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All free summaries — page 972
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 972 of 988.
The Lost Child
Henry Kingsley
A child wanders from his home into the vast Australian wilderness, lured by the promise of adventure and the beauty of the unknown. His journey becomes a haunting, quiet tragedy of innocence lost to the immense landscape.
The Right of Way
Gilbert Parker
A high-flying lawyer loses his memory and identity in a violent brawl, only to emerge as a simple tailor’s apprentice in a remote village where he must decide whether to reclaim his old life or embrace a new, hollowed-out peace.
The Right of Way
Gilbert Parker
A man of mystery finds redemption in a quiet village, trading his hidden past for a brief, transcendent love before a final, sacrificial act seals his legacy.
The Terrible Answer
Arthur G. Hill
A group of men arrives on Mars seeking to build an empire, only to discover that their perceived mastery is a fatal miscalculation. They find that the price of dominion is a truth far darker than they ever imagined.
The vertigo hook
Richard Ashby
Time travel is rarely a single, linear track, and sometimes the past and present are caught on the same hook.
The Will of Samuel Appleton, with Remarks by One of the Executors
Samuel Appleton
This document preserves the final wishes and public memory of a nineteenth-century merchant, offering an intimate look at the private life and final distributions of a prominent Boston benefactor.
The work of the War Refugees Committee
Flora L. (Flora Louisa) Shaw
The War Refugees Committee acted as a bridge between a nation’s sudden, overwhelming impulse to help and the logistical reality of saving thousands of displaced people fleeing the devastation of World War I.
A Christmas Tale: in One Act
Maurice Bouchor
A struggling sculptor, lost to drink, finds his salvation on Christmas Eve when the very wooden saints he carved come to life to restore his broken home.
A Few Short Sketches
Douglass Sherley
These brief, melancholic vignettes capture the fading elegance of late nineteenth-century society, where social rituals mask profound human isolation and the quiet desperation of unrequited longing.
An idyl of the Wabash, and other stories
Anna Nicholas
This collection of stories captures the quiet, often overlooked lives of Midwesterners at the turn of the century, finding profound emotional stakes within the confines of small-town domesticity and religious tradition.
Ball's Bluff: An Episode and Its Consequences to Some of Us
Charles Lawrence Peirson
The disastrous defeat at Ball’s Bluff serves as the catalyst for an intimate account of military incompetence, the brotherhood of captive officers, and the early, uncertain months of the American Civil War.
Exile
H. B. (Horace Bowne) Fyfe
The isolation of deep space holds a mirror to human morality, testing whether a man stranded among alien civilizations can maintain his integrity when forced to judge one of his own.
Falkland, Book 3
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
The pull of a forbidden attachment proves as destructive as it is intense, leaving only ruin in the wake of a desperate, ill-fated romance.
Gwaith Alun
John Blackwell
HOOK A humble cobbler’s apprentice rises to become a celebrated voice of the Welsh language, capturing the landscape, faith, and spirit of his nation in verse.
History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce, 1607a
John Lothrop Motley
The Eighty Years’ War reaches a pivotal turn as the Dutch Republic asserts its maritime dominance while the Spanish Empire crumbles under the weight of its own institutional corruption.
How little Bessie kept the wolf from the door
Mrs. Coates
In this somber Victorian moral tale, two young sisters navigate the cold, hungry reality of their family’s poverty by finding solace in faith and the hope of a better world beyond their own.
In a Belgian Garden, and Other Poems
Frank Oliver Call
The poems collected here capture a world caught between the quietude of nature and the encroaching shadow of the Great War, reflecting the elegiac spirit of a generation facing profound, sudden loss.
Jimmy Crow
Edith Francis Foster
This gentle story follows the escapades of a young boy and his mischievous, spirited pet bird, capturing the simple joys of childhood through a clever blend of prose and pictorial symbols.
Lodusky
Frances Hodgson Burnett
This haunting tale of temptation and self-betrayal follows an artist who, while engaged to a refined woman, becomes dangerously obsessed with a mysterious, beautiful girl in the North Carolina mountains. It is a stark, psychological exploration of how easily a man’s moral compass can shatter when confronted with…
Nightmare tower
Merwin, Sam, Jr.
A woman finds her reality fracturing as an inexplicable telepathic connection pulls her from Earth to the ruins of Mars, where invisible entities threaten the survival of humanity.
Or Darwin, if you prefer
Mel Hunter
A lonely man discovers a disembodied mouth and eyes living on his wall, leading to a desperate scheme to swap lives across centuries. Their plan for salvation ends in a fragmented existence trapped between seconds.
Other People's Business: The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale
Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis) Smith
A resilient dressmaker finds her life unexpectedly transformed when she abandons her solitary existence to champion the happiness of others, proving that even a quiet life can be a catalyst for profound change.
Personal Poems I: Part 1 from Volume IV of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
These verses capture the quiet grace of a life anchored in moral conviction and the natural world. They offer an intimate portrait of a nineteenth-century mind grappling with the heavy burdens of conscience and memory.
Petunia blossoms: Ballads and poems
Dorothea Auguste Gunhilde Schrage
A collection of earnest, domestic verse, this work captures the rhythms of early 20th-century family life, finding profound beauty in the simple acts of raising children, maintaining a household, and weathering the passage of time.
