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All free summaries — page 655
44,127 public-domain books, summarised. Page 655 of 920.
Bernardino Luini
James Mason
Bernardino Luini emerges from the shadows of history as a luminous, self-effacing master of the Lombard Renaissance, whose serene paintings hold an enduring power that far exceeds his forgotten life story.
Betty at Fort Blizzard
Molly Elliot Seawell
Fort Blizzard is a remote military outpost where the rigid demands of duty, the biting cold of winter, and the unpredictable passions of youth collide. Amidst these frozen barracks, a young woman’s heart is quietly awakened.
Betty Gordon at Boarding School
Alice B. Emerson
A spirited, orphaned girl navigates the challenges of boarding school life, uncovering hidden family treasures and forming deep, loyal friendships that define her coming-of-age journey.
Breeding minks in Louisiana for their fur: A profitable industry
William André Elfer
Raising minks in captivity offers a lucrative alternative to the declining tradition of wild trapping in the American South. This guide details the practical requirements for establishing a profitable fur-breeding enterprise in Louisiana.
Buffalo Bill's pursuit
Prentiss Ingraham
Buffalo Bill’s pursuit is a classic of the American dime novel tradition, offering a breakneck, episodic adventure through the untamed frontier. It serves as a vivid relic of a genre that once defined popular escapism for millions of readers.
Cap'n Dan's Daughter
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
A retired sea captain and his family struggle to navigate the treacherous, artificial waters of high society after an unexpected inheritance.
Carolina chansons
DuBose Heyward
The salt air of the Carolina coast rises from these pages, where history and legend collide in a lyrical exploration of a landscape haunted by its own past.
Cheese and its economical uses in the diet
Caroline Louisa Hunt
A sensible, clear-eyed guide to elevating cheese from a mere after-dinner condiment to a primary, cost-effective cornerstone of the daily diet.
Christmas stories
Mary Jane Holmes
These pages collect a series of moral and sentimental tales, each centered on themes of faith, sacrifice, and the quiet beauty of the Christmas season.
Christmas tales of Flanders
M. C. O. Morris
These are the folk-tales of Flanders and Brabant, where the boundaries between the human, the supernatural, and the divine blur into a landscape of quiet mischief and unexpected grace.
Clemence
Retta B. Babcock
A young woman of refinement is thrust into poverty and tasked with the difficult life of a governess, only to find that her true challenges lie in the cold judgment of a small-minded community.
Connecticut Wide-Awake Songster
Unknown
This collection of campaign anthems captures the urgent, rhythmic fervor of the 1860 presidential election, documenting a nation on the brink of profound transformation through the voices of those singing for change.
Course of Empire
Richard Wilson
The reach of human ambition often exceeds our grasp, leading us to build grand structures atop foundations of ignorance. When Earth finally attempts to colonize the solar system, it discovers that colonial rule is a fragile, arrogant vanity.
Danny the detective
Vera C. (Vera Charlesworth) Barclay
The quiet English countryside is a hotbed of international intrigue, and only a vigilant young scout possesses the sharp eyes required to uncover the enemy lurking within the ancient ruins.
Does civilization need religion?
Reinhold Niebuhr
Does modern society have any use for faith? This inquiry examines the fragile, essential tension between the moral demands of religion and the mechanical, often brutal requirements of an industrial civilization.
Don, a Runaway Dog: His Many Adventures
Richard Barnum
A curious puppy decides that home is too small and the world too big, only to discover that the freedom he craves is far more difficult and dangerous than he imagined.
Don Sebastian
Anna Maria Porter
A young king, molded by dreams of conquest, loses his crown and his army to the desert, only to find his true self in the quiet, humbled service of a slave.
Dorothy's House Party
Evelyn Raymond
A young girl finds a new home and decides to share her joy by hosting a house party that turns into an unexpected adventure for everyone involved.
Dotty Dimple at Her Grandmother's
Sophie May
A spirited, prideful young girl navigates small-town temptations, family expectations, and big moral lessons during a summer stay with her grandmother.
Fifth Report of the Vestry of the Parish of Chelsea in the County of Middlesex, Appointed Under the Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855: 1860-1
Charles Lahee
The rapid urbanization of mid-Victorian London demands a new, rigorous system of local administration, forcing parish officials to balance the mounting pressures of public health, taxation, and infrastructure against the weight of tradition.
Five nights at the Five Pines
Harriet A. (Harriet Avery) Gaul
HOOK A crumbling, isolated Cape Cod cottage holds a secret history that begins to unravel the moment a young, impressionable writer and her playwright husband move in.
Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 4
Mark Twain
This wide-ranging travelogue captures the sharp-eyed observations of a seasoned humorist as he circles the globe, finding absurdity and beauty in equal measure. Through his wandering gaze, distant colonial outposts and vibrant Eastern cities come to life with both wit and profound social insight.
French without a master
Tristan Bernard
A frantic, farcical comedy of errors centers on a desperate young couple hiding in a London hotel and an incompetent, monolingual interpreter caught in their web of lies. This brief, punchy play captures the hilarious absurdity that ensues when language barriers and secret elopements collide.
Freston Tower
Richard Cobbold
Perched on the banks of the river Orwell, a mysterious medieval tower becomes the silent witness to the rise of Cardinal Wolsey and the quiet endurance of a steadfast couple.
Gleams of Sunshine: Optimistic Poems
Joseph Horatio Chant
The poet finds beauty in the ordinary, turning his gaze toward the divine order of nature and the quiet triumphs of faith.
