eighteenth century, a colonial physician discovered that the "barbaric" East had already mastered the art of smallpox prevention, using methods that were centuries ahead of European medicine.
Bed-time stories
Anonymous
This collection of rhymes and prose offers a whimsical window into the nursery world of the early twentieth century, where household objects, animals, and children share the same magical landscape. It serves as a gentle, rhythmic companion for quiet moments, capturing the simple joys and minor moral lessons that…
Black Canaan
Robert E. (Robert Ervin) Howard
A chilling tale of voodoo, betrayal, and survival in the Louisiana swamps.
Bomba the jungle boy at the giant cataract
Roy Rockwood
An orphan raised by nature, a jungle-dwelling youth battles predators and headhunters in a relentless pursuit to uncover the mystery of his true identity.
Boys of Oakdale Academy
Morgan Scott
A young man from Texas arrives at an elite boarding school, only to find himself an outcast due to his strange stories and a mysterious, disfiguring injury. He must navigate a gauntlet of cruel hazing and social exclusion before his true character can finally come to light.
Central-Station Electric Lighting: With Notes on the Methods Used for the Distribution of Electricity
Killingworth Hedges
Electric light is not merely a scientific novelty but a commercial venture, requiring robust engineering and careful financial planning to succeed. This work examines the transition of electricity from experimental display to a reliable public utility.
Charlie and His Puppy Bingo
Helen Hill
A young boy and his loyal puppy navigate the small, formative challenges of childhood, from learning traffic safety to building a garden home.
Civil War Experiences: under Bayard, Gregg, Kilpatrick, Custer, Raulston, and Newberry, 1862, 1863, 1864
Henry C. (Henry Coddington) Meyer
A young volunteer leaps into the turmoil of the American Civil War as a teenage enlistee, surviving cavalry charges, crucial dispatches, and desperate battles across Virginia before a severe sniper wound forces him out of the ranks forever.
Country Life in the Poetry of John Clare
Mildred M. Coen
The life and work of an impoverished poet illuminate the devastating human cost of the English land enclosures that reshaped the rural landscape.
Days on the Road: Crossing the Plains in 1865
Sarah Raymond Herndon
A young woman recounts her family’s arduous 1865 migration across the American West, capturing the daily rhythms, profound losses, and quiet courage of life on the trail.
Detectives, Inc.: A Mystery Story for Boys
William Heyliger
A blind man and his loyal guide dog navigate the shadows of small-town life to solve intricate crimes that baffle the local police.
Electricity for the 4-H Scientist
Eric B. Wilson
A simple circuit board and a handful of nails can unlock the fundamental mechanics of the modern world.
Fables of Field and Staff
James A. (James Albert) Frye
A group of volunteer soldiers preserves the spirit of their regiment through tall tales and shared memories, finding camaraderie in the quiet spaces between peace-time drills and the lingering ghosts of a past war.
Famous old receipts used a hundred years and more in the kitchens of the North and the South, contributed by descendants
Unknown
This collection preserves a century of American culinary heritage, curating the heirloom recipes passed down through prominent families in the North and the South. It serves as a bridge between the hearths of the past and the modern kitchen.
Folk Tales of Breffny
Bampton Hunt
Through the lens of an old storyteller, these Irish folktales capture the perilous, porous border between the mundane world and a hidden realm of capricious spirits.
Garrick's Pupil
Augustin Filon
Through the turbulent streets and glittering drawing rooms of eighteenth-century London, a young actress and a nameless apprentice navigate identity, passion, and political chaos to discover that true nobility belongs to the heart.
Geographic Variation in the North American Cyprinid Fish, Hybopsis gracilis
Frank B. (Frank Bernard) Cross
A classic 1961 zoological investigation reveals how environmental shifts across North American river basins sculpt the physical form of a single, highly resilient freshwater fish.
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, No. 3, March 1849
Various
This March 1849 installment of a nineteenth-century literary periodical offers a diverse mosaic of period sentiment, providing an authentic glimpse into the varied tastes and intellectual preoccupations of the mid-Victorian reading public.
Grandma Perkins and the Space Pirates
James V. McConnell
A grandmotherly stowaway disrupts the rigid order of the solar system, outwitting television stars and hardened space pirates alike. This breezy mid-century tale proves that a sharp mind and a steady hand with a hairpin can navigate the furthest reaches of the galaxy.
Harry Blount, the Detective
T. J. Flanagan
A desperate hunt for justice spanning continents and class lines, this thriller explores the high stakes of deception and the relentless pursuit of a cunning impostor.
I Pose
Stella Benson
A restless gardener and a sharp-witted suffragette traverse the globe, each caught in the exhausting performance of their own identities. This is a story about the fragile, often comedic, and deeply human art of pretending.
If, Yes and Perhaps: Four Possibilities and Six Exaggerations with Some Bits of Fact
Edward Everett Hale
Bound by the tether of an unforgiving oath, a young officer learns what it means to be stripped from his nation’s memory and erased from the map of the world he loved.