The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 922
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 922 of 988.
Pud Pringle, pirate
Ralph Henry Barbour
HOOK Three boys decide to spend a week living as river pirates, only to find themselves entangled in real-life kidnappings, counterfeit schemes, and the growing pains of adolescence.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, April 5, 1916
Various
A vivid snapshot of the British home front during the Great War, this collection captures the absurdity, anxiety, and stoic humor of a society grappling with upheaval.
Report to Hon. A. V. Brown, Postmaster-General
Isaiah Churchill Woods
This firsthand account chronicles the harrowing establishment of the first overland mail line connecting San Antonio and San Diego, navigating deserts, mountains, and the persistent threat of conflict.
Rhoda's education
Lucy Ellen Guernsey
A young girl’s quest for learning becomes a test of character when her guardians sacrifice her future for the sake of social convenience. This story explores the quiet resilience required to remain true to oneself under the pressure of unjust authority and changing fortunes.
Riven Bonds. Vol. II.: A Novel, in Two Volumes
E. Werner
A man who abandoned his family for the intoxication of fame and a volatile new love must fight through tragedy to reclaim the life he once cast aside.
Rose buds
Virginia Gerson
A collection of short, rhythmic verses captures the fleeting, vivid moments of childhood, from the simple joy of a summer game to the sudden, quiet gravity of a small loss.
Sandra Belloni
George Meredith
HOOK Ambition and art collide when three sisters attempt to mold a raw, untutored musical prodigy into the centerpiece of their social circle.
Scott's Wabash Expedition, 1791
Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
This account serves as a primary military record documenting a 1791 expedition into the Wabash region, detailing the tactical movements and official justifications of a pivotal frontier campaign during the Northwest Indian War.
Shearing in the Riverina, New South Wales
Rolf Boldrewood
The shearing season in the Australian Riverina is a high-stakes industrial drama, where a vast army of men, beasts, and machinery converge to transform a wilderness into a powerhouse of wool production.
Sioux Indian Courts: An address delivered by Doane Robinson before the South Dakota Bar Association, at Pierre, South Dakota, January 21, 1909
Doane Robinson
This exploration of Sioux jurisprudence examines the transition from traditional tribal self-governance to the federally mandated court systems of the early twentieth century.
Skiddoo!
George V. (George Vere) Hobart
A boisterous collection of satirical sketches, this work captures the frantic, slang-heavy spirit of urban American life at the turn of the twentieth century through the eyes of a self-assured narrator.
Tales and Novels of J. de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine
This collection of verse tales explores the intricate, often comic, ways that desire orchestrates human behavior, demonstrating that love—when paired with a little wit—is the most potent force in the world.
That Girl in Black
Mrs. Molesworth
A cynical young man meets a guarded woman at a dance, sparking a collision between his superficial judgments and her quiet integrity. This tale explores the friction between social performance and the reality of human character.
The blonde from Barsoom
Robert F. Young
The lines between fiction and reality blur when a struggling pulp writer literally finds himself inside his own manuscript, forced to outrun the green-skinned creations he once typed into existence.
The Boy Miners
Edward Sylvester Ellis
Two brothers and their companion hunt for gold in the American West, contending with hostile forces and the mysteries of a floating island.
The chariot of the sun
Roger Pocock
Set in a crumbling, near-future Britain, this narrative follows a lonely inventor’s desperate struggle to defend his Queen and country against a cabal of corrupt officials and encroaching global powers.
The Cruise of the Royal Mail Steamer Dunottar Castle Round Scotland on Her Trial Trip
Walter Scott Dalgleish
The Dunottar Castle arrives as a grand technological marvel, inviting readers to experience a Victorian maritime adventure that balances industrial pride with the timeless, rugged majesty of the Scottish coastline.
The Drama of Glass
Kate Field
Glass is more than a brittle utility; it is a "child of fire and death" whose history tracks the rise and fall of civilizations. This narrative charts the transformation of a mysterious ancient craft into a centerpiece of American industrial pride.
The fate of The Wolf
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
When a mysterious gunman arrives in a border town to hunt a legendary outlaw, he finds himself trapped in a web of greed, false identities, and a high-stakes struggle for a family's legacy.
The first of April
William Combe
HOOK On a morning of revelry, Folly summons the elite to a grand, gaudy hall to celebrate their own emptiness. This sharp, satirical poem captures the hollow spectacles of high society in eighteenth-century London.
The Ghost of One Man Coulee
B. M. Bower
A lonely cabin, a missing fiddler, and a wager of pride turn a group of Montana cowpunchers into amateur ghost-hunters. In this rugged frontier comedy, belief is a dangerous thing to flaunt when your friends have a taste for elaborate mischief.
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 1022, July 29, 1899
Various
This periodical serves as a time capsule of Victorian domesticity, blending moral guidance, fiction, and practical advice into a single, comprehensive guide for the young woman of 1899. It captures the era's preoccupation with social propriety, health, and intellectual self-improvement.
The isle of lies
M. P. (Matthew Phipps) Shiel
A brilliant, feral youth raised in total isolation breaks free to claim a woman from the outside world, setting in motion a collision between his superhuman intellect and the decaying vanity of modern society.
The Lakewood boys on the Lazy S
L. P. (Levi Parker) Wyman
The Lakewood brothers find themselves in the heart of the Wild West, where a summer working on a remote ranch quickly turns into a dangerous standoff against a local gang of cattle rustlers.
