Free summaries
Humour — page 4
265 public-domain humour books, summarised. Page 4 of 6.
All on the Irish Shore: Irish Sketches
E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville
A set of linked, sharply drawn comic sketches opens a window into the horse-dealers, impoverished gentry, and eccentric cottagers of rural turn-of-the-century Ireland.
Baddeck, and That Sort of Thing
Charles Dudley Warner
A lighthearted summer journey through the Canadian Maritimes exposes the delightful friction between grand travel ambitions and the mundane realities of provincial transport. Through foggy bays, late-night stages, and sleepy villages, a wry American observer discovers that the true destination is often secondary to…
English as she is spoke
José da Fonseca
A Portuguese instructor sets out to write an English conversation manual using only a dictionary and a French phrasebook, producing a masterpiece of unintended comedy.
A House-Boat on the Styx
John Kendrick Bangs
A group of historical luminaries finds an eternal social life on a luxurious houseboat, only to have their exclusive club hijacked by a vengeful pirate.
Condensed Novels: New Burlesques
Bret Harte
This collection is a sharp-witted assembly of parodies that takes the most popular, earnest, and often melodramatic literary trends of the late nineteenth century and gleefully turns them inside out.
The Crow's Nest
Clarence Day
The modern man is a bewildered creature, a descendant of slime who finds himself spinning through space while trying to navigate the absurd, rigid requirements of civilization.
The Turkish Jester
George Borrow
This collection of traditional anecdotes follows the legendary folk hero Nasreddin Hoca, a wise-fool who navigates the absurdities of life with a sharp tongue, a stubborn donkey, and a penchant for turning logic on its head.
Best Short Stories
Unknown
This collection of anecdotes and brief tales offers a snapshot of early twentieth-century wit, capturing the social tensions, war-time anxieties, and everyday ironies of its era. It serves as a reminder that the human impulse to find levity in the face of bureaucracy, marriage, and conflict remains a constant…
$1,000 a Plate
Jack McKenty
A group of beleaguered astronomers on a colonized Mars must contend with the relentless light pollution of a local gambling district that threatens their vital research. Their solution, however, proves far more explosive than intended.
Love Letters of a Rookie to Julie
Barney Stone
The trenches of the Great War feel miles away in these frantic, funny dispatches, where a soldier’s true battles are fought against ill-fitting uniforms, missing ham and eggs, and the relentless antics of his comrade-in-arms.
On an Irish Jaunting-Car Through Donegal and Connemara
Samuel G. (Samuel Gamble) Bayne
This personal account of a journey through the Irish countryside offers a vivid, old-fashioned window into a landscape defined by its rugged beauty, ancient history, and the resilient spirit of its people. It serves as both a travelogue and a nostalgic meditation on a land the author calls his birthplace.
Dynamite Stories, and Some Interesting Facts About Explosives
Hudson Maxim
A stick of dynamite is just inert clay until someone forgets where they put it, thaws it on a stove, or hits it with a hammer.
Gallery of Comicalities
Robert Seymour
This collection acts as a boisterous, satirical mirror to early 19th-century London, capturing the frantic energy, social inequities, and dark humor of an era defined by its rapid industrial and urban evolution.
Mr. Poskitt's Nightcaps: Stories of a Yorkshire Farmer
J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
A cozy fireplace, a glass of toddy, and a host who knows every secret in the valley set the scene for these quiet, surprising tales of rural life.
The Little Man: A Farcical Morality in Three Scenes
John Galsworthy
A sudden flurry on a train platform leaves a modest traveller holding a stranger's child, turning an everyday journey into a sharp, comic test of human decency.
Mr. Punch at Home: The Comic Side of Domestic Life
Unknown
This collection of wit and caricature offers a fractured, funny window into the rigid hierarchies and absurd pretensions of the Victorian and Edwardian domestic interior. It captures the eternal friction between those who run the house and those who staff it.
Over the Plum Pudding
John Kendrick Bangs
A world where spectral visitors, identity mix-ups, and absurd tall tales disrupt the polite surface of turn-of-the-century life with gentle, satirical wit.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 19, August 6, 1870
Various
Enter the irreverent world of Gilded Age journalism, where political satire, parodied serials, and theatrical gossip collide to expose the absurdities of post-Civil War America.
Funny stories told by the soldiers
Carleton B. (Carleton Britton) Case
Military absurdity, absurd miscommunications, and quick-witted insubordination fill a relief-seeking collection gathered right as the First World War drew to a close.
A Fantasy of Mediterranean Travel
Samuel G. (Samuel Gamble) Bayne
This account of a turn-of-the-century luxury cruise offers a candid, irreverent look at the sights and social frictions of the Mediterranean. It captures the spirit of early global tourism with sharp wit and a skeptical eye.
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (November 1912): Vol. LXXXV: New Series Vol. LXIII, November 1912 to April 1913
Unknown
This collection of essays, fiction, and commentary serves as a time capsule, capturing the political anxieties, social mores, and cultural fascinations of the American public on the eve of the First World War.
Jeppe on the Hill
Ludvig Holberg
A humble, perpetually inebriated peasant finds himself plucked from a dungheap and placed in a baron’s bed, sparking a cruel, transformative comedy about power, status, and the desperate search for dignity.
The Best Nonsense Verses
Unknown
The world is a far more elastic place than logic allows, and these verses prove that the most sensible thing one can do is abandon reason for a rhyme.
License to Steal
Louis Newman
A simple misunderstanding leads to a galaxy-spanning legal odyssey when an extraterrestrial visitor takes a human figure of speech far too literally. This witty satire explores the absurdities of law, culture, and the unintended consequences of playing jokes on strangers.
