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All free summaries — page 71
4,129 public-domain books, summarised. Page 71 of 87.
Arms and the Man
Bernard Shaw
A weary, practical soldier stumbles into a young woman’s bedroom, shattering her romantic illusions about war and heroism. This sharp comedy exposes the absurdity of human vanity through the lens of a Balkan conflict.
Christmas Every Day and Other Stories
William Dean Howells
A father’s impromptu tales for his children spiral into absurdity, blending domestic warmth with the chaotic, surreal logic of the nursery. These stories explore the thin line between a child’s imaginative play and the weary, playful exhaustion of the parent spinning the yarn.
Desert Dust
Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin
The high-plains West of the late 1860s serves as a backdrop for a journey of self-discovery and survival. A young Easterner, seeking health and adventure, finds his life irrevocably altered by a chance encounter with a mysterious woman and the violence of the frontier.
Drolls From Shadowland
J. H. (Joseph Henry) Pearce
These haunting, fable-like narratives explore the thin, permeable veil between the mundane struggles of Cornish life and the dark, capricious whims of the supernatural. They are portraits of human desire and the often-grim cost of attaining it.
In The Yule-Log Glow, Book IV
Harrison S. (Harrison Smith) Morris
A collection of classic verse and prose, this volume gathers the voices of centuries to celebrate the depth and tradition of the Christmas season. It serves as a literary hearth, warming the reader with both the solemnity of the Nativity and the rugged joy of midwinter festivities.
Ennui
Stephen Marlowe
The ability to command reality is the ultimate power, but for one man, the absolute freedom to erase anything that displeases him leads only to an inescapable, infinite vacuum.
The Barbadoes Girl: A Tale for Young People
Mrs. (Barbara) Hofland
A spoiled young woman finds her arrogance dismantled by a disciplined English household, ultimately trading her volatile passions for a life of purpose and emotional restraint.
The Law and the Woman
Parry, Edward Abbott, Sir
HOOK This work navigates the historical evolution of English law as it pertains to the status, rights, and systemic subjection of women. It argues for a transition from ancient, patriarchal control toward a standard of true legal equality.
Pinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet
Carlo Collodi
This is a story of a restless, wooden creation who must stumble through a series of harrowing trials to learn that maturity is earned through responsibility and love. It is a stark, imaginative, and deeply moral fable that balances whimsical invention with a surprisingly gritty view of the world.
The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose: Vana Parva, Part 1
Kisari Mohan Ganguli
The Mahabharata is one of the world’s most foundational epics, a vast and intricate tapestry of morality, duty, and divine intervention. This initial portion of the Vana Parva, or "Book of the Forest," follows the exiled Pandava brothers as they navigate a life of displacement, spiritual trial, and preparation for…
The Evolution of Love
Emil Lucka
A provocative exploration of human intimacy, this work asserts that love is not a biological constant but a historical invention that has evolved through distinct cultural stages. It challenges modern assumptions about the sexual impulse with a bold, philosophical re-examination of the soul’s deepest longings.
Designs on prehistoric Hopi pottery
Jesse Walter Fewkes
This scholarly examination decodes the intricate symbolic language of prehistoric Hopi pottery, documenting the artistic mastery of the Sikyatki epoch. It serves as both a visual archive and a rigorous cultural history.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 11: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Businessmen
Elbert Hubbard
These biographical portraits celebrate the grit and vision of twelve titans who forged the modern industrial world. They explore the intersection of personal character, domestic partnership, and the relentless pursuit of commercial success.
Play the Game!
Ruth Comfort Mitchell
The struggle between a girl’s loyal heart and the manipulative shadow cast by a charismatic rival tests the strength of a childhood bond. Two young people must learn that true devotion is not a game to be won, but a commitment to be kept.
A Description of Millenium Hall: And the Country Adjacent Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants and Such Historical Anecdotes and Reflections As May Excite in the Reader Proper Sentiments of Humanity, and Lead the Mind to the Love of Virtue
Sarah Scott
A traveler discovers a secluded estate where a group of remarkable women have built an alternative society dedicated to virtue, charity, and independence. This narrative captures their collective experiment in crafting a meaningful life outside traditional domestic constraints.
Mayfair, Belgravia, and Bayswater
G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton
A meticulous guide to the ghosts and grand facades of London’s most aristocratic quarters, where the echoes of duels, scandals, and high politics linger behind every door.
The Return of Tarzan
Edgar Rice Burroughs
A man of the jungle finds himself caught in the intricate, treacherous webs of high society and ancient, forgotten civilizations while seeking the woman who haunts his heart.
1900
Ingersoll Lockwood
A nation shatters as the turn of the century brings the collapse of democratic norms, leading to the dramatic dissolution of a Republic under the weight of populist fervor and political extremism.
Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws: Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth Series
Frank Sidgwick
This collection brings together the rugged, enduring songs of English outlaws, centered on the legendary figure of Robin Hood and his merry men. It serves as a scholarly yet accessible treasury of folk history, capturing the spirit of medieval life through the lens of those who lived outside the law.
Modern Spiritualism
Uriah Smith
This examination of nineteenth-century Spiritualism positions the movement not as a series of parlor tricks, but as a perilous, prophesied deception threatening the foundations of Christian faith.
The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II
Various
This collection serves as a mid-nineteenth-century cultural snapshot, gathering historical reflections, literary fiction, and scientific reportage into a single, cohesive volume of an influential periodical. It offers a portal into the intellectual preoccupations of 1852.
A Little Country Girl
Susan Coolidge
Candace Arden, a shy girl from a rural farm, arrives in Newport to live with her sophisticated cousin, Mrs. Gray. Through trials of etiquette and secret blackmail, she discovers her own place in a bustling, elite family.
