Free summaries
Adventure — page 113
5,687 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 113 of 119.
Zero the Slaver: A Romance of Equatorial Africa
Lawrence Fletcher
A relentless manhunt carries two companions across the dangerous, uncharted wilderness of equatorial Africa in pursuit of a cruel slaver. It is a Victorian-era tale of vengeance, rescue, and high-stakes survival.
Affair in Araby
Talbot Mundy
A high-stakes intelligence game unfolds across the volatile landscape of post-WWI Palestine, where a quiet, masterly operative navigates political chaos to prevent a catastrophic regional massacre.
American boys afloat
Oliver Optic
A young millionaire and his companions sail the Mediterranean aboard a private yacht, finding themselves repeatedly entangled in skirmishes with smugglers and a vengeful foreign nobleman. This high-seas adventure follows the group as they navigate international waters with pluck and privilege.
Chasing an Iron Horse
Edward Robins
A daring Union sabotage mission unfolds across the Georgia countryside, where a young recruit and his companions attempt to steal a Confederate locomotive and turn the tide of the Civil War.
Direct methods
Thomson Burtis
A daring government agent recruits two veteran military pilots for a high-stakes, off-the-books mission to capture a notorious criminal mastermind hiding deep within the Appalachian Mountains.
Frank Roscoe's Secret
Allen Chapman
A group of loyal high school friends faces a mystery that tests their bonds and their courage. They must navigate local rivalries and a dangerous conspiracy to rescue one of their own from a dark predicament.
Harper's Round Table, January 28, 1896
Various
This collection of late-nineteenth-century storytelling captures the spirited, industrious, and sometimes earnest world of American youth at the close of the Victorian era. It serves as a time capsule of an age when self-improvement, adventure, and civic engagement were the cornerstones of growing up.
Harper's Young People, November 18, 1879: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
The world of 1879 comes alive through these pages, offering a window into the domestic past where children played Robinson Crusoe in storm-wrecked cellars and found magic in the simplest of pastimes.
Morley Ashton: A Story of the Sea. Volume 2 (of 3)
James Grant
HOOK A sinister stowaway and a mutinous crew transform a passenger vessel into a floating prison, where the passengers must fight for their lives against both the sea and their fellow men.
Out of the Fog: A Story of the Sea
Charles K. (Charles Kellogg) Ober
A young man’s drift into the Atlantic fog serves as the crucible for his eventual spiritual awakening. This narrative bridges the gap between the raw, physical peril of the sea and the quiet, internal transformation of a skeptic finding faith.
Tales of the Caliph
H. N. (Horatio Nelson) Crellin
These tales capture the restless spirit of a legendary ruler, blending the enchantment of the Orient with the moral weight of a king’s nocturnal search for truth. They offer a vivid, episodic window into a world where magic and reality collide in the streets of Baghdad.
The Boys of Bellwood School
Frank V. Webster
A young boy, unjustly accused of a crime, finds his path to maturity through loyalty, resilience, and the bonds of boarding school life.
The Young Firemen of Lakeville
Frank V. Webster
HOOK When a series of mysterious fires threatens a quiet New England village, a group of enterprising boys takes matters into their own hands, proving that youthful pluck can outshine the skepticism of adults.
Wild Bill's Last Trail
Ned Buntline
HOOK Haunted by the ghosts of the men he has killed, the legendary gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok discovers that the past has finally tracked him into the rugged wilderness of the Black Hills.
You Ask Anybody
B. M. Bower
A master of the stagecoach trail finds his livelihood and identity challenged by the advent of the automobile. He must reconcile his rugged past with an unpredictable, mechanical future in the high desert of Nevada.
Archibald Hughson: An Arctic Story
William Henry Giles Kingston
A headstrong Shetland youth runs away to sea on an Arctic whaling voyage, only to find that surviving treacherous ice, shipwreck, and frozen wilderness requires a far deeper strength than self-will.
Corporal Tikitanu, V.C
J. C. (James Coldham) Fussell
A spirited, humorous portrait of a Māori soldier in the Great War, capturing the indomitable personality of a volunteer who navigates the trenches with wit and an irrepressible sense of duty.
Harper's Round Table, June 11, 1895
Various
This miscellany captures the Victorian spirit through a blend of maritime adventure, parliamentary observation, amateur photography, and the earnest, inquisitive pastimes of late nineteenth-century youth.
Harper's Young People, April 20, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A quiet afternoon quickly transforms into a lively demonstration of practical science when a giant homemade kite ascends over a small town.
Harper's Young People, May 30, 1882: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A vibrant window into nineteenth-century youth, this collection gathers stories, articles, and correspondence that capture the curiosity, playfulness, and aspirations of a bygone era.
Jack Mason, the Old Sailor
Francis C. (Francis Channing) Woodworth
A pious old sailor recounts his travels across the globe, mixing thrilling sea stories of arctic icebergs and giant whales with gentle moral lessons for young listeners.
Lightfoot, the Leaping Goat: His Many Adventures
Richard Barnum
This story follows a spirited goat who leaves his rocky hillside home to explore the wider world, ultimately finding his place in a loving family. It is a gentle, episodic tale of animal wonder, hardship, and reunion.
Sunk at Sea
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A young man’s headstrong pursuit of adventure leads him from the comfort of home into the perilous, untamed waters of the Pacific.
