The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 637
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 637 of 988.
'Midst Arctic Perils: A Thrilling Story of Adventure in the Polar Regions
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
Two schoolboys find themselves cast into a desperate race against the elements when their holiday cruise turns into a survival mission across the frozen wastes of the Arctic.
Milestones in the Mighty Age of Steam: The Grasshopper and the Corliss
Anonymous
The roar of industry once ran on iron and steam, a legacy preserved in the quiet halls of a Dayton park. Here, two mechanical titans tell their stories, bridging the gap between raw nineteenth-century ambition and the modern world.
Mr. Waddy's Return
Theodore Winthrop
Ira Waddy, a man tempered by years of distant travel, returns to the familiar landscapes of New England only to find that his past remains a restless, unquiet companion. He discovers that the quietude of home is merely a surface masking deep-seated secrets and moral conflicts that threaten the peace of those he…
Narrative of a Recent Imprisonment in China after the Wreck of the Kite
John Lee Scott
HOOK After the Kite founders in a violent sea, a young merchant sailor finds himself thrust into the heart of an impenetrable empire as a prisoner of war.
Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Firing Line
Clarence Young
Three inseparable friends trade their peaceful civilian lives for the trenches of World War I, finding that courage in the face of machine guns is just as vital as keeping their spirits high.
Niebuhr's lectures on Roman history, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
The rise and fall of the Roman world unfolds here as a vast, interconnected drama of political ambition, institutional decay, and the relentless pressure of history. These lectures capture the movement from the dying days of the Republic through the transformation of the Empire into a fragmented, changing entity.
Notes and Queries, Number 213, November 26, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
A dedicated forum for the inquisitive mind, this Victorian periodical invites readers to trade obscure historical facts, linguistic curiosities, and local traditions as a community of scholars.
Notes and Queries, Number 230, March 25, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This volume acts as a time machine for the Victorian intellectual, serving as a bustling, print-bound exchange where history, genealogy, and the curious minutiae of mid-nineteenth-century life converge in a scholarly marketplace.
Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 121, February 21, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This Victorian periodical serves as a communal clearinghouse for historical curiosities, literary debates, and scholarly inquiries, inviting readers to contribute their findings to a shared store of knowledge.
One-Shot
James Blish
A professional gambler with a perfect record on long-shot bets is summoned to help stop a potential catastrophe, only to discover that the highest-stakes wager of his life is not what it seems.
Peace with Honour
Sydney C. Grier
A spirited female physician navigates the perils of a diplomatic mission in a volatile foreign land, where imperial politics and personal heart-matters collide with life-or-death consequences.
Perpetual Light
William Rose Benét
The poetry of a widower creates an enduring, luminous monument to a lost wife, transforming the sharp ache of personal grief into a universal meditation on love and the mystery of faith.
Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton, for Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (for Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail: Including a Narrative of the Voyage and Capture of the Schooner Pearl
Daniel Drayton
A common man’s conscience becomes a legal firestorm when he helps enslaved people pursue their freedom, leading to years of incarceration in the nation’s capital.
Poppy Ott and the stuttering parrot
Leo Edwards
A group of resourceful boys in a small Illinois town investigates a series of bizarre events involving a stuttering parrot, a missing townsman, and their own neighborhood rivalries.
Poppy Ott's pedigreed pickles
Leo Edwards
A youthful entrepreneur’s scheme to revolutionize the pickle market leads his friends into a tangled web of poisoned food, suspicious characters, and a long-lost pirate’s hidden treasure.
Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 109, August 31, 1895
Various
This collection of Victorian wit captures the final days of a summer in 1895, blending sharp political satire with the whimsical musings of a society obsessed with status, commerce, and the quirks of the British character.
Sea Plunder
H. De Vere (Henry De Vere) Stacpoole
This tale of Pacific maritime adventure captures the restless spirit of a professional wanderer finding his fortune on the high seas.
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 2: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2
Unknown
The traveler’s gaze is a bridge between the living world and the ghosts of literature, turning stones and soil into stories that transcend their own geography.
Shadow in the House
Sinclair Gluck
The peaceful conclusion of a family dinner is shattered by a cold-blooded murder, forcing two investigators to untangle a web of secrets hidden within a wealthy household. A puzzle of motive and method unfolds, revealing that behind the polished facade of the upper class, nothing is quite as it appears.
Six months on the Italian front
Julius M. (Julius Mendes) Price
A seasoned war artist ventures to the Italian Front during the Great War, documenting the mountain terrain and the raw, unvarnished spirit of a nation at arms. This account captures the visceral reality of a campaign defined by sheer cliffs, heavy artillery, and the fervor of a newly mobilized army.
Small Means and Great Ends
Unknown
This collection offers a window into the moral and spiritual instruction of a bygone era, gathering simple tales and reflections intended to guide the hearts and habits of children toward piety, contentment, and resilience.
Soap bubbles
Max Simon Nordau
This collection of short stories captures the fragility of human vanity and the strange, often cruel, ironies that govern lives across Europe and beyond.
Standard Measures of United States, Great Britain and France: History and actual comparisons. With appendix on introduction of the mètre
Arthur S. C. Wurtele
Precise measurement is a deceptively simple endeavor, often obscured by conflicting scientific data and the stubborn reality that a standard is merely a metal bar kept in a vault.
Tales from the Arabic
John Payne
These stories capture the boundless imagination of classical Arabic folklore, where human ambition, divine fate, and the supernatural collide. They offer a vivid glimpse into a world of relentless adventure, courtly romance, and the shifting fortunes of fortune-seekers.
