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All free summaries — page 663
32,123 public-domain books, summarised. Page 663 of 670.
Our Little Turkish Cousin
Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade
A gentle introduction to turn-of-the-century Ottoman life follows a young boy through the sights, rituals, and stories of old Constantinople.
Out with Gun and Camera
Edward Stratemeyer
The forest holds both the wild game these young adventurers seek and the unexpected traces of a vanished circus.
Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States: 1789-1900
Thurman William Van Metre
Before a single continuous rail network spanned the continent, American life turned on river currents, coastwise trade, and the high toll of muddy roads.
Packing and Portaging
Dillon Wallace
Every pound packed is a pound carried, and the trail shows no mercy to the unprepared. Dillon Wallace distills decades of wilderness experience into an indispensable guide on traveling light without sacrificing safety.
Parrot & Co
Harold MacGrath
A disgraced engineer wanders the Far East under an alias, bound to a parrot and a heavy secret, until a chance encounter on a muddy riverboat pulls him back toward the world he left behind.
Pearl-Fishing
Charles Dickens
In nineteenth-century England and across its far-flung imaginings, ordinary human lives turn on single decisions, sudden temptations, and silent, enduring loyalties.
Peg O' My Heart
J. Hartley Manners
A fierce young rebel is brought into a stately house where she does not belong, armed only with a dog, a vivid temper, and an absolute refusal to pretend.
Pleistocene Bats from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
J. Knox Jones
In the darkness of an ancient Mexican cavern, preserved bones reveal the deep evolutionary history and prehistoric diversity of American bats.
Prisoners of Poverty: Women Wage-Workers, Their Trades and Their Lives
Helen Campbell
Behind the polished storefronts of Gilded Age New York, thousands of women toil in dark tenements and cramped shops, trapped in a relentless cycle of exhaustion, fraudulent pay deductions, and near-starvation wages.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, January 12, 1916
Various
War transforms the ordinary rhythms of daily life into an absurd, tedious, and profoundly human struggle for endurance.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, October 9, 1841
Various
In a bustling London powered by steam and satire, a collective of razor-sharp wits turns its gaze on the absurdities of Victorian society, political hypocrisy, and theatrical melodrama.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, March 21, 1891
Various
A Victorian satirist eyes the modern street, where an unstoppable runner collides with terrified citizens while the municipal authorities debate whether to arrest the athlete or ignore the chaos.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, July 4, 1891
Various
A bustling cross-section of late Victorian society opens its doors, exposing the ridiculous anxieties of politicians, artists, and aristocrats through relentless satire.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, July 25, 1917
Various
Darkly funny, defiant, and deeply human, this wartime volume captures a society keeping its chin up through bureaucratic absurdities, mud-soaked trenches, and daily ration struggles.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, November 7, 1917
Various
An autumn week in wartime London comes alive through short jokes, topical verses, and dry editorial observations.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, October 10, 1917
Various
A nation under stress meets crisis with a wink, transforming the hardships of war into sharp, persistent laughter.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, October 11, 1890
Various
Late Victorian society glides through its high-society drawing rooms and legal halls entirely unaware of how absurd its self-serious rituals appear to a keen observer.
Reasonableness of Catholic Ceremonies and Practices
John J. (John James) Burke
Sacred acts lose their mystery when their logic remains hidden, yet simple explanations can restore purpose to ancient traditions.
Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Various Aspects of the Problem of Abortion in New Zealand
New Zealand. Committee of Inquiry into various aspects of the Problem of Abortion in New Zealand
An urgent investigation into a 1930s health crisis reveals how economic pressures, changing social attitudes, and clandestine procedures combined to turn illegal medical interventions into a major driver of national maternal mortality.
Rimrock Jones
Dane Coolidge
A rough-hewn Arizona prospector strikes it rich, loses his copper mine to financial sharks, and fights his way through stock raids and courtroom battles to reclaim his fortune and the woman he loves.
Roadtown
Edgar Chambless
A continuous concrete building stretches across miles of open countryside, carrying a high-speed monorail below and a public promenade above.
Senatorial Character: A Sermon in West Church, Boston, Sunday, 15th of March, After the Decease of Charles Sumner
C. A. (Cyrus Augustus) Bartol
The sudden death of a towering American senator prompts a solemn Boston pulpit to reflect on what truly constitutes public greatness.
Sheffield and its Environs 13th to the 17th century: A descriptive catalogue of land charters and other documents forming the Brooke Taylor collection
T. Walter (Thomas Walter) Hall
A meticulous unraveling of ancient land deeds reconstructs five centuries of local English history, exposing how forgotten parchment records, dubious conveyances, and ancestral traditions shape the enduring identity of a countryside.
Shelburne Essays, Third Series
Paul Elmer More
A serene, disciplined mind scrutinizes the turbulent currents of nineteenth-century literature, seeking the timeless principles of taste and restraint that quiet the modern soul.
