Free summaries
Adventure — page 118
5,687 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 118 of 119.
Milly's errand
Emma Leslie
The ocean’s fury brings a lost child to a humble home, sparking a transformation in the lives of a reclusive doctor and the poor family who rescue her.
The motion picture chums' new idea
Victor Appleton
The motion picture industry was once a frontier for young entrepreneurs, where audacity, a sharp eye for innovation, and a bit of luck determined success in the burgeoning world of film.
The Rambler Club's motor car
W. Crispin (William Crispin) Sheppard
A group of teenage friends navigate the early days of automotive travel, finding themselves entangled in a series of circus-related mysteries and mishaps across the Wisconsin landscape.
The White Crystals: Being an Account of the Adventures of Two Boys
Howard Roger Garis
The transition from a sickly city boy to a robust youth begins with a doctor’s prescription for fresh air, leading to a transformative year of rural discovery and unexpected industrial intrigue.
Tom Swift and his chest of secrets
Victor Appleton
A brilliant young inventor must recover his stolen life’s work from a ring of saboteurs in this high-stakes tale of mechanical ingenuity and relentless pursuit.
A District Messenger Boy, and A Necktie Party
James Otis
A young boy’s dedication to his work and family is tested by a series of bewildering, high-stakes misadventures.
A Port Said miscellany
William McFee
The vast, humid theater of the First World War serves as the backdrop for this meditation on the lives of those who sustain the machinery of conflict, often far from the glory of the front lines.
Harper's Round Table, March 16, 1897
Various
Some boys, like some men, have greatness thrust upon them. Bruce Marvel became one of these boys one day to his own great surprise.
Harper's Young People, October 3, 1882: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
A window into the Victorian imagination, this weekly miscellany blends adventure fiction, scientific observation, and earnest moral instruction, offering a vibrant portrait of the intellectual and social life of American youth in the late nineteenth century.
In Paths of Peril: A Boy's Adventures in Nova Scotia
J. Macdonald (James Macdonald) Oxley
HOOK A young survivor of the siege of La Rochelle finds a new, perilous life in the Canadian wilderness, where faith and grit meet the challenges of the frontier.
Maurice and the bay mare
Henry Herbert Knibbs
A seasoned groom and a spirited mare navigate the delicate trust between human and animal. This quiet narrative explores the hazards of horsemanship and the enduring pride of those who live by it.
Navy boys to the rescue
Halsey Davidson
Amid the grey waters of World War I, American destroyer sailors battle German submarines, rescue stranded enemies, and race to save a captured merchant ship carrying their own families across the Atlantic.
Redevelopment
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
HOOK A group of intrepid technicians attempts to solve the mystery of an alien world where physics itself seems to conspire against human invention.
Rival ocean divers
Roy Rockwood
Descend into the perilous depths of the Pacific Ocean where a father and son race rival scavengers to recover a legendary million-dollar sunken fortune.
The Boy Scouts on the Trail
George Durston
This brisk adventure follows two young scouts caught in the opening weeks of the Great War, whose intelligence and bravery turn the tide in the French countryside. It is a classic tale of youthful ingenuity prevailing against the backdrop of global conflict.
The Death-Traps of FX-31
Sewell Peaslee Wright
Commander John Hanson leads a desperate rescue mission into the subterranean metropolis of intelligent, spider-like predators after a treacherous scientist gambles with his companions' lives for personal glory.
The Minute Boys of the Wyoming Valley
James Otis
A band of young colonial volunteers fights to protect their families and homes against overwhelming forces in the war-torn Wyoming Valley.
The phantom violin
Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell
Three girls transform a wrecked ship on Lake Superior into an unlikely summer home, only to find themselves entangled in a high-stakes hunt for hidden gold.
Enter the Nebula
Carl Jacobi
When a daring gentleman burglar is framed for murder, he must unravel a dark Martian conspiracy to clear his name and save a dying world.
Fools and mules
Ray Humphreys
When a snowy Colorado mountain pass traps a bank messenger and a notorious highwayman, survival depends less on cleverness than on the stubborn instincts of an underestimated beast of burden.
Harper's Young People, June 13, 1882: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
Step back into a nineteenth-century weekly journal where children chase wild lynxes, battle aggressive hornets, converse with attic portraits, and master coin tricks.
Rago and Goni, the Tree-Dweller Children
Belle Wiley
High in the ancient forest branches, two prehistoric children learn the perilous art of survival alongside dangerous beasts, flickering fire, and a growing community.
The Golden Boys With the Lumber Jacks
L. P. (Levi Parker) Wyman
When Christmas break derails into a northern timber war, two college brothers trade fraternity warmth for snow-shoes, forged legal injunctions, ghost hoaxes, and a desperate midnight rescue.
The valley of lost herds
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
An empire built on bone and bullet cracks open when a cattle baron discovers his fiercest enemy wears his blood.
A List To Starboard: 1909
Francis Hopkinson Smith
This tale of a foundering steamer captures the tension between a stoic captain and his panicked passengers, exploring the thin line between professional duty and the instinct for self-preservation. It is a bracing, tautly constructed drama of the sea.
