The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 836
44,127 public-domain books, summarised. Page 836 of 920.
The Impending Sword: A Novel (Vol. 1 of 3)
Edmund Yates
A man’s secret journey and the web of deception he weaves around his wife draw them into a perilous, hidden world. This narrative explores the cost of domestic secrets and the danger of trusting the wrong men.
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 32, February 6, 1841
Various
A prosperous farmer’s prejudice against his humble, beautiful neighbor sets a rural community into a dizzying tailspin of romance, trickery, and unintended consequences. This issue of a nineteenth-century periodical captures the spirited, often humorous, and deeply moralistic tone of Irish life in 1841.
The Kangaroo Marines
R. W. Campbell
This wartime chronicle captures the spirit of the Anzacs, blending the gritty reality of trench warfare in the Dardanelles with a spirited, romanticized view of colonial soldiers proving their worth to the Empire.
The Lamps of the Angels
Richard Sabia
Humanity’s reach for the stars ignites a collision between cold science and ancient faith, testing whether our cosmic destiny is a noble inheritance or a hubristic sin against forces far greater than ourselves.
The Last of the Huggermuggers
Christopher Pearse Cranch
A young sailor boy is washed ashore on a strange island where gentle giants live, but his attempt to bring one home ends in unexpected tragedy.
The Lights and Shadows of Real Life
T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
To navigate the world is to face both light and shadow, but our own moral choices determine whether we live in the sun or under self-made clouds of despair.
The Lost Dryad
Frank R. Stockton
A homeless woodland spirit wanders into a village, triggering a series of transformative, age-reversing mishaps that turn local authority and domestic misery upside down.
The Madman From Earth
Keith Laumer
An unorthodox diplomat navigates a planet of deceptive, bureaucratic aliens to uncover the truth behind a missing starship. In this world, the greatest danger isn't just the enemy—it’s the bumbling red tape of one’s own office.
The Madness of Mr. Lister: Captains All, Book 9
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A miserly sailor spins a web of deception about his own impending death to manipulate a greedy shipmate, only to see his scheme spiral into a chaotic, late-night calamity involving the vessel's captain.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 404, December 12, 1829
Various
A single two-penny issue of a nineteenth-century weekly offers a vivid snapshot of Regency Britain, bridging the gap between high science and the bustling street.
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
John De Courcy
A scarred, ape-like space captain finds his long-hardened heart shattered by a stowaway who resembles a lost love from his tragic, forgotten youth.
The Pearl of Peace
Madeline Leslie
A young girl’s unwavering commitment to reconciliation transforms her fractured community, teaching her friends that the deepest happiness is found in smoothing the paths of others.
The penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, issue 9, May 26, 1832
Unknown
This nineteenth-century periodical issue preserves everyday knowledge, moral instruction, and historical curiosities disseminated for public improvement.
The phantom of Bogue Holauba: 1911
Charles Egbert Craddock
A city broker travels to a remote Mississippi plantation to settle a cousin's minor estate, only to be drawn into a haunting family legacy.
The Philistine
Various
A rebellious little periodical of the late nineteenth century takes sharp, witty aim at pretentious literature, contemporary criticism, and the absurdities of modern society.
The Planet That Time Forgot
Donald A. Wollheim
The discovery of a distant, massive world leads to an extraordinary encounter between humanity and a civilization living at a different pace of time. This story explores the clash of cultures and the unintended consequences of playing god in the vacuum of space.
The Planet with No Nightmare
Jim Harmon
Bound by low gravity and lower light, a three-man mapping expedition encounters a landscape where native animals instantly drop dead, only to rise again when left unobserved.
The proceedings of the Canadian Eclipse Party, 1869
E. D. (Edward David) Ashe
A small team of Canadian observers races to the Iowa prairie on short notice, battling broken gear and swarming insects to capture the sky.
The Queen of Space
Joseph Slotkin
When a galactic burlesque queen hips herself straight out of a Venusian barroom and into ancient history, a mild-mannered psychiatrist and a desperate mobster are left to chase the ultimate fourth-dimensional dance.
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
John Lothrop Motley
This chronicle dramatizes the birth of a nation through the crucible of religious war and the relentless struggle against imperial tyranny. It captures the rise of the Dutch Republic as a monumental test of human endurance.
The scientific pioneer returns
Nelson S. Bond
When a university president and his faculty vanish into thin air, a quick-witted publicity agent and a dirt-farming genius are yanked two centuries into the future aboard an interplanetary freighter trapped in a negative universe.
The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds
George Henry Weiss
The atom contains worlds beyond our own, and when one man bridges the gap, he invites an invasion of creatures who view our planet as mere territory to be conquered.
The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Asian World: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions
George Rawlinson
This expansive historical survey reconstructs the vanished civilizations of the ancient Near East, mapping the rise, cultural achievements, and eventual decline of seven successive imperial powers.
The Simpkins Plot
George A. Birmingham
The arrival of a stranger in a quiet Irish village triggers an elaborate, absurd, and well-intentioned campaign of social engineering that spirals rapidly out of control.
The Statue
Mari Wolf
The passage of time can turn one’s origin into a phantom, leaving the heart caught between a remembered past and a changing present. Two aging pioneers must decide where they truly belong when the home they have built and the home they have lost begin to demand their final allegiances.
