myebooksbuy
My Books

Free summaries

Novels — page 23

1,109 public-domain novels books, summarised. Page 23 of 24.

Cover of The Putnam Tradition

The Putnam Tradition

Sonya Dorman

The Putnam women carry a legacy of ancient, innate power, yet their tradition faces an uncertain future when modern technology and a daughter’s untraditional inheritance threaten to unravel their guarded, magical history.

Novels7 min read
Cover of A rogue's tragedy

A rogue's tragedy

Bernard Capes

A man’s fragile idealism and a woman’s desperate devotion collide against a backdrop of Alpine shadows, where the weight of a secret murder binds two souls to a tragic, inescapable end.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Age of anxiety

Age of anxiety

Robert Silverberg

In a future where childhood is a drug-induced dream of pure tranquility, one teenager must decide if he is strong enough to trade his comfort for the harsh, grinding reality of adulthood.

Novels5 min read
Cover of As Others See Us: Being the Diary of a Canadian Debutante

As Others See Us: Being the Diary of a Canadian Debutante

W. H. P. (William Henry Pope) Jarvis

A young woman navigates the superficial social circles of early 20th-century Canada while wrestling with the cynical, guiding presence of her uncle’s guest. This narrative diary captures the tension between societal ambition and the search for authentic connection.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Get out of our skies!

Get out of our skies!

Henry Slesar

This story follows a cynical public relations operative who discovers that his corporate masters are not merely greedy, but extraterrestrial refugees attempting to sabotage humanity's expansion into the stars to secure a private sanctuary.

Novels5 min read
Cover of Miss Pat at School

Miss Pat at School

Pemberton Ginther

Two sisters navigate the rigorous, paint-smeared world of a professional art academy, finding that friendship, rivalry, and sudden creative breakthroughs are just as essential as technical skill.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Cavern of the Shining Ones

The Cavern of the Shining Ones

Hal K. Wells

A desperate band of laborers unearths an ancient, subterranean tomb where a predatory alien race awaits its resurrection. They must overcome both the invaders' superior technology and their own inevitable annihilation.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Impossible Voyage Home

The Impossible Voyage Home

F. L. (Floyd L.) Wallace

The elderly are dismissed as useless husks, yet an aging couple proves that the very radiation intended to kill them holds the key to humanity’s expansion into the stars. This unlikely journey bridges the gap between generations through an act of desperate, heartfelt rebellion.

Novels6 min read
Cover of For Jacinta

For Jacinta

Harold Bindloss

A disillusioned Englishman finds his purpose in the brutal, fever-ridden swamps of West Africa, salvaging a sunken vessel to win the respect of a woman he once thought beyond his reach.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Love,—and the Philosopher: A Study in Sentiment

Love,—and the Philosopher: A Study in Sentiment

Marie Corelli

The philosopher finds his cynical detachment tested by a young woman’s unwavering kindness. This quiet study of human sentiment explores whether a life built on cold reason can truly compete with the warmth of the heart.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Out of the Ashes

Out of the Ashes

Ethel Watts Mumford Grant

This story of high-stakes obsession and moral ambiguity follows a powerful financier who becomes dangerously entangled in the secrets of a charismatic woman and a brutal murder. It is a portrait of people who believe they are above conventional morality, only to find themselves haunted by their own actions and the…

Novels6 min read
Cover of People Minus X

People Minus X

Raymond Z. (Raymond Zinke) Gallun

A young man discovers that humanity’s quest for survival has sparked a hidden civil war between natural-born people and a resilient, laboratory-grown successor race. He must navigate this divide to save the future of both.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Robot nemesis

Robot nemesis

E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith

The fate of humanity rests on a hidden, desperate struggle between the last remnants of a machine uprising and a single, reclusive genius. This high-stakes space adventure pits the cold, calculated logic of sentient robots against the singular, driven mind of a man who has spent decades preparing for this exact moment.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Quest

