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American Literature — page 93
4,619 public-domain american literature books, summarised. Page 93 of 97.
The Bronze Hand: 1897
Anna Katharine Green
A chance encounter in a boarding house leads a young man into a web of political conspiracy, where a stolen ring and a mysterious box hold the power of life and death.
The Golgotha Dancers
Manly Wade Wellman
The story follows a man who unknowingly invites a supernatural curse into his home when he rescues a strange, rejected painting from an art museum. What begins as an unsettling aesthetic curiosity quickly transforms into a nightly battle for survival against entities that refuse to stay confined to the canvas.
Time's Portraiture: (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Salem newspaper carrier offers a delightfully sardonic New Year's address, recasting Father Time as an uptown dandy who gossips on street corners and forgets the past.
Twelve poems
Edith Wharton
The returning spring awakens a haunting dialogue between the living and the quiet dead, echoing across sunlit Mediterranean shores and war-torn fields alike.
Literary Boston as I Knew It (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)
William Dean Howells
Stepping into the vibrant yet fading literary capital of New England in 1866, a young western editor encounters the towering minds shaping American letters.
The Gilded Age, Part 5
Mark Twain
A brilliant, ambitious woman navigates the treacherous corridors of Washington lobbying and high-stakes financial speculation, fighting for a vast congressional land grant while entangled in a consuming, destructive obsession with a married former lover.
A Princess in Calico
Edith Ferguson Black
Bound by duty to a harsh step-family in a stagnant rural village, seventeen-year-old Pauline Harding catches a glimpse of a wider, more cultivated world during a transformative summer in Boston.
A Strange, Sad Comedy
Molly Elliot Seawell
Amid the upheavals of the post-Civil War era, a proud, impoverished Virginia family clashes and connects with wealthy, worldly visitors from the North and England.
Elsie in the South
Martha Finley
A southern voyage of family devotion and historical leisure offers a quiet portrait of domestic harmony under patriarchal care.
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.
His "day in court": 1895
Charles Egbert Craddock
HOOK In the rugged shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains, a bitter, long-standing family feud collapses under the weight of a young woman’s divided heart and the unpredictable bonds of parenthood.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of George William Curtis
George William Curtis
Through essays, social satire, and fiction, George William Curtis maps the moral landscape of nineteenth-century America with sharp wit and gentle humanism.
Little Nettie
Susan Warner
The quiet struggle of a young girl seeking to bring peace to a fractured home forms the heart of this moving, somber portrait of faith and family.
Lords of Creation: Woman Suffrage Drama in Three Acts
Ella Cheever Thayer
A sharp-witted young woman demands financial independence and equal rights, turning her traditional household upside down.
Rodney, the Partisan
Harry Castlemon
A young Southern cadet steps into the American Civil War with unwavering loyalty to his State, only to discover that the conflict demands far more than he ever bargained for.
The Invaders
Benjamin Ferris
A peaceful county discovers that its newly revived neighboring valley is thriving by sapping the vitality, crops, and possessions of the surrounding community.
The Little Red Chimney: Being the Love Story of a Candy Man
Mary Finley Leonard
The Candy Man’s secret life begins with an act of kindness, but his true fortune lies in a chance encounter with a girl who dreams of playing fairy godmother to the world.
The riddle of the rocks: 1895
Charles Egbert Craddock
A solitary mountaineer discovers divine meaning in natural rock formations, igniting a spiritual fervor that clashes with the petty rivalries of his neighbors. This quiet drama unfolds against the indifferent, expansive beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Ticket to the Stars
Raymond E. Banks
When men travel into deep space, they return haunted by an impossible perfection that ruins their earthly lives and lures them toward a strange, alien war.
A Chariot of Fire
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
A desperate father searches for a way to reach his dying son, leading him to a wealthy stranger who offers a high-speed, modern salvation. This quiet drama explores the collision of social worlds when a tragic accident forces two families to confront the truth.
A Melody in Silver
Keene Abbott
A tender, atmospheric portrait of a young boy’s growing independence and the quiet, complex dance of love between him and the devoted woman who raised him.
Fishin' Jimmy
Annie Trumbull Slosson
A simple mountain angler finds his whole philosophy of life, faith, and grace in the clear streams and quiet woods of northern New Hampshire.
The Chums of Scranton High out for the Pennant
Donald Ferguson
When a weather-worn hobo takes up residence with a struggling local family, a group of high-school ballplayers find their pennant race unexpectedly intertwined with a transformation that will alter the town forever.
The Crimson Banner
William D. (William David) Moffat
Baseball and collegiate duty shape a tense season at Belmont College as students rally behind their team to capture the coveted championship banner.
The Girl at Cobhurst
Frank R. Stockton
When a young man moves to a country estate to farm, the local matchmakers immediately set to work rearranging his romantic future.
