Free summaries
American Literature — page 64
3,373 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 64 of 71.
The Bradys After a Chinese Princess
Francis Worcester Doughty
A fog-drenched San Francisco bay serves as the stage for a high-stakes hunt, where veteran detectives pursue a elusive criminal mastermind and the captive of a sinister oriental conspiracy.
The Cinder Buggy: A Fable in Iron and Steel
Garet Garrett
A sweeping chronicle of the American steel age, this fable traces the rise of industrial titans and the shifting, often ruinous, human costs of progress.
The Gilded Age, Part 2
Mark Twain
In a landscape defined by hollow promises and sudden, ruinous ambition, a cast of dreamers mistakes the illusions of wealth for the bedrock of destiny.
The Isle of Retribution
Edison Marshall
Hook A spoiled socialite is cast into the brutal wilds of the Arctic, where he must transform from a soft-handed idler into a man of iron to survive his captor and the elements.
The Lost Army
Thomas Wallace Knox
Two teenage boys from Iowa trade the quiet safety of their hometown shop for the smoke and uncertainty of the American Civil War, discovering that service often lies in the shadows rather than the front lines.
The man she hated
Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.
The heroine of this tale is a humble sewing machine operator who discovers that beauty and character are often dangerous commodities. Her life is a relentless pursuit of happiness against the backdrop of a changing New York.
Those Brewster Children
Florence Morse Kingsley
The domestic sphere is a battlefield of love and logic, where a mother’s gentle patience struggles against the rigid expectations of her peers and the unpredictable impulses of her three young children.
Aikenside
Mary Jane Holmes
A young woman’s journey from a life of modest poverty to the grand halls of an estate reveals the enduring power of devotion and the resilience of the human heart in the face of tragedy.
Diddie, Dumps & Tot
Louise Clarke Pyrnelle
HOOK Three young sisters grow up in the sheltered, insular world of a Southern plantation, where the stories and songs of the enslaved people surrounding them form the rhythm of their daily lives.
I Was a Teen-Age Secret Weapon
Richard Sabia
A gentle, tow-headed boy becomes the most devastating weapon in human history simply by existing. He is not a soldier or a spy, but an accidental catalyst for the total collapse of hostile regimes.
In Happy Valley
Fox, John, Jr.
The rugged, isolated mountains of Kentucky serve as the stage for this collection of tales, where ancient codes of honor, sudden violence, and the transformative power of modern influence collide in a quiet valley. These stories capture a world poised on the precipice of change, painting a vivid portrait of a…
In the Clutch of the War-God
Milo Hastings
After a Japanese invasion exposes the physical and moral decay of a stagnant America, a young woman caught between two worlds helps usher in a radical transformation of her nation’s future.
Luck and Pluck
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A resilient orphan fights to reclaim his rightful inheritance from a scheming stepmother and her spoiled son. Through grit and integrity, he navigates a journey from dispossession to triumph.
Mike Flannery On Duty and Off
Ellis Parker Butler
Mike Flannery is an express agent whose literal-minded devotion to corporate rules leads him into absurd, high-stakes battles with bureaucratic indifference and oddball visitors.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 05, April 30, 1870
Various
A satirical snapshot of post-Civil War American life, this weekly periodical uses wit and parody to dissect the political, social, and cultural obsessions of 1870.
"Short Sixes": Stories to be Read While the Candle Burns
H. C. (Henry Cuyler) Bunner
These tales illuminate the quiet, often absurd complexities of American life, offering a witty lens through which to view human vanity, social aspiration, and the persistent endurance of the heart.
Strawberry Acres
Grace S. (Grace Smith) Richmond
When an unexpected inheritance offers a group of struggling siblings a way out of their stifling city life, they discover that reclaiming a neglected estate requires far more than just manual labor.
Streets of Night
John Dos Passos
A haunting portrait of youth stifled by the rigid expectations of early 20th-century Boston, this narrative traces the desperate search for meaning among a circle of sensitive, alienated friends. It is a work of restless atmosphere and deep, melancholy insight.
The Albany Depot
William Dean Howells
A husband’s innocent errand turns into a chaotic afternoon of mistaken identity and social peril within the frantic, echoing confines of a railway station. This lighthearted farce captures the absurdity of domestic life and the fragility of composure.
The High School Pitcher
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
A group of resourceful sophomores battles an unjust principal and a rival classmate to dominate the baseball diamond. Loyalty and hard work define their path to local glory.
The Hills of Desire
Richard Aumerle Maher
The story follows a young woman’s desperate quest for autonomy and her complex, unorthodox marriage during the tumultuous years of the First World War. It is a portrait of two people building a private sanctuary against a world that demands their conformity.
The lion's share
Octave Thanet
The arrival of a young man’s sudden disappearance in the shadow of a high-stakes financial war creates a tangle of suspicion that only a seasoned soldier can unravel. Amidst the rising tensions of a changing country, a quiet mystery unfolds in the grand houses of San Francisco just as the earth begins to tremble.
The Song of the Stone Wall
Helen Keller
The ancient stones of New England hold a silent history, and beneath the touch of a sensitive hand, they reveal the epic struggle of a people who carved a nation from the wilderness.
The Stingy Receiver
Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
A wealthy, invalid recluse attempts to orchestrate the lives of those around her, only to discover that the most precious human connections cannot be purchased or commanded.
The Trufflers: A Story
Samuel Merwin
The search for authentic meaning often leads to the most unexpected corners of one's own character. In a world of artistic posturing, the most vital truths are frequently found by those who stop looking for them.