The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor
Wallace Irwin
A street-car conductor finds his muse in the jarring, rattling environment of a Sixth Avenue trolley, capturing the dizzying rush of falling in love through the slang-heavy cadence of the city. This collection of sonnets serves as a rhythmic, irreverent diary of a working-class romantic navigating the daily grind…
Fish Stories
Henry Abbott
These are not the tall tales of a braggart, but the quiet, observational accounts of a woodsman who finds that the truth of the wilderness is far stranger than any fiction.
As Seen By Me
Lilian Bell
An American woman’s spirited, observational account of a two-year journey across Europe, Russia, and Egypt. It captures the charm and exasperation of travel at the turn of the century with wit and distinct personality.
Don't Shoot
Robert Zacks
An obsessed scientist confesses his role in a bizarre transformation, revealing that the legendary Abominable Snowman is actually a missing Hollywood mogul sent to the Himalayas by a malfunctioning matter-transmitter.
Oh! Susannah!: A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts
Mark Ambient
A young doctor’s attempt to launch his practice descends into a frantic, dizzying series of misunderstandings when his secret bride and a meddlesome aunt arrive on the same afternoon.
One Man's Poison
Robert Sheckley
Two starving space travelers land on a desolate, spined planet and stumble into an alien warehouse, only to discover that their survival depends on deciphering the lethal—and often absurd—labels of an extinct civilization.
Niobe, All Smiles: A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts
Harry Paulton
A Victorian household is thrown into comic chaos when a priceless Greek statue comes to life and insists on being treated like a member of the family.
Puzzles and oddities
Unknown
A collection of nineteenth-century diversions, this volume serves as a parlor guide to the wit, wordplay, and intellectual games that once occupied the idle hours of a bygone era.
The humour of Holland
Alice Werner
Dutch wit reveals itself not in singular, explosive guises, but through a steady, observant irony that delights in the small discrepancies of life. It is a collection of cultural character studies, gathered to bridge the distance between the English-speaking reader and the Dutch literary spirit.
General Bramble
André Maurois
Amid the mud and quiet absurdity of the Western Front, a young French interpreter sits among a staff of British officers who face war with gramophone records, rigid manners, and impenetrable calm.
Letters from High Latitudes: Being Some Account of a Voyage in 1856 of the Schooner Yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Meyen, and Spitzbergen
Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Marquis of
A sudden telegram shatters a hopeful departure, yet launches a magnificent northern odyssey across storm-tossed seas, ancient ice-fields, and silent polar solitudes.
Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 38, December 17, 1870
Various
This single issue of a Gilded Age comic weekly captures high-spirited Nineteenth-Century American satire at its most chaotic, irreverent, and sharply observational.
Poems for Pale People: A Volume of Verse
Edwin Carty Ranck
A playful, unpretentious journey through the lighthearted landscapes of turn-of-the-century American verse, where absurdity, nostalgia, and everyday humor intermingle freely.
The Humourous Story of Farmer Bumpkin's Lawsuit
Richard Harris
Litigation turns a dispute over a pig into a vortex of legal fees that consumes a farmer's entire life.
Apparitions
Joseph Taylor
Shadows in dark hallways often turn out to be nothing more than hanging coats or wandering livestock when examined closely.
Fables for the Frivolous
Guy Wetmore Carryl
Clever beasts and foolish men clash in rhyme, only to discover that the punchline always cuts deeper than the lesson.
Puck on Pegasus: Fourth Edition
H. (Henry) Cholmondeley-Pennell
A mischievous sprite in verse, this collection dances between sharp-witted satire and moments of genuine, somber reflection. It captures the frantic, soot-stained energy of the Victorian age with equal parts cynicism and elegance.
The Comical Adventures of Twm Shon Catty (Thomas Jones, Esq.),: Commonly known as the Welsh Robin Hood
T. J. Llewelyn (Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn) Prichard
A mischievous, legendary Welsh trickster navigates poverty and social injustice, constantly outwitting the arrogant and powerful through his sharp wits and a series of relentless, hilarious practical jokes.
The Foolish Almanak for Anuthur Year: The Furst Cinc the Introdukshun ov the Muk-rake in Magazeen Gardning, and the Speling Reform ov Owr Langwij by Theodor Rosyfelt
Various
HOOK This satirical almanac delivers a cynical, sharp-witted snapshot of American life in 1906, mocking everything from political scandals and social trends to the very language used to describe them.
A Court of Inquiry
Grace S. (Grace Smith) Richmond
A close-knit circle of friends navigates the complexities of courtship and character in this quiet, observational study of human connection. It explores how personal integrity shapes the bonds we form with those who matter most.
Mr. Punch's Country Life: Humours of Our Rustics
Unknown
This collection of wit and observations captures the eccentric spirit of rural England, where simple life meets sharp tongues and dry humor. It offers a glimpse into a vanished world through the eyes of classic illustrators and sharp-witted writers.
The Glugs of Gosh
C. J. (Clarence James) Dennis
To find the land of Gosh, one must know the secret paths, avoid the watchful gaze of officialdom, and possess a heart willing to trade worldly ambition for the simple wisdom of a tinker.
The Mimic Stage: A Series of Dramas, Comedies, Burlesques, and Farces for Public Exhibitions and Private Theatricals
George M. (George Melville) Baker
This collection of amateur plays serves as a practical, charming toolkit for nineteenth-century parlors, offering modest scripts that turn any living room into a stage.
The Silly Syclopedia: A Terrible Thing in the Form of a Literary Torpedo which is Launched for Hilarious Purposes Only Inaccurate in Every Particular Containing Copious Etymological Derivations and Other Useless Things
George V. (George Vere) Hobart
A satirical dictionary for the weary soul, this work treats the burdens of modern life with absurd definitions and mock-practical advice, ensuring that no subject—from breakfast food to baseball—remains un-torpedoed.