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American Literature — page 62
4,848 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 62 of 101.
Secret History
Leonora Sansay
A woman chronicles her desperate flight from revolution-torn Saint-Domingue, navigating a landscape of colonial collapse, personal betrayal, and the fragile search for autonomy.
That Affair at Elizabeth
Burton Egbert Stevenson
A bride vanishes on her wedding day, leaving behind a baffled groom and a mystery that spirals into a dark, unfolding tragedy. Secrets buried in a quiet town threaten to consume everyone involved in the search.
The Briary Bush: A Novel
Floyd Dell
The briary bush of the title is a metaphor for the thorns of early adulthood and the complexities of a marriage built on high-minded ideals rather than domestic reality.
The Cabala
Thornton Wilder
The story of an impressionable young American finding his footing among the ruins and high society of post-World War I Rome, this novel explores the fragile intersection of ancient tradition and human frailty.
The Cat's Paw
Natalie Sumner Lincoln
A high-society murder in Washington, D.C., unravels a web of greed, hidden wills, and deadly secrets. Two lovers must outpace a cunning killer to clear their names and secure their future.
The Other Side of the Door
Lucia Chamberlain
The city of San Francisco is a place of fog, shifting sand, and restless tides, where a young woman’s testimony in a sensational murder trial upends her quiet life. This atmospheric mystery blurs the line between public reputation and private truth.
The Rim of the Desert
Ada Woodruff Anderson
The landscape of the Pacific Northwest and the rugged, unmapped wilderness of Alaska collide in this expansive tale of duty, reputation, and the enduring pull of the frontier.
Indian Summer
Emily Grant Hutchings
The late-blooming of a woman’s spirit, long suppressed by the expectations of duty and the rigid conventions of a Midwestern college town, finally finds its season. This story captures the ache of a life half-lived and the transformative power of a quiet, unexpected connection.
Mrs. Farrell
William Dean Howells
A young widow’s restless search for meaning entangles two devoted friends in a psychological web, forcing them to confront the fragile boundaries of loyalty, desire, and self-deception in a quiet summer retreat.
Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
A spirited cast of city dwellers descends upon a rural district to disrupt a corrupt political machine and solve a haunting family mystery.
Baseball Joe at Yale
Lester Chadwick
A young pitcher trades his small-town diamond for the prestige of an Ivy League campus, only to find that the hardest battles aren't always played on the mound.
Bear Brownie: The Life of a Bear
Harry Perry Robinson
This narrative offers a poignant, firsthand perspective on the natural world, capturing the transition from the innocence of cubhood to the solitary, hard-won wisdom of a mountain bear. It is an intimate study of survival, family, and the encroaching shadow of human civilization.
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum
L. O. Curon
Chicago at the dawn of the twentieth century was a city defined by an unholy alliance between its municipal government and a sprawling, protected underworld. This investigation chronicles how the levers of law and order were systematically dismantled for profit.
Down at Caxton's
William A. McDermott
A collection of literary portraits and social commentary, this volume captures a specific moment in late 19th-century American intellectual life through the eyes of a devout and observant physician.
Frank Merriwell's Diamond Foes
Burt L. Standish
The quintessential American sports hero, Frank "Chip" Merriwell, Jr., faces down corrupt rivals and personal peril to prove that character is the ultimate winning strategy on and off the baseball diamond.
Hubert's Wife: A Story for You
Minnie Mary Lee
The path that seems right to a man may lead to death, but for those who wander, the journey back toward grace often begins in the quiet wreckage of worldly expectation. This narrative traces the lives of a Southern family navigating the shifting landscapes of faith, marriage, and personal transformation.
In the swim
Richard Savage
This is a sharp-edged, cynical portrait of Gilded Age New York, where social climbing and financial speculation are blood sports played in the boardrooms and ballrooms of the elite. It serves as a grim cautionary tale about the volatility of wealth and the hollowness of high society.
Life on the Mississippi, Part 9
Mark Twain
The Mississippi River is a living, treacherous, and ever-changing character, viewed through the eyes of a man who once navigated its pulse and later returned to measure its transformation.
Lippincott's Magazine, October 1885
Various
This collection captures the restless, observational spirit of the late nineteenth century through a mosaic of travel, social commentary, and fiction. It offers a candid glimpse into an era defined by expansion and shifting cultural boundaries.
Making the House a Home
Edgar A. (Edgar Albert) Guest
A house is merely a building of brick and mortar, but a home is a sanctuary forged through the crucible of shared joy, persistent struggle, and the indelible marks left by those we love.
Recollections of Europe
James Fenimore Cooper
A traveler’s candid observations on the social customs and landscapes of Europe, reflecting the shifting perceptions of an American abroad in the early nineteenth century.
Retrospective exhibition of important works of John Singer Sargent, February 23rd to March 22nd, 1924
Grand Central Art Galleries
This archival record captures a pivotal moment in American art history, documenting a landmark 1924 exhibition that celebrated the definitive master of his era. It serves as both a historical catalog and a testament to the prestige surrounding one of the most significant portraitists of the twentieth century.
Snow-Blind
Katharine Newlin Burt
In a landscape of blinding, eternal snow, a fugitive hiding from his past finds his fragile, isolated world shattered by the arrival of a woman who forces him to confront his own deception.
The Associate Hermits
Frank R. Stockton
A party of suburban vacationers ventures into the deep woods to find peace, only to discover that their notions of independence and romantic solitude are far more complicated than the wilderness itself.
The green bay tree
Louis Bromfield
Caught between the dying traditions of the American frontier and the allure of a sophisticated European life, two sisters navigate the crushing indifference of a world reshaped by industrial greed.