Tales of the Road
Charles N. (Charles Newman) Crewdson
The traveling salesman is the steam that drives the engine of global business. Through the eyes of those who spend their lives on the road, the world is a series of hard-won orders, long train rides, and shared humanity.
Textile Fibers used in Eastern Aboriginal North America
A. C. Whitford
This technical survey reveals the sophisticated botanical knowledge of North American tribes, detailing how generations transformed wild, fibrous plants into essential tools, clothing, and cordage. It serves as a microscopic bridge between ancient material culture and modern scientific analysis.
The Admirable Tinker: Child of the World
Edgar Jepson
This story follows an extraordinarily resourceful boy who assumes the role of architect in his own life and the lives of those he loves. It is a lighthearted, turn-of-the-century adventure that captures the whimsy and confidence of a child who believes he can steer the world.
The aircraft boys of Lakeport
Edward Stratemeyer
A group of resourceful boys in a small town find themselves master of the skies when they stumble upon a crashed biplane and decide to master its flight.
The Ancestral Footstep (fragment): Outlines of an English Romance
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A traveler journeys from the New World to England to reclaim a forgotten inheritance, only to find himself entangled in a web of ancestral obsession, blood-stained secrets, and the clashing identities of two nations.
The Annals of the Poor
Legh Richmond
These quiet accounts trace the spiritual journeys of the poor and marginalized, finding profound wisdom in the simple faith of those often overlooked by the world.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 12, October, 1858: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This collection of essays, reviews, and narratives captures the intellectual pulse of mid-nineteenth-century America, exploring the intersection of technological progress, human psychology, and the enduring weight of history.
The Battery and the Boiler: Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Born amid a roaring Atlantic tempest, Robin Wright grows up alongside the nineteenth century’s grandest technical ambition: linking the world by deep-sea telegraph lines.
The Beautiful Lady
Booth Tarkington
A man forced by poverty to become a human billboard on the streets of Paris encounters an exquisite woman who offers him the only thing he has left: pity. Bound by shame and social station, he finds that romance and reality are rarely the same.
The Body at Work: A Treatise on the Principles of Physiology
Alex Hill
Physiology is not merely a collection of rigid biological facts, but a complex, living narrative of how the human form sustains itself through constant chemical and physical motion. This treatise explores the body as a dynamic, interconnected republic of specialized functions.
The Boy Fortune Hunters in Alaska
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
A young man ventures into the frozen North to reclaim his inheritance and protect his family’s honor, finding adventure and vast, glittering wealth along the way.
The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol
John Henry Goldfrap
The Eagle Patrol of Hampton, Long Island, navigates the treacherous waters of adolescence and the Atlantic alike, finding that moral clarity is the most essential gear for any scout’s kit.
The Boys of Crawford's Basin: The Story of a Mountain Ranch in the Early Days of Colorado
Sidford F. (Sidford Frederick) Hamp
Two hardworking young men face backbreaking labor, local villainy, and mountain hazards to carve out a secure future in 1870s Colorado.
The Campaign in Russian Poland
Percy Cross Standing
A brisk, contemporary chronicle of the early maneuvers on the Eastern Front, capturing the shifting tides of the Great War’s initial Russian campaign.
The Castle Of The Shadows
A. M. (Alice Muriel) Williamson
The Mediterranean sun sets the stage for a daring rescue mission, where an American heiress risks everything to save an unjustly imprisoned man from a distant island fortress.
The Chemically Pure Warriors
Allen Kim Lang
A group of hyper-sanitized, germ-phobic soldiers discovers that their rigid isolation from an alien planet is a lie, forcing a choice between their militant indoctrination and a forgotten common humanity.
The circuit rider
Edward Eggleston
This story captures the rigorous, untamed spirit of the American frontier, where the moral landscape is as challenging to navigate as the physical wilderness. It follows a young man’s journey from worldly indecision to a life of committed, self-sacrificing ministry.
The City That Was: A Requiem of Old San Francisco
Will Irwin
The old, legendary San Francisco, once a vibrant, pleasure-loving gateway to the Pacific, vanished in the fires of 1906, leaving behind only memories of a city that can never be replicated.
The Desired Woman
Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben
HOOK A successful banker risks his professional status and personal peace when he becomes infatuated with a young schoolteacher whose rural simplicity clashes with his sophisticated, cynical world.
The Doomswoman: An Historical Romance of Old California
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
A proud, tradition-bound woman finds her world upended when she falls for the man her family considers their sworn enemy. This tale of old California captures a fading culture on the brink of profound change.
The Elder Brother: The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Volume 2 of 10)
John Fletcher
HOOK A scholar who prefers his books to his inheritance, a fop who discovers his inner mettle, and a father blinded by rigid social ambition collide in this sharp, witty seventeenth-century comedy.
The Elect Lady
George MacDonald
A quiet, transformative journey unfolds in the Scottish countryside, where the rigid expectations of class and the hollow rituals of tradition are challenged by the radical simplicity of a life lived in direct obedience to divine instruction.
The emerald of Catherine the Great
Hilaire Belloc
The hunt for a priceless jewel turns into a farce where the only thing missing is a genuine mystery. Behind the polished veneer of an English country house, the upper crust scrambles to hide their own incompetence while a detective inadvertently saves the day with a ludicrous lie.
The escape of Alice: A Christmas fantasy
Vincent Starrett
A literary character steps out of her classic book to experience the chaos of a modern city, only to find that the spirit of Christmas is as elusive as the magic she left behind.