The children of Old Park's Tavern
Frances A. (Frances Amelia) Humphrey
This narrative captures the quiet, tactile joys of a 19th-century New England childhood, where the boundaries between home, nature, and history remain beautifully porous. It is a gentle portrait of cousinly bond-building and the quiet mysteries of a rural landscape.
The Demon Cruiser
R. L. Wheeler
A stolen fortune and a murderous betrayal set the stage for a desperate survival struggle on a volcanic island. When the past literally returns from the dead, a guilty captain must confront his own haunting legacy.
The Donovan chance
Francis Lynde
The stakes are high in the rugged canyons of Nevada, where two young workers must outmaneuver a rival railroad to secure the future of their own line. It is a story of grit, quick thinking, and the rewards of integrity in the face of corporate warfare.
The Outdoor Girls in Army Service
Laura Lee Hope
A group of patriotic young friends find their lives transformed by the call of duty during the First World War. This spirited adventure follows them as they balance home-front service with the dangerous pursuit of a mysterious spy.
The Seats of the Mighty, Volume 2
Gilbert Parker
A British captain faces the gallows in colonial Quebec, trapped by political intrigue and a dangerous, shifting rivalry for the heart of a woman he loves.
The Snow Baby: A true story with true pictures
Josephine Diebitsch Peary
The Arctic is a land of frozen wonders and endless light, where a young child finds a home amidst the ice. This true story follows a girl’s remarkable upbringing, bridging two vastly different worlds.
A Romany of the Snows, vol. 3: Being a Continuation of the Personal Histories of "Pierre and His People" and the Last Existing Records of Pretty Pierre
Gilbert Parker
HOOK The harsh, unforgiving wilderness of the Canadian North becomes a stage for the collision of human vanity, long-buried regrets, and the slow, grinding power of absolute isolation.
Brave and True: Short stories for children by G. M. Fenn and Others
George Manville Fenn
A lonely mining camp in the Rockies, a snowy school dormitory at Christmas, and the quiet riverbanks of the Home Counties frame this collection of moral tales.
Flames of the Storm
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
In a drought-parched valley torn by war between cattlemen and sheep-herders, a lanky cowboy finds himself wrongly convicted of murder, setting off a storm of violence, loyalty, and redemption.
Frank Merriwell, Junior's, Golden Trail
Burt L. Standish
A group of quick-witted friends embarks on a high-stakes desert rescue to save a naive professor from ruthless claim-jumpers in the rugged Arizona territory.
Harper's Round Table, August 13, 1895
Various
This edition of a long-running Victorian youth periodical serves as a vivid time capsule, capturing the restless, industrious, and patriotic spirit of late 19th-century boyhood through fiction, mechanical instruction, and social guidance.
Heart of Oak: A Three-Stranded Yarn, vol. 3
William Clark Russell
The ocean is a vast, indifferent stage where hope and despair collide; here, a determined man pursues a ghost across the icy fringes of the world to reclaim a life he thought lost.
Hemming, the adventurer
Theodore Goodridge Roberts
A restless English soldier of fortune navigates tropical revolutions, literary ambition, and a long-deferred romance across distant seas.
John Whopper: The Newsboy
Thomas M. (Thomas March) Clark
A young Boston newsboy falls through a hidden hole in a field, inadvertently discovering a direct air-line tunnel to China and embarking on an extraordinary journey across the globe.
Space Bat
Carl Selwyn
Out of the caves of space flew a huge, terrifying bat, but Lou Flint met its vicious challenge happily for a million dollars.
The Call of the North
Stewart Edward White
The wilderness claims those who dare defy it, and in the frozen north, survival demands both a steady hand and a heart willing to risk everything for freedom.
The Girl Scouts of the Round Table
Margaret Vandercook
A young woman finds purpose and connection in the quiet woods of her new home, where she and her friends reinvent the chivalric traditions of the Round Table to inspire their daily Girl Scout service.
The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, Part 24
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
A knight-errant and his loyal squire wander through the landscape of Spain, perpetually colliding with the sharp reality of the world while attempting to live according to the faded, romantic codes of chivalry.
The skipper knows best
Murray Leinster
Trapped on a dilapidated tramp steamer in the Persian Gulf, a cynical chief engineer and a furious captain must outwit a band of ruthless pirates using sheer stubbornness and an old anchor.
The Treasure of the Bucoleon
Arthur D. Howden (Arthur Douglas Howden) Smith
When a young nobleman inherits a sinister family curse and a deadly treasure hunt across the Balkans, he and his loyal friends must unlock centuries-old secrets to survive.
Two American Boys in the War Zone
Levi Worthington Green
Trapped in Russia at the outbreak of the First World War, two teenage American brothers must cross treacherous mountain ranges and survive wartime hazards just to find their way home.
The Circus Boys Across the Continent
Edgar B. P. Darlington
A thrilling journey across America with the Great Sparling Combined Shows, where young acrobats face dangerous stampedes, train wrecks, and a vengeful saboteur.
A Copper Harvest
Self-made man
An accidental revival in a Nebraska doctor’s surgery launches two resourceful youths into a high-stakes western venture involving a forgotten Montana copper claim.
A Sunny Little Lass
Evelyn Raymond
A resilient young peddler navigates the bustling alleys and railway tracks of turn-of-the-century New York to protect her blind grandfather and a lost toddler.
Among the Scented Ones
Basil Wells
Exiled on a savage alien planet without the natural scent protection of its native inhabitants, an undercover Earthman fights for survival when a massive stampede triggers a desperate journey through hostile wilderness.