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXXII, June, 1911: Water Purification Plant, Washington, D. C. Results of Operation
American Society of Civil Engineers
HOOK This technical report offers a meticulous, five-year performance review of the Washington, D.C. water filtration plant, documenting the intersection of early twentieth-century public health engineering and rigorous industrial management.
Chapters from My Autobiography
Mark Twain
A master storyteller constructs a fragmented, nonlinear portrait of a life, proving that the most vital truths are often found in the mundane and the unheroic.
Agnes Grey
Anne Brontë
The quiet, steady resilience of a young woman finding her own path in a world designed for the comfort of others.
Men without women
Ernest Hemingway
This 1927 collection captures the quiet, jagged edges of existence for men navigating a world drained of comfort, stability, and romantic resolution. It is a stark, essential study of endurance in the shadow of war and disillusionment.
Radio Boys Loyalty
Wayne Whipple
The bond between two resourceful friends is tested when they leverage their technical ingenuity to rescue a classmate from kidnappers. A blend of early radio fascination and high-stakes adventure, the narrative explores the intersection of youthful loyalty and emerging technology.
A Discourse of Life and Death, by Mornay
Mornay, Philippe de, seigneur du Plessis-Marly
The weary traveler longs for home, yet we dread the very threshold of our final rest. This volume explores why we cling so fiercely to a life that so often feels like a laboring storm.
The Babees' Book: Medieval Manners for the Young: Done into Modern English
L. J. Naylor
This collection of medieval and early modern etiquette manuals offers a rare, intimate look at the rigid social codes and domestic expectations governing the lives of youth in historic England.
The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002
Jim Tinsley
This historical FAQ serves as a time capsule for an era when the digital preservation of literature was a manual, grassroots labor of love. It documents the technical and collaborative challenges faced by early volunteers dedicated to building a free, public-domain library.
The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise: Its Habitat and its Time of Growth
Miron Elisha Hard
** Walking through the woods becomes a sensory adventure when every stump and mossy bank holds a potential feast. This guide invites you to look closely at the forest floor and discover the hidden, edible world of mushrooms.
The passing of the great race
Madison Grant
The survival of human civilization is presented here as a precarious struggle, tied inextricably to the preservation of hereditary traits within distinct racial groups. This work serves as an early twentieth-century argument for eugenics as the essential foundation for a stable social order.
The Practice of the Presence of God the Best Rule of a Holy Life
Lawrence, of the Resurrection, Brother
This collection of letters and recorded conversations offers an intimate, practical guide to maintaining a constant awareness of the divine in the midst of ordinary life. It serves as a timeless manual for finding spiritual tranquility.
Spirit and Music
H. Ernest (Harry Ernest) Hunt
Music is not merely an aesthetic luxury or a pastime, but a fundamental expression of the human spirit. By tapping into the vibrations that underpin the natural world, it serves as a bridge between the material and the divine.
Darry the Life Saver
Frank V. Webster
After surviving a devastating shipwreck, a resilient cabin boy finds a new life and a true home among the courageous men of a coastal life-saving station.
Little Men: Life at Plumfield With Jo's Boys
Louisa May Alcott
Plumfield is a sanctuary where broken spirits and boisterous boys alike are coaxed into goodness, proving that a home built on kindness can mend even the most wayward heart.
Many Thoughts of Many Minds: A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age
Unknown
A curated anthology of human wisdom, this collection gathers thousands of brief, poignant observations from history’s greatest thinkers to illuminate the diverse facets of the human experience.
Maria
Mary Wollstonecraft
A woman fights to reclaim her life and child from a society that treats wives as property and dissenters as insane. This is a harrowing portrait of confinement and the struggle for autonomy.
The Initiates of the Flame
Manly P. (Manly Palmer) Hall
The pursuit of hidden wisdom is a lifelong, internal pilgrimage, where every human soul functions as a temple guarding an eternal, divine fire. This text serves as a guide for those seeking to reconnect with that inner flame through the study of ancient symbols.
The Beast in the Jungle
Henry James
A man lives his entire life waiting for a singular, cataclysmic fate to befall him, only to realize too late that his true destiny was the very act of waiting.
How to Make a Shoe
John Parker Headley
A meticulous, rhythmic guide to the traditional craft of cobbling, written in the voice of a practitioner who finds beauty in the measured construction of a shoe.
The Greatest Thing In the World and Other Addresses
Henry Drummond
The path to a life of peace and purpose is not found through complex theological study, but by simply reflecting the character of Christ. This collection of addresses offers a practical, grounded guide to the spiritual life.
The Stone Age
Clement Wood
A sweeping survey of human origins, this account traces the development of early tool-making cultures through the physical evidence buried in the earth’s own geological record.
East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the North
Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
These are the foundational legends of the North, where ancient trolls roam, royal secrets are hidden behind glass hills, and the line between the human world and the supernatural is as thin as a mountain mist.
Master and Man
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
A wealthy merchant and his humble laborer are lost in a brutal winter storm, leading to a profound test of character that forces one man to choose between his greed and another’s life.
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains
Owen Wister
A laconic, formidable horseman masters the untamed frontier of Wyoming, only to face his greatest challenge in winning the heart of a refined schoolteacher who abhors his code of lethal justice.
A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden: 2nd edition
William A. Ross
Beneath a brisk wind and billowing sails, a gentleman’s yacht slips from the English coast, seeking the rugged, icy beauty of the North and the quiet majesty of the Scandinavian fjords.
Captain Blood
Rafael Sabatini
A physician unjustly convicted of treason finds himself sold into slavery, only to rise as a legendary pirate captain who must navigate the treacherous politics of the Caribbean to secure his freedom and his love.