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American Literature — page 49
3,373 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 49 of 71.
Mary Cary: "Frequently Martha"
Kate Langley Bosher
A spirited, orphaned girl navigates the rigid confines of an asylum by balancing her cynical, observant "Martha" side with a growing, hopeful "Mary" spirit after a kind stranger changes her world.
Sam's Chance, and How He Improved It
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A former street urchin navigates the pitfalls of city life and the difficult work of personal reform, finding that steady habits and unexpected mentorship offer the only reliable path to a better future.
The Annes
Marion Ames Taggart
A profound struggle between personal desire and moral duty consumes a young woman caught in an impossible tangle of love and obligation.
The Bobbin Boy
William Makepeace Thayer
A humble factory worker rises through sheer force of will and self-education to lead his state. This narrative traces the transformation of an ordinary boy into a statesman through the mastery of odd moments.
The Boy Broker
Frank Andrew Munsey
A courageous Vermont farm boy navigates the cutthroat world of Wall Street, overcoming deception and false imprisonment to prove his worth in the unforgiving machinery of a great city.
The Carter Girls
Nell Speed
When their father falls ill and family finances collapse, five sisters trade their carefree city life for a mountain summer, learning that independence is best earned through hard work and responsibility.
The Cavalier
George Washington Cable
A young Confederate soldier finds his loyalties and his heart tested when he encounters a daring, mysterious woman during the height of the American Civil War.
The Girl from the Big Horn Country
Mary Ellen Chase
A spirited ranch girl leaves her Wyoming home to navigate the rigid social expectations of an elite New England boarding school.
The Opened Shutters: A Novel
Clara Louise Burnham
This story of personal transformation follows a young woman who retreats to the Maine coast to heal her broken spirit and ultimately discovers a capacity for profound love.
The Von Toodleburgs
F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
This satirical novel captures the provincial ambitions and moral pretensions of a mid-19th-century New York community caught in the grip of a fraudulent get-rich-quick scheme. Through the lives of the modest Toodleburgs and the status-obsessed Chapmans, it exposes how greed and social climbing can warp the values…
Turn About Eleanor
Ethel M. (Ethel May) Kelley
A young girl, orphaned and adrift, finds herself the communal ward of six well-meaning but misguided friends who attempt to raise her as an experiment in collective parenthood.
A Woman of Genius
Mary Austin
A Woman of Genius Driven by a relentless, "unparented" creative hunger, a woman navigates the suffocating expectations of a small-town upbringing to forge an identity as a celebrated stage actress. She discovers that the price of such singular ambition is a lifelong tension between the demands of her work and the…
An Anglo-American Alliance: A Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future
Gregory Casparian
A whimsical blend of Edwardian political prophecy and unlikely romance, the narrative follows two devoted schoolmates whose bond transcends traditional gender roles and physical separation in an evolving 20th-century landscape.
Aunt Jane's Nieces
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
In this turn-of-the-century tale, a wealthy, embittered recluse invites her long-lost nieces to compete for her fortune, triggering a sequence of life-altering secrets and unexpected connections.
Bruce of the Circle A
Harold Titus
The vast, unyielding landscapes of Arizona set the stage for a quiet struggle of character, as a lonely rancher attempts to redeem a broken man for the sake of the woman who loves him.
Fashion and Famine
Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens
A tale of two cities—one of desperate poverty, the other of hollow, gilded vanity—this narrative follows the collision of lives fractured by a single man's moral ruin.
Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 48, June, 1854
Various
A curated collection of mid-nineteenth-century domesticity, this periodical captures the intricate tapestry of Victorian life, from the precise art of garment-making to the anxieties of the era’s social expectations.
Grandmother Elsie
Martha Finley
A multi-generational family navigates the joys and heavy responsibilities of Christian duty, marriage, and child-rearing in this reflective tale of domestic life.
Little Folks Astray
Sophie May
The wide world is made for wandering, but for children, those wanderings often lead to lessons that humble the proudest hearts.
Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor, Volume II
Unknown
This collection gathers the spirited, often irreverent voices that defined late nineteenth-century American humor. It offers a window into a past where wit was as likely to be found in a regional tall tale as in a sharp social satire.
Ma Pettengill
Harry Leon Wilson
A sharp-witted ranch owner in Washington state oversees her corner of the American West, finding endless, wry comedy in the eccentric characters who wander across her porch.
May Flowers
Louisa May Alcott
Young women seek to transform their comfortable lives into something meaningful by committing to individual acts of secret service. Through personal dedication, they learn that true charity requires both practical effort and a compassionate heart.
Mildred at Home: With Something About Her Relatives and Friends.: A sequel to Mildred's married life
Martha Finley
In this gentle, reflective chronicle of family life and faith, a tight-knit circle of relatives navigates the profound transitions of grief, marriage, and restoration. The narrative finds grace in the quiet endurance of daily duty.
Poems
John Hay
A collection of nineteenth-century verse that captures both the rugged, vernacular frontier of the American West and the sophisticated, melancholy yearnings of a global traveler.