Phebe, the Blackberry Girl
Unknown
Children's literature of the nineteenth century often served as a moral compass, blending simple verse with lessons on industry, piety, and the rewards of a virtuous life. This collection offers a window into the values and anxieties of that era.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-01-21
Various
This collection captures the frantic, biting, and absurd energy of post-Great War London, where the sudden arrival of peace meant an obsession with scandal, the bizarre, and the sheer unpredictability of daily life. It is an artifact of a culture recalibrating its moral compass through mockery.
Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, Jan. 2, 1892
Various
This collection of nineteenth-century satire, verse, and social commentary serves as a sharp-witted mirror to the political and cultural anxieties of early 1892. It captures the wry, skeptical, and occasionally melancholic spirit of a nation transitioning from one year to the next under the watchful eye of its most…
Punch or the London Charivari, Volume 150, May 17 1916
Various
A quintessential record of British spirit during the First World War, this collection captures the biting wit, absurdities, and profound melancholy of a nation grappling with conflict through its most iconic satirical lens.
Reflections of a beginning husband
Edward Sandford Martin
A young couple navigates the modest joys and pressures of early marriage in early 20th-century New York. This charming, contemplative narrative captures the transition from youth to domestic responsibility with wit and gentle wisdom.
Rome, Turkey, and Jerusalem
Edward Hoare
A profound sense of urgency animates these pages, as the author scans the political upheavals of the nineteenth century to discern the unmistakable signs of a divine, approaching dawn.
Say it with bricks/Say it with oil
Ring Lardner
This clever, back-to-back volume pairs a wife’s witty list of marital grievances against her husband with a husband’s dry, retaliatory defense of his own kind.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 37: Jonas: The Challoner Revision
Unknown
A prophet attempts to flee from his divine mandate, only to be overtaken by the sea and a reluctant mission of mercy. This concise narrative explores the tension between human narrowness and the vastness of divine compassion.
The book of a naturalist
W. H. (William Henry) Hudson
A seasoned observer of the natural world invites readers to set aside the gun and the collector’s cabinet in favor of patient, quiet communion with the creatures of the field and wood. This collection serves as a meditation on the life, character, and intelligence of animals, rooted in the belief that true natural…
The Diary of Philip Westerly
Paul Compton
A man’s obsession with his own image takes a harrowing turn when his reflection begins to act independently, eventually usurping his life and identity.
The Emperor
Georg Ebers
A volatile Roman Emperor walks the streets of Alexandria in disguise, sparking a dangerous collision between ancient social orders and the unpredictable fury of the urban mob.
The Envoy, Her
H. B. (Horace Bowne) Fyfe
An aging, bored emperor finds his life upended when a rebellious planet sends an envoy who appears as his perfect ideal. Their encounter forces him to confront the hollow nature of absolute power.
The Expedition to Birting's Land, and Other Ballads
George Borrow
Through the lens of northern legend and lyrical verse, this collection explores the raw vitality of old-world heroism and the quiet, persistent beauty of the natural world.
The framed fifty
Karl Decker
The framed fifty-dollar bill hanging above a bar is more than a trophy; it is a man’s silent partner, his talisman of prosperity, and the tether to a life he left behind.
The House from Nowhere
Arthur G. Stangland
The arrival of a mysterious, old-fashioned family in a futuristic neighborhood forces a cynical man to confront the hollowness of his own life. This story explores the friction between a cold, technological dystopia and the enduring, simple values of the past.
The Irish Peasant
Religious Tract Society (Great Britain)
This humble narrative follows a struggling laborer who learns that true peace—and salvation—is found not in worldly circumstances, but in a radical transformation of the heart.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 358, February 28, 1829
Various
A window into the Regency era, this collection offers a vibrant mosaic of architectural critiques, historical curiosities, and social satire that captures the intellectual spirit of early nineteenth-century London.
The Right of Way
Gilbert Parker
This is a story of a man who dies to his old life to find his soul, discovering that true redemption requires not merely hiding from the past, but selflessly serving the future.
The sheriff of Sun-Dog
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
A newly appointed, red-headed sheriff faces a hostile county determined to see him fail, framed for a murder he didn't commit while trying to bring order to a lawless frontier.
The Story of the Little Mamsell
Charlotte Niese
A Danish servant's tale of the French Revolution, love, and sacrifice.
The Way to Abolish Slavery
Charles (Abolitionist) Stearns
A radical vision for dismantling the institution of chattel slavery through the immediate and total severance of the North from the South.
Vanishing Point
C. C. (Charles Clarence) Beck
A practical painter tries to explain why his intellectually obsessed associate suddenly fled their joint studio, leaving behind a bizarre machine that challenges the physical rules of geometry, spatial perspective, and consensus reality itself.
When Valmond Came to Pontiac: The Story of a Lost Napoleon. Volume 1
Gilbert Parker
A mysterious stranger arrives in a quiet French-Canadian village, claiming a lineage that ignites the dormant romanticism of its people. This story captures the fragile line between heartfelt belief and dangerous deception.
Who Crosses Storm Mountain?: 1911
Charles Egbert Craddock
The wild, craggy silence of the winter mountains conceals a desperate flight, where a small, forgotten life suddenly binds two bitter enemies in a quiet miracle of peace.