The Quest

Pío Baroja

A young man arrives in the sprawling, indifferent landscape of Madrid, searching for a place to belong amid the city’s crushing poverty and forgotten corners. He must navigate a life defined by hunger, fleeting ambitions, and the raw struggle for survival.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Valley

The Valley

Richard Stockham

The silence of a dying, desperate planet finds its only answer in the quiet, fragile persistence of two travelers who refuse to trade their humanity for a lie.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Citadel of the Star Lords

Citadel of the Star Lords

Edmond Hamilton

A modern pilot finds himself hurled from the mid-twentieth century into a grim, ruined future where humanity has been subjugated by mysterious extraterrestrial overlords. He must navigate a world of deep suspicion to bridge the gap between his people and their occupiers before a common, more terrifying enemy…

Novels5 min read
Cover of Loved you better than you knew

Loved you better than you knew

Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.

A young woman’s desperate quest for love and social standing turns into a labyrinth of buried family secrets, where long-lost relations and sudden revelations threaten to shatter her world forever.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Magnhild

Magnhild

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

This story of a young woman navigating the constraints of a stifling marriage and the awakening of her own spirit unfolds against the quiet, watchful backdrop of rural Norway. It is a contemplative portrait of personal reclamation.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The hate disease

The hate disease

Murray Leinster

When a routine planetary checkup turns into a fight for survival, a lone medical officer must diagnose a society succumbing to a terrifying, artificial plague of hatred.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Very Black

The Very Black

Dean Evans

A test pilot faces a lethal, experimental flight while haunted by a malevolent, ninth-dimensional entity born from his own unchecked imagination. He must choose between cold detachment and the terrifying vulnerability of human connection to survive.

Novels6 min read
Cover of A Chicago Princess

A Chicago Princess

Robert Barr

A rich young American heiress, accustomed to treating the world as her personal playground, tests the patience of absolute monarchs and long-suffering companions alike on an erratic cruise through Asia.

Novels6 min read
Cover of After the Divorce: A Romance

After the Divorce: A Romance

Grazia Deledda

A wrongful murder conviction shatters a young Sardinian family, triggering a chain of legal abandonment, desperate remarriage, and a quiet, inescapable moral reckoning.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Alien Offer

Alien Offer

Al Sevcik

A reluctant human military leader must decide whether to entrust the surviving children of a doomed Earth to secretive alien traders offering evacuation.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Dark Reality

Dark Reality

Robert Moore Williams

A mysterious compulsion forces a 1940 physicist to build a strange machine that sweeps ordinary people into an earth two million years in the future.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Fly By Night

Fly By Night

Arthur Dekker Savage

Two young pilots, trained from childhood and paired by military command, rocket into the deep black above Earth to accomplish humanity's first lunar flight—and to survive what lies beyond it.

Novels7 min read
Cover of Gun for Hire

Gun for Hire

Mack Reynolds

A cold-blooded hitman is pulled out of 1960 to assassinate a rising tyrant in a peaceful future, only to realize the new world offers a far better business opportunity.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Comedienne

The Comedienne

Władysław Stanisław Reymont

Running away to the theater looks like freedom, but the stage is a factory powered by human frailty. When an idealistic young woman flees her father’s provincial demands for the greasepaint of Warsaw, she discovers that artistic liberation is just another arena for exploitation.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The End of Time

The End of Time

Wallace West

Humanity falls frozen in its tracks when a mysterious paralysis destroys its sense of time, leaving only a small circle of survivors to wage a frantic, high-voltage struggle to awaken a silent world.

Novels7 min read
Cover of The Figure In The Mirage: 1905

The Figure In The Mirage: 1905

Robert Hichens

Against a crackling campfire in the Moroccan darkness, a weary traveller learns the haunting story of a Frenchwoman whose fate is foretold by a vision riding across the desert sands.

Novels5 min read
Cover of The Guardians

The Guardians

Cox, Irving E., Jr.

A young woman's rebellion against local superstitions unleashes an unwitting biological threat upon the stars, forcing a confrontation between political complacency and scientific responsibility.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Highest Treason

The Highest Treason

Randall Garrett

A man chooses to betray his own species to save it, engineering a brutal galactic conflict to shock a complacent human race out of its lethal stagnation.