Taken Alive
Edward Payson Roe
HOOK This collection captures the moral gravity and romantic idealism of late 19th-century American life, blending domestic vignettes with the enduring echoes of the Civil War.
The book of the American Indian
Hamlin Garland
A collection of narratives that captures the fading traditions and deepening desperation of Native American tribes as they encounter the relentless expansion of the American frontier.
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 12: In Motley
Ambrose Bierce
The world is a stage of absurdities, and if you are willing to laugh at the farce of human vanity, you have arrived at the right collection of sketches.
The New McGuffey Fourth Reader
Unknown
This collection serves as a moral and literary compass, guiding young readers through the foundational virtues of character and the rich heritage of English prose and poetry. It stands as a bridge between childhood innocence and the responsibilities of the adult world.
The Old Soldier's Story: Poems and Prose Sketches
James Whitcomb Riley
HOOK This collection gathers the rhythmic vernacular of the American heartland and the poignant, polished verse of a poet who found profound dignity in the quiet lives of ordinary people.
The Unspeakable Gentleman
John P. (John Phillips) Marquand
The improbable turns true often enough to be unsettling, especially when a father plays at being a villain to protect his son from the dangerous realities of a world in flux.
Try Again
Oliver Optic
A resilient young orphan confronts poverty and false accusations in this classic tale of moral fortitude. By choosing integrity over convenience, he transforms his struggles into a path toward a better life.
Wolfville
Alfred Henry Lewis
A grizzled cattleman recounts the rough-hewn legends of a frontier Arizona hamlet, where life is lived by the code of the gun, the turn of a card, and the dry, sharp wit of the desert.
A Man and His Money
Frederic Stewart Isham
This is a spirited early-twentieth-century adventure that follows a man’s attempt to shed his inherited wealth and prove his worth on his own terms.
American ideals, and other essays, social and political
Theodore Roosevelt
A vigorous call to civic engagement, these essays argue that a nation’s strength depends on the active, moral participation of its citizens in the daily machinery of governance.
An American Politician: A Novel
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
The political sphere in the late 19th century serves as the backdrop for a quiet, intense study of ambition, sacrifice, and the awakening of a man who has long ignored the claims of his own heart.
At the Sign of the Eagle
Gilbert Parker
This story explores the collision of two worlds: the polished, conventional society of the English aristocracy and the raw, unbridled energy of the American self-made man. It is a study of character, ambition, and the surprising ways in which different temperaments find common ground.
Java Head
Joseph Hergesheimer
The quiet drama of a nineteenth-century marriage plays out against the fading glory of the American merchant marine. It is a story of clashing cultures and the stubborn, isolated nature of the human heart.
Luck on the Wing: Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy
Elmer Haslett
An American air observer recounts the visceral, unglamorous reality of the Great War, finding that survival in the skies above France depends less on heroism than on sheer, improbable luck.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 02, April 9, 1870
Various
This weekly periodical captures the frantic, witty, and deeply commercial pulse of Gilded Age New York. It is a vibrant artifact of 1870, merging sharp political satire with the relentless advertising of a burgeoning consumer culture.
Rosamond, or, the Youthful Error: A Tale of Riverside
Mary Jane Holmes
A young woman’s impulsive decisions ripple through her household, unraveling the hidden, haunting past of a man who thought he had buried his secrets forever. This tale explores the heavy cost of pride, the fragility of reputations, and the inescapable nature of one's own history.
Second Book of Tales
Eugene Field
A collection of disparate voices—part fairy tale, part frontier tall tale, and part journalistic satire—this volume captures the whimsical, often melancholic spirit of a nineteenth-century storyteller at the height of his powers.
Sweet Clover: A Romance of the White City
Clara Louise Burnham
HOOK Set against the shimmering backdrop of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, this novel follows two sisters navigating love and social transformation in the heart of a rapidly evolving Gilded Age Chicago.
The Dixie Book of Days
Matthew Page Andrews
This collection invites readers to travel through the calendar year by way of the Southern United States, pairing significant historical dates with evocative literary excerpts. It serves as both a historical record and a window into the regional identity of the early 20th century.
The Lady of the Decoration
Frances Little
HOOK A young widow flees the bitter memories of a failed marriage for the strange, blossoming world of Meiji-era Japan. Amidst the unfamiliarity of mission work, she discovers an unexpected path toward profound personal renewal.
The Lost House
Richard Harding Davis
A resourceful newspaper correspondent finds himself in an escalating London nightmare, risking everything to rescue an American heiress from a dangerous captor in an isolated house.
The Prodigal Judge
Vaughan Kester
A disgraced, wandering judge seeks redemption and the truth about a lost heir, navigating a web of greed and violence in the American frontier.
The Water Goats, and Other Troubles
Ellis Parker Butler
A suburban landscape becomes a stage for absurd, escalating complications in this collection of tall tales. These stories transform mundane civic duties and domestic chores into grand, farcical disasters.
'Way Down East: A Romance of New England Life
Joseph Rhode Grismer
A young woman, burdened by a secret betrayal and a tragic past, seeks refuge in a rural community only to find her survival—and her dignity—challenged by the very people who offered her shelter.