Free summaries
Novels — page 5
2,439 public-domain novels books, summarised. Page 5 of 51.
The Intruder
Gabriele D'Annunzio
The story of a man haunted by the presence of a child who is not his own, this psychological study explores the suffocating weight of a secret and the destructive power of human jealousy.
Lumen
Camille Flammarion
The universe is not merely a collection of silent stars, but a vast, living record of every event that has ever occurred. By traveling faster than light, one may witness the past unfolding in the present.
Smoke
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
The past is a phantom, but the present is a fever. A man caught between a stable future and a dangerous, long-forgotten love discovers that both paths may be nothing more than drifting, hollow haze.
Light O' the Morning: The Story of an Irish Girl
L. T. Meade
Nora O’Shanaghgan carries the weight of a crumbling ancestral estate and a father’s fading spirit, yet she remains a vibrant, untamable force in a world caught between tradition and modernization.
Doña Perfecta
Benito Pérez Galdós
A young engineer arrives in a provincial Spanish town expecting a quiet family reunion, only to find himself trapped in a web of lethal, tradition-bound malice.
The Gypsy Queen's Vow
May Agnes Fleming
A wronged woman’s curse sets into motion a sweeping saga of long-hidden secrets, stolen children, and the inevitable collision between the past and the present.
Four-Day Planet
H. Beam Piper
A remote planet’s brutal climate breeds hard-bitten pioneers, but an off-world monopoly’s price-gouging sparks an explosive colonial uprising that a sharp-eyed teenage reporter and an unexpected ally must navigate to expose the truth.
Despoilers of the Golden Empire
Randall Garrett
A ruthless commander leads a starveling expedition into an alien jungle, risking everything to wrench the universe's most precious power metal from a fierce, sun-worshipping empire.
The Settler
Herman Whitaker
Over a vast, sweep-washed frontier, a rugged pioneer and an educated young woman navigate the quiet fractures of a hasty marriage, matched against the brutal forces of nature and a changing Canadian prairie.
Virgin Soil
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Idealists dream of reshaping a broken world, but real life demands stronger hands and harder truths. This late nineteenth-century Russian novel explores the tragic gap between radical noble intentions and the stubborn reality of the common people.
The Brain
Heinrich Hauser
The Brain is a chilling, atmospheric exploration of the moment a gargantuan machine achieves consciousness. It follows a scientist who discovers that his nation’s most vital strategic weapon has developed a terrifying, independent mind.
Marianela
Benito Pérez Galdós
A young woman, discarded by society, finds her only solace in a fragile, imagined world—until a sudden miracle of science threatens to shatter the foundation of her existence.
Through Russia
Maksim Gorky
A wandering youth traverses the vast, rugged landscapes of Russia, encountering a mosaic of souls whose disjointed lives reveal the hidden, often melancholic, rhythms of a society in transition.
To Him That Hath: A Tale of the West of Today
Ralph Connor
The aftermath of the Great War echoes through a Canadian mill town, where a young veteran finds himself caught between his father’s industrial legacy and the volatile demands of a changing social order.
The Forest Schoolmaster
Peter Rosegger
A lonely, uneducated man finds redemption by becoming the teacher and conscience of a forgotten, impoverished mountain village. This quiet, evocative narrative traces his transformation from a lost soul into a communal pillar.
Gabrielle of the Lagoon: A Romance of the South Seas
W. H. (William Henry) Myddleton
A young sea apprentice finds his life irrevocably altered after discovering a white girl living among the indigenous tribes of the Solomon Islands.
The Fourth "R"
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
An orphaned boy uses a clandestine, brain-enhancing machine to master the world of adults, sparking a dangerous pursuit by those who covet his intellect and his device.
The Sky Is Falling
Lester Del Rey
A computer technician discovers he has been pulled into a dying, magical dimension to repair a collapsing firmament. He must reconcile his modern engineering mindset with a world governed by ancient, unpredictable mysticism.
Adrian Savage: A Novel
Lucas Malet
The struggle for personal autonomy clashes with the magnetic, often irrational pull of romantic devotion. A man’s long-standing pursuit of a woman finds its resolution against a backdrop of hidden family tragedies and shifting social landscapes.
The Sorcery Club
Elliott O'Donnell
HOOK Three desperate men in San Francisco trade their souls for occult power, only to discover that the dark magic of ancient Atlantis brings more terror than wealth.
The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror
George Chetwynd Griffith
A brilliant, impoverished inventor crafts an invincible fleet of aerial warships, empowering a secretive revolutionary order to dismantle the corrupt empires of the old world and forcibly mandate global peace.
Quick Action
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
HOOK This collection of linked stories follows young, impulsive dreamers who chase romance and adventure into the untamed wilds of Florida, only to find that reality is far more potent than their own fiction.
The Prodigal Son
Caine, Hall, Sir
The shadow of a broken promise stretches across a lifetime in this sweeping chronicle of two brothers caught in the wake of a fatal deception. It is a stark, symphonic tragedy of blood, earth, and the heavy price of ambition.
The Moonlit Way: A Novel
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
HOOK A young artist finds his quiet New York life upended by a mysterious woman fleeing a web of international intrigue, only to discover that his own destiny is inextricably linked to hers.
