Free summaries
Historical Novels — page 11
566 public-domain historical novels books, summarised. Page 11 of 12.
The Silver Cross
Eugène Sue
This account frames the life of a revolutionary preacher through the eyes of an enslaved witness, portraying his ministry as a direct threat to the wealth and hypocrisy of the ruling class.
In Naaman's House
Marian MacLean Finney
A young Israelite maiden, torn from her home by invaders, finds herself navigating the complex loyalties and hidden sorrows within the household of a high-ranking Syrian officer.
The house of five gables
Mary Johnson Holmes
The House of Five Gables is a somber, atmospheric domestic drama that explores the crushing weight of hidden sins within an isolated nineteenth-century West Virginia estate.
The truce of God: A tale of the eleventh century
George H. (George Henry) Miles
A tragic feudal blood feud threatens to consume two noble families until the church intervenes with a solemn mandate of peace.
Our Lady of the Pillar
Eça de Queirós
A devout knight’s pursuit of a sequestered noblewoman leads him through a supernatural encounter with the dead, ultimately saving his life and securing his heart’s desire.
The World Before Them: A Novel. Volume 3 (of 3)
Susanna Moodie
A quiet, redemptive tale of shifting social fortunes and the endurance of integrity, this novel navigates the tension between inherited class and individual character. It remains a testament to the author’s keen eye for domestic discord and the moral weight of simple, honest living.
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt
Georg Ebers
In the shadow of the Great Pyramids, a young priest and a royal princess find their faith and hearts tested by the rigid, ancient laws of a society built on tradition and blood.
Walladmor, Vol. 1 (of 2): "Freely Translated into German from the English of Sir Walter Scott." And Now Freely Translated from the German into English
Willibald Alexis
A strange, meta-literary puzzle emerges from the fog of the Welsh coast, where a lost traveler wanders into a landscape filled with smugglers, secret identities, and the heavy atmosphere of a counterfeit masterpiece.
Historical vignettes, 1st series
Bernard Capes
These brief, atmospheric snapshots capture the weight of history through the eyes of the famous and the forgotten alike. They transform cold facts into intimate, often unsettling, moments of human crisis.
Our Own Set: A Novel
Ossip Schubin
Rome in 1870 is a glittering arena where highborn vanity and high-society arrogance quietly trample the innocent.
A Christian But a Roman
Mór Jókai
Amid the glittering decay of the Roman Empire, a noble soldier seeks vengeance against a decadent emperor while torn between a scandalous courtesan and a martyred saint.
The Well in the Desert: An Old Legend of the House of Arundel
Emily Sarah Holt
The quest for identity and spiritual belonging unfolds against the backdrop of a fractured, medieval England. It is a contemplative study of human cruelty, the search for grace, and the enduring power of faith.
Lady Inger of Ostrat: Henrik Ibsen's Prose Dramas Vol III
Henrik Ibsen
No knight rides through the halls of Ostrat Manor without paying a toll in blood, deceit, and broken vows.
Life in Afrikanderland as viewed by an Afrikander: A story of life in South Africa, based on truth
CIOS
Through the eyes of a thoughtful young patriot, a deeply partisan portrait of South Africa unfolds against the gathering storm of the Jameson Raid and British imperial ambition.
Our Little Lady: Six Hundred Years Ago
Emily Sarah Holt
Set in the thirteenth century, this intimate chronicle follows a humble nursery-maid whose life is forever altered by the brief, poignant existence of a deaf-mute royal princess.
The Sentimental Vikings
R. V. (Richard Voorhees) Risley
These stories reimagine the Viking era not as a chronicle of mere pillage, but as a dreamlike, interior landscape of longing, sudden violence, and fading memories.
Vittoria
George Meredith
A young singer steps onto a dangerous revolutionary stage, binding her art to the fate of a divided Italy during the historic uprisings of 1848.
Edward Barnett, a Neglected Child of South Carolina, Who Rose to Be a Peer of Great Britain,—and the Stormy Life of His Grandfather, Captain Williams
Tobias Aconite
A ruined daughter, a displaced heir, and an unyielding lord collide in a sweep of vengeance across the Atlantic.
King Eric and the Outlaws, Vol. 3
Bernhard Severin Ingemann
Under the weight of papal interdicts, civil unrest, and treasonous plots, a young Danish king fights to secure his realm and marry the woman he loves.
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt
Georg Ebers
Ancient Egyptian intrigue unfolds as a young, mysterious girl living in the tombs becomes the secret pivot upon which the fate of a pharaoh, a high priest, and a rebellious pioneer rests.
When Buffalo Ran
George Bird Grinnell
A young boy learns the ways of the prairie, transitioning from childhood games to the perilous, sacred responsibilities of a Plains warrior.
Captain Mansana & Mother's Hands
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
A fiery Italian soldier finds his pride dismantled by a woman’s grace, while a daughter learns that true nobility is written in the calloused skin of a parent’s hands.
Girls of '64
Emilie Benson Knipe
Amid the fading fortunes of the Confederacy, a young woman finds herself sheltering a mysterious fugitive, caught between the rigid loyalties of her kin and the hidden risks of a divided home.
Serapis
Georg Ebers
The ancient world holds its breath as the sun sets on the worship of Serapis, marking a definitive, final transition from pagan antiquity to a new Christian order.
