The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 938
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 938 of 988.
Little people
T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson) Crosland
A playful, turn-of-the-century collection of rhyming vignettes, this alphabet book travels the globe to introduce young readers to the customs and costumes of children from every corner of the map.
Manners for the metropolis
Frank Crowninshield
The modern metropolis demands a rigid, often absurd, code of conduct to navigate its shifting social tides. This guide offers a sharp, satirical map for those seeking to master the elusive "Fantastic Life of The 400.
Margery (Gred): A Tale Of Old Nuremberg
Georg Ebers
The Imperial Diet has arrived in Nuremberg, bringing with it a whirlwind of pageantry, dangerous rivalries, and the testing of young hearts against the rigid laws of the realm.
Memoirs of Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz
Jean François Paul de Gondi de Retz
In the volatile heart of seventeenth-century France, a sharp-witted clergyman navigates the treacherous collision of royal authority and aristocratic ambition.
Monsieur de Camors
Octave Feuillet
The story of a man who attempts to live by his own singular, cold-hearted philosophy, only to find his life unraveling through the complex web of his own betrayals.
Monsieur, Madame, and Bébé
Gustave Droz
The small, intimate rituals of domestic life are the bedrock of human happiness, anchoring the wandering heart in a world that is otherwise cold and vast.
Mortomley's Estate: A Novel. Vol. 3 (of 3)
Riddell, J. H., Mrs.
A woman fights to protect her husband and family from the crushing, predatory machinery of Victorian bankruptcy law. This stark portrait of ruin and resilience reveals the hidden costs of a struggle for survival.
Narrative of the March of Co. A, Engineers from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Fort Bridger, Utah, and Return, May 6 to October 3, 1858
William P. Seville
The wide, unmapped expanse of the American frontier serves as the stage for a grueling journey, documenting the labor and resilience of soldiers tasked with carving a path through the wilderness.
Neal, the Miller: A Son of Liberty
James Otis
A young colonial entrepreneur risks everything for his independence, navigating the turbulent politics of 1765 while striving to build a grist-mill on the banks of the Pascataqua.
Olof Krarer, the Esquimaux Lady: A Story of Her Native Home
Olof Krarer
The story of a life defined by extremes, this account follows a woman from the frozen coasts of Greenland to the lecture halls of the American Midwest. It is a rare, firsthand perspective on a vanished way of life.
Open Letter to President McKinley by Colored People of Massachusetts
Colored National League
The authors of this urgent document address the President of the United States not as petitioners seeking favors, but as American citizens demanding the fundamental constitutional protections they have been systematically denied.
Our Saviour
Anonymous
The life of Jesus is presented here as a foundational narrative of sacrifice and service. This retelling offers a straightforward, chronological account of a ministry that continues to shape moral instruction for younger readers.
Our Soldier Boy
George Manville Fenn
A young boy, orphaned by war and stripped of his memory, finds a new family among the soldiers of a British regiment before an unexpected reunion restores his lost past.
Out of the Woods
Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
The classic tale of a girl crossing the woods takes a sharp, modern turn when the heroine realizes that her "wolf" isn't a beast, but a manipulative young man preying on her artistic ambition.
Pilgrim Trails: A Plymouth-to-Provincetown Sketchbook
Frances Lester Warner
This evocative travelogue invites readers to walk the salt-sprayed paths of Massachusetts, tracing the history of the Pilgrims through the weathered architecture and quiet landscapes of Plymouth, Duxbury, and Cape Cod.
Professor Tim & Paul Twyning
George Shiels
These two Irish comedies capture the absurdity of rural domestic life through the arrival of disruptive outsiders, whose presence unmasks the greed and vanity hidden behind the respectable facades of small-town families.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 18, 1914
Various
This weekly periodical captures the spirit of a nation at war, blending biting political satire with the absurdities of daily life during the early months of the Great War. It serves as both a historical record of public sentiment and a masterclass in resilient, stiff-upper-lip humor.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 16, 1914
Various
This collection offers a candid, urgent snapshot of a nation caught in the opening weeks of the Great War, blending biting political satire with the persistent, absurd rhythms of daily life in 1914 London.
Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol 150, February 9, 1916
Various
This collection captures the peculiar, defiant rhythm of life in London during the darkest months of the First World War, blending sharp political satire with the absurdities of the home front.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-03-10
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic snapshot of early 1920s Britain, capturing a society grappling with the aftershocks of the Great War through satire, gentle domestic observation, and sharp political critique.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, Nov. 12, 1887
Various
Caught mid-stride in the autumn of 1887, London pauses to mock its own absurdities, lampooning stuffy politicians, theatrical failures, and street-corner chaos with razor-sharp Victorian wit.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, June 20, 1891
Various
A sharp-witted chronicle of Victorian life, this collection captures the fleeting anxieties, political absurdities, and social rhythms of 1891 through biting satire and lyrical observation.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, September 5, 1917
Various
This collection of British wartime wit offers a sharp, satirical window into the daily anxieties, absurdities, and domestic realities of life in 1917. It reveals the persistent human need for laughter as a buffer against the grim machinery of the Great War.
Queechy, Volume I
Susan Warner
A young girl navigates the loss of her home and the erosion of her family’s fortune, holding fast to her integrity and faith. Her journey is a quiet study in moral resilience amidst shifting circumstances.
