Free summaries
British Literature — page 86
4,240 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 86 of 89.
The Owls' House
Crosbie Garstin
A wild, sweeping tale of a Cornish farm boy’s transformation from a local smuggler into a Barbary general, driven by an insatiable hunger for life and a haunting connection to his ancestral home.
The Story of Charles Strange: A Novel. Vol. 1 (of 3)
Wood, Henry, Mrs.
A young man’s quiet life in the law is upended when he finds himself ensnared in the volatile, dark secrets of an aristocratic household. This is a story of how quickly the past catches up to the present.
To-morrow and to-morrow ... a novel
Stephen McKenna
HOOK The shadow of the Great War looms over a generation of survivors who return home to a fractured England, only to find that peace has brought its own bitter, unrecognizable consequences.
Told After Supper
Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome
Ghosts are never more tiresome than when they insist on rehearsing their clichés, but this collection of tales suggests that the living are often much more ridiculous than the spectres they fear.
Waverley
Walter Scott
A young soldier’s romantic illusions of glory collide with the harsh, divided reality of 1745 Scotland. This foundational work of historical fiction captures the passing of an era through the eyes of a man caught between two worlds.
Workhouse Characters, and other sketches of the life of the poor
Margaret Wynne Nevinson
The workhouse, for many, is a final, cold destination where the architecture of state bureaucracy often crushes the individual spirit. These accounts illuminate the humanity trapped within that system, revealing the dignity and heartbreak of those forced to navigate a society built on rigid class divisions.
A Ring of Rubies
L. T. Meade
Nineteen-year-old Rosamund Lindley finds her life of domestic poverty transformed when a reclusive, eccentric cousin bequeaths her a mysterious ruby ring, setting her on a path of independent discovery and unexpected family responsibility.
Agincourt: A Romance: The Works of G. P. R. James, Volume XX
G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
The path of duty often winds through shadows, but for a true knight, the light of honor—and the love of a devoted heart—serves as an unerring guide toward victory and peace.
All But Lost: A Novel. Vol. 1 of 3
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
The tensions of Victorian life collide in this sprawling social drama, where the domestic struggles of a working-class family intertwine with the romantic and financial schemes of the landed gentry.
Damon and Delia: A Tale
William Godwin
The graceful Delia and her devoted Damon struggle against arranged marriages and social artifice to find their way to each other’s side. Their journey is a lesson in the turbulence of youth and the quiet triumph of reason.
For John's Sake, and Other Stories
Annie Frances Perram
This collection of Victorian temperance tales offers an intimate, somber look at the destructive power of alcohol on the working class. It serves as both a moralizing argument and a mirror for the social anxieties of its era.
Homeward Bound: Sailor's Knots, Part 2
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A domestic squabble escalates into a farcical game of cat and mouse when a husband leaves his wife, only to return as a secret lodger in her home. The result is a sharp, witty comedy of manners.
Masters of the English Novel: A Study of Principles and Personalities
Richard Burton
The study of the novel is an act of historical appreciation, where the critic’s task is to measure the enduring legacy of the great figures who shaped the English literary tradition.
Mistress Penwick
Dutton Payne
A young woman is whisked from the quiet safety of a convent into the treacherous, high-stakes intrigues of a seventeenth-century noble household. She must navigate the volatile affections of a powerful guardian while surviving the murderous jealousy of a rival suitor.
Mucedorus
Unknown
This early English stage play blends high-stakes royal romance with the rough-and-tumble antics of a court clown, all framed by a symbolic tug-of-war between two personified forces: Comedy and Envy.
Peter's Pence: Sailor's Knots, Part 8
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A seasoned sailor encounters a deceptive uncle who turns a quiet visit into a whirlwind of illicit pleasures and clever financial schemes. This tale captures the misadventures of three friends caught in a web of their own greed.
Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour
W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
This collection of early dramas presents the sharp, unsentimental wit of a writer observing the fragile intersections of social duty, personal desire, and the stifling weight of convention.
Poems
Edward Thomas
HOOK These verses capture the quiet, persistent pulse of the English landscape on the eve of a world-altering war, seeking beauty in the mud, the rain, and the transience of human life.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, August 20, 1892
Various
This collection of Victorian wit and social satire serves as a time capsule, capturing the restless, clever, and often biting spirit of late 19th-century London.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 150, February 2, 1916
Various
The British home front, caught in the grip of the Great War, finds a temporary release in the biting, irreverent observations of a nation determined to laugh through the darkest of times.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, October 3, 1917
Various
A satirical chronicle of the Great War’s home front and trenches, blending sharp political observation with the absurdist humor of a nation coping with rationing, air raids, and bureaucracy.
Rogues and vagabonds
Compton MacKenzie
The lives of two generations of entertainers collide with the rigid, joyless expectations of Victorian society in this sweeping portrait of familial struggle and personal liberation.
The Half-Brothers
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
A child of privilege, sheltered by his father’s wealth and his aunt’s devotion, remains blind to the quiet, selfless love of his older half-brother until a freezing mountain storm forces a final, tragic reckoning.
