Free summaries
American Literature — page 81
4,505 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 81 of 94.
A summer journey to Brazil
Alice R. Humphrey
To the turn-of-the-century American traveler, Brazil was a vast, mysterious frontier, often overshadowed by the well-trodden paths of Europe and Asia. This account captures the vibrant transformation of a nation emerging from empire into republic.
A Yankee Girl at Fort Sumter
Alice Turner Curtis
On the eve of the American Civil War, a young northern girl living in Charleston must navigate local enmities, wartime espionage, and the cruelties of slavery with courage and cross-factional kindness.
Hilda Strafford: A California Story
Beatrice Harraden
A young woman travels to a remote, sun-scorched California ranch to join her husband, only to discover that the harsh landscape and their growing emotional distance threaten to destroy them both.
Index for Works of Holman Day: Hyperlinks to all Chapters of all Individual Ebooks
Holman Day
These chronicles capture the rugged spirit of early twentieth-century Maine, where industry, ambition, and the untamed wilderness collide in stories of railroads, coastlines, and iron-willed individuals.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of John McElroy
John McElroy
The American Civil War serves as both a backdrop and a crucible in these works, where the harsh realities of imprisonment and the rough-hewn camaraderie of the common soldier are laid bare. Through a mixture of harrowing memoir and serialized fiction, the narrative captures the distinct textures of a nation…
Introducing Irony: A Book of Poetic Short Stories and Poems
Maxwell Bodenheim
This collection of poetic short stories and verse navigates the volatile border between human ego and the indifferent, often mocking, nature of the universe. It is a work of sharp, impressionistic fragments, capturing the dissonant beauty of lives caught in the machinery of modern existence.
Love and Moondogs
Richard McKenna
The sight of a dog strung up from a pole by a suburban housewife sparks a nationwide crusade of mass hysteria, pitting the domestic comfort of the American home against the cold machinery of the Space Age.
Patty's Suitors
Carolyn Wells
This story of a spirited, fun-loving debutante captures the lighthearted energy of early twentieth-century social life, where wit is a weapon and the telephone is a new, thrilling frontier for romance.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870
Various
A sharp, irreverent window into Gilded Age America, this satirical weekly skewers everything from Wall Street greed to city smells with unflagging 1870 energy.
Running Free
James B. (James Brendan) Connolly
These vibrant sea tales capture the restless spirit of men who live by the tides, finding camaraderie and grit in the face of both nature's fury and the unpredictable whims of shore life.
Samantha on the Woman Question
Marietta Holley
A sensible woman navigates the absurd politics of her era with sharp wit, proving that the most radical thing a person can do is demand common-sense justice in a world designed to deny it.
Thankful Blossom
Bret Harte
Amid the biting snows of revolutionary New Jersey, a headstrong farm girl discovers that flirtation, politics, and patriotism make a volatile mixture.
The Dwelling Place of Light
Winston Churchill
The light of self-realization often burns brightest in the darkest corners of industrial struggle, where the rigid codes of New England collide with the raw, unspoken desires of a woman seeking to escape her station.
The Man on the Box
Harold MacGrath
This is a tale of a lighthearted masquerade, where a man trades his social status for a stable uniform to pursue a woman who has already captured his heart. It is a classic comedy of manners that balances aristocratic duty with the impulsive, often foolish, nature of true love.
The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
A witty New England physician turns a clear, clinical eye onto human nature, fashioning light verse, patriotic calls, and quiet meditations out of everyday Boston life.
The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
This collection gathers the rhythmic, deeply personal verse of a man reflecting on a lifetime of friendship, the persistence of the human spirit, and the quiet dignity of growing old. It serves as an intimate chronicle of a single brotherhood, capturing the transition from youthful idealism to the reflective wisdom…
A Gentleman from Mississippi
Thomas A. (Thomas Alfred) Wise
The political machinery of Washington is a labyrinth of greed, but one honest man from the South threatens to expose its hidden, corrupt heart. This tale of idealism versus intrigue captures the enduring tension between integrity and the corrupting pull of power.
Abbey
Lucy Ellen Guernsey
A young woman’s habit of "taking it easy" leads her into a cycle of domestic failure, demonstrating how persistent, unthinking negligence can erode one’s character and harm those who depend on us.
Beth's wonder-winter
Marion Ames Taggart
An orphan girl discovers the enchantment of a sophisticated New York winter, learning that true character is forged through duty, kindness, and the magic of imagination.
Blowing weather
John T. (John Thomas) McIntyre
A man returns to his roots in Philadelphia to find his family’s shipping legacy haunted by mystery, sabotage, and the shifting tides of the 18th-century Atlantic.
Caleb Trench
Mary Imlay Taylor
A man of integrity confronts the suffocating weight of small-town prejudice and political corruption in this quiet, observant drama of the American South.
Darkness and Daylight: A Novel
Mary Jane Holmes
The search for belonging and the heavy weight of long-held secrets collide when a blind man and a spirited young woman find their lives inextricably bound by a fragile, mysterious girl.
Little Metacomet
Hezekiah Butterworth
This gentle, nostalgic tale follows an Indian boy’s friendship with a settler’s family in the vanishing forests of colonial New England. It is a quiet meditation on nature, loyalty, and the tragic collision of two worlds.
