Free summaries
Humour — page 9
558 public-domain humour books, summarised. Page 9 of 12.
Hearts and clubs
Amy Ella Blanchard
This spirited comedy follows a group of seaside hotel guests whose social lives are transformed by the sudden, fad-driven popularity of physical culture. Through a series of misunderstandings and lighthearted deceptions, the characters navigate the rigid expectations of the late 19th century.
Talkies
Eddie Cantor
The sudden arrival of sound in motion pictures destroys the last refuge of urban silence, transforming quiet picture houses into noisy arenas where every door, appliance, and screen actor clamors to be heard.
Tatlings
Sydney Tremayne
The art of the sharp observation is a dangerous game, one that requires both the quickness to strike and the grace to leave a sting that feels like a compliment. These collected aphorisms navigate the delicate, often treacherous intersection of high society, romance, and the eternal, slightly cynical dance between…
The Cosmic Bluff
Mack Reynolds
The Solar System is terrified of an invading force from Centaurus, pinning its survival on a single, reluctant gladiator. Yet the greatest threat to his victory may be his own crushing sense of being an imposter.
A Reversible Santa Claus
Meredith Nicholson
Stealing a stranger’s car on Christmas Eve seems simple enough for a retired pickpocket, until he realizes there is a laughing toddler in the back seat.
Trouble
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
A practical engineer and a brilliant, abstract physicist share one body, locked in a perpetual, competitive struggle to solve the mysteries of the universe—and drive each other mad.
Cry Snooker
Andrew Fetler
HOOK A suburban couple’s appliance-shipping error triggers a global crisis of "Senseless Destruction," forcing them to abandon their hollow, debt-ridden prosperity for a primitive life in the wilderness.
Nothing to Eat
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A wealthy New York woman sits down to a lavish multi-course feast and spends the entire two hours complaining that she has nothing to eat.
The Rubáiyát of a Bachelor
Helen Rowland
A spirited bachelor navigates the social traps of early twentieth-century courtship, armed with wit, cigars, and a fervent determination to remain a free agent.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 3, No. 27, November, 1921: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and Filosophy
Various
A rustic humor magazine captures the spirited, irreverent voice of early 1920s rural America through a vibrant mix of homespun jests, vernacular verse, and lively commentary.
Lighter Than You Think
Nelson S. Bond
The modern world is far too heavy, but a clever inventor knows how to lighten the load—until the laws of physics and the whims of fate decide to take a flight of their own.
Meddler's Moon
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
When a self-proclaimed time-traveling grandson appears in a bachelor's living room to enforce a preordained marriage, an elaborate battle against destiny begins.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 21, August 20, 1870
Various
This single issue of an Gilded-Age satirical magazine captures post-Civil War America in a whirlwind of literary parodies, slapstick rural humor, and sharp political caricature.
The Kenzie Report
Mark Clifton
The universe is far older and more crowded than humanity dares to imagine, and we are merely a footnote in a cosmic hierarchy we lack the humility to perceive.
Step Lively! A Carload of the Funniest Yarns that Ever Crossed the Footlights
George Niblo
A breezy vaudeville collection of witty yarns, eccentric local characters, and sharp stage banter offers a vivid snapshot of turn-of-the-century American humor.
The Boston Dip: A Comedy, in One Act
George M. (George Melville) Baker
High society meets fish-cart origins in a frantic evening of mistaken identity, where a worried husband mistakes a popular new waltz step for a secret rival.
The Templeton Teapot: A Farce in One Act
Grace Cooke Strong
A priceless family heirloom drives a rebellious daughter to flee her stifling home, sparking a chaotic night of mistaken identities, supposed burglars, and unexpected romance.
Chicken Farm
Ross Rocklynne
An unyielding space-prospector claims a forgotten chunk of the cosmos, weaponizes stellar law against a shipping magnate, and builds an interstellar empire on the foundation of giant, gravity-altered chickens.
Impertinent Poems
Edmund Vance Cooke
Every hypocrite eventually meets his match in the mirror, where self-delusion melts into sharp, humorous self-awareness.
Martha
M. Louise Baum
Weary of high-society boredom, a restless lady-in-waiting disguises herself as a farm servant at the Richmond fair, unwittingly binding herself to a devoted country youth in a masquerade that spirals out of control.
The Fifteen Comforts of Matrimony: Responses from Men
Various
Marriage and libertinism clash in a satirical 1700s cycle of domestic misery, where deceived husbands and cunning wives trade bitter verse about the traps of romance.
Through Hell with Hiprah Hunt: A Series of Pictures and Notes of Travel Illustrating the Adventures of a Modern Dante in the Infernal Regions
Art Young
Convinced that eternal punishment remains a reality, an eccentric Dante scholar tumbles off a night train and embarks on a satirical six-week journey through a thoroughly modernized underworld.
Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 09, May 28, 1870
Various
A sharp-witted Gilded Age satire captures Post-Civil War America through biting political takedowns, theater reviews, bad puns, and absurd period advertisements.