Going Some
Rex Beach
HOOK A collegiate socialite becomes trapped in a high-stakes footrace against a hardened ranch hand, where the only thing more dangerous than losing is the romantic entanglement he finds himself unable to escape.
Going to Maynooth: Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three
William Carleton
The pride of a village family rests on a young man’s aspiration to the priesthood, but his path to the altar is obstructed by his own pomposity and a secret, human love.
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXV, No. 3, September 1849
Various
This mid-nineteenth-century literary miscellany captures the restless, romantic, and didactic spirit of the American antebellum era through a vibrant tapestry of fiction, poetry, and cultural observation.
Harper's Round Table, May 12, 1896
Various
A Victorian-era periodical for young readers, this collection gathers athletic fiction, historical sketches, and practical advice, reflecting the earnest, adventurous, and occasionally instructional spirit of youth literature in the late nineteenth century.
Hearings of the International Joint Commission in re remedies for the pollution of boundary waters between the United States and Canada
International Joint Commission
This document records a pivotal moment in early 20th-century environmental governance, where the United States and Canada confronted the shared, mounting crisis of transboundary water pollution. It captures the tension between industrial necessity, municipal financial limits, and the urgent requirements of public…
Henry of Guise
G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
The court of 16th-century France is a labyrinth of shifting alliances, where the charismatic Duke of Guise commands the hearts of the people while the King pulls desperate, invisible strings. In this storm of political intrigue, a young nobleman finds his loyalties tested by the woman he loves and the treachery of…
Hermann: A Novel
E. Werner
A tale of long-buried secrets and the crushing weight of ancestral shame, this narrative explores the collision between rigid aristocratic pride and the quiet, enduring power of personal integrity.
Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third
Horace Walpole
Unfairly branded by Tudor chroniclers as a monstrous villain, a medieval king receives a rigorous historical defense that exposes how deeply political bias corrupts standard national histories.
Hoiman and the Solar Circuit
G. Gordon (George Gordon) Dewey
This tale follows a down-and-out wrestling promoter recounting his disastrous interstellar career. It is a witty, cynical portrait of a man who mistakes his own desperate schemes for professional ambition.
Holiday Frolics
Anonymous
This collection of Victorian parlor amusements offers a window into a world where science, sleight-of-hand, and clever riddles served as the primary currency for social entertainment during the long winter evenings.
Holidays at Roselands: A Sequel to Elsie Dinsmore
Martha Finley
A young girl navigates the rigid expectations of nineteenth-century Southern gentility, seeking her father’s affection while balancing her personal conscience against his strict demands. This domestic narrative explores the intense emotional labor of a child striving to be both obedient and true to her own values.
In the Hands of the Malays, and Other Stories
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
Adventure calls from distant shores and lonely frontiers, testing the resolve of those who find themselves in the grip of desperate circumstances. These tales follow individuals who must rely on their own grit to survive.
Islâm
Syed Ameer Ali
This work provides a concise, scholarly introduction to the origins, ethical foundations, and historical evolution of Islâm. It serves as an earnest attempt to bridge cultural divides by presenting the faith’s core tenets and its prophet’s life through a lens of intellectual and moral appreciation.
Lectures on ancient ethnography and geography, volume 2 (of 2)
Barthold Georg Niebuhr
This rigorous exploration reconstructs the physical and human landscape of the ancient world, meticulously tracing the origins of tribes and the strategic geography that shaped the rise and fall of great civilizations.
Lewie
Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins) Bradford
A spoiled child’s unchecked temper spirals from childhood cruelty to an act of fatal violence, forcing his family to confront the bitter consequences of maternal indulgence.
Linda Carlton's Ocean Flight
Edith Lavell
A determined young pilot battles hazardous weather, dishonest rivals, and societal doubt to pursue her dream of a solo transatlantic flight.
Meridiana: The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians: In South Africa
Jules Verne
A team of scientists journeys through the South African wilderness to measure an arc of the meridian, only to find their shared mission threatened by the outbreak of war between their home nations.
Millennium
Everett B. Cole
High-tech protectors from an advanced civilization sweep a feudal world to reclaim forgotten military artifacts before primitive tyrants accidentally destroy their own society.
Mop Fair
Arthur M. (Arthur Morris) Binstead
This collection of epistolary sketches captures the frantic, fashionable, and fundamentally absurd lives of London’s high-society denizens at the dawn of the twentieth century. It is a cynical, witty, and deeply gossipy chronicle of a world obsessed with appearances and prone to impulsive, ruinous romantic…
New Lamps
Robert Moore Williams
HOOK A scientist travels to the dusty, dangerous cliffs of Mars seeking a legendary figure who trades “new lamps for old”—a mysterious process promising to heal the ailments of the body and the soul.
Nick Carter Stories No. 122, January 9, 1915: The suicide
Nicholas (House name) Carter
A master detective investigates a suspicious suicide, only to uncover a complex criminal conspiracy involving a beautiful woman, a faked death, and a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
Notes and Queries, Number 138, June 19, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This is a collaborative archive of nineteenth-century curiosity, functioning as a sprawling, printed conversation where scholars and enthusiasts exchange hard-won facts and lingering mysteries. It serves as a static snapshot of an intellectual community gathering around the nascent idea that no piece of historical…
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 90, July 19, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Various
This collection serves as an early Victorian forum where antiquaries, bibliophiles, and scholars trade obscure facts and seek collective wisdom to solve their most stubborn research puzzles. It acts as a timeless repository of human curiosity.