The Ferryman of Brill, and Other Stories
William Henry Giles Kingston
This collection of moralizing tales follows the harrowing journeys of sailors, merchants, and settlers, all of whom find their courage tested by war, storms, and the deep convictions of their faith.
The Queen's Quair
Maurice Hewlett
A vibrant, atmospheric reimagining of the six-year reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, tracking her descent from a hopeful young monarch to a woman trapped by her own desires and the political maneuvering of men.
Aleph, the Chaldean
E. F. (Enoch Fitch) Burr
The search for a hidden King drives a journey from the ancient Nile to the heart of a Roman-occupied city. Through eyes that witness the miraculous, a quiet, purposeful transformation unfolds for those who encounter the Nazarene.
Traitor and True: A Romance
John Bloundelle-Burton
This historical romance charts the collision of a naive English traveler with a desperate band of conspirators plotting against the Sun King in the twilight of 17th-century France.
Annette, the Metis Spy: A Heroine of the N.W. Rebellion
J. E. (Joseph Edmund) Collins
Across the vast, untamed Canadian prairies during the 1885 North-West Rebellion, a courageous young woman risks everything to save the man she loves from the clutches of a dangerous insurgent leader.
Danira
E. Werner
HOOK Amid the rugged, war-torn mountains of Krivoscia, a stoic Austrian officer and a fierce, enigmatic local woman find their loyalties—and their lives—entangled by an impossible love.
The Mysteries of Florence
George Lippard
A young nobleman, framed for parricide, navigates a labyrinth of subterranean torture and monastic conspiracies to reclaim his legacy from a tyrannical duke and a fanatical uncle.
The Silver Glen
Bessie Dill
HOOK This memoir traces the quiet resilience of women navigating the political wreckage and personal heartbreak left in the wake of the failed Jacobite Rising of 1715.
Virginia Dare: A Romance of the Sixteenth Century
E. A. B. Shackleford
The disappearance of the Roanoke colonists remains one of history’s most haunting enigmas, here reimagined as a tale of cultural collision and the enduring power of personal devotion.
Vittoria
George Meredith
This dense, atmospheric tapestry of Italian revolution and personal loyalty follows an aspiring opera singer caught between her devotion to a clandestine cause and her ties to the Austrian officers occupying her land.
Day of the Druid
Knut Enferd
A towering Viking warrior crosses stormy seas to rescue a legendary maiden from alien-descended Druids who draw bloodthirsty magic from the alignment of ancient stones.
The Black Tor: A Tale of the Reign of James the First
George Manville Fenn
Generations of bitter hatred divide two Derbyshire families until a lawless band of ex-soldiers forces teenage rivals to forge a perilous alliance.
The Homesteaders: A Novel of the Canadian West
Robert J. C. Stead
A stern pioneer farmer stakes his soul and family’s future on the promise of the Canadian West, only to find that the gold he seeks may cost him everything he truly loves.
Venna Hastings: Story of an Eastern Mormon Convert
Julia Farr
A young debutante finds her social life in New York hollow, leading her on a spiritual quest that challenges her marriage and eventually transcends the physical world.
Angel Agnes: The Heroine of the Yellow Fever Plague in Shreveport
Charles Wesley Alexander
This brief, earnest narrative captures the spirit of self-sacrifice during the devastating 1873 yellow fever epidemic in Shreveport, Louisiana, chronicling the final mission of a young woman who gives everything to aid the suffering.
For the Cause
Stanley John Weyman
A collection of observant, character-driven tales, these narratives explore the quiet tensions of English clerical life and the dramatic, often dangerous, conflicts of historical struggles with warmth and sharp-eyed irony.
The Heart's Secret
Maturin M. (Maturin Murray) Ballou
A proud beauty and a low-ranking soldier navigate a dangerous landscape of social hierarchy, political intrigue, and hidden affections in the lush, sun-drenched setting of colonial Cuba.
Leah Mordecai: A Novel
Belle K. (Belle Kendrick) Abbott
A young woman of exceptional beauty and profound, secret sorrow struggles against the crushing weight of family prejudice and betrayal in a city divided by its rigid expectations. Her quest for love and reconciliation leads her through a landscape of loss, ultimately culminating in an emotional reckoning that spans…
Vittoria
George Meredith
A struggle for liberation against Austrian rule serves as the crucible for the human spirit, testing the limits of loyalty, sacrifice, and the endurance of love. Amidst the shifting tides of history, a young woman’s voice becomes both a weapon and a testament to the soul of a nation.
Joshua
Georg Ebers
A devoted Egyptian military officer faces a harrowing choice between his oath to a fading pharaoh and his allegiance to his own enslaved people during the historic exodus from Egypt.
Pocahontas: A Poem
Virginia Carter Castleman
This narrative poem reimagines the life of a legendary figure, blending historical milestones with a romanticized, lyrical sensibility that emphasizes her role as a bridge between two worlds.
The Sisters
Georg Ebers
The palace of Memphis serves as a gilded cage where royal caprice and political ambition collide, trapping those who move within its walls in a delicate, high-stakes game of power.
Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt
Georg Ebers
A sweeping tale of political intrigue and personal obsession, set amidst the monumental grandeur of ancient Egypt under the reign of Ramses II.
In the Fire of the Forge: A Romance of Old Nuremberg
Georg Ebers
A young knight’s quest for spiritual purity and a merchant family’s struggle against ruin collide in the rigid, tradition-bound social hierarchy of medieval Nuremberg.