Bad Hugh
Mary Jane Holmes
A deeply moral, nineteenth-century domestic drama, this story traces the long-suffering path of a misunderstood man and a gentle woman, bound together by the trials of a divided nation and the harsh judgments of their social circle.
Brite and Fair
Henry A. (Henry Augustus) Shute
This diary captures the relentless, messy, and hilarious energy of childhood, where every minor grievance is a tragedy and every afternoon is a potential battlefield. It is an honest, unvarnished look at a boy’s world.
Evenings at Donaldson Manor
Maria J. (Maria Jane) McIntosh
A circle of friends gathers by the fireside to share stories that illuminate the complexities of the human heart. These narratives weave together lessons of moral duty and the enduring power of selfless love.
Mamba's daughters
DuBose Heyward
Mamba, an indomitable woman of the Charleston waterfront, orchestrates a decades-long struggle to elevate her daughter and granddaughter above the constraints of their station. It is a story of fierce maternal ambition and the heavy costs of social ascent.
My Chinese Marriage
Mae M. Franking
A young American student’s cross-cultural marriage survives intense familial opposition and geographic upheaval, only to face a final, tragic test of endurance. This memoir captures a rare, intimate perspective on the intersection of Eastern tradition and Western modernity in the early twentieth century.
Nobody's Child
Elizabeth Dejeans
A young woman caught between two warring social strata finds her quiet life shattered by the arrival of a dangerous outsider and the dark, hereditary secrets of a prominent local family.
Phyllis
Maria Thompson Daviess
The story of an isolated girl finding a home, this narrative explores the transformative power of genuine friendship within a close-knit Tennessee community. It captures the transition from lonely girlhood to a life of shared purpose.
Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 28, October 8, 1870
Various
This periodical captures the manic, biting, and irreverent spirit of late 19th-century American satire, offering a vivid time capsule of the post-Civil War era’s political and social anxieties.
Robert Hardy's Seven Days: A Dream and Its Consequences
Charles M. Sheldon
A prosperous man receives a dire premonition that he has only one week left to live, transforming his final seven days into a desperate, grace-filled race to reconcile his broken life and mend his neglectful past.
Rookie rhymes, by the men of the 1st and 2nd provisional training regiments, Plattsburg, New York
Plattsburgh Barracks (N.Y.)
A collection of earnest, spirited verse from the 1917 Plattsburg training camp, these poems capture the humor and apprehension of young men preparing to ship out for the First World War.
The climbers
Clyde Fitch
A portrait of social ambition and moral decay in turn-of-the-century New York, this drama explores the wreckage left behind when a man trades his integrity for a seat at the city’s most exclusive tables.
The Marne: A Tale of the War
Edith Wharton
A young American boy, haunted by the German invasion of France, abandons his role as a passive observer to find his own place in the cataclysm of the Great War.
Val Sinestra
Martha Morton
This portrait of New York’s upper crust traces the hidden, often agonizing, intersections of two families bound by long-buried secrets. It is a dense, atmospheric study of repression, faith, and the crushing weight of ancestral identity.
Yankee Girls in Zulu Land
Louise Vescelius Sheldon
HOOK A nineteenth-century travelogue of endurance and curiosity, this narrative follows two American women as they traverse the harsh, diamond-rich interior of South Africa in search of health and adventure.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Part 5
Mark Twain
A nineteenth-century engineer is thrust into the medieval past, where he must rely on his technological knowledge and sharp wits to survive, reshape a primitive society, and maintain his precarious status as a miracle-worker.
A Daughter of the Land
Gene Stratton-Porter
HOOK A young woman battles a patriarchal farming family to claim her independence and land, choosing her own path through labor, teaching, and the fierce pursuit of self-sufficiency.
A Romance in Transit
Francis Lynde
The "Flying Kestrel" speeds across the American West, carrying a passenger agent and a railroad president’s daughter toward a collision of social standing and romantic intent. This is a story of iron rails and iron wills, where the rigid hierarchy of class meets the fluid possibilities of a journey.
Baseball Joe on the School Nine
Lester Chadwick
Targeting an energetic, dedicated, yet grounded tone, here is a complete guide to Lester Chadwick's classic sports tale based directly on the provided text. A young pitcher at a strict prep school faces down snobbish upperclassmen, classroom discipline, and framed accusations while fighting for his rightful place…
Bred in the bone: 1908
Thomas Nelson Page
The pedigree of a horse and the character of a man are tested against the relentless pace of a high-stakes steeplechase. It is a story of tradition, resilience, and the quiet dignity of a horseman from the Virginia countryside.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 2. No. 13, October, 1920: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and Filosophy
Various
A lively artifact of post-World War I American pop culture, this monthly digest balances rowdy military humor with razor-sharp period satire.
Esther
Henry Adams
The bustling, social world of 1880s New York serves as the backdrop for a quiet, intense collision between modern skepticism and traditional faith. Caught in the orbit of an earnest young clergyman and a brilliant artist, a young woman searches for a path that honors her own integrity.
Green Fields and Running Brooks, and Other Poems
James Whitcomb Riley
The rhythm of the seasons and the quiet persistence of memory define this collection, where the landscape of childhood never quite fades from the view of the aging heart.
Her Letter, His Answer & Her Last Letter
Bret Harte
A young woman and a gold miner navigate the distance between high society and the rugged frontier, testing whether their shared history can survive the complications of sudden wealth and long-standing pride.