Free summaries
Adventure — page 114
5,687 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 114 of 119.
Curlie Carson Listens In
Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell
Perched high in a secret Chicago tower, a young radio detective intercepts illegal airwaves and uncovers a reckless treasure hunt heading straight into a violent Atlantic storm.
Generals Help Themselves
M. C. Pease
Facing imminent surrender after a devastating galactic collapse, a defiant admiral gambles everything on a banned tactical doctrine to force a demoralized populace back into war.
Harper's Round Table, September 17, 1895
Various
This collection captures the Victorian ideal of childhood education and leisure, blending instructional narratives on maritime life with lighthearted humor and serialized fiction. It serves as a time capsule of late 19th-century optimism, industry, and the expansive curiosity encouraged in young readers.
Harper's Young People, October 31, 1882: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A Victorian weekly periodical for children opens a window onto nineteenth-century life through serialized fiction, historical accounts, practical crafts, and young readers' letters.
Medical Life in the Navy
Gordon Stables
A wet-behind-the-ears Scottish doctor buys his first uniform, survives the board at Somerset House, and sets out to discover the chaotic, vivid realities of life aboard a Royal Navy ship.
My Secret Service: Vienna, Sophia, Constantinople, Nish, Belgrade, Asia Minor, etc
Man who dined with the Kaiser
Journeying through wartime Europe and the Ottoman Empire, an undercover correspondent reveals the hidden machinery of the Central Powers from the inside.
Nic Revel: A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land
George Manville Fenn
A young Devon gentleman and a poacher find themselves swept from a salmon river into forced labor on a distant colonial plantation, where they must outwit harsh overseers and ferocious hounds to win their way home.
Phantom Duel
Ford McCormack
When a routine salvage operation in the Vega system reveals a dead crew and a priceless alien gemstone, a quiet retrieval turns into a desperate struggle of greed and survival.
Space-Liner X-87
Ray Cummings
A routine interplanetary voyage transforms into a floating nightmare of murder, mutiny, and hidden treasure as a lone detective fights to save a young heiress from ruthless conspirators.
Tad Coon's Great Adventure
John Breck
A curious raccoon’s prison break sparks an unlikely friendship between a lonely farm boy and the creatures of the deep woods.
Tales from "Blackwood," Volume 9
Various
A student slips blindfolded into a palace, a floating block of ice carries a frozen wanderer down a river, and a young Frenchwoman dreams her way into high society.
The Boy Ranchers in Camp
Willard F. Baker
When a remote mountain reservoir mysteriously runs dry, three young ranch cousins and their loyal companions plunge into dark underground tunnels to save their western cattle empire.
The Cruise of the Noah's Ark
David Cory
A young girl's tiresome penmanship lesson transforms into a grand sea voyage when her toy Noah's Ark floats away on a sudden nursery flood.
The Danger Trail
James Oliver Curwood
Out of the polar cold and whispering aurora near Prince Albert steps a stranger marked for death, hunted across the frozen North by unseen brothers and a half-breed bound by debt.
The Red Lure
Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell
Young American adventurers brave the perils of the Central American jungle, dodging predatory jaguars and criminal syndicates while seeking a hidden Maya city.
The Travels of Fuzz and Buzz
Geraldine Mockler
When a harsh winter threatens a woodland family of field-mice with starvation, two young siblings embark on a perilous journey to secure their survival.
When Wilderness Was King: A Tale of the Illinois Country
Randall Parrish
A desperate journey through the Illinois wilderness leads a young man toward the tragic shadow of Fort Dearborn and a perilous rescue.
Where Duty Called
George Waldo Browne
An American teenager and his companions find their professional journey in Venezuela derailed by civil war, forcing them to transform from observers into soldiers to survive a landscape defined by shifting loyalties and hidden dangers.
A Day at the County Fair
Alice Hale Burnett
Three young friends embark on an idyllic motoring trip to a county fair, where a series of gentle adventures and a shared prize teach them the quiet rewards of kindness.
Adelbert and Bastel
Franz Hoffmann
A boy's romantic dreams of wilderness adventure face a humbling reality check when he meets a forest-bred peer who longs for the world beyond the trees.
Adventures in Australia
William Henry Giles Kingston
The young adventurers of this colonial-era narrative face the dual perils of a rugged, untamed wilderness and the violent criminal element of the bush. They seek prosperity in a distant land, but quickly learn that safety is a fragile luxury.
Contraband: A Tale of Modern Smugglers
Erle Spencer
When a young man and a seasoned sailor stumble upon a daring modern smuggling ring along the rugged Newfoundland coast, they trigger a dangerous game of wits and endurance.
Escape from East Tennessee to the federal lines
Robert A. Ragan
A young Tennessee militia officer caught behind Confederate lines risks his life guiding hundreds of loyalists across treacherous mountain ranges to the Union army.
Exit From Asteroid 60
D. L. (Daniel Lewis) James
A desperate rescue mission across the star-lanes turns into a desperate struggle for survival when an Earthman finds himself enslaved on a magnetic Martian asteroid.
Robinson Crusoe, Jr
Oliver Optic
A boy’s romanticized reading of a classic tale leads him to attempt an ill-conceived island exile, only to discover the cold, hungry reality of isolation.
