Free summaries
British Literature — page 67
4,240 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 67 of 89.
Plashers Mead: A Novel
Compton MacKenzie
A young poet settles into a secluded English village, only to find that his romantic ambitions and artistic aspirations collide with the suffocating, tradition-bound expectations of the local gentry.
Shakespeare: A Lecture
Robert Green Ingersoll
The greatest mind in human history remains a mystery, a figure of humble origins who transformed the English language into an infinite mirror of our own souls.
The Crowded Street
Winifred Holtby
A young woman’s search for purpose in early 20th-century Yorkshire is a battle against the suffocating expectations of a society that values marriage above all else. This narrative explores the cost of that stifling conformity.
The Daffodil Fields
John Masefield
The daffodils bloom in a landscape of quiet English tragedy, where human desire proves as fleeting and uncontrollable as the seasons themselves. This narrative poem traces the devastating collision of three lives bound by ancient geography and modern restlessness.
The Fortunate Foundlings: Being the Genuine History of Colonel M——Rs, and His Sister, Madam Du P——Y, the Issue of the Hon. Ch——Es M——Rs, Son of the Late Duke of R—— L——D. Containing Many Wonderful Accidents That Befel Them in Their Travels, and Interspersed with the Characters and Adventures of Several Persons of Condition, In the Most Polite Courts of Europe. the Whole Calculated for the Entertainment and Improvement of the Youth of Both Sexes
Eliza Fowler Haywood
Separated in childhood and raised by a benefactor, two siblings navigate the perils of 18th-century Europe. Their journey is a testament to the idea that virtue, rather than birth, determines true nobility.
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 989, December 10, 1898
Various
Amidst the lingering Victorian dread of Napoleonic invasion and the domestic pressures of rigorous education, a collection of stories and advice offers a window into the anxieties of the late nineteenth century.
The Heiress
John Burgoyne
A satire of manners where love, social status, and legal trickery collide, this play exposes the cold calculations of the wealthy and the quiet resilience of those they underestimate.
The Queen Against Owen
Allen Upward
A murder trial becomes a psychological battleground as a young woman’s defense attorney hides a sinister, obsessive agenda behind his courtroom performance.
The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories
Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell
A series of intense, dramatic tales of love, sacrifice, and the hidden depths of the human heart, where the most formidable obstacles are often the ones we build within ourselves.
The Tenants of Malory, Volume 2
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
A web of debt, long-hidden secrets, and the social ambitions of the English aristocracy entangle the inhabitants of a small Welsh town. This intricate mystery chronicles the quiet desperation of those waiting for their pasts to catch up with them.
The Wanderer
Fanny Burney
A refugee from the French Revolution attempts to build a life in England while burdened by a secret, a mysterious husband, and the relentless suspicion of a society that views her independence as a moral failing.
Two Years Ago, Volume I
Charles Kingsley
The heavy air of a stifling summer day, the quiet desperation of a village locked in social stagnation, and the arrival of a man who refuses to look away from the rot beneath the surface.
A Mere Chance: A Novel. Vol. 2
Ada Cambridge
A young woman finds herself trapped in a suffocating engagement to an older, controlling man, only to have her life irrevocably altered by a forbidden, magnetic encounter with a mysterious stranger.
Barbara Lynn: A Tale of the Dales and Fells
Emily J. Jenkinson
The rugged landscapes of the Westmorland dales provide the backdrop for a quiet, atmospheric meditation on duty, intellectual longing, and the weight of ancestral history.
Dandy Dick: A Play in Three Acts
Arthur Wing Pinero
A dignified clergyman finds his carefully curated life unraveling when he is inadvertently drawn into the disreputable world of horse racing. His struggle to maintain professional decorum amidst mounting chaos forms the heart of this enduring farce.
Foxglove Manor: A Novel, Volume 1 (of 3)
Robert Williams Buchanan
The Reverend Charles Santley, a man of profound intellectual doubt, hides a burning, animal nature behind his clerical robes. His struggle to reconcile his faith with his forbidden desires leads to a psychological unraveling that threatens the peace of his quiet village.
Hard Pressed
Fred M. (Fred Merrick) White
A desperate scramble for fortune and reputation plays out on the English turf, where a web of gambling debts and high-stakes manipulation threatens to destroy an old family’s legacy.
Love's Shadow
Ada Leverson
In the polished drawing rooms of Edwardian London, a group of young socialites discovers that the most dangerous, volatile element in their lives is not scandal, but marriage.
More Bywords
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
This collection of short stories and vignettes captures the intersections of history, faith, and domestic life. Through a blend of prose and verse, it explores how individual integrity and quiet courage define the character of both the notable and the overlooked.
Notes to Shakespeare
Samuel Johnson
A monumental work of critical labor, this collection offers a window into how an eighteenth-century mind grappled with the linguistic puzzles, moral ambiguities, and sheer imaginative power of the Elizabethan stage. It serves as an essential companion for those who wish to see the Bard not as a static monument, but…
Poems and Ballads (Third Series): Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles
Algernon Charles Swinburne
March, master of winds and marshal of storms, commands the opening of this collection, setting a tone of elemental power and relentless energy. The collection moves from the public and the historical to the private and the elegiac, mapping the landscape of a nineteenth-century mind deeply attuned to the rhythms of…
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, January 17, 1917
Various
In the dark winter of 1917, these pages capture the British spirit at war, balancing biting political satire with the absurd, domestic minutiae of a nation struggling to keep its humor amidst global catastrophe.
Scenes and Characters, or, Eighteen Months at Beechcroft
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
A house full of sisters and brothers navigates the small, high-stakes dramas of village life, where the impulsive search for excitement often clashes with the quiet, unyielding demands of duty.
