Free summaries
British Literature — page 95
5,719 public-domain british literature books, summarised. Page 95 of 120.

My Little Lady
E. Frances (Eleanor Frances) Poynter
A poignant, quiet portrait of a young girl navigating a rootless, precarious upbringing, this narrative explores the resilience required to find one’s own path after a childhood defined by instability, loss, and the weight of adult expectations.

Plays
John Galsworthy
A hypocritical patriarch loses control, a stolen wallet splits high society, and a troubled girl tests a family's morals.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 15, 1893
Various
Political posturing, corporate greed, and social hypocrisy collide in a world where public debate is reduced to empty noise and empty promises.

Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, December 10, 1887
Various
A satirical snapshot of late Victorian society, this single issue of the famous British magazine captures a nation cheerfully poking fun at its own political absurdities, theatrical extravagances, and literary squabbles.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 147, August 12, 1914
Various
This collection captures a nation on the brink of profound change, balancing biting wartime satire against the domestic absurdities of early twentieth-century English life.

"That's me all over, Mable"
Edward Streeter
An earnest, blundering American recruit writes home from training camp and a crowded troopship, offering a hilarious, unintentional portrait of World War I army life.

The Baron's Yule Feast: A Christmas Rhyme
Thomas Cooper
Centuries of Lincolnshire history, rustic fireside lore, and medieval balladry converge in a festive narrative poem that celebrates the unifying warmth of hospitality across social divides.

The Beldonald Holbein
Henry James
A shallow London beauty unwittingly introduces a plain companion who steals the artistic spotlight, sparking a quiet war of vanity and social acclaim.

The Box with Broken Seals
E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
A mystery on the high seas gives way to high-stakes wartime espionage, where missing documents, false identities, and secret loyalties collide.

The Chestermarke Instinct
J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
A respected banker vanishes into thin air on a quiet Saturday night, leaving behind an empty vault, missing family jewels, and two secretive partners who seem entirely untroubled by his sudden disappearance.

The Damned
Algernon Blackwood
The reader follows a skeptical writer into a sprawling country mansion that seems to possess a sinister, sentient malice. This unsettling narrative explores how the weight of extreme, hateful beliefs can leave a lasting, physical stain upon a place.

The Experiences of a Barrister, and Confessions of an Attorney
Samuel Warren
Beneath the polished surfaces of nineteenth-century society lies a web of greed, stolen inheritances, desperate crimes, and legal maneuvers where justice hinges on a forgotten document or a sudden deathbed confession.

The History of the Lady Betty Stair
Molly Elliot Seawell
A single misunderstanding can echo through a lifetime, yet duty and grace can rebuild what circumstance tore apart.

The Old Church Clock
Richard Parkinson
A youth leaves his mountain valley for a noisy industrial town, carrying a firm faith that keeps him steady when new ideas and strange people try to pull him off course.

The Pacha of Many Tales
Frederick Marryat
A powerful governor seeks distraction from the perilous insecurity of his office, unwittingly opening his court to a endless procession of yarns, tall tales, and nested histories.

The Princess Casamassima (Volume 2 of 2)
Henry James
A delicate young London bookbinder finds himself torn between his passionate aesthetic awakening to beauty and a secret political oath that demands a terrible sacrifice.

The White Virgin
George Manville Fenn
A young engineer, a secretive soldier's daughter, and an unprincipled brother collide in a mountain dale where hidden lead veins match the explosive, volatile passions underground.

The wooing of Rosamond Fayre
Berta Ruck
Love-letters written by proxy, a misplaced identity, and the sudden drop into the Great War frame a romance where a secret written in pink petals alters three lives.

Truthful Jane
Florence Morse Kingsley
A proud, penniless English orphan flees her aunt’s cold household for New York, only to find that surviving as a parlor maid requires a stubborn commitment to the truth.

A Man of the Moors
Halliwell Sutcliffe
The moors are not merely a backdrop in this stark, rugged novel; they are a living force that shapes the souls, passions, and violent ends of those who dwell among them. It is a haunting exploration of human obsession set against the unforgiving landscape of the Yorkshire hills.

A Mock Idyl
Percy Ross
When a sea captain and a schoolmaster conspire to navigate the treacherous waters of Devonshire romance, their devotion to one another proves far sturdier than their erratic schemes for winning the local admiral's nieces.

A Valiant Ignorance
Mary Angela Dickens
A woman’s devotion to her son becomes a screen against a shameful past, but every effort to secure his future pulls him closer to inherited ruin.

Devereux
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
A young nobleman steps into the worldly arena of Queen Anne’s England with a sharp intellect, a cold heart, and an unyielding will, only to find that every victory in politics and passion drags him closer to tragedy.

Hildebrand
Anonymous
Driven by the looming threat of the Spanish Armada and dark personal vendathons, an Elizabethan sea captain must navigate royal intrigue, sea battles, and deadly home-front treachery to save his true love’s family.

