Free summaries
Essays, Letters & Speeches — page 10
479 public-domain essays, letters & speeches books, summarised. Page 10 of 10.
Essays in War-Time: Further Studies in the Task of Social Hygiene
Havelock Ellis
A profound social transformation unfolds as war forces a modern society to abandon its romantic illusions about violence and rebuild itself around human quality.
Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - 1. The Emigrant Literature
Georg Brandes
A vast cultural shift unfolded across nineteenth-century Europe as writers fled political upheaval and rebuilt literary thought.
Modernities
Horace Barnett Samuel
This collection of critical essays examines the restless, often contradictory spirits of nineteenth and early twentieth-century writers who defined the modern age through their unflinching search for truth in a rapidly changing world.
The Library and Society: Reprints of Papers and Addresses
Unknown
The public library stands as a cornerstone of American democracy, transforming from a private luxury for scholars into a essential, tax-supported engine of civic character and intellectual growth.
The Vagabond in Literature
Arthur Compton-Rickett
The spirit of the wanderer finds its definitive voice in these critical portraits of writers who chose the open road over the comforts of routine.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 07
Voltaire
A collection of sharp, irreverent inquiries, this work dissects the contradictions of human history and belief with a wit that favors reason over dogma and humanity over institutional power.
Hieroglyphics
Arthur Machen
This intellectual exploration argues that true literature is defined not by realism or social commentary, but by its ability to evoke an ecstatic, otherworldly vision of human existence.
The Golden Censer
John McGovern
The golden censer of our daily life must be kept burning with the frankincense of high endeavor, for our actions in the present serve as the only reliable foundation for our eternal future.
Principles of Freedom
Terence J. (Terence Joseph) MacSwiney
The call to liberty is not a distant aspiration for the future but a demanding, daily discipline of the soul. This collection of essays serves as a rigorous manifesto for those who believe that a nation’s freedom is forged through the private integrity of its individual citizens.
The Arena, Volume 4, No. 19, June, 1891
Various
HOOK This collection captures the urgent, fractious spirit of the American Gilded Age, where visionary reforms and profound social anxieties collide in the pages of a radical monthly journal.
The Book of Friendship: A Little Manual of Comradeship
Unknown
This collection serves as a quiet meditation on the architecture of human connection, gathering centuries of wisdom to define the rare, sacred bond between true companions.
Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries: Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the Author
William Godwin
This collection of essays serves as a meditative bridge between early Enlightenment optimism and the realities of human nature. It offers a candid, accessible exploration of how individuals navigate the tension between their private aspirations and their public lives.
Sadhana
Rabindranath Tagore
This collection of philosophical reflections invites readers to bridge the perceived gap between the finite human experience and the infinite nature of the divine. It argues that true fulfillment lies in realizing one’s unity with the universe rather than attempting to conquer it.
Aesthetical and philosophical essays
Friedrich Schiller
The human spirit is a complex architecture of sensuous desire and rational law, caught in a perpetual struggle for wholeness. Beauty is the bridge that allows us to walk between these two worlds.
Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
These essays serve as a panoramic window into the nineteenth-century British mind, blending sweeping historical narratives with sharp, combative critiques of politics, education, and the moral failings of the state.
On the Art of Writing: Lectures delivered in the University of Cambridge 1913-1914
Arthur Quiller-Couch
Literature is not a mere science to be studied, but an art to be practiced; it is a living business that demands the active participation of the writer.
![Cover of Pebbles on the shore [by] Alpha of the plough](https://cdn.myebooksbuy.com/c/pebbles-on-the-shore-by-alpha-of-the-plough-a-g-alfred-george-gardiner.webp)
Pebbles on the shore [by] Alpha of the plough
A. G. (Alfred George) Gardiner
This collection of essays serves as a quiet, thoughtful companion for those seeking perspective amidst the noise of a rapidly changing world. It offers a gentle meditation on finding meaning in the small, everyday details of life.
Epistle Sermons, Vol. 2: Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost
Martin Luther
This collection of sermons serves as a vigorous, polemical defense of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It invites readers into the sixteenth-century theological battlefield where the bedrock of Protestant identity is being forged.
Reflections upon Two Pamphlets Lately Published: One called, A Letter from Monsieur de Cros, concerning the Memoirs of Christendom, and the Other, An Answer to that Letter
Anonymous
The reputations of public figures often rest upon fragile foundations, easily disturbed by the sharp, petty quills of those who feel slighted by the truth. This investigation exposes the vanity and artifice inherent in the political pamphlets of the late seventeenth century.
The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422-1509. Volume 2 (of 6): New Complete Library Edition
Unknown
A raw and unvarnished window into fifteenth-century England, these documents reveal the daily struggles, legal battles, and domestic anxieties of a family navigating the violent, shifting tides of the Wars of the Roses.
The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 5: July 1906
Various
This collection of essays, verse, and historical sketches captures the restless, patriotic, and inquisitive spirit of the American public at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Lectures and Essays
Thomas Henry Huxley
To understand the natural world is to recognize that we are part of it, governed by the same immutable laws that shape the humblest creature and the furthest fossil.
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885
Various
This mid-Victorian periodical offers a wide-ranging window into the intellectual, scientific, and cultural preoccupations of 1885. It captures the global discourse of an era grappling with rapid modernization and the preservation of tradition.