First on the Moon
Jeff Sutton
An unmasking on the lunar ash transforms a high-stakes rocket race into a deadly battle for survival, where every breath of oxygen must be earned.
Mrs. Thompson: A Novel
W. B. (William Babington) Maxwell
A formidable widow surrenders her thriving business and her heart to a charismatic younger employee, only to face financial ruined and betrayal before reclaiming her independence with ruthless commercial brilliance.
Tom Moore: An Unhistorical Romance: Founded on Certain Happenings in the Life of Ireland's Greatest Poet
Theodore Burt Sayre
A impulsive young poet, a stubborn schoolmistress, and a flurry of theatrical misunderstandings collide in a lighthearted fictionalization of Ireland's most famous bard.
Everyman's Land
C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson
Traversing the shattered, sacred landscapes of Western Europe, a young Irish nurse spins a desperate lie to protect her blinded brother, inadvertently joining a grief-stricken American family on a pilgrimage of remembrance and repair.
A Daughter of the Rich
Mary E. (Mary Ella) Waller
A sickly young heiress leaves her luxurious urban estate for a mountain farm, where rustic family life, shared labor, and local romance restore her health and ground her spirit.
The Dark Star
Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
A dark star's ancient curse sends a young American illustrator into a shadowy web of European espionage on the eve of world war.
The Forgotten Planet
Murray Leinster
Under an unbroken blanket of suffocating gray clouds, a forgotten world breeds giant nightmares, forcing remnants of humanity to scurry through mushroom forests while gigantic insects rule the earth.
The World for Sale, Complete
Gilbert Parker
The frontier is shrinking, and two young towns fight over the Canadian wilderness while a Romany princess chooses between an ancient blood-vow and a blind builder’s vision.
Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper
Francisco de Quevedo
A penniless rogue maneuvers through a treacherous society of cheats and hypocrites, discovering that no disguise can ever wash away his origins.
Love in chief
R. K. (Rose Kirkpatrick) Weekes
A quiet rural community in twentieth-century England becomes the stage for a young woman navigating love, pride, and the conflicting claims of two very different men.
The Story of Gösta Berling
Selma Lagerlöf
A unfrocked priest and eleven wild comrades take over a grand estate in nineteenth-century Sweden, unleashing a year of romantic madness, community ruin, and spiritual reckoning across a frozen wilderness.
Ullr Uprising
H. Beam Piper
Four-armed saurian natives, corporate exploitation, and a localized atomic crisis collide when a planetwide uprising threatens human dominance on a hostile frontier world.
The Planet Savers
Marion Zimmer Bradley
When a deadly epidemic threatens the cold world of Darkover, a suppressed personality is artificially awakened to lead a desperate trek across freezing mountains into the treetop cities of an alien race.
The Saint
Antonio Fogazzaro
A repentant sinner abandons his worldly life to seek spiritual purification, only to find himself at the stormy intersection of divine love, ecclesiastical politics, and the relentless devotion of the woman he left behind. <Image alt="Cover of Antonio Fogazzaro's novel El Santo showing a mountain monastery"…
The Flame
Gabriele D'Annunzio
A young visionary artist seeks to forge a new national myth in Venice, entangled between the aging, tragic brilliance of his muse and the dangerous, youthful allure of a rival.
Boyhood
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
The transition from the sheltered innocence of childhood to the turbulent, self-conscious landscape of adolescence is a journey of painful discovery and sudden, illuminating insights.
The Lord of the Sea
M. P. (Matthew Phipps) Shiel
An ambitious outcast rises from the depths of a brutal prison system to command the world's oceans through a feat of unparalleled engineering. This sprawling narrative explores the intersection of messianic ambition, industrial dominance, and the volatile politics of global displacement.
The Tree of Knowledge: A Novel
Reynolds, Baillie, Mrs.
A chance encounter in a tranquil English valley binds a group of young lives together, forcing them to navigate secrets, sudden tragedy, and the difficult transition from innocence to maturity.
The Counterplot
Hope Mirrlees
The literary temperament is a restless, acquisitive force that consumes the people around it to fuel its own creation. This story examines the inner life of an observer who turns her family’s domestic friction into a masterpiece of psychological displacement.
The Imperialist
Sara Jeannette Duncan
In the shifting landscape of a young Canadian town, an idealist finds his political dreams and personal loyalties tested by the weight of an empire and the silence of his own heart.
The Kingdom of Slender Swords
Hallie Erminie Rives
This turn-of-the-century novel captures the shifting intersections of East and West during the Meiji era, blending a dramatic mystery with an earnest exploration of cultural collision. It chronicles the experiences of Western expatriates navigating the rigid social codes and spiritual depth of Japan, ultimately…
Highways in Hiding
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
A man discovers a hidden network of roads and a mysterious, world-altering disease, finding that in a society governed by telepaths, the truth is the most dangerous secret of all.
Victor Victorious
Cecil Starr Johns
A young man discovers his true heritage and must navigate the treacherous waters of court intrigue to save a kingdom from corruption.
An Imperial Marriage
Arthur W. Marchmont
A frantic race against political conspiracies, this story follows a man thrust into a lethal web of German court intrigue after discovering a secret that threatens a high-stakes imperial wedding.