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All free summaries — page 981
47,382 public-domain books, summarised. Page 981 of 988.
The Intriguers
Harold Bindloss
A man unfairly branded a coward finds redemption through an arduous journey into the Canadian wilderness, where duty, honor, and a dangerous new business venture collide.
The Lost Guidon: 1911
Charles Egbert Craddock
The sergeant who once led a doomed cavalry charge finds his only remaining battle is against the emptiness of postwar life. He discovers that some ghosts can only be laid to rest by the people who helped create them.
The Rod in Pickle
T. Latham
A preacher’s reputation crumbles under the weight of his own illicit habits and desperate, contradictory letters. This account documents the quiet scandal that forced a popular minister to flee his parish long before his final legal ruin.
The Story of a Picture
Douglass Sherley
A youth discovers a silent, enigmatic portrait that seems to mirror the fluctuating anxieties of his own heart. As the image shifts before his eyes, he becomes caught in an obsessive, years-long struggle between hope and heartbreak.
The Wealth of Echindul
Noel M. Loomis
The small, unassuming man who conquers the most dangerous environment in the solar system finds that bringing home a fortune is far deadlier than earning it.
The World English Bible (WEB): Zephaniah
Anonymous
A powerful prophetic vision, this work explores the tension between impending universal judgment and the eventual restoration of the faithful.
Whither?
Anonymous
A century of rapid material progress has left the modern soul impoverished, trading an ancient, spiritual heritage for a shallow, biological obsession with physical comfort and worldly efficiency.
A Strange Story
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
This Victorian narrative explores the fragile boundary between empirical science and the uncanny, forcing a skeptical mind to confront phenomena that defy rational explanation. It is a haunting, intellectual meditation on the limits of human knowledge.
A woman's war record, 1861-1865
Septima M. (Septima Maria) Collis
A resilient woman navigates the chaos of the American Civil War, moving between the social whirl of high-ranking officers and the somber, visceral realities of the front line.
Harper's Young People, January 27, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This collection captures a fleeting, charming moment of Victorian childhood, blending moral instruction, natural history, and whimsical tales into a single, vibrant weekly record. It serves as a time capsule of late 19th-century optimism and curiosity.
History of the United Netherlands, 1587a
John Lothrop Motley
A fragile alliance between England and the Dutch Republic unravels as arrogance and betrayal poison the struggle for independence. This account captures the high-stakes political maneuvering of 1587, where a power vacuum creates a tragedy of errors.
Letter from Monsieur de Cros: (who was an embassador at the Treaty of Nimeguen and a resident at England in K. Charles the Second's reign) to the Lord ----
Du Cros, Simon, active 17th century
This blistering 1693 rebuttal exposes the inner workings of European diplomacy, stripping away the self-serving veneer of a famous statesman’s memoirs to reveal the chaotic reality of seventeenth-century power.
On advance of time
George Keyports Brady
A reckless act of sabotage on the tracks of the Ohio railroad system pits a vengeful man against an unsuspecting engineer, forcing a quiet, bashful brakeman to choose between his own safety and the lives of many.
On Strike Till 3
Grant Balfour
This narrative poem follows a young widow and her small son, David, whose impoverished life in a cottage near a ravine is transformed by a simple, desperate act of love. It is a quiet, devastating study of poverty and the endurance of maternal devotion.
Principle and Practice: The Orphan Family
Harriet Martineau
Finding honest work and maintaining family bonds is a quiet, heroic struggle for those left behind by tragedy. This narrative explores the dignity found in modest, everyday industry.
Saint Patrick: 1887
Heman White Chaplin
Desperate streets breed unconventional mercy, but on a cold March evening in a waterfront mission, two Protestant ministers discover that even competing claims to doing good can end in silent, comical defeat.
The Esperantist, Vol. 2, No. 2
Unknown
The international language movement finds its voice in this early twentieth-century chronicle, capturing the optimism and growing pains of a global community. It offers a unique window into a time when a constructed tongue promised to bridge the divides of a rapidly shrinking world.
The Honest American Voter's Little Catechism for 1880
Blythe Harding
This document serves as a spirited, partisan guide for the 1880 presidential election, employing a sharp Socratic dialogue to advocate for the Democratic ticket. It distills the complex political grievances of its era into a plain-spoken conversation meant to persuade the undecided voter.
The Lane That Had No Turning, Volume 2
Gilbert Parker
Deep in the Canadian backwoods, the lives of simple villagers are shaped by the heavy weight of local rumor, long-held grudges, and the quiet, transformative power of faith and art.
The Translation of a Savage, Volume 1
Gilbert Parker
A jilted man marries a North American Indigenous woman out of spite, only to send her alone to his high-society family in England, triggering a collision of worlds and expectations.
The World English Bible (WEB): Amos
Anonymous
A solitary shepherd leaves his flock to confront a nation drowning in its own excess. He delivers a message of inevitable collapse, exposing the hollow morality of those who trade the vulnerable for profit.
Too old to fly
Ivan March
The veteran marine sergeant finds his true calling in the skies over the Western Front, proving that a lifetime of combat experience is no match for the perceived limitations of his age.
Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, 2 Peter
Richard Francis Weymouth
This document serves as a final, urgent correspondence intended to fortify a community of believers against the erosion of their principles. It functions as both a pastoral encouragement and a sharp warning against internal corruption.
