The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 885
44,127 public-domain books, summarised. Page 885 of 920.

Notes on the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1868
Algernon Charles Swinburne
This critical pamphlet serves as a vivid, double-voiced dispatch from the 1868 Royal Academy Exhibition, capturing the clash between traditional academic taste and the burgeoning Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic in Victorian London.

Notes on the West Indies, vol. 2 of 2
George Pinckard
A physician’s candid account of colonial life and medical struggle, this journal documents the harsh realities of the British West Indies during the late eighteenth century. It serves as both a grim medical chronicle and a socio-political survey of a crumbling slave-based economy.

On the Vice of Novel Reading.: Being a brief in appeal, pointing out errors of the lower tribunal
Young Ewing Allison
The cultural habit of labeling imaginative literature a "vice" is exposed here as a defensive reflex of a society that prioritizes mechanical efficiency over the messy, essential labor of empathy and human understanding.

On Time
Oliver Optic
A young boatman finds himself caught between the bitter rivalries of two wealthy, warring families, discovering that his own integrity and skill are the only reliable compasses in a sea of local power struggles.

Our Little Tot's Own Book: of Pretty Pictures, Charming Stories, and Pleasing Rhymes and Jingles
Anonymous
This collection preserves the gentle, earnest spirit of early 20th-century childhood, offering a tapestry of domestic sketches, moral fables, and simple rhythmic verse meant to enchant the very young.

Our Village in War-time
S. T. (Sarah Towne) Martyn
A home-front perspective on the American Civil War, this narrative traces the quiet sacrifices and profound emotional shifts of a small village caught in the crucible of national conflict.

Parking, unlimited
Noel M. Loomis
HOOK A desperate scheme to solve city traffic problems using a revolutionary shrinking ray leads two partners into a chaotic race against local corruption and their own invention.

Peace medicine
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
HOOK After five years of unjust imprisonment, a wrongly convicted man returns to his valley to clear his name and thwart a ruthless plot to ruin the local cattle range.

Phaethon: Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers
Charles Kingsley
HOOK A bracing conversation unfolds by a quiet limestone stream, where two friends wrestle with the tension between modern, subjective philosophy and the enduring, objective truths of the Christian faith.

Pierre and His People: Tales of the Far North. Volume 2
Gilbert Parker
Outcast yet unquenchable, Little Hammer walks the plains as the Mounted Police and the Hudson's Bay Company look on, while Pretty Pierre plays cards for the love of winning and guards the fiery brother of the girl he watches.

Plantation echoes
Elliott Blaine Henderson
This collection of turn-of-the-century dialect poetry offers a raw, unfiltered window into the daily life, anxieties, and resilient humor of an era defined by struggle and transition.

Pop corn recipes
Mary Hamilton Talbott
A humble pantry staple is reimagined as a versatile culinary foundation, transforming the familiar snack into a surprising ingredient for every course from breakfast to dessert.

Popery: The Accommodation of Christianity to the Natural Heart
Edward Hoare
Beneath its complex outward machinery, Roman Catholicism endures because it cleverly adapts the stern demands of the Gospel to soothe the restless anxieties of the unconverted human heart.

Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 2, 1914
Various
This snapshot of December 1914 captures a nation at the onset of the Great War, blending biting political satire with the absurd, daily realities of a society rapidly reorganizing itself for a long struggle.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, January 10, 1891
Various
A riotous blend of Victorian satire, theatrical reviews, and absurd mock-sagas captures the eccentric pulse of late-nineteenth-century London life.

Punch, Or the London Charivari, Volume 102, April 16, 1892
Various
This collection of Victorian journalism captures the pulse of late 19th-century London, blending sharp political satire with the wry, observational humor of a society navigating rapid technological and cultural change.

Report of the National Library Service for the Year Ended 31 March 1958
New Zealand. National Library Service
A sprawling nation hungry for literature seeks to bridge its vast distances through a grand, cooperative network of rural vans, urban shelves, and national bibliographies.

Ronicky Doone
Max Brand
A worn Western gambler rides east to unravel a quiet urban tyranny, sparking a trail of high-stakes loyalty and redemption.

Rosemary: A Christmas story
C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson
A disillusioned American millionaire drives his motor car to Monte Carlo for the holidays, only to stumble upon a lost love and a magical Christmas reunion.

Santa Claus' Frolics
George M. (George Melville) Baker
HOOK This miniature theatrical production captures the Victorian-era magic of Christmas, transforming a simple domestic scene into a whimsical, stage-managed visit from the legendary gift-giver himself.

Scott Burton in the Blue Ridge
Edward G. (Edward Gheen) Cheyney
A young forester arrives in the Blue Ridge Mountains to manage a timber contract, only to find himself trapped in the crosshairs of a generational blood feud. He must navigate local hostility and violence to bring professional order to a lawless landscape.

Secret of the Painting
Robert Moore Williams
An inventor discovers a hidden power in an ancient painting that can rewrite the very fabric of human life. This discovery launches him into a desperate race against corporate greed and shadowy forces determined to seize the technology for themselves.

Shock Absorber
E. G. Von Wald
When a desperate military command fakes a psychic corps officer to manage mutinous space crews, the new captain's arrival sets off a quiet, psychological war behind enemy lines.

Socialism Exposed
Joseph Mather
A stern, polemical critique, this work dissects the rise of early nineteenth-century utopian thought, challenging the validity of a secular paradise built upon the shifting sands of human philosophy.

