Free summaries
Novels — page 6
2,236 public-domain novels books, summarised. Page 6 of 47.
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.
The Village in the Jungle
Leonard Woolf
A primal, claustrophobic struggle unfolds in a remote village where the surrounding jungle is not merely a setting, but a suffocating, lethal protagonist.
The Wave: An Egyptian Aftermath
Algernon Blackwood
A man haunted since childhood by a vision of a suspended, threatening wave finds his internal life upended when he finally meets the woman who embodies his lifelong, unattainable ideal.
The shadow kingdom
Robert E. (Robert Ervin) Howard
Kull of Atlantis has seized the throne of Valusia, but he soon discovers that reigning over an ancient, decadent civilization is far more dangerous than the open warfare of his youth.
The Velvet Glove
Henry Seton Merriman
A young woman caught in the machinations of nineteenth-century Spain must choose between the cold walls of a convent and the dangerous, uncertain life offered by the man she has been forced to marry.
Venus Equilateral
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
A brilliant engineer and his team maintain the vital communications relay station orbiting between Earth and Venus, navigating corporate espionage, cosmic piracy, and the destabilizing arrival of life-changing technology.
The Human Chord
Algernon Blackwood
A small, unassuming man is recruited to a remote mansion to participate in a dangerous experiment where sound acts as a key to cosmic, reality-altering power. He finds himself caught between the allure of becoming a god and the simple, grounding weight of human love.
The Money Master, Complete
Gilbert Parker
A man who prides himself on his wisdom discovers, through the collapse of his home and fortune, that his greatest weakness is the very vanity he mistakes for philosophy.
The Scapegoat
Caine, Hall, Sir
HOOK In a land where law is tyranny and life remains unchanged for centuries, a father struggles to protect his blind and deaf daughter from a corrupt world.
Flower o' the Peach
Perceval Gibbon
A young woman seeking recovery in the South African Karoo finds her life entangled with a tragic, isolated medical doctor and the fractured lives of the settlers around them.
In the World
Maksim Gorky
A young man navigates the harsh, often predatory landscape of the Russian working class, seeking a way to transcend his environment. He transforms his observations of human cruelty and struggle into a quiet, enduring resolve to live for something better.
Lud-in-the-Mist
Hope Mirrlees
In a respectable land where the mundane is law, the forbidden taste of fairy fruit triggers a quiet, dangerous awakening. This story explores the thin, trembling veil between a settled society and the wild, untamable unknown.
The Hidden Force: A Story of Modern Java
Louis Couperus
The colonial administration of Java serves as a crucible for personal and societal dissolution, where the veneer of European order is slowly eroded by an ancient, invisible, and unforgiving local power.
Bella Donna: A Novel
Robert Hichens
A manipulative woman seeks escape from her failing marriage and social standing, only to find herself ensnared by the dark, alluring mysteries of a stranger in the Egyptian desert.
My mortal enemy
Willa Cather
A woman looks back on the life of a charismatic runaway who traded status for love, only to find that the most profound battle in her life was fought against the person she cherished most.
Ultima Thule
Mack Reynolds
HOOK A young recruit enters a clandestine agency to hunt a legendary interstellar revolutionary, only to discover the unsettling truth about the organization he has sworn to serve.
Penelope's Experiences in Scotland: Being Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Penelope Hamilton
Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
A trio of American friends traverses the landscape and culture of late 19th-century Scotland, finding their own romantic and personal lives transformed by the country’s rugged charm.
The Wolf's Long Howl
Stanley Waterloo
This collection of stories explores the collision between ancient human instincts and modern civilization, capturing the strange, often turbulent evolution of the human spirit across vast stretches of time.
Donal Grant
George MacDonald
A young man takes a tutoring job at a remote castle, where he uncovers dark family secrets, a hidden chapel, and a love that transforms his life.
Latter-Day Sweethearts
Harrison, Burton, Mrs.
A wealthy socialite flees an uncomfortable domestic shift, embarking on a transatlantic voyage where unexpected connections, old flames, and social maneuverings redraw the boundaries of her future.
The Living Link: A Novel
James De Mille
Imprisoned in her own ancestral estate by a ruthless guardian, a resolute young heiress fights against a web of deceit and a forced marriage to reclaim her freedom and her family's honor.
The Roots of the Mountains: Wherein Is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale, Their Friends, Their Neighbours, Their Foemen, and Their Fellows in Arms
William Morris
A quiet valley of peaceful farming folk finds its ancient tranquility shattered when a mysterious threat emerges from the wild-wood, forcing them into a desperate alliance with forgotten, displaced kindred to reclaim their freedom.
Zicci: A Tale
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
An English painter in Naples abandons his mortal love to pursue the terrifying secrets of an immortal Rosicrucian sage.
Status Quo
Mack Reynolds
A government agent uncovers a mysterious movement plotting to disrupt society by sabotaging records and counterfeiting money.