Reject
John Johnson
A desperate child seeks the warmth of parental connection in a cold, hyper-efficient future, only to find that his basic human needs are viewed as mechanical defects. The search for love becomes a fatal liability.
Right Royal
John Masefield
The bond between a rider and his horse becomes a singular, driving force in this vivid portrait of a high-stakes steeplechase. It captures the visceral intensity of a race where human ambition and animal instinct collide.
"Sequil"
Henry A. (Henry Augustus) Shute
A boy’s honest, unvarnished account of mischief, schooling, and the bittersweet transition from childhood to the brink of adolescence.
Sketches by Seymour
Robert Seymour
A series of vignettes capturing the blunders of the aspiring and the pretensions of the common, this collection dissects the vanity of human wishes with a keen, satirical eye. Through a parade of bungling sportsmen, love-struck tradesmen, and wide-eyed dreamers, these sketches expose the absurdity lurking in the…
Sun-Dog trails
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
A high-stakes wagon runaway crashes directly into a stagecoach robbery, hurling two offbeat cowboys into a web of small-town corruption, hidden gold, and decades-old vengeance.
"Surly Tim": A Lancashire Story
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A quiet, devastating portrait of a man’s hidden grief, this story explores the profound loneliness that often wears the mask of bitterness in the working-class world of Lancashire.
The art of scansion
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A brilliant young poet engages in a spirited intellectual duel with an elder scholar, dissecting the hidden mechanics of ancient Greek and Latin prosody with the precision of a surgeon and the passion of a devotee.
The Case of Edith Cavell: A Study of the Rights of Non-Combatants
James M. (James Montgomery) Beck
The execution of a British nurse by German military authorities in occupied Belgium serves as a rallying cry against the dehumanizing machinery of total war.
The Centaurians: a novel
Biagi
This novel follows an explorer’s journey to a hidden, technologically advanced civilization located at the North Pole, where he encounters a society that challenges his notions of love, progress, and destiny. It is a work of early twentieth-century speculative fiction that blends arctic adventure with a…
The Christmas Child
Hesba Stretton
A solitary farmstead serves as the unlikely stage for a quiet, long-gestating miracle of grace. Through a child’s simple faith and a stern woman’s hardened heart, a fractured family finds the path back to one another.
The Cloud
Sartell Prentice
A stirring call to arms for the American public during the final year of the First World War, this work frames the global conflict as a moral struggle for the survival of civilization itself.
The early courts of Pennsylvania
William Henry Lloyd
The law is rarely a static monolith, but rather a reflection of the people who labor to build a society from the wilderness. This history traces the evolution of Pennsylvania’s legal identity, revealing how colonial necessity and democratic experimentation forged a unique American jurisprudence.
The Going of the White Swan
Gilbert Parker
This brief, intense narrative explores the intersection of wilderness isolation, domestic tragedy, and sudden spiritual awakening. It captures the raw, superstitious atmosphere of the North through the eyes of a dying child and a repentant man.
The Graymouse Family
Nellie M. (Nellie Mabel) Leonard
This story of a widowed mother mouse raising her family in the attic of a human house offers a whimsical, mouse-eye view of survival, resourcefulness, and the enduring comfort of family bonds.
The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 18, March 11, 1897: A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls
Various
This weekly periodical brings the complex, shifting landscape of late 19th-century global politics directly to the classroom, blending urgent world news with the quiet pedagogical aspirations of the Victorian era.
The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 34, July 1, 1897: A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls
Various
This weekly digest offers a window into the global pulse of 1897, bridging the gap between historical headlines and a young reader's curiosity with conversational reports on politics, geography, and international diplomacy.
The Happy Castaway
Robert Emmett McDowell
A space-wrecked pilot finds himself marooned on a remote asteroid, only to discover he is not alone—he is outnumbered by twenty-seven stranded women who have turned their isolation into a strange, rugged kingdom.
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 44, May 1, 1841
Various
This collection offers a vibrant mosaic of nineteenth-century Irish life, weaving together historical architecture, folklore, and the poignant tales of those seeking their fortune far from home.
The King's Messenger
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
A haunting, elegant meditation on mortality, this narrative blurs the lines between a dream and a final, quiet revelation. It explores the transition from life to whatever lies beyond with a somber, lyrical grace.
The Life and Adventures of Poor Puss
Lucy Gray
This moralizing Victorian tale follows the eventful life of a farm cat, tracing her journey from a mischievous kitten to a weary, elderly house pet, reflecting the fragility of life and the inevitability of change.
The Mightiest Man
Patrick Fahy
The betrayal of the human race has left one man with godlike powers, yet he remains shackled to the mortal necessity of sleep. This chilling tale explores the fragility of human survival when faced with an invincible, malicious ego.
The New World
Witter Bynner
A poet wanders the landscapes of America and the heart, seeking a universal divinity that binds the living and the dead into one shared, democratic soul.
The Nursery, June 1881, Vol. XXIX: A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers
Various
The world of children is a garden of discovery, where a sparrow’s curiosity, a fawn’s hunger, and a grandmother’s stories weave the fabric of an early, gentle education.
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
George Meredith
A father’s calculated attempt to engineer his son’s perfection results in a tragic collision between rigid theory and the wild, unpredictable surge of youthful desire.