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All free summaries — page 810
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 810 of 988.
Vortigern
W. H. (William Henry) Ireland
HOOK A notorious literary deception, this tragedy exists as a monument to a young man’s audacious attempt to invent a lost Shakespearean masterwork, only to see his ambition collapse under the weight of its own performance.
Walls of Acid
Henry Hasse
A lone, disembodied brain recounts a forgotten history of interplanetary war against a terrifying, insectoid species that turns out to be humanity itself.
Walter Sherwood's Probation
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
Thrown out of college after his fortune vanishes, a pampered student discovers that true worth is earned, not inherited, through a rugged year of self-reliance on the American frontier.
Werwile of the Crystal Crypt
Gardner F. (Gardner Francis) Fox
A seasoned space explorer encounters the last survivor of an ancient civilization, leading to a desperate, dimension-hopping conflict against an immortal tyrant.
What the Negro Has Done for Liberty in America
Moore, John, Prof.
African American soldiers have consistently fought for a liberty that frequently denied them basic humanity, proving their loyalty and valor on the battlefield while confronting deep-seated systemic injustice within the nation they served.
What Will He Do with It?
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A man of immense wealth and hardened solitude confronts the ghosts of his own past when a spirited young relative unexpectedly enters his secluded life. This sprawling narrative explores whether a life defined by power and ambition can ever truly find peace.
Zehru of Xollar
Hal K. Wells
Vibrant infra-bass vibrations drag three New Yorkers across dimensions to the purple-hued world of Xollar, where a tentacled outlaw scientist plans to steal a human body to conquer Earth.
Zen
Jerome Bixby
A paleontologist exploring a barren asteroid discovers the ultimate survivor of a shattered world: a tiny, immortal alien desperately begging for death.
A Choice of Miracles
James A. Cox
The line between salvation and finality often rests on the thinnest of human connections. In a moment of absolute isolation, a desperate man discovers that the greatest miracle is not survival, but the presence of another soul.
A line o' gowf or two
Bert Leston Taylor
The obsession of the links is captured here with the biting wit of a newspaperman who knows that, while golf is a game of skill, it is practiced primarily as a religion of frustration.
A mediaeval burglary
T. F. (Thomas Frederick) Tout
A medieval criminal turns the king’s treasury into his own personal bank, triggering a scandal that shakes the foundations of Westminster Abbey and exposes the chaotic, easy-going nature of life under Edward I.
A Modern Chronicle
Winston Churchill
The trajectory of an ambitious woman’s life, framed by the restrictive social codes of the early twentieth century, is charted through her search for meaning and stability.
A notched gun
Walt Coburn
A notorious outlaw attempts a final act of redemption, trading his life to secure help for his only friends during a brutal winter storm.
A Romany of the Snows, vol. 2: Being a Continuation of the Personal Histories of "Pierre and His People" and the Last Existing Records of Pretty Pierre
Gilbert Parker
This collection of stories explores the harsh, elemental landscapes of the Canadian North, where the lives of outcasts, hunters, and dreamers intersect under the watchful eyes of a mysterious wanderer. It is a portrait of a frontier defined as much by its moral intensity as by its sub-zero temperatures.
A Strike in Santa Land: A Play in One Act
Effa E. (Effa Estelle) Preston
A roomful of toys decides to protest their inevitable departure to the human world, forcing Santa Claus and his wife to reconcile the toys’ grievances with the urgent needs of children waiting far away.
Alias Santa Claus
Percival Wilde
HOOK A lonely young millionaire boy finds his Christmas miracle not in his mountain of expensive toys, but in the arrival of a hungry intruder disguised as Santa Claus.
American Dangers and Duties
A. D. (Amory Dwight) Mayo
America’s national crisis finds its roots not in accidental politics, but in an irreconcilable clash between the rising spirit of nineteenth-century Christian democracy and an entrenched, aristocratic system of slave labor.
An American Crusader at Verdun
Philip Sidney Rice
The Great War reaches far beyond the front lines, yet for many, it remains defined by the mud, the shelling, and the singular, quiet heroism of those who drove the wounded to safety. This narrative captures the visceral reality of service as an American volunteer in France, documenting the transition from civilian…
An essay on combustion, with a view to a new art of dying and painting
Fulhame, Mrs. (Elizabeth), active 1780-1810
A meticulous scientific investigation, this work challenges the prevailing chemical theories of the late eighteenth century through a series of ingenious experiments in metallic reduction. By documenting the transformation of salts into vibrant, shimmering metallic films on cloth and paper, the author provides a…
Angel's Brother
Eleanora H. Stooke
This story follows a young girl’s devotion to her brother as their family navigates grief, poverty, and the moral temptations of a new life in the country. It is a gentle, earnest exploration of character and redemption.
At Sunwich Port, Part 4.: Contents: Chapters 16-20
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
In a seaside town defined by deep-seated grudges, a young man orchestrates a complicated scheme to outwit his father’s rivals and win the hand of a stubborn, high-spirited captain’s daughter.
At the Ghost Hour. The House of the Unbelieving Thomas
Paul Heyse
HOOK A centuries-old haunted house in a German town becomes the stage for a clash between human longing and the petty, invisible machinations of the restless dead.
Bellingrath Gardens, Mobile, Alabama
Anonymous
Bellingrath Gardens represents a mid-century portrait of a private landscape transformed into a public sanctuary. It captures the deliberate cultivation of Southern beauty, framing the natural world as a perpetual, seasonal performance.