Adrift in a Boat
William Henry Giles Kingston
A midshipman and his young friend, separated from a seaside picnic by a treacherous tide, find their survival resting on the mercy of the sea and the shifting loyalties of war.
Bert Wilson in the Rockies
J. W. Duffield
Three young travelers foil a train robbery on their way west, only to plunge headlong into ranch life, grizzly bears, and an impending Indian outbreak in the Rocky Mountains.
Dangers on the Ice Off the Coast of Labrador: With Some Interesting Particulars Respecting the Natives of that Country
Anonymous
An astonishing historical account of Moravian missionaries surviving a catastrophic breakup of the Labrador sea ice, paired with a moving record of early spiritual conversions among the Inuit.
Easy money
Bertrand W. Sinclair
Dismissed as a careless jester by his range boss, a young cowboy sets out to prove his worth by dismantling a brazen cattle-rustling ring on the Montana plains.
Horsesense Hank does his bit
Nelson S. Bond
When the shock of Pearl Harbor jolts a quiet university science professor into volunteering for the war effort, his extraordinary common sense proves more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction.
Lightning Express
Oliver Optic
Mid-nineteenth-century corporate boardrooms meet juvenile military play on a contested New England lake, where teenage railway presidents, rival academy cadets, and loyal young engineers clash over steam power, parliamentary rules, and Christian duty.
Lunar Station
Harl Vincent
When the moon suddenly shifts on its axis, a young lunar engineer uncovers an incredible inner world, a hidden civilization, and a mad conspiracy to conquer Earth.
Richard Carvel
Winston Churchill
An aristocratic youth is plunged from the brilliant world of colonial Annapolis and London high society into a violent web of betrayal, a brutal pirate abduction, and the gathering storm of the American Revolution.
Rob Nixon, the Old White Trader: A Tale of Central British North America
William Henry Giles Kingston
A hardened hunter, long cut off from civilization and faith, finds himself facing a solitary death on the vast North American prairie, only to be rescued and transformed by an unlikely, devout companion.
Rod of the Lone Patrol
H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody
A stray cow, a defiant hump-back toad dropped into a spinster's lap, and Morse code flashing across river fog anchor a Canadian boy's awakening into scout-honor discipline.
The Boy Land Boomer
Edward Stratemeyer
A teenager rides across the nineteenth-century prairie, clinging to a runaway horse in a desperate attempt to locate his father and stake a claim on a new frontier.
The Crew of the Water Wagtail
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A fragile bark braves uncharted northern seas, bearing men toward shipwreck, savage shores, and a hard-won redemption on the rugged frontier of Newfoundland.
The Hairy Ones
Basil Wells
Trapped within a hidden world inside Mars, a patrolman fights to unlock ancient, life-giving waters for a thirsty planet.
The Hidden Cabin: a pathetic story in condensed form
David W. (David William) Edwards
High above the Southern California coast, a grieving survivor builds a sanctuary in the wilderness, raising a stolen child who grows into a mystery only time and true love can unravel.
The Iron Boys in the Steel Mills
James R. Mears
Rushing into the roaring heat of industrial Steelburgh, two ambitious teenage boys navigate backbreaking manual labor, workplace sabotage, and life-threatening accidents to prove their worth to the factory owners.
The Lost Mine of the Amazon: A Hal Keen Mystery Story
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
When a routine voyage to Brazil hides a stolen letter and a doomed airplane flight into the green labyrinth, a young American finds himself tangled in a decade-old jungle mystery.
The Rose of Dawn: A Tale of the South Sea
Helen Hay Whitney
A sudden dawn over the South Sea islands stirs a sleeping village, where young men launch their boats for a day of fishing and a fateful romance begins to unfold.
The Seven Jewels of Chamar
Raymond F. Jones
When a dying father warns his son against the deadly legend of the Seven Jewels of Chamar, an interplanetary manhunt begins across the rain-soaked jungles of Venus and the dusty deserts of Mars.
The young naval captain
Edward Stratemeyer
When the combined navies of the world attack the United States, a brilliant young inventor takes to the ocean depths in a revolutionary submarine to save his country.
Adventures in the Far West
William Henry Giles Kingston
Armed with rifles and stubborn courage, a party of young British adventurers plunges into the untamed American wilderness, facing searing prairie fires, grizzly bears, and hostile tribes on a perilous quest.
Canoe Mates in Canada
St. George Rathborne
Three adventurous youths navigate the wild Saskatchewan river, stumbling into family mysteries, treacherous timber-cruisers, and midnight rescues in the Canadian wilderness.
His to fly
Richard Howells Watkins
A daring biplane flight turns into a battle for survival when two partners face a perilous descent through fog and darkness.
Margery (Gred): A Tale Of Old Nuremberg
Georg Ebers
A young woman and her friends navigate perilous medieval roads, family secrets, and an immense ransom to rescue a loved one held captive in distant Egypt.