Free summaries
American Literature — page 51
3,593 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 51 of 75.
The Hall of Fantasy (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A quiet wanderer treads through a glowing, marble-paved hall where dreamers, inventors, and visionaries gather under stained-glass light.
The Ladies' Vase
American lady
A quiet heart and self-governed mind form the true foundation of female character, turning daily duties into acts of lasting spiritual grace.
The Memoirs of an American Citizen
Robert Herrick
A young man flees small-town trouble for Chicago, where he trades his conscience for financial dominion and a seat in the United States Senate.
The Reign of Law
James Lane Allen
A young Kentuckian breaks from his inherited dogma, trading the certainty of a rural pulpit for the hard, clear light of modern thought.
The Rudder Grangers Abroad and Other Stories
Frank R. Stockton
A collection of lighthearted tales weaves together domestic travel, romantic mishaps, and elaborate tall stories told by the hearth.
Abe and Mawruss: Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter
Montague Glass
A look at the comical, fast-paced world of New York’s garment district reveal how pride, panic, and fierce loyalty drive two unforgettable business partners.
Dorothy's Tour
Evelyn Raymond
A young violin virtuoso embarks on a high-stakes concert tour that brings artistic triumph, personal growth, and clues to a hidden inheritance.
Holmes' Own Story: In Which the Alleged Multi-murderer and Arch Conspirator Tells of the Twenty-two Tragic Deaths and Disappearances in Which He Is Said to Be Implicated, With Moyamensing Prison Diary Appendix
Herman W. Mudgett
In the shadows of a Philadelphia jail cell, a accused killer writes to save his neck, spinning an intricate web of insurance frauds, double identities, and phantom accomplices to explain away twenty-two missing lives.
Joscelyn Cheshire: A Story of Revolutionary Days in the Carolinas
Sara Beaumont Kennedy
A fiery Loyalist woman and a devoted Patriot soldier test the limits of devotion, duty, and pride amidst the turmoil of the American Revolution.
Liége on the line of march
Glenna Lindsley Bigelow
Terrifying midnight bombardments force a quiet Belgian countryside household to abandon their beds and cower in the wine cellar.
Perch of the Devil
Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
A restless young miner seeks fortune in the Montana copper hills while his ambitious wife transformed by social training navigates love and class in Butte.
T. B. Peterson's List of Publications (1857)
Pa.) T.B. Peterson & Brothers (Philadelphia
Mid-nineteenth-century American readers hunger for affordable, sensational stories, and a Philadelphia publisher steps forward to organize, package, and deliver popular literature directly to their doorsteps.
The Barrier: A Novel
Allen French
Driven by an unyielding ambition for public power, a financial promoter seeks to dominate both a New England city and the women of its most exclusive social circle.
The Broken Gate: A Novel
Emerson Hough
An unwed mother in a small Midwestern town fights to shield her grown son from the shame of his birth, only for a sudden trial and a small-town murder to expose the secrets of her past.
The Hawks of Hawk-Hollow: A Tradition of Pennsylavania
Robert Montgomery Bird
An ancient, bloody feud over lost land and ruined lives leaves a shadow over a Pennsylvania valley, where a returning son must choose between revenge and peace.
The Light of the Star: A Novel
Hamlin Garland
Behind the electric signboards of Broadway, a fiery young playwright and a brilliant stage star clash over art, compromise, and commercial success, discovering that their fiercest professional battles mirror a dangerous, irreversible attraction.
The Sea Bride
Ben Ames Williams
A young woman marries a formidable whaling captain and takes to the sea, only to watch her husband's strength and sanity collapse under the harsh demands of the voyage.
A Pair of Patient Lovers
William Dean Howells
A long-delayed engagement, a mislaid piano, a crisis of faith, a courtship by mail, and a convict's return reveal the quiet turning points of American lives.
Complete Project Gutenberg William Dean Howells Literature Essays
William Dean Howells
A young writer journeys from the Western frontier to New England's literary heartland, meeting the legends who shape American letters.
Dreamy Hollow
Sumner Charles Britton
A secluded Long Island mansion, a dead woman's voice calling across the dark, and a disgraced manager driven mad by greed converge in a melodrama of obsession, spiritualism, and justice.
Eve's Diary, Part 3
Mark Twain
A playful yet deeply moving re-imagining of the Creation, this diary captures the wonder of discovery, the friction between two complementary minds, and the quiet weight of enduring love.
Frank Merriwell's Endurance
Burt L. Standish
High ideals meet relentless athleticism in a classic tale of clean living, competitive spirit, and unbeatable grit.
How The Raven Died: 1902, From "Wolfville Nights"
Alfred Henry Lewis
A ruthless chief's fatal weakness for curiosity leads him into a trap constructed of deadly secrets and endless storytelling.
Letters from a Son to His Self-Made Father: Being the Replies to Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
Charles Eustace Merriman
A rich, satirical volley between a pampered son and his meatpacking magnate father, exposing the friction between inherited privilege and self-made ambition.