Some Current Folk-Songs of the Negro
W. H. (William Henry) Thomas
Folk songs function as a vital, unvarnished archive of the social and economic pressures shaping a displaced class.

Spacemen are born
Bolling Branham
The cosmic pull of the stars is a siren song that defies biological limitations, leading one man to challenge the very nature of human physiology. He stakes his soul on the conviction that a deep, internal longing can override the physical destiny of his equilibrium.

Spectra: A Book of Poetic Experiments
Arthur Davison Ficke
A defiant, experimental collection that mocks the earnestness of early twentieth-century modernism, this book captures the playful, often biting spirit of a famous literary prank.

Stephen H. Branch's Alligator, Vol. 1 no. 11, July 3, 1858
Unknown
In a world of mid-nineteenth-century political theater and urban grit, one man documents the tragic decline of a local poet and the moral decay of his bustling city.

Stop in Time: A word in season, from a faithful friend, on a very serious subject
Anonymous
This Victorian tract serves as a stern, earnest warning to young women, urging them to prioritize chastity and moral vigilance to avoid the lifelong ruin of social disgrace and personal despair.

Student Body
F. L. (Floyd L.) Wallace
When colonists land on a seemingly pristine world, they discover a native lifeform capable of adapting with terrifying, evolutionary speed to every human defense.

Sunfire!
Edmond Hamilton
The vast reach of the universe belongs to children of light, and humanity is merely a slow-moving, fragile footnote to their stellar dance. Hugh Kellard, a seasoned space traveler, returns to Earth desperate to bury the truth about what truly inhabits the sun-drenched surface of Mercury. Having narrowly survived a…

The American Missionary
Various
A collective chronicle of nineteenth-century religious expansion, this publication serves as both a historical record and an urgent appeal for the moral and material support of global and domestic missionary endeavors.

The Battle of Hexham
George Colman
The fires of civil war burn across the north of England, where a desperate queen and a disguised wife both hunt for the men they love amidst the ruins of a broken kingdom.

The battle of the Swash and the capture of Canada
Samuel Barton
A nation’s neglect of its own maritime defenses invites disaster, transforming a simmering trade dispute into a swift, devastating conflict that redraws the map of North America.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 32: Daniel: The Challoner Revision
Unknown
Cast into fiery furnaces and lions' dens, a young captive interprets royal dreams and unmasks corrupt judges through divine wisdom, surviving centuries of shifting imperial powers.

The Clean and Wholesome Land
Ralph Sholto
Totalitarianism survives not by crushing every enemy, but by absorbing them into the machinery of state control. In this chilling science fiction short, the line between dictator and dissident dissolves when a revolutionary leader manages to hijack the body of his own chief persecutor.

The Cruise of the Elena
J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie
This account offers an intimate, rain-drenched glimpse into a Victorian gentleman’s maritime tour through the rugged Western Highlands and islands of Scotland. It captures the slow, atmospheric rhythm of yachting life amidst the unpredictable elements.

The Earthman
Cox, Irving E., Jr.
Trapped in a war-torn landscape, four survivors of an occupation force turn on each other, driven by the paranoid delusion that one among them is a secret enemy agent.

The educated Negro and his mission
W. S. (William Sanders) Scarborough
Higher learning is not a luxury for a developing people, but the essential compass that guides brawn with wisdom and secures a lasting future.

The Evolution of "Dodd": A pedagogical story giving his struggle for the survival of the fittest, tracing his chances, his changes, and how he came out
William Hawley Smith
The struggle for an individual to find their way in a rigid world is rarely as honest, messy, or hard-won as in this narrative of a boy fighting the very institutions designed to shape him.

The Fourth Watch
H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody
A humble country clergyman and his devoted daughter weather malicious slander and financial ruin in a tight-knit Canadian river community, finding redemption through unexpected loyalty and quiet grace.

The Ghost of Chatham
Anonymous
A spirit of stern constitutional warning rises in the halls of power to rebuke the moral failings of a nation’s leaders. This haunting poetic appeal serves as both a political indictment and a plea for historical redemption.

The Gibson Upright
Booth Tarkington
HOOK When a factory owner hands his business over to his striking employees to prove a point, he discovers that the reality of ownership is far more chaotic than the dream of liberation.

The Girls of Greycliff
Harriet Pyne Grove
HOOK The doors of Greycliff Hall swing open once more, welcoming a vibrant circle of friends as they navigate the shifting loyalties, academic challenges, and whispered mysteries of their final year of school.

The Golfer's Rubaiyat
Henry Walcott Boynton
The golf course serves as a poignant mirror for the human condition, where the swing of a club echoes the fleeting rhythm of our own existence. Through a series of meditative verses, this work finds profound spiritual resonance in the simple, often frustrating, pursuit of a white ball across a field of green.

The Good Neighbors
Edgar Pangborn
The arrival of a gargantuan, drifting creature over American cities triggers a panicked military response, leading to a catastrophe that reveals the vast, chilling indifference of a far more advanced alien civilization.

The gray god
Dunn, J. Allan, (Joseph Allan)
A penniless American in the Fiji Islands finds his fortune and his fate entwined with a mysterious, ancient stone deity on a remote, treacherous island.

The Great Potlatch Riots
Allen Kim Lang
In a future where the government enforces rampant consumerism by mandating the destruction of last year's goods, one ambitious bureaucrat's plan to increase mandatory gift-giving sparks a full-scale citizen rebellion.