The Long Ago
J. W. (Jacob William) Wright
The past is not a foreign land but a living current, accessible to anyone willing to pause and listen to the echoes of their own childhood. These reflections invite the reader to step out of the frantic rhythm of modern adulthood and return to the quiet, grounding landscape of memory.
The Non-Electronic Bug
E. Mittleman
This story follows a cynical cardsharp who discovers a powerful, involuntary telepath—and the catastrophic consequences of trying to exploit a human mind as a gambling tool.
The Parisians
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A sweeping chronicle of a city under fire, this narrative captures the final, harrowing days of the Siege of Paris through the lives of those caught in its iron grip.
The quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 1, March, 1900
Oregon Historical Society
This inaugural issue of the Oregon Historical Society’s journal documents the foundational era of the Pacific Northwest, tracing the shift from raw wilderness to a governed commonwealth. It serves as both a primary record and a scholarly retrospective of the nineteenth-century American frontier.
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
John Lothrop Motley
The struggle of the Netherlands against Spanish tyranny is a saga of conscience, where a small, industrious people confront the absolute power of an empire determined to crush their political and religious independence.
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
John Lothrop Motley
The struggle for Dutch independence is a harrowing drama of constitutional collapse, where the collision between absolute monarchical power and the yearning for civil liberty transforms a prosperous region into a theater of martyrdom and revolt.
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
John Lothrop Motley
HOOK This history charts the agonizing birth of a nation, capturing the precise moment when the Netherlands fractured under the weight of religious zeal and Spanish tyranny to forge a fragile, defiant republic.
The Seats of the Mighty, Volume 3
Gilbert Parker
A man imprisoned by the corrupt authorities of colonial Quebec survives both physical torture and political intrigue, sustained by the hope of rescue and the steadfast love of a woman who walks a perilous line between his jailers and his freedom.
The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic
Ernesto Quesada
The Argentine Republic navigates a turbulent transition from colonial isolation to a modern, immigrant-driven society, testing whether traditional local identities can successfully coalesce into a unified, stable national spirit.
The Temptress (La tierra de todos)
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
The devastating beauty of a woman wreaks havoc in the lives of men who, having fled the old world for the promise of the new, find their ambitions and moral fortitude tested by her presence.
The White Road to Verdun
Kathleen Burke
The White Road to Verdun serves as an intimate dispatch from the front lines of the First World War, capturing the indomitable spirit of the French soldiers and civilians during one of the conflict's most harrowing battles. Through a series of personal observations, the narrative illuminates how ordinary people…
The World of Ice
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A seasoned sailor and a young boy embark on a perilous whaling expedition to the frozen north, where they face ice-crushing storms, daring encounters with polar bears, and the challenge of survival in a desolate, white wilderness.
The Wreckers of Sable Island
J. Macdonald (James Macdonald) Oxley
A young boy survives a harrowing shipwreck only to find himself a captive among lawless scavengers on a desolate island, where he must rely on his wits and an unlikely protector to secure his freedom.
Time and the Woman
G. Gordon (George Gordon) Dewey
HOOK Driven by a desperate, vanity-fueled obsession with eternal youth, an aging woman hijacks an experimental faster-than-light spaceship, only to discover that the laws of physics are crueler than the ravages of time.
Twice Bought
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A gold-miner’s desperate gamble leads him into a wilderness of danger, where he ultimately discovers that the price of redemption is far higher than the cost of a fortune.
Vittoria
George Meredith
A prima donna finds herself at the center of a revolutionary storm, caught between her commitment to the cause of Italian liberation and the magnetic, dangerous pull of the Austrian officers sworn to crush it.
What Necessity Knows
L. (Lily) Dougall
A quiet, unsettled Canadian frontier serves as the stage for a collision between rigid tradition and the desperate, often misguided, quest for spiritual certainty.
Woman As She Should Be
Mary E. Herbert
A young woman’s quiet devotion and moral conviction challenge the vanity of city life, leading her through a harrowing ordeal at sea toward a destination of unexpected spiritual and personal renewal.
Youthful folly detected: Written for the benefit of youth, particularly the female sex
Anonymous
A young woman’s reputation is a fragile vessel, and her future happiness depends entirely upon the careful cultivation of virtue and the avoidance of social pitfalls.
A geographical and commercial view of northern Central Africa
James MacQueen
Geography and commerce collide in this 1821 survey, which attempts to map the Niger River’s course and secure its vast interior for British imperial expansion. It serves as an early, ambitious blueprint for colonial intervention in West Africa.
A little help for Hawkins
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
This humorous Western tale follows a group of well-meaning but misguided cowboys who attempt to "save" their gloom-stricken friend from a perceived inheritance crisis, only to discover that the tragedy they are solving exists entirely within the pages of a magazine.
A New Subspecies of the Fruit-eating Bat, Sturnira ludovici, From Western Mexico
J. Knox Jones
This technical monograph chronicles the discovery and formal identification of a previously unknown subspecies of fruit-eating bat inhabiting the diverse ecosystems of western Mexico. It provides a precise, data-driven look at the methods used to classify biological diversity in the mid-20th century.
A steam voyage down the Danube, vol. 2 of 2
Michael J. (Michael Joseph) Quin
An observant traveler traverses the shifting political landscapes of the East and the Mediterranean, blending travelogue with sharp-eyed analysis of the fading Ottoman Empire and the encroaching influence of Russia.**
A Visit to the Sarö and Shera Yögurs
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
A Finnish explorer navigates the harsh landscapes of Central Asia, meticulously documenting the customs and fading traditions of two isolated ethnic groups living on the fringes of the Chinese Empire.