Little Prudy's Cousin Grace
Sophie May
A vibrant, spirited young girl navigates the intense loyalties of childhood friendship and the moral weight of growing up against the backdrop of the American Civil War.
Living Up to Billy
Elizabeth Cooper
A young woman navigates the shadows of New York’s underworld to secure a future for her nephew, finding unexpected redemption through the persistent promise of country life.
Mystery Ranch
Arthur Chapman
The expansive, unforgiving landscape of the American West serves as a stage for a tense struggle between justice, greed, and hidden identities. Amidst the shifting loyalties of a frontier reservation, a murder investigation forces a young Indian agent to confront the truth behind a local ranch’s dark legacy.
Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 30, October 22, 1870
Various
This periodical offers a snapshot of Gilded Age satire, blending farcical literary parodies, biting political commentary, and the distinct, cluttered aesthetic of 19th-century American advertising.
Ragged Lady
William Dean Howells
A young woman from a struggling rural family finds her life irrevocably altered by a chance encounter with a wealthy, eccentric couple during a summer vacation. This portrait of social mobility and the friction between old-fashioned virtue and modern luxury explores the quiet, often unintended impact one person can…
Somewhere south in Sonora
Will Levington Comfort
A young man ventures into the lawless, sun-scorched foothills of Sonora to find a legendary figure, only to discover that the most dangerous terrain lies within his own unfolding character.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
A vibrant cross-section of post-Civil War American intellectual life, capturing a nation navigating rapid industrial growth, cultural identity, and social change.
The Flag of My Country = Shikéyah Bidah Na'at'a'í
Cecil S. King
A Navajo boy bridges two worlds, using the American flag as a symbolic tether between his traditional life on the reservation and his future in an expanded, modern society.
The Flaming Jewel
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
An elusive, high-stakes hunt for stolen royal gems pulls a young nobleman into the dark, lawless woods of the North, where he finds a dangerous, transformative love.
The southern literary messenger, Vol. II., No. 12, November, 1836
Various
This volume serves as a time capsule of 1836 American intellectual life, gathering the disparate voices of a nascent literary culture into a single, cohesive periodical. It captures the era’s hunger for both moral instruction and romantic escapism.
The three sphinxes, and other poems
George Sylvester Viereck
The poet stands at the intersection of history and desire, searching for meaning in the wreckage of broken gods and fleeting loves. These verses trace a restless journey through the tension between the spirit and the senses.
Tumbleweeds
Hal G. (Hal George) Evarts
The encroaching fences of progress spell the end for a vanishing breed of drifters, forcing a choice between the freedom of the open range and the permanence of a settled life.
Under the Liberty Tree: A Story of The 'Boston Massacre'
James Otis
In 1770, four Boston boys find themselves caught in the escalating tension between British troops and local citizens, culminating in a tragedy that alters the course of American history.
When Polly Was Eighteen
Emma C. Dowd
A young woman balances the heavy emotional demands of a volatile suitor with her newfound, deeply fulfilling role as a nurse to children in need.
A Far Country
Winston Churchill
To pursue success at any price is to lose one’s own soul; this is the hard-won realization of a man who traded his integrity for a seat among the elite.
A Likely Story
Damon Knight
A chance encounter at a writer’s club party reveals a terrifyingly simple, world-altering invention. One fan’s secret ambition turns an evening of slapstick chaos into a journey toward the stars.
A year in China
Martha Noyes Williams
The author recounts a journey spanning the globe, detailing her observations of foreign lands and her harrowing experience as a civilian captive aboard a Confederate commerce raider during the American Civil War.
Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 1: A Collection of New and Popular Comic and Sentimental Songs
Various
These collected lyrics offer a rhythmic window into the sentimental, comic, and patriotic pulse of 1860s America. They capture the era’s preoccupations with home, duty, and the shifting landscape of a nation in transition.
Fragments from the Journal of a Solitary Man: (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A dying romantic faces the tragic irrelevance of a life spent avoiding real human bonds.
Judy
Temple Bailey
A spirited girl discovers that the truest adventures are not found on the high seas, but in the quiet, formative bonds of family and friendship in a sun-drenched coastal town.
Mary Marie
Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter
A young girl’s diary chronicles her life between two households, offering a candid, often humorous, and ultimately moving portrait of her parents' divorce and the long, complicated process of reconciliation.
Mistake inside
James Blish
HOOK A man intent on a violent confrontation finds himself abruptly transported to a surreal, shifting city where centuries collide and magic is a common, if unreliable, utility.
Only a farm boy
Frank V. Webster
A resilient boy battles the weight of poverty and false accusations, finding his path from a life of harsh farm labor to a future of dignity and success.
Pandora
Henry James
A young German diplomat’s rigorous worldview is challenged by an energetic, self-made American woman whose social ascent defies the rigid hierarchies of his experience.
"Peanut": The Story of a Boy
Albert Bigelow Paine
A young boy flees a life of forced gentility to traverse the continent on foot, seeking the only home he has ever known. This quiet, persistent odyssey explores the profound bond between an outcast child and his unconventional guardians.