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American Literature — page 62

3,373 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 62 of 71.

Cover of The Thunders of Silence

The Thunders of Silence

Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) Cobb

A charismatic politician builds a career on national attention, only to learn how quickly a country can erased a man by simply looking away.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Alida

Alida

Amelia Stratton Comfield

A young woman navigating the social pressures and personal tragedies of the American Revolutionary era learns to balance youthful emotion with the stoic demands of duty and faith.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Elsie Marley, Honey

Elsie Marley, Honey

Joslyn Gray

Two teenage namesakes swap lives on a train bound for New England, discovering that taking on another girl's world reveals who they are meant to be.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of How Spring Came in New England

How Spring Came in New England

Charles Dudley Warner

A cold wind blows through the calendar, teasing human hope with false thaws, premature blossoms, and sudden blizzards. This wry observation captures the volatile battle between polar ice and tropical air that defines the northeastern American landscape.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of In the Saddle

In the Saddle

Oliver Optic

The Civil War is not merely a clash of armies, but a fracture of the home, where young men must choose between the comfort of their kin and the call of their conscience.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of May Iverson's Career

May Iverson's Career

Elizabeth Garver Jordan

This chronicle follows a young, ambitious convent graduate as she navigates the competitive world of New York journalism and eventually finds success as a playwright. It is a portrait of a woman claiming her own voice.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Patience Sparhawk and Her Times: A Novel

Patience Sparhawk and Her Times: A Novel

Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

This is a study of a fiercely independent woman navigating the rigid social structures and internal conflicts of late 19th-century America. It captures the tension between the raw, individualistic spirit of a "new race" and the stifling expectations of traditional society.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Sunny Boy and His Playmates

Sunny Boy and His Playmates

Ramy Allison White

When six-year-old Sunny Boy Horton steps out into the winter air, everyday childhood adventures unexpectedly turn into high-stakes rescues, lost grandfathers, trapped horses, and runaway barns.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

Various

A vibrant slice of Civil War-era intellect, this issue captures a nation reimagining its culture, science, and moral obligations amid conflict.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Bread Line: A Story of a Paper

The Bread Line: A Story of a Paper

Albert Bigelow Paine

This is a cautionary, often humorous account of four ambitious men in turn-of-the-century New York who stake their futures on a scheme to launch a magazine without a cent of capital.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Cost

The Cost

David Graham Phillips

A woman’s choice between two radically different men becomes a quiet, decades-long battle for her selfhood.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of The Doctor's Christmas Eve

The Doctor's Christmas Eve

James Lane Allen

A physician in the twilight of his youth confronts the ghosts of his own unfulfilled desires on a cold, transformative Christmas Eve in Kentucky.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Lash

The Lash

Olin L. (Olin Linus) Lyman

The city’s political machine is a web of corruption, and the man at the center finds his own past catching up to him in the form of an unlikely, troubled investigator.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Pace That Kills: A Chronicle

The Pace That Kills: A Chronicle

Edgar Saltus

The fast life of a cynical socialite leads to ruinous consequences when he marries for a fortune that proves as phantom as his own integrity. This grim chronicle explores the collision between inherited prestige and the harsh realities of debt and deceit.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of The Second Generation

The Second Generation

David Graham Phillips

A self-made titan disinherits his children to save their souls, forcing a generation raised for idle luxury into the furnace of real work.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of A Little Florida Lady

A Little Florida Lady

Dorothy C. (Dorothy Charlotte) Paine

This is a story of a young girl’s relocation from the frozen North to the sun-drenched, wild landscape of Florida, where she learns to navigate the complexities of nature, friendship, and responsibility.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of A Town Is Drowning

A Town Is Drowning

Frederik Pohl

This is a spare, urgent portrait of a community thrust into sudden, catastrophic crisis. It traces the disintegration of order and the raw human responses—both selfish and heroic—that emerge when the earth gives way.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville

Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville

L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

A wealthy uncle and his three spirited nieces arrive at a neglected, mysterious farm in the backwoods of Millville, where they soon find themselves embroiled in a local puzzle involving a hidden inheritance and a shady hardware merchant.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Mackinac and Lake Stories

Mackinac and Lake Stories

Mary Hartwell Catherwood

HOOK Set against the rugged, untamed beauty of the Great Lakes, these stories capture the fleeting, intense moments of lives lived on the edge of the wilderness.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Marjorie Dean, High School Freshman

Marjorie Dean, High School Freshman

Josephine Chase

Marjorie Dean is a high-spirited girl navigating the social complexities of a new high school, where her integrity is tested by elitist peers and a false accusation against her best friend.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Efficiency Expert

The Efficiency Expert

Edgar Rice Burroughs

A star athlete leaves university to conquer the working world, only to find himself trapped in a web of urban poverty, false accusations, and a murder mystery that threatens his future.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The House: An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife, Alice

The House: An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife, Alice

Eugene Field

A gentle, observational tale of a scholarly astronomer and his wife who discover that the dream of owning a home is less about architecture and more about managing the eccentricities of neighbors, contractors, and life itself.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Life of Nancy

The Life of Nancy

Sarah Orne Jewett

This collection of stories captures the quiet dignity of New England life, where the deepest emotional currents often run beneath the surface of routine. It is a portrait of resilience, finding beauty in the small, enduring connections that sustain people through the long winters of life.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Train Boy

The Train Boy

Alger, Horatio, Jr.

The train boy is a classic archetype of American self-reliance, charting the rise of a virtuous youth through industry, honesty, and a dash of good luck. This narrative follows a young man as he navigates the precarious social and economic landscape of the late 19th-century Midwest.