Life of Edwin Forrest, the American Tragedian. Volume 2 (of 2)
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
An actor’s body and voice can shake a theater, but his legacy depends on the fragile, biased memories of his contemporaries.
Life on the Mississippi, Part 12
Mark Twain
An observer tracks the swift forward march of nineteenth-century American commerce along the upper reaches of a great national river, recording both the booming modern cities and the vanishing wilderness legends in his wake.
Mercy Philbrick's Choice
Helen Hunt Jackson
A young New England woman must choose between her unyielding moral integrity and the comforting illusions of romantic devotion.
Mingo, and Other Sketches in Black and White
Joel Chandler Harris
Deeply rooted in the shifting soil of Post-Reconstruction Georgia, these atmospheric tales examine the delicate threads of loyalty, pride, and survival binding Black and white rural southerners together after the Civil War.
Scenes in Switzerland
American Tract Society
An autumn travel narrative through Alpine valleys becomes a spiritual pilgrimage, discovering that the true grandeur of Switzerland rests not in its icy peaks, but in the humble faith of its mountain villagers.
Six little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's
Laura Lee Hope
A bustling summer in Boston brings everyday magic to a big family, where missing dolls, stray animals, and misplaced pocketbooks turn routine afternoons into grand childhood adventures.
The Apartment Next Door
William Johnston
A woman risks everything to uncover a deadly wartime plot, only to find her heart divided between duty to her country and her feeling for the suspect living right across the hall.
The Birds' Christmas Carol
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
A sick child brings warmth to her wealthy home and spends her final Christmas creating a magnificent feast for nine poor neighbors.
The Brute
Frederic Arnold Kummer
An unyielding husband and an ambitious wife clash when an unexpected fortune tests the boundaries of pride, love, and moral compromise.
The Girl from Alsace: A Romance of the Great War, Originally Published under the Title of Little Comrade
Burton Egbert Stevenson
An inadvertent partnership forged on the eve of war plunges two strangers into a desperate trek across hostile territory.
The Jack-Knife Man
Ellis Parker Butler
A gentle Iowa craftsman transformed by an orphaned boy learns that a quiet life, a sharp pocketknife, and an unexpectedly fierce heart are enough to build a real family.
The Walking Delegate
Leroy Scott
A corrupt labor boss uses his union as a personal gold mine until a principled steelworker decides to risk his livelihood, his marriage, and his reputation to bring him down.
A Virtuoso's Collection (From "Mosses from an Old Manse")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A quiet stroll down a bustling street leads into an improbable hall where legend, literature, and history sit side by side.
Dancers in the Dark
Dorothy Speare
The young women of the Jazz Age navigate a dizzying world of dance halls, broken hearts, and the pursuit of artistic identity. This is a story of how the rhythm of the city reshapes the lives of those caught in its beat.
David Harum: A Story of American Life
Edward Noyes Westcott
A young man of fallen fortunes accepts a banking post in rural New York, where an eccentric, sharp-witted horse trader becomes his mentor and ally.
Dr. Lavendar's People
Margaret Wade Campbell Deland
Beneath the quiet, elm-shaded streets of a nineteenth-century Pennsylvania village, human hearts wrestle with the quiet, overwhelming complexities of conscience, unspoken love, and the painful necessity of forgiveness.
Ewing's Lady
Harry Leon Wilson
A young Western painter travels east to sell his art, only to find himself entangled in an old family secret that reshapes his future.
Something about Eve: A comedy of fig-leaves
James Branch Cabell
A young man abandons his mundane life to pursue a legendary kingdom, only to discover that the truest destination is the bittersweet architecture of his own imagination.
The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City
Laura Lee Hope
Two pairs of small-town twins step into the rush of early twentieth-century Manhattan, discovering that a sprawling metropolis holds as much room for innocent wonder as for getting hopelessly lost.
The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World
Margaret Vandercook
A young woman carrying three unlit silver candles down a cold hallway must decide whether to give up her family home on Thanksgiving Day.
The Ghost of Guir House
Charles Willing Beale
A young man travels to a remote Virginia estate following a misdirected letter, only to find himself entangled in an eerie world of ancient secrets, occult philosophy, and spectral encounters.
The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1)
Various
A fierce, vital snapshot of early twentieth-century American modernism captures a culture at a crossroads, where radical theatrical experiments, unyielding political critiques, and avant-garde verse collide against the darkening backdrop of global war.
The Long Run: 1916
Edith Wharton
A discreet refusal of a grand passion leaves two upper-class lovers trapped in the dull, conventional life they were once desperate to escape.
The Sorrows of a Show Girl: A Story of the Great "White Way"
Kenneth McGaffey
A breezy, slang-drenched Monologue of New York’s theater district, this episodic novella follows a street-wise chorus girl navigating stage doors, champagne suppers, and erratic suitors. Through her breathless chatter, the book offers a comedic, unvarnished portrait of turn-of-the-century Broadway life.