The Beautiful Wretch
William Black
On a quiet Brighton afternoon, a young woman’s solitary wanderings lead her into a complex web of social expectations, hidden heartaches, and the subtle, often painful, navigation of romantic duty.
The Coming of the King
Joseph Hocking
A young man is drawn into a web of royal intrigue, hidden marriage contracts, and clandestine religious gatherings during the volatile early years of the Restoration.
The Eldest Son
John Galsworthy
A landed family’s rigid social order fractures when the eldest son faces an unwanted consequence of his affair with a servant. This drama examines the collision between personal duty and entrenched class expectations.
The Fair Haven
Samuel Butler
HOOK This work presents a curious intellectual paradox: a sophisticated defense of Christian miracles written by an author who, through the artifice of a fictional persona, simultaneously dismantles the very foundations of his own argument.
The Folly Of Eustace: 1896
Robert Hichens
A young man constructs a public persona of absurd buffoonery to earn fame, only to realize too late that his wife has fallen in love with the mask, not the man.
The Gentleman's Magazine, January 1731
Various
This collection serves as a foundational archive of early eighteenth-century British public discourse. It captures the frantic, intellectual, and often petty pulse of a nation grappling with its own modernization.
The History of Sir Charles Grandison, Volume 4 (of 7)
Samuel Richardson
This fourth volume of an expansive epistolary saga chronicles the moral and emotional navigation of an English gentleman, Sir Charles Grandison, as he balances duty to his Italian friends with his growing commitment to a beloved woman at home. It explores the intersections of faith, family obligation, and…
The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid
Thomas Hardy
A young dairymaid finds her simple life upended when a mysterious nobleman draws her into a web of social ambition and romantic uncertainty. This atmospheric tale explores the quiet, devastating friction between humble contentment and the allure of a world beyond one’s reach.
The Schoolmistress: A Farce in Three Acts
Arthur Wing Pinero
A school principal’s secret life and a group of mischievous pupils collide in this high-energy farce, where social pretenses unravel amidst a series of chaotic, comedic misunderstandings.
Two Years Ago, Volume II
Charles Kingsley
A sweeping tale of mid-nineteenth-century England, this narrative follows a cast of disparate lives as they collide against the backdrop of a terrifying cholera outbreak. It explores how human pride and spiritual isolation fracture under the pressure of mortal crisis.
Whoso Findeth a Wife
William Le Queux
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.
A Book of Old Ballads
Unknown
These timeless verses capture the raw ache of lost love, the thrill of daring escapes, and the quiet dignity of those who find redemption in the most unexpected corners of human experience.
An Engagement of Convenience: A Novel
Louis Zangwill
Wyndham, a struggling painter living in a haze of poverty and artistic ambition, finds his path crossed by two women who represent the stark divide between his material needs and his romantic ideals. He attempts to navigate a fragile compromise between the security of a loveless engagement and the haunting,…
Barren Honour: A Novel
George A. (George Alfred) Lawrence
A gentleman of integrity finds his life dismantled by a web of calculated social treachery, forcing him to choose between his own happiness and the preservation of a woman’s reputation.
Denzil Quarrier
George Gissing
A man of political ambition attempts to build a life on a foundation of secrecy, only to find that personal integrity and social conventions are unforgiving masters.
Earl Hubert's Daughter: The Polishing of the Pearl - A Tale of the 13th Century
Emily Sarah Holt
The 13th century is a landscape of high-stakes court politics and rigid religious dogma, yet even in such a fractured age, the most profound connections often bloom in the shadows. This narrative weaves together the lives of those navigating the shifting power of the English aristocracy and the precarious existence…
Fires - Book 1: The Stone, and Other Tales
Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
These rhythmic, narrative poems peer into the lives of common laborers, finding profound dignity and haunting mystery within the stark realities of their daily toil.
Idols
William John Locke
This is a story about the fragility of human reputation and the hidden, often contradictory, loyalties that govern our lives. It examines how a single, external act of violence can unravel the carefully constructed structures of love and duty in a respectable social circle.
Jane Oglander
Marie Belloc Lowndes
A celebrated war hero returns to England, only to find himself entangled in a web of obsession and betrayal within a refined country estate, where the boundaries between love and cruelty blur.
Lalage's Lovers
George A. Birmingham
A young woman’s boundless energy and flair for trouble turn a quiet Irish parish upside down. She is a force of nature who refuses to accept the world as she finds it.
My Friend Prospero
Henry Harland
The golden sun of an Italian spring casts a long shadow over an ancient castle, where a chance encounter between a young man and a mysterious woman blossoms into a complicated, spirited romance.
Poems
Matilda Betham
This collection of verse captures the delicate, often melancholic interiority of a poet navigating the shifting social and personal landscapes of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With a voice that balances formal structure with raw, private feeling, it offers an intimate look at the intersections…
Selections from Previous Works: With Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals, and a Psalm of Montreal
Samuel Butler
True science, much like true love, is rarely a smooth path. This collection of essays and critiques exposes the messy, often bitter behind-the-scenes reality of 19th-century intellectual life.
The Disguising at Hertford
John Lydgate
This medieval entertainment transforms a domestic quarrel into a royal courtroom drama, where weary husbands and fierce wives debate the terms of their marriage before a king.
The Guards Came Through, and Other Poems
Arthur Conan Doyle
This collection of verse captures the grit, grief, and persistent spirit of the First World War through the eyes of a writer witnessing his nation’s endurance. It serves as a rhythmic, patriotic testament to the soldiers who held the line and the families who waited at home.