The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 717
42,801 public-domain books, summarised. Page 717 of 892.

A Mock Idyl
Percy Ross
When a sea captain and a schoolmaster conspire to navigate the treacherous waters of Devonshire romance, their devotion to one another proves far sturdier than their erratic schemes for winning the local admiral's nieces.

A narrative of some remarkable incidents, in the life of Solomon Bayley
Solomon Bayley
Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed. This record of faith and struggle documents a life defined by the relentless pursuit of freedom and the unwavering conviction of divine providence.

A Night in Avignon
Cale Young Rice
A rejected lover renounces his ideal of pure, chaste adoration in favor of a reckless night of wine and sensual pleasure, only for his beloved to appear at his door to offer her heart just as the revelry begins.

A Tragic Idyl
Paul Bourget
This atmospheric drama traces the collision of desire and duty within a restless circle of European expatriates, where the ghost of a shared past haunts every present choice. It is a somber, psychological study of how secrets and romantic betrayals inevitably unravel the lives of those who attempt to outrun their…

A United States Midshipman in Japan
Yates Stirling
Youthful American naval officers thwart a diplomatic conspiracy and prevent an international conflict while serving in Japan.

A Valiant Ignorance
Mary Angela Dickens
A woman’s devotion to her son becomes a screen against a shameful past, but every effort to secure his future pulls him closer to inherited ruin.

A voice from the inner world
A. Hyatt (Alpheus Hyatt) Verrill
Hook A mining engineer broadcasts a frantic, final warning from a subterranean world, revealing how a race of giant, cannibalistic women uses electromagnetic spheres to harvest humanity from the seas.

A winter of content
Laura Lee Davidson
A woman defies the warnings of concerned friends to spend a full year alone on a small, rugged island in Ontario, trading the comforts of society for the stark silence of a northern winter.

Adventures in Southern Seas: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
George Forbes
The vast, unforgiving expanse of the Southern Seas serves as the backdrop for a series of perilous maritime expeditions, where the pursuit of fortune and discovery collides with the raw indifference of nature and the complexities of human ambition.

Along the Mohawk Trail
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
Two inseparable friends navigate the wilderness, testing their scouting mettle through daring rescues and quiet reflection along the storied Mohawk Trail.

Alton of Somasco: A Romance of the Great Northwest
Harold Bindloss
A sturdy pioneer fights for his homestead, his mineral rights, and the heart of a proud aristocrat against the backdrop of the rugged Canadian wilderness.

Anarchism is not enough
Laura Riding
A sharp, unsparing assault on the comforting fictions of modern culture, this critical tour de force strips away social conventions to reveal the fierce independence of the individual mind.

Ashton-Kirk, Criminologist
John T. (John Thomas) McIntyre
A brilliant investigator navigates a web of deceit, jewel thieves, and family secrets to exonerate the wrongly accused in this intricate puzzle of Gilded Age crime.

Ballad of the Lost Hare
Margaret Sidney
A headstrong young hare flees his comfortable home to run wild, only to find that the open world offers relentless terror instead of freedom.

Bobby in Movieland
Francis J. (Francis James) Finn
An earthquake at the beach separates an eight-year-old boy from his mother, casting him directly into the whirlwind world of early Hollywood.

Brandon of the Engineers
Harold Bindloss
A disgraced officer attempts to redeem his reputation through dangerous civil engineering in the tropics, where he discovers that honor is harder to build than railways.

Bring Back My Brain!
Dwight V. Swain
A man wakes up in a void of memory, hunted by a sinister conspiracy and a shadow-being that demands his absolute submission. He must reclaim his identity before his own creator destroys him.

"Bring Me His Ears"
Clarence Edward Mulford
The frontier is a place where a man’s reputation is his only shield, and a single insult to a powerful tyrant can turn a vast, untamed landscape into a lethal trap. Survival hinges on knowing the trail better than the men sent to hunt you down.

Campfire Girls' Lake Camp
Irene Elliott Benson
A circle of young campers stumbles into a web of deceit, taking on an unauthorized undercover mission to protect an abused child from a scheming local lawyer.

Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 2, No. 21, June, 1921: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and Filosophy
Various
Raucous, irreverent, and unapologetically tacky, this 1921 humor digest offers a unfiltered window into post-World War I American pop culture, Prohibition workarounds, and small-town bawdiness.

Cerebrum
Albert Teichner
A single corrupted thought-line exposes the slow decay of humanity’s organic switchboard, severing a couple from society and forcing them into a quiet underground that alone will survive the mind’s final collapse.

Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 693: April 7, 1877
Various
A horse rushes into a burning building to rescue its mistress in a theatrical spectacle, while elsewhere an African expedition faces deadly fever, courtly deceptions unfold, and rural children nurse their own uncles.

Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 730: December 22, 1877
Various
Different minds hold radically opposing views on human life, turning even a joyful season like Christmas into either a painful battlefield of domestic vexations or a genuinely heartening celebration of goodwill.