The Keeper of the Door
Ethel M. (Ethel May) Dell
A young woman’s desperate act of mercy to shield a suffering friend from despair sets in motion a lifelong burden of secrecy and self-reproach.
The Last Call: A Romance (Vol. 3 of 3)
Richard Dowling
This narrative explores the precarious intersection of artistic ambition, psychological obsession, and the haunting weight of past regrets. It follows the tumultuous lives of two friends whose bond is tested by professional rivalry, personal tragedy, and a dark, lingering secret.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 14, No. 383, August 1, 1829
Various
This collection offers a vibrant, eclectic window into the intellectual and social life of 1829, blending historical sketches, literary anecdotes, and the practical curiosities of a rapidly modernizing world.
The Pier-Glass
Robert Graves
A collection of verse caught between the haunted stillness of the past and the sharp, bright arrival of a new, unsettling clarity. It navigates the thin partition between the living and the spectral.
The Rhymer
Allan McAulay
The life of a poet is a tempest, and those pulled into his orbit often find their own quiet paths shattered by the force of his genius and the wreckage of his desires.
The Two Marys
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
HOOK A daughter discovers her late father led a secret life, unraveling a complex web of hidden identities, lost inheritances, and the enduring power of family secrets.
The World Before Them: A Novel. Volume 2 (of 3)
Susanna Moodie
This nineteenth-century domestic drama follows a resilient young woman navigating the complexities of social class, unrequited love, and the mystery of her own origins. It is a story of personal transformation set against the backdrop of a changing English countryside.
Three Bright Girls: A Story of Chance and Mischance
Annie E. Armstrong
When a family’s fortune vanishes overnight, three sisters must trade their life of luxury for the quiet, challenging dignity of making their own way in the world.
Woman As She Should Be
Mary E. Herbert
A young woman’s quiet devotion and moral conviction challenge the vanity of city life, leading her through a harrowing ordeal at sea toward a destination of unexpected spiritual and personal renewal.
A Doctor of the Old School
Ian Maclaren
A rugged, selfless country physician spends his life serving a remote Scottish glen, ultimately risking everything to save a mother’s life during a treacherous winter flood.
A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and Tears
Gilbert Parker
The life of a refugee is a path of jagged edges and perilous climb. This tale traces a desperate flight from religious persecution into the orbit of a queen, where love must survive the whims of power.
A Life for a Life, Volume 2 (of 3)
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
A man haunted by a dark secret from his past finds himself drawn to a young woman whose family holds the key to his deepest regret. This narrative explores the heavy burden of remorse and the possibility of redemption through love.
As You Like It
William Shakespeare
A young woman disguises herself to navigate a treacherous forest and a tangled romance, discovering that true love is often found in the most unlikely of masks.
Betty's Battles: An Everyday Story
S. L. M.
A young woman discovers that the most challenging battles for peace are not fought on distant fields, but in the cluttered, everyday corners of her own home.
Coralie: Everyday Life Library No. 2
Charlotte M. Brame
The sudden transition from a life of grinding poverty to the unexpected mastery of a vast estate forces a young man to confront the darkest corners of human desire. Fortune, he discovers, is rarely a simple gift, but a catalyst for secrets that test both his morality and his heart.
Gone to Earth
Mary Webb
A young woman, inseparable from her pet fox, struggles to navigate the crushing expectations of a rigid society and the conflicting demands of two men who represent wildly different versions of her own future.
Hayslope Grange: A Tale of the Civil War
Emma Leslie
The quiet village of Hayslope becomes a crucible for conscience when a young man’s allegiance to the Parliament threatens his family’s devotion to the Crown. This domestic drama explores the heavy price of integrity during the English Civil War.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Oliver Goldsmith
Oliver Goldsmith
A humble family’s journey from rural contentment to the depths of misfortune reveals how resilience and kindness can transcend even the harshest of life’s trials.
J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 4
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
The boundaries between the living and the dead are thin in these tales, where the mundane anxieties of debt, drink, and duty invite visitations from a spectral, unforgiving afterlife.
Linda Tressel
Anthony Trollope
A young woman finds herself trapped between a rigid, loveless domestic life and the dangerous allure of a man her society deems unworthy. This is a story of stifled desire and the tragic cost of misplaced religious zeal.
Mary Broome: A Comedy, in Four Acts
Allan Monkhouse
A young woman’s unplanned pregnancy forces an intersection of two worlds, exposing the brittle artifice of a middle-class family and the devastating costs of their rigid morality.
Mugby Junction
Charles Dickens
A man seeking to escape his own history finds a strange crossroads where the lives of others reveal the path back to his own heart.
Poems
Alice Meynell
The poet’s heart is a garden where thoughts flit like birds, and her solitude is a bridge between the quiet, internal life and the vast, shifting beauty of the natural world.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 16, 1914
Various
This collection offers a candid, urgent snapshot of a nation caught in the opening weeks of the Great War, blending biting political satire with the persistent, absurd rhythms of daily life in 1914 London.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-01-14
Various
This volume captures the irreverent, post-war spirit of 1920s London, offering a kaleidoscopic view of a society eager to laugh at its own bureaucracies, fads, and lingering anxieties. It stands as a vivid, witty time capsule of a world trying to recover its equilibrium.