Free summaries
Novels — page 26
1,233 public-domain novels books, summarised. Page 26 of 26.
Hall of Mirrors
Fredric Brown
A young mathematician vanishes from a sunny patio, only to wake in a windowless room with a letter that explains he has traveled fifty years into his own future.
Hidden Treasure: The Story of a Chore Boy Who Made the Old Farm Pay
John Thomas Simpson
An energetic young nephew revitalizes a dilapidated Pennsylvania homestead by introducing modern engineering, systematic accounting, and forward-thinking financial strategy to his reluctant uncle.
Mavericks
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
Shadowed by a bloody stagecoach robbery and two hundred pounds of stolen raw gold, a Southwestern valley becomes a battleground of buried parentage, range theft, and sudden murder.
Melbourne House
Susan Warner
A lonely, deeply principled young girl quietly resolves to live by her faith in a worldly nineteenth-century family, triggering a bitter domestic struggle over her obedience, her conscience, and her right to her own mind.
Morale: A Story of the War of 1941-43
Murray Leinster
Panic strikes the American eastern seaboard as a massive, near-invulnerable enemy war machine rolls ashore, laying waste to infrastructure and crushing civilian spirit.
My robot
Henry Slesar
Separated from human warmth by his father's obsessive work, a young boy turns to a mechanical creation for solace and protection, discovering too late the dark cost of total obedience.
"O Thou, My Austria!"
Ossip Schubin
A young girl’s heart breaks open against the grand, indifferent backdrop of rural estates, garrison towns, and the suffocating expectations of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy.
The Avenger
Damon Knight
A lone scientist breeds a logic-driven superman in deep space to destroy Earth's alien conquerors, only to discover too late that cold reason recognizes no human allegiance.
The Copper-Clad World
Harl Vincent
Drifting off course near the asteroid belt, a cargo ship carrying a fortune in rare metal is hijacked and driven deep into the Jovian system, where its crew discovers a hidden civilization plotting to rip its own moon from orbit to invade Earth.
The Later Life
Louis Couperus
A marriage frozen in long-standing bitterness begins to thaw, only to fracture along entirely unexpected fault lines when new passions and late-blooming ideals disrupt a quiet Hague household.
The Machine That Floats
Joe Gibson
A young engineer discovers the secret to nullifying gravity, only to realize his invention is too dangerous for a world obsessed with military power.
The Marquis of Peñalta (Marta y María): A Realistic Social Novel
Armando Palacio Valdés
Two sisters in a provincial Spanish town choose radically different responses to life, framing a rich drama of spiritual fanaticism, domestic quietude, and the clash between worldly love and religious asceticism.
The Ordeal of Elizabeth
Anonymous
An impulse marriage to a charming singer traps a young woman in a secret past, driving her from quiet rural isolation into high-society intrigue, a high-profile murder trial, and the desperate fight for her own life.
The Secret Martians
Jack Sharkey
An advertising copywriter with a knack for spotting fatal flaws is sent to Mars to investigate fifteen boys who vanished into thin air.
A Transmutation of Muddles
H. B. (Horace Bowne) Fyfe
An old space hand-turned-arbitrator must sort out an insurance mess, an enraged crew, and a sacred native temple built directly over a stranded trading ship before a Earth envoy arrives.
A woman's soul
Charles Garvice
A stage actress in Victorian England discovers that the true theater of her life lies in navigating secret aristocrats, stolen inheritances, and a deep love that defies social class.
Cecilia: A Story of Modern Rome
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
A mysterious mental bond ties a young woman to a strange man before they ever meet, pulling her away from the comfortable, civilized marriage her family expects.
His Hour
Elinor Glyn
An English widow resting before the Sphinx is told by the ancient monument to throw off her bloodless propriety; she does, falling into the orbit of a dangerous, magnetic Russian prince.
Lord Tedric
E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith
A humble blacksmith learns to forge super-steel with the help of a time traveler posing as a god, changing the fate of an ancient empire.
Madame X: a story of mother-love
J. W. McConaughy
A mother's desperate search for her son leads to a dramatic trial and a shocking revelation.
Monkey On His Back
Charles V. De Vet
A man with no memory of his past wanders through a strange, hostile world, only to discover that the one thing he cannot escape is his own conscience.
Phoenix
Marion Zimmer Bradley
An ordinary young man wakes to godlike telekinetic control over energy and matter, only to find that his terrifying raw power shatters his relationship and leaves him utterly isolated.
The Inner Sisterhood: A Social Study in High Colors
Douglass Sherley
A series of sharp, intimate interior monologues pulls back the velvet curtain on the calculations, heartaches, and social games of young women navigating a late nineteenth-century ballroom world.
The Monster
S. M. Tenneshaw
A secret experiment in the Arizona desert turns a hubristic scientist into a bloodthirsty beast. When cosmic rays rewrite his biology, a routine rocket launch becomes a nightmare that threatens everyone around him.
The Rapids
Alan Sullivan
A dynamic promoter descends on a sleepy Canadian border town, intent on bending its wild river and vast forests to his industrial will, only to find that building an empire demands more than sheer force of belief.
Born Again
Alfred W. (Alfred William) Lawson
A man unearths an ancient utopian civilization, inherits its lost wisdom, and returns to modern society to wage a peaceful, uncompromising war against human greed, superstition, and hypocrisy.
Clean Break
Roger D. Aycock
A shy, suburban veterinarian finds the courage to shed his stifling family obligations when a mysterious client invites him into a world of extraterrestrial wonder. He discovers that the most mundane life can be transformed by a single, decisive moment of rebellion.
Planet of Dreams
James McKimmey
An idealist’s engineered paradise collapses when its inhabitants realize that effortless perfection is just a gilded cage.
Second Sight
Alan Edward Nourse
A telepathic woman, locked in a research center, discovers that the unique gift hailed as humanity’s future is actually the biological side effect of her total sensory isolation.
The Spanish Chest
Edna A. Brown
An American family's winter on the Channel Island of Jersey turns into an enchanting historical mystery filled with coastal tides, old manors, and forgotten royal secrets.
Three Women
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
A young poet, a philanthropic wife, and a worldly widow navigate the tangled boundaries of Victorian morality, romantic illusion, and personal independence.
Under One Flag
Richard Marsh
Behind every theatrical curtain, domestic squabble, and competitive green lies a human being trying desperately to save face.
Susan Proudleigh
Herbert George De Lisser
A proud, ambitious Kingston woman leaves behind neighborhood rivalries to build a lucrative life on the Panama Canal, only to navigate volatile lovers and sudden tragedy in a rapidly changing world.