Chicago and its cess-pools of infamy
Samuel Paynter Wilson
This investigation serves as a stark, journalistic exposé of Chicago’s turn-of-the-century underworld. It documents the systematic entrapment of young women, the prevalence of predatory gambling, and the pervasive corruption that defined the city’s darker corners.

Colonial memories
Lady (Mary Anne) Barker
Across decades of travel and imperial service, a life unfolds in landscapes as disparate as the snowy plains of New Zealand and the sun-drenched gardens of Mauritius. These recollections offer a candid, intimate look at the domestic realities of nineteenth-century colonial life.

Conflict of Northern and Southern Theories of Man and Society: Great Speech, Delivered in New York City
Henry Ward Beecher
Two conflicting worldviews are locked in a struggle over the true nature of humanity, determining whether society exists to foster individual spiritual potential or to maintain an oppressive, power-driven hierarchy.

Critical difference
Murray Leinster
A lone survey officer on a dying, frozen world must solve a planetary-scale climate catastrophe. He finds that even the most desperate technical ingenuity requires a touch of human connection to become a miracle.

Devereux
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A young nobleman steps into the worldly arena of Queen Anne’s England with a sharp intellect, a cold heart, and an unyielding will, only to find that every victory in politics and passion drags him closer to tragedy.

Diary of Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
A candid, unvarnished portrait of seventeenth-century life, this record captures the inner workings of a man’s mind amidst the rise and fall of political giants and the rhythms of a changing city.

Edward FitzGerald and "Posh": "Herring Merchants"
James Blyth
The unlikely friendship between a scholarly recluse and a rugged fisherman reveals the fragile, human heart hidden behind a famous literary mask.

Elfin land: and other poems
Benjamin West Ball
Elfin land is a mid-nineteenth-century collection of poetry that seeks to reclaim the majesty of classical mythology and medieval romance. Its verses act as a bridge between the fading wonders of antiquity and the anxieties of a modern, industrializing age.

Elsie's Friends at Woodburn
Martha Finley
A young girl grapples with her own volatile temper and the complexities of growing up within a deeply affectionate, tradition-bound family. This narrative explores the delicate balance between personal autonomy and the duty of obedience.

England and the War
Raleigh, Walter Alexander, Sir
A wartime observer turns a scholar’s eye on the clash of national temperaments, measuring the strength of a nation not by its military machinery, but by the quiet endurance of its people.

Etain the Beloved, and Other Poems
James Henry Cousins
An epic retelling of Irish myth gives way to quiet lyrics of nature and devotion, mapping the soul's journey through love, sacrifice, and spiritual awakening.

Fenella
Henry Longan Stuart
The sun beats down on a sun-drenched beach, where a young woman rises from the surf, unaware that the elemental forces of life and death are already converging upon her future.

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 3
Mark Twain
A traveler records his observations of a changing world, blending sharp wit with the somber realities of colonial expansion and the quiet tragedy of lost civilizations.

Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World. Part 6
Mark Twain
Sacred rivers, burning ghats, mountain railways, and terrifying statistical tables of snakebites fuse into a singular, sharp-eyed record of global travel.

Frank Reade, Jr., with his new steam horse in the great American desert
Luis Senarens
This mechanical odyssey across the American frontier pits a brilliant young inventor against a criminal conspiracy hidden deep within the treacherous, gas-lit wastes of the desert.

Gems for the Young Folks: Fourth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints
Various
A young man fleeing his past finds an unexpected family in the West, while traveling ministers survive shipwrecks, river mobbing, and extreme wilderness hardship through sheer, unyielding faith.

Goat-Feathers
Ellis Parker Butler
Gathering trivial distractions is the fastest way to turn a promising career into a series of half-finished detours.

Harper's Round Table, December 10, 1895
Various
A dark river, a lost boat, and a letter carried through the fog threaten to turn the fate of a nation.

Harper's Young People, May 3, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A gentle, rewarding journey through the quiet joys of a lost American childhood awaits inside these turn-of-the-century pages.

Has Anyone Here Seen Kelly?
Bryce Walton
HOOK Driven by existential dread, a space-faring engineer attempts to shock his hibernating, unified crew out of a state of permanent, blissful apathy, only to trigger a catastrophic disaster that leaves him completely alone.

Hildebrand
Anonymous
Driven by the looming threat of the Spanish Armada and dark personal vendathons, an Elizabethan sea captain must navigate royal intrigue, sea battles, and deadly home-front treachery to save his true love’s family.

His Great Adventure
Robert Herrick
A penniless, discouraged New Yorker suddenly finds himself in possession of a vast fortune, triggering a journey that transforms him from a passive observer of life into a daring, idealistic impresario.

Home Rule: Second Edition
Harold Spender
An urgent political argument disguised as a historical study, this text makes a clear, measured case for granting self-government to Ireland through the Home Rule Bill of 1912.

Home Scenes and Home Influence
T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
A quietly powerful counterweight to nineteenth-century domestic friction.

Hosanna
Catharine Shaw
The life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth form the bedrock of this collection of narratives, which frames traditional scripture as a series of intimate, transformative encounters between a divine Savior and the human heart.