King John
William Shakespeare
A precarious crown, a doubtful inheritance, and the sudden shift of political alliances collide as an illegitimate son steps forward to fight for an unstable realm threatened from within and without.

Love in the Suds: a Town Eclogue.: Being the Lamentation of Roscius for the Loss of His Nyky
W. (William) Kenrick
A bitter 18th-century theatrical feud spills onto the page as a venomous satirical poem targeting London's most famous actor-manager.

Margaret Capel: A Novel, vol. 1 of 3
Ellen Wallace
A youthful heiress steps from the isolation of a girl's school into a world of country estates, organ music, and competing suitors.

Nigel Browning
Agnes Giberne
HOOK A young man returns from abroad to a family bound by secrets and rigid expectations, only to discover that the path to his own happiness requires him to dismantle the life he was born into.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 105, August 26th 1893
Various
A Victorian periodical opens like a window onto a world obsessed with its own absurdities, where high-society scandals, political posturing, and suburban anxieties are continuously parodied.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 105 September 23, 1893
Various
An autumn afternoon in Victorian London yields a kaleidoscope of political satire, stage comedy, and wry observational humor.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 101, December 26, 1891
Various
This volume captures the irreverent, sharp-witted spirit of late-Victorian England, blending biting social satire with a whimsical, often absurd, view of contemporary life. It serves as a curated snapshot of the cultural anxieties and diversions that defined the end of the nineteenth century.

Rose and Rose
E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas
A country doctor in Edwardian England inherits the guardianship of a free-spirited orphan, embarking on a lifelong journey of quiet devotion, domestic missteps, and double-generational love.

Shakspeare's Mental Photographs
William Shakespeare
A parlor game from the mid-nineteenth century repurposes early modern drama into a tool for social fortune-telling. It transforms centuries-old lines into playful, sharp reflections on human nature.

Songs of Two Nations
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Light kindles from the ash of collapsed empires, and a nation long left for dead rises to claim its freedom.

Squire Arden
Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant
A young man who has grown up as the undisputed heir to a proud English estate suddenly discovers that he is not the late squire’s biological son, throwing his identity into question and surrendering his fortune to a bitter cousin.

The old vicarage
Mrs. (Catherine-Anne Austen) Hubback
The lives of a devoted daughter and her siblings entwine with a series of suitors and tragic secrets in this quiet, observational study of duty, faith, and the long-reaching consequences of romantic obsession.

The Undesirable Governess
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
A clever young woman transforms herself into a grotesque, limping servant to secure a position in a household, only to orchestrate a brilliant, unconventional path to her own marriage.

White Turrets
Mrs. Molesworth
A headstrong country daughter sets out to forge an independent career in London, only to discover how easily high ideals can curdle into thoughtless self-absorption.

A lady in black
Florence Warden
A young woman’s quiet summer in a rented villa turns into a confrontation with long-buried secrets and a mysterious, haunting presence. This evocative tale captures the sharp edges of village gossip and the resilience of a spirit caught between duty and desire.

A Man in the Zoo
David Garnett
A man settles a lovers' quarrel by choosing to live in a zoo cage, testing whether his pride can outlast the public's gaze and his partner's shifting affections. This 1924 novella remains a sharp, elegant inquiry into the boundaries of human identity and the performance of intimacy.

An account of the giants lately discovered
Horace Walpole
This satiric pamphlet presents a whimsical, biting examination of colonial ambition and the absurdity of European geopolitics. It uses the rumored discovery of a race of giants in Patagonia to expose the moral bankruptcy of British expansionism.

Anthony Cragg's tenant
Agnes Giberne
A quiet, earnest story of an orphan girl finding a home, this narrative explores the tension between selfless devotion and the petty, suffocating grievances of a small-town household.

Celibates
George Moore
These three interconnected stories explore the quiet desperation of individuals who, for various reasons, find themselves unable or unwilling to participate in the traditional rhythms of marriage and domestic life. Through the lives of Mildred, John, and Agnes, the narrative examines the friction between personal…

Charles' Journey to France, and Other Tales
Mrs. (Anna Letitia) Barbauld
The world is a grand, unfolding map, and every child is a traveler waiting to discover that the road home is just as significant as the distant lands they seek.

Colin
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A young man navigates a dark, inherited legacy of cruelty and entitlement, ruthlessly engineering his own rise within an aristocratic family bound by a sinister, centuries-old bargain.

Colville of the Guards, Volume 1 (of 3)
James Grant
An orphaned pair of sisters face the loss of their beloved home and the unraveling of their hearts when two worldly, deceptive men intrude upon their quiet Scottish village.

Daisy of "Old Meadow."
Agnes Giberne
Daisy of "Old Meadow" explores the quiet, often agonizing struggle to prioritize spiritual integrity over the crushing weight of material greed. It follows a young woman’s efforts to care for her father, a man whose life is consumed by the hoarding of money.

Feudal tyrants
Benedikte Naubert
In a landscape of crumbling fortresses and shifting alliances, two noblewomen endure the relentless cruelty of men who wield feudal power like a weapon.