Campaign Pictures of the War in South Africa (1899-1900): Letters from the Front
A. G. (Alfred Greenwood) Hales
A vivid, front-line account of the South African War, capturing both the brutality of the battlefield and the camaraderie of the men who fought it.
The Letters of a Portuguese Nun
Guilleragues, Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, vicomte de
A cloistered nun pours her soul into a series of desperate missives, charting the agonizing arc of a love that survives only in the wreckage of its own betrayal.
Religious Studies, Sketches and Poems
Harriet Beecher Stowe
This collection of religious reflections, sketches, and verse serves as a meditative companion for those seeking to understand the humanity of Jesus. Through a series of tender, contemplative essays, the text maps the life of the Savior from his infancy to his final, sacrificial hours.
Talks on the study of literature
Arlo Bates
To engage deeply with literature is to move beyond the superficial consumption of words, transforming the act of reading into an exercise of the imagination that enriches the human spirit.
Political and Literary essays, 1908-1913
Cromer, Evelyn Baring, Earl of
This collection of essays offers an intimate look at the administrative philosophy and literary tastes of a prominent British imperial statesman. It bridges the gap between the practical demands of governance and the enduring questions of historical critique.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877. Vol XX - No. 118
Various
The nineteenth-century literary magazine serves as a bridge between the rapid industrialization of the era and the enduring human concerns of art, history, and social behavior. This collection offers a kaleidoscopic view of the Victorian intellectual landscape, mixing travelogue, fiction, and sociological inquiry.
The Circus, and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces
Joyce Kilmer
The circus—that gathering of wonders, trampled grass, and acrobats—serves as a lens through which to view the ordinary and the extraordinary. These collected essays and critical pieces argue that true appreciation of life lies in the quiet, often overlooked, and perpetually human.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 8, part 2: Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
These official records capture a nation in transition, detailing the rigorous, often rigid administrative conscience of a president navigating the complex economic and territorial anxieties of the late nineteenth century.
On The Art of Reading
Arthur Quiller-Couch
This collection of lectures argues that reading is not merely a scholarly exercise but a vital, lifelong practice of developing the soul and understanding humanity. It serves as a passionate defense for teaching English literature with depth, context, and beauty.
Paris Nights, and Other Impressions of Places and People
Arnold Bennett
The traveler is a restless observer who finds the world’s most familiar corners perpetually new, provided one learns to look at them with the right mixture of cynicism and wonder.
The essentials of mysticism, and other essays
Evelyn Underhill
The spiritual life is a rigorous, disciplined ascent toward reality, demanding the total alignment of the human will with the eternal. It is an active, demanding pursuit rather than a passive state of feeling.
The Theistic Conception of the World: An Essay in Opposition to Certain Tendencies of Modern Thought
B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Cocker
An intellectual defense of theism, this work argues that the mechanical laws of the universe are not autonomous, but are instead sustained by a personal, creative Divine Will.
Plum Pudding: Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned
Christopher Morley
A collection of observations written for the commuter and the dreamer, these pieces find the extraordinary hidden within the mundane routines of city life.
Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 1 (of 3)
Theodore Parker
These sermons and addresses capture a singular voice of the mid-nineteenth century, challenging his contemporaries to align their religious institutions with the urgent, often uncomfortable, demands of social justice.
The Catholic World, Vol. 06, October, 1867 to March, 1868
Various
Spanning theology, global politics, history, and literature, this mid-nineteenth-century Catholic periodical crafts a vigorous intellectual defense of traditional faith while boldly engaging with the turbulent social, scientific, and cultural developments of its rapidly modernizing era.
Talks to Farmers
C. H. (Charles Haddon) Spurgeon
A collection of inspiring sermons by Charles H. Spurgeon, offering spiritual guidance and encouragement for farmers and all believers.
The Doctor's Dilemma: Preface on Doctors
Bernard Shaw
When medical care is run as a commercial trade, doctors profit from illness rather than health, turning surgeons into financially incentivized mutilators and elevating routine, untested treatments into unquestioned dogmas.
The Sea (La Mer)
Jules Michelet
A poetic and scientific exploration of the ocean, blending natural history with philosophical musings.
Open That Door!
R. Sturgis (Robert Sturgis) Ingersoll
An invitation to step out of the narrow routines of daily labor and enter a larger world through the transformative power of purposeful reading.
The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422-1509. Volume 6 (of 6), Part 1 (Letters, Chronological Table): New Complete Library Edition
Unknown
A collection of fifteenth-century letters offers an intimate window into the lives of a Norfolk gentry family navigating civil war, legal disputes, and daily estate management across generations.
The Vitality of Mormonism: Brief Essays on Distinctive Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
James E. (James Edward) Talmage
A clear-eyed, systematic defense of Latter-day Saint theology presents the faith not as a modern novelty, but as the literal restoration of ancient Christian truth through divine revelation, structured around the eternal progression and free agency of human spirits.
Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 3, May 1906: Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature
Various
The May 1906 issue of Mother Earth brings together revolutionary essays, satire, and fiction to challenge social hypocrisy and envision human freedom.
One Hundred Best Books: With Commentary and an Essay on Books and Reading
John Cowper Powys
An individual intellect confronts the grand legacy of Western letters, casting aside rigid academic canons to champion the raw, personal joy of uninhibited reading.
The Love of Books: The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury
Richard de Bury
Bound in pigskin or buried in dust, forgotten pages hold the only human thoughts that outlast the crumbling stone of empires and the forgotten names of kings.