Sinister Paradise
Robert Moore Williams
A hard-boiled helicopter pilot lands on a shifting, time-lost Pacific island where ancient Aztec gold, fanatical killers, and holographic monsters born of forgotten science collide.
Spanish John: Being a Memoir, Now First Published in Complete Form, of the Early Life and Adventures of Colonel John McDonell, Known as "Spanish John," When a Lieutenant in the Company of St. James of the Regiment Irlandia, in the Service of the King of Spain Operating in Italy
William McLennan
A hot-headed Highland boy sets out for Rome, takes up the sword for Spain and the Jacobite cause, and learns the bitter cost of loyalty.
The Boarded-Up House
Augusta Huiell Seaman
Two imaginative neighborhood girls slip into a shuttered, long-abandoned colonial mansion, unknowingly stumbling upon a decades-old family mystery waiting to be unlocked.
The Broncho Rider Boys with the Texas Rangers
Frank Fowler
The Broncho Rider Boys, three teenagers on an adventurous trek, find themselves entangled in the dangerous political landscape of the Mexican border, where they must confront smugglers, revolutionists, and the legendary Pancho Villa.
The High School Boys in Summer Camp
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
Spending their summer deep in the woods to train for the high school football team, a group of spirited teenagers find themselves entangled with a troubled fugitive, wild animals, and local mysteries.
The Submarine Boys and the Spies: Dodging the Sharks of the Deep
Victor G. Durham
When a cutting-edge military submarine is targeted by international agents in a sunny Florida resort, young commander Jack Benson must outwit a web of spies.
The Wireless Officer
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
A desperate night rescue at sea gives way to a perilous journey across the waves and a hidden criminal conspiracy waiting to be unmasked.
Timber line
Alida Malkus
High above the Coronado Peaks, a forest ranger's daughter and a government forester defend an unspoiled wilderness from greedy speculators while uncovering a long-lost mountain secret.
Yorke The Adventurer
Louis Becke
In the lawless 1870s Pacific, two traders meet a solitary seaman whose single-handed survival on a reef-broken cutter masks a past as turbulent as the surrounding seas.
A Son of Courage
Archie P. McKishnie
A clever Canadian farm boy, a blind former teacher, and a hidden hoard of gold collide in a lakeside settlement where old ghosts guard long-lost secrets.
Bert Wilson, Marathon Winner
J. W. Duffield
A young athlete battles the world’s finest runners and perils on the high seas to claim Olympic glory for his country.
Born to Good Luck
Self-made man
An abused farm boy escapes servitude, outwits local scoundrels through sheer business acumen, and rises to fortune and family reunion in Gilded Age New York.
Dungeon Rock
N. S. (Nannette Snow) Emerson
Dungeon Rock is a curious hybrid of historical fiction and nineteenth-century spiritualism, documenting the persistent search for pirate gold beneath a Massachusetts cliffside. It bridges the gap between legend and the lived experiences of those who sought to unearth its secrets.
Forbidden Cargoes
Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell
Deep in the Central American jungle and out upon the Caribbean Sea, a desperate race for sunken wealth and hidden harvests unfolds against towering odds.
Harper's Round Table, May 26, 1896
Various
A restless cruiser breaks its tropical monotony with a sudden chase, launching a diverse weekly mosaic of late-nineteenth-century adventure, instruction, and amusement.
In Search of El Dorado
Harry Collingwood
A sudden oceanic disaster casts two stranded survivors into the heart of South America, where untamed wilderness gives way to the hidden, golden-domed civilization of Ulua.
Motor Matt's Engagement
Stanley R. Matthews
A young motor wizard and his loyal chums untangle a sinister abduction plot involving a circus aerialist, secret Indian heritage, and a blazing flying machine.
Narrative of the Captivity of William Biggs among the Kickapoo Indians in Illinois in 1788
William Biggs
Ambushed on a morning ride in the Illinois wilderness, a traveler begins a harrowing journey of survival, captivity, and eventual ransom among the Kickapoo.
The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp
Laura Lee Hope
The Outdoor Girls seek winter adventure, only to find themselves entangled in a web of lost lumber rights, hidden identities, and perilous ice-strewn rescues.
The Rivals of Acadia: An Old Story of the New World
H. V. (Harriet Vaughan) Cheney
A young woman disguised as a Highland page navigates dangerous military tensions in the untamed wilderness of seventeenth-century Acadia, where historical rivals clash for supreme control.
The Scranton High Chums on the Cinder Path
Donald Ferguson
When a grueling fifteen-mile county marathon tests the mettle of Scranton High, resourceful student Hugh Morgan leads his loyal chums through athletic training, a rescue on a perilous precipice, and an eerie mystery at an abandoned stone quarry.
The Stolen Aeroplane
H. L. (Harry Lincoln) Sayler
A boy proves his mettle by mastering a primitive flying machine and outwitting local authorities during a county fair.
The Voyage of the Aurora
Harry Collingwood
This classic seafaring adventure follows a resourceful sailor’s transformation from a despondent, jilted lover into a decorated naval hero. It is a stirring tale of grit, naval combat, and survival against the odds.