Sir Noel's Heir: A Novel
May Agnes Fleming
An ancient family name is tied to a secret that threatens to strip a young man of his home, his fortune, and his very identity.
Smithson's Theory of Special Creation
Noble Smithson
Every microscopic germ-cell undergoes a fresh, deliberate design, proving that life does not arise from unguided mechanical factors.
Snap-Dragons
Juliana Horatia Ewing
A family’s relentless habit of bickering invites a fiery supernatural intervention, while an old sailor recalls the childhood magic of mistaking a local villager for Father Christmas.
Social Environment and Moral Progress
Alfred Russel Wallace
A sweeping critique of twentieth-century industrial society demonstrates that human moral capacity has not changed since antiquity, exposing how unregulated capitalism suppresses man's innate ethical potential.
Some Notes on Early Woodcut Books, with a Chapter on Illuminated Manuscripts
William Morris
A book must be built as a single, coherent work of art, where paper, type, and illustration unite in harmonious design.
Sowing and Reaping: A Temperance Story
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
In a society that treats indulgence as a harmless social grace, every choice to compromise or take a stand ripples outward to touch unsuspecting lives.
"Speaking of Operations--"
Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb
A gentleman’s vague, wandering abdominal pain leads him directly into the hands of fashionable specialists, where he discovers that getting carved up yields the greatest conversational currency in human history.
State of the Union Addresses
John Tyler
A nation's Chief Executive navigates volatile foreign disputes, severe domestic monetary panics, and territorial expansion while maintaining that constitutional limits and public credit form the true bedrock of American liberty.
Supplement to Harvesting Ants and Trap-Door Spiders
John Traherne Moggridge
A meticulous field study of European insects and arachnids uncovers the intricate engineering, underground grain storage, and evolutionary adaptations hidden just beneath the soil.
Take a Can of Salmon
United States. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries
A pantry staple takes center stage, moving from simple childhood lunches to elegant dinner tables across the country.
Tecumseh: A Chronicle of the Last Great Leader of His People: Vol. 17 of Chronicles of Canada
Ethel T. Raymond
Tecumseh spent his life defending the red man’s rightful home against relentless American expansion, rising from an orphaned Shawnee boy to the visionary commander of a great tribal confederacy.
Terry's Texas Rangers
L. B. Giles
A soldier's memory of horse-borne charges, frozen mountain rivers, and lost comrades unfolds in this stark, affectionate tribute to a famous Civil War cavalry regiment.
The Barbarians
Algis Budrys
A post-apocalyptic feudal tale of tank battles and altered loyalties, exploring what happens when civilization falls apart and reconstitutes itself around smaller, rougher codes.
The Bastonnais: Tale of the American Invasion of Canada in 1775-76
John Lespérance
An American officer who rides north into frozen French Canada carries more than military ambition; he carries a heart that will split its loyalties between a cause, a friend, and a woman.
The Boy Trapper
Harry Castlemon
High in the timber of the Mississippi Valley, a farm boy fights to pull his family out of poverty while two cruel rivals and his own father try to tear his earnings from his hand.
The Brand of Silence: A Detective Story
Johnston McCulley
A mysterious warning note and a sudden murder frame a returned exile, forcing him to fight a shadowy conspiracy to save his life.
The Californiacs
Inez Haynes Gillmore
An affectionate critique of state pride that turns into a love letter to San Francisco.
The cats' Arabian nights, or, King Grimalkum
Abby Morton Diaz
The framing device of this collection mimics the Arabian Nights, featuring a captive storyteller pleading for the lives of her kind. It serves as an imaginative sanctuary where domestic cats reclaim their dignity through folklore and personal testimony.
The Cavaliers of Virginia, vol. 1 of 2
William Alexander Caruthers
A society built on royalist nostalgia divides against itself when old political hatreds, mysterious recluses, and hidden origins collide on the Virginia frontier.
The Cheyne mystery
Freeman Wills Crofts
A stolen scrap of paper, a drugged drink, and a missing fortune set a quiet English gentleman on a perilous track across sea and shore.
The Cosmic Junkman
Rog Phillips
Demobilized robot armies, scheming alien impostors, and a disgraced dictator converge in a desperate bid for Earth's survival.
The cost of wings, and other stories
Richard Dehan
An aviator's sacrifice, a giantess's desperate rescue, and an arctic quest for a forgotten friend meet in twenty-six vibrant tales of human folly and unexpected grace.
The Country of the Dwarfs
Paul B. (Paul Belloni) Du Chaillu
Deep in the Equatorial African jungle, an intrepid explorer journeys beyond mapped territories to encounter the secretive, yellow-complexioned Obongo dwarfs.
The Cruise of the Noah's Ark
David Cory
A young girl's tiresome penmanship lesson transforms into a grand sea voyage when her toy Noah's Ark floats away on a sudden nursery flood.