Army of the Cumberland and the Battle of Stone's River
G. C. Kniffin
HOOK This account captures the harrowing intensity of the Battle of Stones River, where the Army of the Cumberland faced its ultimate test of endurance against the Confederate forces in the winter of 1862.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 152, vol. III, November 27, 1886
Various
This Victorian miscellany offers a panoramic window into 1886, blending natural history, gritty fiction, and the rapid technological progress of the late nineteenth century.
Incidents on a journey through Nubia to Darfoor
F. Sidney Ensor
A Victorian survey team ventures into the desert of Darfoor to map a railway route, facing extreme heat, territorial tribal rivalries, and the logistical absurdities of imperial expansion.
Precipitations
Evelyn Scott
The city at night is a burning, breathing entity where the thin membrane between existence and oblivion wears away. These poems map the collision of human desire with the cold, unyielding architecture of the modern world.
The burning of Chelsea
Walter Merriam Pratt
A vivid, firsthand account of the 1908 conflagration that leveled Chelsea, Massachusetts, capturing the sheer speed of the destruction and the resilient, collective spirit of a city rising from its own ashes.
The High Calling
Charles M. Sheldon
This narrative explores the tension between personal ambition and moral duty. It depicts a young man’s struggle for integrity within a family framework that prioritizes character over worldly success.
The North Atlantic telegraph via the Færöe Isles, Iceland, and Greenland
Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain)
The North Atlantic holds the secret to global communication, provided humanity can conquer the ice and terrain of the Færöe Isles, Iceland, and Greenland. This report details the ambitious survey to bridge two continents.
You Can Search Me
George V. (George Vere) Hobart
Two desperate young men gamble their remaining savings on a traveling magician, only to discover their financial salvation is tied to a web of elaborate, hilarious deceptions involving their own families.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 130, vol. III, June 26, 1886
Various
The Victorian era was a time of boundless curiosity, where the grand geopolitical questions of maritime blockade sat comfortably alongside the latest breakthroughs in chemistry and the gritty realities of colonial life.
History of the United Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce, 1585e
John Lothrop Motley
This chronicle captures the high-stakes diplomacy of a fledgling republic struggling for survival against the Spanish Empire, while navigating the shifting loyalties and parsimony of an indecisive English queen.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 146, January 7, 1914
Various
The turn of the year is a time for solemn resolutions and the inevitable, humorous realization that one’s best intentions are often no match for the sluggishness of human nature.
The Gray Madam: 1899
Anna Katharine Green
A spectral figure haunts a New York apartment, leaving a young couple to question the boundary between the living and the dead. This chilling encounter serves as the entry point into a desperate, earthbound tragedy of greed and obsession.
The Little Quaker
Susanna Moodie
A tale of youthful transgression and redemption, this narrative explores the transformative power of kindness when faced with unprovoked cruelty and the heavy burden of a guilty conscience.
The Quest of Happy Hearts
Kathleen Hay
A group of siblings unexpectedly sent to live with a mysterious great-aunt find their initial disappointment transformed into a life-changing adventure of kindness and discovery.
The soldier's orphans
Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens
A family’s struggle against the grinding poverty of post-Civil War Philadelphia is brightened by the enduring strength of their love and the quiet integrity of their hearts.
The World English Bible (WEB): Colossians
Anonymous
This letter serves as a foundational text for early Christian theology, offering a dense, poetic meditation on the nature of Christ and the practical implications of a life lived in accordance with that belief. It remains a cornerstone of the epistolary tradition, widely studied for its fusion of high-minded…
Zibeline
Massa, Philippe, marquis de
HOOK A dashing French officer loses his family estate in a high-stakes card game, prompting a journey across continents and social circles to reclaim his honor.
A British Islander: From "Mackinac And Lake Stories", 1899
Mary Hartwell Catherwood
A woman of formidable will and eccentric habits orchestrates the romantic fate of her niece, using the surreal domestic management of her fort-dwelling menagerie to force a hesitant suitor into decisive action.
A Summer Evening's Dream: 1898
Edward Bellamy
A chance encounter in a quiet village garden forces two lifelong, unmarried companions to confront the stagnant ghost of their own youth. The result is a startling, tender, and somewhat surreal resolution to a forty-year hesitation.
An Ounce of Cure
Alan Edward Nourse
The medical establishment’s overwhelming obsession with diagnosis over relief leaves a patient searching for a cure in the most unlikely of places. It is a sharp, satirical look at the fragmentation of modern healthcare.
An unmarried father
Floyd Dell
The conventional life of a young Midwestern lawyer shatters when he discovers he has fathered a child out of wedlock with an artist who refuses to abandon her career for motherhood.
Christians and Infidels
Anonymous
Death serves as the ultimate arbiter, revealing the hidden truth of one’s convictions when all worldly distractions fade away. Faced with the end, a person’s inner state is stripped of pretense.
Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk
Gilbert Parker
These tales explore the lives of men and women caught between colonial duty and the restless, often destructive, pull of personal conviction.
Extensions of Known Ranges of Mexican Bats
Sydney Anderson
This technical report catalogs specific geographic discoveries of bat species in Mexico, serving as a vital update for mammalogists and naturalists tracking the migration and habitats of tropical wildlife within North American borders.
No Refuge but in Truth
Goldwin Smith
The search for spiritual certainty remains as urgent today as it was a century ago, demanding an honest reckoning with the intersection of scientific evolution and the enduring moral influence of the Christian ideal.