Big Pill
Raymond Z. (Raymond Zinke) Gallun
This story of high-stakes technological rebellion explores the brutal trade-offs of space colonization, where the promise of a transformed world clashes with the cold greed of corporate interests and the volatile reality of experimental physics.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 67, No. 413, March, 1850
Various
This volume offers a dense, pugnacious window into the mid-nineteenth-century British mind, capturing a nation grappling with the anxieties of industrial transition, colonial management, and the shifting tides of global political power.
Canoemates: A Story of the Florida Reef and Everglades
Kirk Munroe
HOOK Two boys embark on an adventurous voyage through the Florida Reef and Everglades, only to be separated by storms, thieves, and the wild, untamed frontier.
Cap and Gown: A Treasury of College Verse
Unknown
The fleeting, earnest, and often lighthearted spirit of campus life lives on in these pages, capturing the transient joys and quiet reflections of a generation that traded cap and gown for the responsibilities of adulthood.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 3, No. 25, October, 1921: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and Filosophy
Various
This collection captures the irreverent, post-war spirit of 1921 America through a boisterous mix of rural tall tales, urban gossip, and sharp-witted cynicism.
Captain Mugford: Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors
William Henry Giles Kingston
A group of brothers and their tutors embark on a classic maritime adventure, finding that the true perils of life are often found not just in the crashing surf, but in the character they build together.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 8, Vol. I, February 23, 1884
Various
This Victorian periodical serves as a wide-ranging digest of late-nineteenth-century life, blending earnest public health advocacy with serialized fiction and reports on industrial innovation.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 18, Vol. I, May 3, 1884
Various
This curated collection offers a window into the Victorian mind, blending practical scientific observation, social commentary, and heartfelt sentimentality into a singular, wide-ranging portrait of 1884 life.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 21, Vol. I, May 24, 1884
Various
This 1884 issue of a long-running periodical serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic window into the Victorian era, blending travelogue, social commentary, legal history, and sentimental fiction.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 42, Vol. I, October 18, 1884
Various
This Victorian periodical captures the intellectual texture of 1884, blending rigorous natural observation with serialized fiction and historical inquiry. It serves as a window into the varied curiosities of a late nineteenth-century reading public.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 731: December 29, 1877
Various
Great events often emerge from the most trivial of circumstances, a recurring truth that shapes the human experience across history, science, and the personal heart.
Christine of the hills
Max Pemberton
A young woman’s journey from a life of primitive poverty on a remote island to the glittering, dangerous social circles of Vienna defines this poignant tale of transformation. Bound by beauty and tragic circumstances, she must navigate the conflicting desires of the men who seek to possess her.
Civilization the Primal Need of the Race, and The Attitude of the American Mind Toward the Negro Intellect: The American Negro Academy. Occasional Paper No. 3
Alexander Crummell
True liberation requires more than manual training or material wealth; it demands the cultivation of the high intellect, scientific rigor, and artistic achievement through a dedicated leadership of scholars.
Danny again
Vera C. (Vera Charlesworth) Barclay
HOOK In this episodic collection, young Wolf Cubs navigate the innocence of childhood, the thrill of amateur detective work, and the somber shadow of the First World War.
David Vallory
Francis Lynde
A young engineer confronts the moral erosion of the construction industry, discovering that maintaining his integrity in the rugged West requires fighting both corrupt rivals and the compromises of his own employer.
Delayed Action
Charles V. De Vet
HOOK A man hunts a thief across a desolate, alien world, only to discover that the criminal is a ghost of his own forgotten past, trapped within a localized loop of space and time.
Eight Million Dollars From Mars!
Winston K. (Winston Kinney) Marks
A cold-blooded criminal believes he has engineered the perfect escape, only to find his own scientific precision turned against him in the silence of deep space.
Elderflowers
Wilhelm Raabe
Elderflowers is a meditative reflection on how the specter of a past love can haunt a lifetime. A physician finds that a simple floral token bridges the decades between his youth and old age.
Esmeralda
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A young American woman, trapped by her mother’s social ambitions in Paris, finds the strength to reclaim her lost home and the man she loves. This is a story of quiet defiance and the endurance of simple, honest bonds.
For God and Gold
Julian Stafford Corbett
A scholar is swept from the quiet of his library into the violent, gold-seeking world of Sir Francis Drake, discovering that his religious convictions offer little protection against the realities of Elizabethan privateering.
Freeway
Bryce Walton
The Morrisons are not prisoners in a cell, but captives of a high-speed, automated highway system designed to neutralize social dissidents through the hypnotic, endless exhaustion of the road.
Gentlemen of the Jury: A Farce
George M. (George Melville) Baker
Twelve men lock themselves in a room to decide a man’s fate, only to find their own prejudices and appetites are the real trial. In this chaotic farce, the courtroom becomes a theater of the absurd.
Harper's Round Table, June 9, 1896
Various
This collection of stories, serialized fiction, and advice columns offers a vivid window into the late Victorian imagination, capturing the diverse interests of young people in 1896.
Harper's Young People, February 21, 1882: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A vibrant, turn-of-the-century window into the world of children, blending serialized adventure and moral instruction with the gentle, curious spirit of a bygone era.
Heart of New England
Abbie Farwell Brown
This collection of verse captures the shifting, sometimes stark, and often sentimental landscape of early 20th-century New England. It serves as a lyrical bridge between the austerity of the colonial past and the fervent, troubled idealism of the post-World War I era.