American Literature5 min read
Cover of Zelda Dameron

Zelda Dameron

Meredith Nicholson

A young woman returns home to a changing Midwestern city, navigating the stifling expectations of her father and the encroaching influence of a world shifting from tradition to commerce.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of A Texas Blue Bonnet

A Texas Blue Bonnet

Caroline Emilia Jacobs

A wild, spirited girl from a Texas ranch struggles to reconcile her love for the open prairie with the structured life of her formal New England relatives.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of An Echo Of Antietam: 1898

An Echo Of Antietam: 1898

Edward Bellamy

This story captures the quiet, devastating intersection of private romance and public duty during the American Civil War, as a young couple faces the inevitable separation of a regiment’s departure.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of Devota

Devota

Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans

A long-standing misunderstanding between two proud hearts finds its reckoning under the moonlight of a country estate. Thirteen years of silence dissolve as long-held secrets and private griefs finally come to light.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Kathie's Soldiers

Kathie's Soldiers

Amanda M. Douglas

This story follows a young girl discovering that true courage is found in the quiet, daily commitment to duty, kindness, and faith, rather than in the grand gestures of war.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Michael O'Halloran

Michael O'Halloran

Gene Stratton-Porter

The life of a streetwise newsboy changes forever when he adopts an invalid girl, proving that goodness is a principle, not a purchase. This story captures the moral fervor of early 20th-century American optimism.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 06, May 7, 1870

Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 06, May 7, 1870

Various

This nineteenth-century periodical offers a sharp-witted, satirical window into the political scandals, social pretensions, and daily irritations of post-Civil War New York. It functions as a comedic mirror held up to the excesses of the Gilded Age.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Running to Waste: The Story of a Tomboy

Running to Waste: The Story of a Tomboy

George M. (George Melville) Baker

A wild-spirited girl finds herself at a crossroads, where she must choose between the aimless freedom of her youth and the structured demands of a maturing life.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Starved Rock

Starved Rock

Edgar Lee Masters

Humanity exists in a state of perpetual, restless flux, caught between the desire for eternal connection and the cold certainty that all things—even the most profound passions—must eventually dissolve into change.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Great Valley

The Great Valley

Edgar Lee Masters

A sprawling, ambitious portrait of the American landscape, this collection captures the restless energy of a young nation expanding toward its uncertain future.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Lawton Girl

The Lawton Girl

Harold Frederic

A sharp-eyed observation of social ambition in a changing American town, where the collision of inherited wealth and industrial strife leaves no life untouched.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The nameless man

The nameless man

Natalie Sumner Lincoln

A haunted man is forced to confront his past when he becomes the primary suspect in two brutal, seemingly impossible murders.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Point of View

The Point of View

Henry James

A transatlantic voyage serves as the threshold for a group of travelers reconsidering their identities as they navigate the clash between Old World expectations and the raw, unfolding reality of the American Republic.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Prince and the Pauper, Part 7

The Prince and the Pauper, Part 7

Mark Twain

An unlikely pair—a displaced monarch and a disinherited knight—navigate the brutal underworld and deceptive drawing rooms of Tudor England. Their quest is not merely for a crown, but for recognition in a world that denies their existence.

American Literature7 min read
Cover of The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition: A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific international exposition

The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition: A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific international exposition

Stella G. S. (Stella George Stern) Perry

HOOK This illustrated survey captures the fleeting, monumental ambition of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, documenting the sculptural and mural masterpieces that transformed a San Francisco landscape into a temporary city of dreams.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Two Wives

The Two Wives

T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur

The struggle between domestic harmony and the corrosive influence of secret habits defines the lives of two households. This narrative explores how the presence or absence of a supportive, self-forgetting partner determines whether a man survives his own worst impulses.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of The Vehement Flame

The Vehement Flame

Margaret Wade Campbell Deland

A young man’s impulsive marriage to an older woman unravels under the weight of jealousy and a hidden past, leaving him to navigate the wreckage of his own honor and the persistence of new love.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Town and Country

Town and Country

John S. (John Stowell) Adams

HOOK A tapestry of nineteenth-century moral instruction, this collection weaves together sentimental poetry and cautionary tales to remind the reader that kindness, faith, and sobriety are the only true paths to a meaningful life.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of While Caroline Was Growing

While Caroline Was Growing

Josephine Daskam Bacon

Caroline is a spirited young girl who, while navigating the rigid expectations of her upbringing and the boredom of her lessons, finds herself a silent observer of the complexities of the adult world.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of Yankee Gypsies

Yankee Gypsies

John Greenleaf Whittier

A keen observer of human nature finds his solitary, rain-swept day interrupted by a persistent wanderer, prompting a nostalgic journey into the lives of the nomadic figures who once defined his childhood landscape.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of A Colored Man Round the World

A Colored Man Round the World

David F. Dorr

This 1858 travelogue captures a world in transition through the eyes of a traveler who defies the rigid boundaries of his time. It is a candid, spirited, and often surprising chronicle of mid-19th-century Europe and the Middle East, written with a rare blend of intellectual curiosity and personal defiance.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of A Singular Life

A Singular Life

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

The son of a saintly mother and a man of unyielding conviction, a young minister trades the comforts of academic life for the hard, salt-sprayed reality of a fishing town.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of An Unofficial Patriot

An Unofficial Patriot

Helen H. (Helen Hamilton) Gardener

A Southern clergyman faces the impossible moral cost of his conscience, navigating the deep divide of the American Civil War as he attempts to protect his family and his humanity.

American Literature6 min read
Cover of In Madeira Place: 1887

In Madeira Place: 1887

Heman White Chaplin

In the late 1880s, a quiet enclave near the wharves of a bustling American city becomes a microcosm of political disillusionment. When a local French immigrant community discovers that their idealized version of American democracy is just as prone to corruption as the Old World systems they fled, the faith of their…

American Literature6 min read
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