The Talking Deaf Man: A Method Proposed, Whereby He Who is Born Deaf, May Learn to Speak
Johann Conrad Amman
This seventeenth-century treatise presents a pioneering method for teaching those born deaf to articulate human speech, arguing that the voice is an extension of the soul and a physical manifestation of life.
The things which belong—
Constance Holme
An elderly English couple face the terrifying finality of a long-delayed emigration to Canada, only to discover how deeply their roots are bound to the soil they planned to leave.
The Village Champion
William O. Stoddard
This story follows a mysterious, street-smart youth who trades the hazards of city life for the academic halls of a New England village. It is a classic tale of a boy seeking an identity, finding mentors, and proving his mettle.
The Washington Peace Carillon
James Marion Shull
A proposal for a national memorial in Washington, D.C., that transforms the brutal implements of modern warfare into a source of enduring peace through the ethereal music of a grand carillon.
The White Feather Hex
Don Peterson
A sinister visitor tricks a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer into revealing a deadly curse, only to realize the dark power will consume them both.
The Wise Mamma Goose
Charlotte B. (Charlotte Bronte) Herr
When a nocturnal predator begins preying on a farmyard, an unassuming mother goose steps up to protect her brood, uncovering a clever strategy that ultimately saves all the barnyard creatures.
The World Turned Upside Down
Ellen C. (Ellen Creathorne) Clayton
In a series of surreal, topsy-turvy tales, ordinary objects and creatures rise up against their human masters to reverse the natural order of the world. Through these whimsical reversals, the boundaries between the ruler and the ruled dissolve with consequences both humorous and cautionary.
Tied Up for Tombstone
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
Returning to the dusty Montana town of Piperock, a weary prospector finds his former partner editing a backward-printed newspaper while dodging bullets from local malcontents.
Town and Country
John S. (John Stowell) Adams
HOOK A tapestry of nineteenth-century moral instruction, this collection weaves together sentimental poetry and cautionary tales to remind the reader that kindness, faith, and sobriety are the only true paths to a meaningful life.
Under a Charm: A Novel. Vol. III
E. Werner
A long-standing emotional spell binds two lovers across the divide of warring national identities and family legacies. Their journey toward union demands the sacrifice of old prejudices and the reconciliation of irreconcilable worlds.
Upsidonia
Archibald Marshall
A traveler stumbles into a hidden society where the social order is perfectly reversed, forcing him to navigate a world where poverty is the ultimate mark of prestige. This satirical fantasy explores the absurdity of wealth by inverting the values of the Edwardian elite.
White Ashes
Sidney R. (Sidney Robinson) Kennedy
The catastrophe of a massive urban conflagration serves as the crucible for this story, testing both the financial integrity of insurance companies and the emotional resilience of those caught in the fallout.
Wise or Otherwise
Lydia Leavitt
A collection of aphorisms and moral fables, this volume traverses the landscape of Victorian social critique, offering sharp, cynical, and occasionally tender observations on the human condition. It serves as an artifact of late-19th-century thought.
Young Folks Magazine, Vol. I, No. 1, March 1902: An Illustrated Monthly Journal for Boys & Girls
Various
Step into a bygone spring through this 1902 monthly journal, where stirring Revolutionary tales, northern wilderness adventures, and parlor magic await young readers.
A Mere Chance: A Novel. Vol. 1
Ada Cambridge
An innocent young Australian debutante finds herself torn between a wealthy, conventional marriage and a magnetic, dangerous outsider with a shadowy past.
A study of some factors influencing fertility and sterility in the bull
Herbert Lester Gilman
This technical monograph investigates the often-overlooked biological factors behind infertility in bulls, emphasizing the sire’s critical role in herd reproductive efficiency. It serves as a foundational veterinary study of the early 20th century.
A time of terror
Douglas Morey Ford
As 1910 London fractures under domestic terror and foreign conspiracy, a mysterious mastermind orchestrates a nation-shaking revenge that only the resilience of ordinary citizens can ultimately survive.
A Transmutation of Muddles
H. B. (Horace Bowne) Fyfe
An old space hand-turned-arbitrator must sort out an insurance mess, an enraged crew, and a sacred native temple built directly over a stranded trading ship before a Earth envoy arrives.
A Zloor for Your Trouble!
Mack Reynolds
The pursuit of a legendary Martian creature becomes a test of wit when a seasoned hunter discovers that brute force is no match for an animal that eats through steel.
Adrienne
Amy Le Feuvre
An independent English girl finds her quiet life upended when she travels to France to steady an ailing aunt and confronts a formidable cousin's quiet rule.
Advisory Ben: A Story
E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas
When a capable young woman opens a London advice bureau called "The Beck and Call," she finds herself untangling the chaotic love lives and domestic crises of her friends and family.
Aikenside
Mary Jane Holmes
A young woman’s journey from a life of modest poverty to the grand halls of an estate reveals the enduring power of devotion and the resilience of the human heart in the face of tragedy.
An account of the battle of Wilson's Creek, or Oak Hills, fought between the Union troops, commanded by Gen. N. Lyon and the Southern, or Confederate troops, under command of Gens. McCulloch and Price, on Saturday, August 10, 1861, in Greene county, Missouri
R. I. (Return Ira) Holcombe
Dawn breaks over the Ozarks as opposing forces march toward a bloody collision that will change Missouri forever.