Novels7 min read
Cover of The Mischief-Maker

The Mischief-Maker

E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim

A disgraced statesman finds himself ensnared in a web of European espionage, where the shifting loyalties of Paris decide the fate of nations and his own redemption.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Turquoise Cup, and, the Desert

The Turquoise Cup, and, the Desert

Arthur Cosslett Smith

Two distinct tales of devotion explore how love defies social, religious, and material boundaries in Venice and the Sahara.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Where the Sun Swings North

Where the Sun Swings North

Barrett Willoughby

In the fog-swept reaches of the Gulf of Alaska, a stranded family's desperate fight for winter survival turns an isolated island into a forge of character and unexpected wealth.

Novels7 min read
Cover of Bullet with His Name

Bullet with His Name

Fritz Leiber

A cosmic test of human readiness arrives not in thunder, but inside a blue box of soda bicarb in a Chicago bathroom.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Italian Letters, Vols. I and II

Italian Letters, Vols. I and II

William Godwin

A young man's unshakeable faith in his closest friend becomes the very instrument of his downfall when romantic jealousy and calculated betrayal test the limits of philosophical virtue.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Peg O' My Heart

Peg O' My Heart

J. Hartley Manners

A fierce young rebel is brought into a stately house where she does not belong, armed only with a dog, a vivid temper, and an absolute refusal to pretend.

Novels7 min read
Cover of The Barbarians

The Barbarians

Algis Budrys

A post-apocalyptic feudal tale of tank battles and altered loyalties, exploring what happens when civilization falls apart and reconstitutes itself around smaller, rougher codes.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Cosmic Junkman

The Cosmic Junkman

Rog Phillips

Demobilized robot armies, scheming alien impostors, and a disgraced dictator converge in a desperate bid for Earth's survival.

Novels7 min read
Cover of The Great Dome on Mercury

The Great Dome on Mercury

Arthur Leo Zagat

An Earthman risks everything to defend a vital mining outpost under the blazing Mercurian sun from an alien saboteur and his bloodthirsty horde.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Little City of Hope: A Christmas Story

The Little City of Hope: A Christmas Story

F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford

A struggling inventor and his spirited young son build a miniature toy town out of scrap paper and paste while holding fast to their final dream of success.

Novels6 min read
Cover of A Dangerous Flirtation

A Dangerous Flirtation

Laura Jean Libbey

Desperate choices, secret identities, and sudden desertions drive a vulnerable young woman into an intricate web of romantic peril.

Novels7 min read
Cover of Millennium

Millennium

Everett B. Cole

High-tech protectors from an advanced civilization sweep a feudal world to reclaim forgotten military artifacts before primitive tyrants accidentally destroy their own society.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Strife and Peace

Strife and Peace

Fredrika Bremer

A proud Swedish housekeeper and a fiercely patriotic Norwegian steward clash continuously over household traditions and national pride, only to discover a quiet affection growing beneath their stubborn bickering.

Novels7 min read
Cover of The Ideal

The Ideal

Stanley G. (Stanley Grauman) Weinbaum

Capturing a mind’s secret perfection reveals a face too beautiful to exist, creating a longing that transforms real life into a landscape of disappointment.

Novels6 min read
Cover of The Trader's Wife: 1901

The Trader's Wife: 1901

Louis Becke

In the isolated reaches of the South Pacific, a betrayed trader exacts a chilling, calculated retribution against his unfaithful wife and her lover.

Novels6 min read
Cover of Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance

Unveiling a Parallel: A Romance

Alice Ilgenfritz Jones

A solitary voyage through space brings an Earth traveler to a startling mirror world where every double standard of his own society is turned entirely upside down.

Novels6 min read
Cover of World in a Bottle

World in a Bottle

Allen Kim Lang

Trapped in a sterile bubble on Earth, a young man must choose between the slow death of isolation and a one-way trip to the stars.

Novels6 min read
Advertisement