The Sleeping-Car: A Farce
William Dean Howells
A comedy of errors unfolding within the cramped, curtained confines of a moving train, this brief play captures the mounting frustrations of a sleepless night. It relies on the absurdity of mistaken identities and the inevitable friction that arises when exhausted strangers are forced into close quarters.
The White Flag
Gene Stratton-Porter
The pride and greed of a small town’s most powerful man unravel in a slow, inevitable reckoning, leaving his victims to build new lives from the ruins of his legacy.
Doom of the House of Duryea
Earl Peirce
A long-estranged father and son attempt to reconcile in the Maine woods, only to find themselves trapped by a centuries-old, blood-drinking family curse that defies rational explanation.
How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's: And Other Stories
W. H. H. (William Henry Harrison) Murray
The shifting moods of the human heart find their truest reflection in the wild, whether on a bustling village street or deep within the silent, pine-shadowed woods. These tales navigate the intersections of joy, justice, and the quiet dignity of a life well-lived.
Hugh Worthington
Mary Jane Holmes
The shifting fortunes of a Kentucky household and the quiet, enduring strength of the people caught in its orbit reveal that true character is often found far from the comforts of wealth.
Nick Carter Stories No. 146, June 26, 1915: Paying the Price
Nicholas (House name) Carter
The city of Washington finds itself under the shadow of a dark intrigue, where a priest’s murder and a government conspiracy converge. A legendary investigator must peel back the layers of a deception that threatens the very heart of the capital.
Plane and Plank
Oliver Optic
A young man seeks his fortune as a carpenter in St. Louis, only to discover that the wreckage of his own family’s past lies hidden within the city's dark, gambling-filled underbelly.
Provença
Ezra Pound
A young man wanders the landscape of history, his voice shifting between the weary wisdom of an ancient exile and the sharp, defiant blade of a medieval troubadour. This is a collection of voices—a mask-play where the past is not a museum piece but a living, breathing fire.
The Big Blue Soldier
Grace Livingston Hill
A weary veteran of the Great War finds unexpected sanctuary in a stranger’s home, where a quiet act of kindness bridges the divide between his cynical past and a hopeful, unforeseen future.
The Cost
David Graham Phillips
A woman’s choice between two radically different men becomes a quiet, decades-long battle for her selfhood.
The Day of the Beast
Zane Grey
This story of a shell-shocked veteran struggling to reconcile his wartime sacrifices with a rapidly changing home front offers a sobering look at post-1918 American disillusionment. It is a portrait of a man searching for meaning in a society he no longer recognizes as his own.
The Glebe 1914/03 (Vol. 1, No. 6): Erna Vitek
Alfred Kreymborg
A young waitress finds herself the subject of an intellectual experiment by three men who seek to categorize her moral character, only to discover that her true nature defies their narrow definitions. This brisk, provocative narrative captures the tensions of early 20th-century urban life through the lens of a…
The Great Pearl Secret
C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson
A newlywed Duchess discovers her husband’s legendary Tsarina pearls are counterfeit, sparking a desperate, high-stakes hunt through the elite social circles and shadowy underworlds of 1920s New York.
The New Boys at Oakdale
Morgan Scott
A high-stakes baseball rivalry at Oakdale Academy turns into a harrowing test of character when a secret poker game leads to a student’s disappearance and a desperate, guilt-ridden search.
The Third Alarm: A Story of the New York Fire Department
James L. (James Lauren) Ford
A young boy finds his purpose among the clanging bells and thundering engines of the New York Fire Department, only to discover his own mysterious past hidden within the city’s shadows.
The West from a car window
Richard Harding Davis
The West is a vast, unfinished, and rugged expanse that offers grand scenery and endless hope to the dreamer, but it remains a place best visited rather than permanently inhabited.
Friendship and Folly: A Novel
Maria Louise Pool
The volatile intersection of love, duty, and social expectation reveals how easily the heart’s most reckless impulses can dismantle the lives of those caught in their path.
From the Easy Chair, Volume 2
George William Curtis
With a gentle wit and a moral compass set firmly to the nineteenth century, these observations capture the vanishing pulse of an evolving America. They offer a window into a world where public character was still a subject for serious, if conversational, inquiry.
Marjorie in Command
Carolyn Wells
A temporary family upheaval tests the resourcefulness of four siblings left to manage their household. Their spirited attempts to balance duty, play, and unconventional charity define this tale of childhood independence.
Pitcher Pollock
Christy Mathewson
A young boy finds his footing in a new town through the combined rigors of a hardware store apprenticeship and the high-stakes world of high school baseball.
Rena's experiment
Mary Jane Holmes
Two young cousins orchestrate a masquerade to win a wealthy inheritance, only to find that their elaborate deception unravels under the weight of genuine feeling and an eccentric, life-altering will.
The Confessions of Artemas Quibble: Being the Ingenuous and Unvarnished History of Artemas Quibble, Esquire, One-Time Practitioner in the New York Criminal Courts, Together with an Account of the Divers Wiles, Tricks, Sophistries, Technicalities, and Sundry Artifices of Himself and Others of the Fraternity, Commonly Yclept "Shysters" or "Shyster Lawyers"
Arthur Cheney Train
A young man abandons his aspirations for an honorable legal career to become a "shyster," discovering that in the New York criminal courts, success relies more on artifice than on the law.
The Fortune Hunter
David Graham Phillips
A master of pretense meets his match in the quiet, earnest virtues of a community that values labor over performance. This story chronicles the collision between a hollow, self-dramatizing charlatan and the people whose lives he temporarily unravels.