Rat Race
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
An ingenious invention designed to solve a rodent problem becomes a national crisis when its unintended consequence triggers a temporal feedback loop. This narrative explores the dangerous irony of human innovation and the chaotic ripple effects of tampering with the fundamental order of existence.
Skilled Assistance: Ship's Company, Part 9
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A night-watchman’s scheming attempt to rescue an aging sailor’s prospective father-in-law from a relentless suitor backfires spectacularly in this sharp, comic tale of waterfront trickery.
The Esperantist, Vol. 1, No. 11
Unknown
HOOK This archival record documents the early fervor of the international language movement, capturing a moment when linguistic unity felt not just possible, but imminent.
Cultural Exchange
Keith Laumer
A diplomat navigates a web of interstellar deception, using his wits to transform a hostile military incursion into a peaceful harvest festival.
Goma's Follicles
John De Courcy
Getting a haircut is usually a routine chore, but on the mining colony of Procyon IV, it becomes a dangerous political maneuver that decides the fate of a fortune in iridium.
Service with a Smile
Charles L. Fontenay
A crash-landed crew of four women finds their survival on a desolate planet made perfect by a tireless robot, until the arrival of a single man forces them to confront their own latent desperation and greed.
The Dramatist
Frederick Reynolds
Mistaken identities, theatrical obsession, and romantic scheming collide when an eccentric playwright turns a Bath inheritance plot into material for his next production.
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.
Beggars on Horseback
E. Oe. (Edith Oenone) Somerville
Two women embark on a grueling, humorous pony-riding tour through the scenic, rain-swept heights and valleys of North Wales, confronting exhausted beasts, eccentric locals, and the trials of travel.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Vol. 3, No. 29, January, 1922: America's Magazine of Wit, Humor and Filosophy
Various
Stepping back into the raucous, joke-filled pages of a 1922 American humor magazine reveals a nation laughing, drinking, and wrestling with changing social mores.
Comedies by Holberg
Ludvig Holberg
In three sharp, satirical plays, an eighteenth-century Scandinavian master strips men of their vanity, exposing how a single night of unearned power or a handful of Latin phrases can turn an ordinary soul into a monster.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, October 29, 1892
Various
A Victorian satirical magazine captures the absurdities of late-nineteenth-century life through sharp theatrical critiques, political mockeries, and whimsical social commentary.
The Laughing Willow: Verses and Pictures
Oliver Herford
Satirical verse and whimsical drawings skewer the absurdities of wartime politics, wartime culture, and human vanity with a sharp yet playful pen.
The Useless Bugbreeders
James Stamers
When a lawyer defends an alien whose bacterial culture can instantly build houses and extract gold, disaster ensues until an unexpected secret is revealed.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 102, May 7, 1892
Various
The biting, whimsical spirit of late Victorian London comes to life in this collection of satire, political commentary, and social observation. It captures a society at once self-important and deeply absurd.
Ship-Bored
Julian Street
The sea is a vast, rolling nuisance, and the modern ocean liner is merely a floating cage for the pretentious, the nauseous, and the hopelessly bored.
The Dope on Mars
Jack Sharkey
HOOK A satirical diary of a space mission goes disastrously wrong when a cynical journalist and his crew accidentally trigger a planetary invasion. It is a cautionary tale about the perils of unchecked curiosity.
Ely's Automatic Housemaid
Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Whitfield) Bellamy
The promise of domestic automation takes a violent turn when a man’s eccentric friend invents two mechanical servants that refuse to stop working—or fighting.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 107, December 29th 1894
Various
This collection captures the sharp, satirical pulse of Victorian London at the end of 1894, blending biting political commentary with the melancholic grace of a society rapidly moving toward a new century.
The Jewel Merchants: A Comedy in One Act
James Branch Cabell
In a sun-drenched Renaissance garden, a young woman’s romantic tryst with a traveling merchant is interrupted by a predatory duke. This is a sharp, elegant dance of power, ambition, and the unexpected price of integrity.
The Mischievous Typesetter
Noel M. Loomis
A nomadic typesetter with a penchant for bourbon and an unexplained, lightning-induced affinity for machinery faces his greatest challenge: a sentient, rebellious linotype machine. This struggle becomes a battle of wills that forces him to confront his own place in a changing, automated world.
Stopover Planet
Robert E. Gilbert
A bizarre morning delivery van stalks a quiet American town, harvesting unsuspecting citizens by turning their deepest personal longings against them.
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 27, January 2, 1841
Various
This collection of nineteenth-century Irish miscellany blends local folklore and rural social observation with moralistic essays and classical aphorisms. It captures a specific moment in time where old-world superstitions met the burgeoning influence of modern, rationalist thought.
The World Turned Upside Down
Anonymous
Where a hare hunts the dog and an ox blows a horn, the natural order collapses into whimsical chaos. This collection of verses presents a series of impossible scenarios, challenging the reader to imagine a world where the mundane becomes miraculous and the absurd becomes routine.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, December 18, 1841
Various
This issue of a fledgling satirical periodical captures the frantic, clever, and cynical spirit of early Victorian London. It serves as a boisterous window into a world of medical students, bored officers, and political schemers.