The girl he left behind
Helen Beecher Long
When a small-town factory manager leaves for the battlefields of France, his capable secretary steps up to protect his business against conspirators, saboteurs, and labor unrest.
The glad lady
Amy Ella Blanchard
Sunlit Spanish mountains provide the backdrop for an American girl's lively summer of mistaken romances, cultural curiosities, and unexpected attachments.
The Great Experience
Julia Farr
A young Latter-day Saint missionary embarks on an eastern journey, discovering that faith, sacrifice, and unexpected romance can bridge the vast chasms between different worlds.
The Inside of the Cup
Winston Churchill
A prosperous rector in a fashionable city parish confronts a spiritual vacuum beneath his congregation's comfortable wealth, forcing him to question the doctrines he preaches and his own complicity in social neglect.
The Inside of the Cup
Winston Churchill
When an elite rector's spiritual awakening shatters his congregation's comfortable complacency, he must risk everything to align his faith with the realities of a modern, suffering world.
The Last Penny and Other Stories
T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur
A humble cobbler, a daring revolutionary courier, and an idle retired hatter discover that true fulfillment lies in self-sacrifice, duty, and honest labor.
The Ramrodders: A Novel
Holman Day
A political dynasty clashes with modern reform in rural Maine as an aging boss and his idealistic grandson navigate a web of hypocrisy, power, and enduring romance.
The S. W. F. Club
Caroline Emilia Jacobs
A young girl's secret letter to a stranger uncle transforms a quiet Vermont village, sparking an unforgettable summer of imagination, friendship, and shared joy among family and neighbors.
The Sardonic Arm
Maxwell Bodenheim
Beneath the clatter of modern American life and its commercial greeds, sharp ironies and stark urban portraits expose the vulnerable, hidden machinery of human souls.
Know Thy Neighbor
Elisabeth R. Lewis
Living in San Francisco's Tenderloin district comes with cheap rent and rowdy streets, but the real nightmare is the quiet creature creeping down the apartment hall.
On the mountain
Lucy Ellen Guernsey
This story follows two young girls from starkly different backgrounds whose lives collide on a rugged mountain, forcing them to reckon with the difference between performing goodness and truly living it. It is a quiet, moralizing piece of mid-19th-century American juvenile fiction that explores the internal…
Ramshackle House
Hulbert Footner
Amid the neglected grandeur of a decaying Chesapeake estate, a hard-pressed young woman risks everything to shield a fugitive hiding in the shadows.
Rhymes of Old Plimouth
Herbert Randall
A lyrical tapestry of New England shores, old roads, and maritime memory, celebrating the enduring spirit of Plymouth’s landscape and people.
Samantha among the Brethren
Marietta Holley
A sharp-tongued country housewife navigates eccentric relatives, endless domestic duties, and her husband's misguided pranks while church politics loom large.
Tales for Fifteen
James Fenimore Cooper
Imagination and sentiment drive the lives of two young women in these parallel tales, exploring the often-painful distinction between romantic fantasy and genuine emotional truth. These stories offer a quiet, moralizing look at the interior lives of adolescent women in the early nineteenth century.
Tales of the turf
Hugh S. (Hugh Stuart) Fullerton
A gritty, colorful glimpse into the American racetrack world where thoroughbreds, gamblers, and stable outcasts chase fleeting glory and redemption.
The astounding crime on Torrington Road
William Gillette
When a brilliant, disbarred Chicago lawyer engineers a complex murder plot in a decaying Boston mansion, the pursuit of justice takes a bizarrely theatrical turn.
The Enchanted Canyon
Honoré Morrow
The Grand Canyon becomes the crucible for a powerful Washington official seeking redemption from his dark, squalid past in New York.
The Standard Household-Effect Company (from Literature and Life)
William Dean Howells
The endless domestic labor of wrapping, packing, and moth-balling household goods threatens to crush modern life, prompting a radical proposal to abolish personal property altogether.
Widger's Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Works of Oliver W. Holmes, Sr
Oliver Wendell Holmes
These compiled reflections offer a sharp, witty map of the nineteenth-century mind, proving that the most enduring observations are often those shared over a morning cup of coffee or a quiet evening fire.
A Little Dusky Hero
Harriet T. (Harriet Theresa) Comstock
The story of a homeless boy who finds purpose as a soldier’s mascot and eventually discovers his own worth, this narrative explores themes of duty, courage, and the bonds that bridge social divides.
Her own way
Clyde Fitch
A devoted woman protects her reckless brother and follows her heart through financial ruin and military separation.
On Time
Oliver Optic
A young boatman finds himself caught between the bitter rivalries of two wealthy, warring families, discovering that his own integrity and skill are the only reliable compasses in a sea of local power struggles.