Free summaries
Historical Novels — page 3
122 public-domain historical novels books, summarised. Page 3 of 3.
The Death of the Gods: (Christ and Antichrist, 1 of 3)
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky
A fourth-century emperor attempts to turn back the clock of history, pitting the dying gods of pagan antiquity against the relentless rise of a young Christian church.
Tara: A Mahratta Tale
Meadows Taylor
A young Brahmin widow becomes a devoted temple priestess in seventeen-century India, only to be swept into a perilous clash between a rising Maratha chieftain and the Bijapur Kingdom. <Image alt="Book cover of Tara: A Mahratta Tale" caption="Tara: A Mahratta Tale" src="imageagenttag12407152818080985314"/
Uncle Bernac: A Memory of the Empire
Arthur Conan Doyle
A young Royalist returns from exile to claim his ancestral estate, only to find himself entangled in a deadly conspiracy and swept into the intimate circle of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Rabbi and Priest: A Story
Milton Goldsmith
Two Jewish boys, torn from their family in imperial Russia, navigate divergent paths through persecution, state violence, and the enduring pull of faith.
Onesimus: Memoirs of a Disciple of St. Paul
Edwin Abbott Abbott
A slave’s journey from bondage to doubt, philosophical wandering, and ultimate spiritual liberation forms the emotional center of this first-century Roman world portrait.
The Princess Tarakanova: A Dark Chapter of Russian History
G. P. (Grigorii Petrovich) Danilevskii
Trapped between imperial ambition and a forged identity, a mysterious pretender discovers that challenging Catherine the Great’s crown carries a death sentence in the frozen dark of a St. Petersburg fortress.
The Laughing Cavalier: The Story of the Ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness
In seventeenth-century Haarlem, a broke, lighthearted soldier of fortune accepts a murky assignment to abduct a wealthy merchant's daughter, only to find himself entangled in political treason, unexpected honor, and romantic devotion.
The Red, White, and Green
Herbert Hayens
The struggle for national identity is a crucible of blood and loyalty, where the cost of liberty is measured in the lives of brothers and the heavy silence of the defeated.
In the Fire of the Forge: A Romance of Old Nuremberg
Georg Ebers
In the shadow of a medieval German city, a young woman’s vow to God and a reckless knight’s search for meaning collide in a struggle between earthly love and the pull of the cloister.
The Playground of Satan
Beatrice C. Baskerville
The Polish landscape is not merely a setting, but a crucible where ancient blood feuds and modern industrial warfare collide, leaving the landed gentry to fight for their survival amid the ruins of their own history.
The Coming Conquest of England
August Niemann
The sun sets on the British Empire as a coalition of continental powers rises to challenge its global dominance, sparking a cataclysmic struggle for the future of the world.
Brian Fitz-Count: A Story of Wallingford Castle and Dorchester Abbey
A. D. (Augustine David) Crake
A fierce Norman baron and a mysterious peasant youth navigate the brutal landscape of 12th-century England, where ancient blood feuds and the shifting allegiances of a civil war collide with a father’s long-buried secret.
The Court Jester
Cornelia Baker
A loyal fool navigates the treacherous politics of fifteenth-century European courts to protect his young charge, eventually guiding her toward a fateful, romantic union.
The Five Arrows
Allan Chase
HOOK A journalist uncovers a clandestine web of fascist influence in a tense, wartime Latin American nation, where every shadow conceals a threat and every alliance is a calculated risk.
Sidonia, the Sorceress : the Supposed Destroyer of the Whole Reigning Ducal House of Pomerania
Wilhelm Meinhold
Sidonia von Bork, a noblewoman of striking beauty and relentless spite, descends into a life of dark obsession after the ducal house of Pomerania repeatedly spurns her. Her path from a court favorite to a condemned sorceress becomes a tragic spiral of revenge, magic, and the systematic undoing of a royal dynasty.
The Vicomte de Bragelonne: The End and Beginning of an Era
John Bursey
The final installment of the D’Artagnan Romances follows the aging, separated musketeers as they navigate the shifting political landscape of Louis XIV’s France. It is a sprawling, elegiac meditation on the twilight of chivalry and the inevitable erosion of idealism.
The Cock and Anchor
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
A young woman finds herself ensnared in a web of deceit and forced marriage, relying on a long-lost love to navigate the shadows of a dangerous and atmospheric eighteenth-century Dublin.
Ridgeway: An Historical Romance of the Fenian Invasion of Canada
Scian Dubh
This historical romance blends the fervor of 19th-century Irish nationalism with the gritty reality of the 1866 Fenian Brotherhood raids into Canada. It is a partisan, spirited chronicle that transforms a minor military conflict into an epic struggle for national identity and personal devotion.
Isabella Orsini: A Historical Novel of the Fifteenth Century
Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi
A tragic historical chronicle of the Medici family, this narrative reconstructs the dark fate of Isabella Orsini, a woman caught within the lethal machinations of sixteenth-century Italian nobility.
Akbar: An Eastern Romance
P. A. S. van (Petrus Abraham Samuel) Limburg Brouwer
This historical romance offers an immersive portrait of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, blending the intrigue of a sprawling imperial court with the philosophical struggles of a ruler seeking truth in a world of clashing faiths.
Adam Hepburn's Vow: A Tale of Kirk and Covenant
Annie S. Swan
A child rides a pony toward Edinburgh into a gathering dusk, unaware that the kingdom above her is about to tear itself apart over the right of free worship.
The Daughter of an Empress
L. (Luise) Mühlbach
A young orphan raised in a secluded Italian villa discovers she is the secret daughter of a dead Russian empress, only to be drawn into a deadly web of court politics, foreign intrigue, and betrayal.
Margery (Gred): A Tale Of Old Nuremberg
Georg Ebers
A childhood friendship in 15th-century Nuremberg matures into an ordeal of rivalry, captivity, and devotion, testing two maidens who must navigate the treacherous currents of high-born arrogance and foreign peril to save the men they love.
Quintus Claudius: A Romance of Imperial Rome. Volume 2
Ernst Eckstein
The Roman Empire trembles as a young aristocrat risks everything to protect the persecuted, caught between a tyrannical Emperor and the quiet, dangerous rise of a new faith.
Prince and Heretic
Marjorie Bowen
Two brothers, a fragile marriage, and the shadow of an empire converge as a young prince stakes everything to challenge the world's most terrifying tyranny.
No Defense, Volume 1
Gilbert Parker
Irish pride, political intrigue, and a murder charge collide in a sprawling tale of chivalry, honor, and sacrifice.