Mabel's Mistake
Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens
Mistaken identities and suppressed passions unravel a wealthy Hudson Valley family as secrets, stolen journals, and hidden parentage drive them toward tragedy.
Not Pretty, but Precious
Unknown
Across these eleven stories, human lives pivot on small misunderstandings, quiet resentments, sudden catastrophes, and the stubborn ghosts—both literal and emotional—that haunt ordinary homes.
Countess Vera
Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.
A wronged heiress returns under a false identity to exact vengeance on the cruel relatives who stole her life and the weak-willed husband who abandoned her.
The Captain's Story
Unknown
A wandering son flees his father's godly authority, suffers terrible maritime disasters, and spends decades believing he is cursed before finding divine grace and unexpected reconciliation.
Children of the lens
E. E. (Edward Elmer) Smith
A intergalactic war spanning millions of years culminates in a clash between ultimate mental powers across multiple dimensions and hidden worlds.
A House of Gentlefolk
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
A weary husband returns from self-imposed exile to a quiet provincial estate, hoping to rebuild a tranquil life, only to find his heart tested by the pure, unyielding devotion of a young woman.
City of Endless Night
Milo Hastings
A hundred years in the future, a subterranean Berlin flourishes under absolute totalitarian control until an infiltrating outsider unravels its chemical secrets from within.
A Roman Singer
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
An impoverished Italian scholar narrates how his peasant foster son rises to international operatic fame while braving dark rivalries, imprisonment, and duels to rescue the noble German woman he loves.
The Messenger
Elizabeth Robins
A young woman’s unwavering personal devotion collides with the icy reality of wartime espionage, testing whether trust can survive when patriotism turns every intimacy into a weapon.
The Quest: The authorized translation from the Dutch of De kleine Johannes
Frederik van Eeden
A young boy leaves behind his childhood garden to wander through a world of fairies, cold science, and social struggle, searching for the ultimate truth that can reconcile the beauty of nature with human suffering.
The Man Whom the Trees Loved
Algernon Blackwood
An old forestry officer's soul is slowly drawn into the collective consciousness of the woods, driving a wedge between his quiet life and his terrified wife.
Revolt of the Outworlds
Stephen Marlowe
Deep in the desert under the Martian sand, a dead leader's legacy becomes the weapon in a ruthless plot to destroy Earth.
The Moon of Skulls
Robert E. (Robert Ervin) Howard
A lone, iron-willed Puritan ventures into a hidden African kingdom to rescue a captive girl, confronting an ancient, blood-drenched civilization ruled by a vampire queen.
Man of Many Minds
E. Everett (Edward Everett) Evans
A young cadet discovers he possesses a secret, volatile power that makes him the last line of defense against an unseen conspiracy threatening the stability of the galaxy.
The Ambassador
Merwin, Sam, Jr.
An alien diplomat arrives on a neurotic, computer-dependent Earth only to discover that the greatest threat to interplanetary peace is the humans' own involuntary, allergy-prone habit of sabotaging their own technology.
Border, Breed Nor Birth
Mack Reynolds
Homer Crawford, a brilliant sociologist and visionary, sheds his identity to become "El Hassan," a mythic revolutionary leader determined to unify a fractured, post-colonial North Africa through sheer force of will and intellect.
The Martian
A. R. (Alec Rowley) Hilliard
A lone traveler from Mars, stranded in a hostile world, discovers that his vast scientific knowledge serves only to trap him in a cage of human greed.
The shadow of the East
E. M. (Edith Maude) Hull
A weary traveler haunted by a secret shame searches the globe for penance, only to find that the past he desperately flees is tethered to the one soul he deems too pure to claim.
The Doctor
Ralph Connor
A rugged physician navigates the harsh frontiers of the Canadian wilderness, wrestling with his own past, the demands of his calling, and a love that transcends the boundaries of life and death.
Mortmain
Arthur Cheney Train
This collection of stories explores the collision of privilege, conscience, and the unexpected burdens of the past. It offers a glimpse into the vanished world of early 20th-century American life, where personal honor and social standing are often defined by a single, irreversible moment.
Six Women
Victoria Cross
This collection of six linked vignettes captures the feverish intensity of life in the East through the eyes of men and women bound by desire, duty, and tragic miscalculation. It is a work of atmospheric, late-Victorian romanticism that explores the volatile intersections of cultural collision and private obsession.
The Lonely Ones
Edward W. Ludwig
The line between noble dreams and madness is thin, and loneliness can push men past it. This story follows six men who cross that line in their desperate search for a meaningful place in the universe.
The Terror Out of Space
Dwight V. Swain
A desperate pilot enters the deadly unknown of space to rescue a woman, only to find himself embroiled in a cosmic conflict between human greed and an alien species that manifests nightmares into reality.