Free summaries
Adventure — page 22
5,964 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 22 of 125.
Careers of Danger and Daring
Cleveland Moffett
A life spent suspended over a void, working deep underwater, or standing before a caged lion requires a steady pulse and a peculiar, learned discipline.
Huntingtower
John Buchan
When a newly retired Scottish grocer sets out on a quiet walking tour, he stumbles into a web of international intrigue, a besieged seaside mansion, and a captive Russian princess.
Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland
G. F. (George Forrest) Browne
Beneath the sunlit pastures and limestone hills of France and Switzerland lie quiet, frozen caverns where massive ice-structures endure through summer heat.
Of Captain Mission
Daniel Defoe
A visionary French privateer turns his crew into a radical sea-faring commonwealth before establishing a stateless, egalitarian colony on the coast of Madagascar.
Songs of Sea and Sail
Thomas Fleming Day
The oceanic world comes alive through verse that captures the raw power of open water, the mechanical grace of rigged vessels, and the quiet camaraderie of men at sea.
The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles
Padraic Colum
Long before Achilles fought at Troy, a generation of demigods and heroes sailed to the ends of the known earth aboard a living ship.
The Teeth of the Tiger
Maurice Leblanc
A shadowy villain removes every heir to a massive fortune, framing an innocent woman; only a dead master-burglar operating under a battle-tested alias can outwit the plot.
The Heritage of the Desert: A Novel
Zane Grey
A dying tenderfoot flees into the Utah badlands, where a devout Mormon patriarch gives him a home, a gun, and a second chance at life.
The Motor Maids by Rose, Shamrock and Thistle
Katherine Stokes
A four-girl motoring club crosses the Atlantic, touring Great Britain and Ireland in a red automobile while unwittingly unraveling a high-society conspiracy of theft, kidnapping, and inherited vengeance.
Mare Nostrum (Our Sea): A Novel
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
Two lovers, a Mediterranean captain and a German spy, are drawn into a web of war, betrayal, and tragic sea-bound retribution.
The Children of the New Forest
Frederick Marryat
A family of orphans finds refuge in the rugged wilderness of a royal forest, learning to survive while the storm of the English Civil War rages around their hidden home.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930
Various
A pulp magazine blends melodrama and raw imagination, taking readers from the abyss of the ocean to the depths of time.
The secret of the island
Jules Verne
A group of American castaways builds a thriving industrial sanctuary on an uncharted Pacific island, only to discover their survival is secretly orchestrated by a legendary recluse.
Knock Three Times!
Marion St. John Webb
A mysterious birthday parcel leads twin siblings out of their everyday garden and into a hidden, enchanted realm threatened by a terrible magic.
Billy Bunny and Daddy Fox
David Cory
A young rabbit roams from woodpiles to theater boxes, dodging predators with popguns and absurd luck.
Lord Tony's Wife: An Adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness
A vengeful survivor of the French Revolution pursues an exiled nobleman’s daughter to England, orchestrating a deceitful plot that lures her back into the jaws of the Terror.
The Battleship Boys at Sea
Frank Gee Patchin
Driven by high-minded patriotism and sheer restless energy, two small-town American teenagers enlist in the modern steel navy and discover that earning respect aboard a dreadnought requires equal parts courage, iron discipline, and raw grit.
A Voyage to the Moon: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy, of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians
George Tucker
A hidden metallic element launches two travelers across the lunar void into a strange alien civilization designed as a mirror for terrestrial absurdity.
Wanderings in South America
Charles Waterton
Solitary jungle treks, deadly blowpipe toxins, and hands-on wrestling matches with giant constrictors fill this eccentric, deeply observational record of early nineteenth-century South American exploration.
Alaska Days with John Muir
Samuel Hall Young
Scaling towering precipices, navigating treacherous fjords, and braving blinding blizzards, two unlikely companions venture into the uncharted wilderness of late nineteenth-century Alaska to map its glaciers, preach to its native peoples, and witness the majesty of creation.
The Story of Ab: A Tale of the Time of the Cave Man
Stanley Waterloo
Before history began, a young hunter tests his strength against the primal forces of a raw world, surviving brutal beasts, rival tribes, and the quiet dawn of human invention.
Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains
Catharine Parr Strickland Traill
Lost in the trackless forests of Upper Canada, three young pioneers must rely on their courage, forest craft, and mutual devotion to survive the wilderness.
Gunboat and Gun-runner: A Tale of the Persian Gulf
T. T. (Thomas Tendron) Jeans
A small Royal Navy patrol launch battles harsh seas, heat, and ruthless smugglers to intercept illicit arms trafficking in the Persian Gulf.
The Mesa Trail
H. (Henry) Bedford-Jones
A broken-down prospector, an indomitable old woman in a rattle-trap car, and a handful of forgotten Indian relics collide in the high New Mexico desert.
Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout
Victor Appleton
A teenager builds a high-speed vehicle in his backyard shop, fights off local bullies and corporate spies, and drives straight into a high-stakes race.
Shackleton in the Antarctic: Being the story of the British Antarctic expedition, 1907-1909
Shackleton, Ernest Henry, Sir
The frozen heart of the Antarctic demands everything from those who dare to cross its threshold. This account chronicles a race against hunger, ice, and the limits of human endurance at the bottom of the world.
Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia: From Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria
William John Wills
This account documents the 1860–1861 expedition to cross the Australian continent from south to north, detailing the harrowing struggle of its leaders to survive a landscape that eventually claimed their lives.
Timar's Two Worlds
Mór Jókai
The Danube creates a divide between two lives for a man who carries the weight of a stolen fortune. He navigates a treacherous, double existence that tests the limits of his conscience and his capacity for peace.
My Life at Sea: being a "yarn" loosely spun for the purpose of holding together certain reminiscences of the transition period from sail to steam in the British mercantile marine (1863-1894)
William Caius Crutchley
A veteran captain recounts his transition from the era of wooden sailing ships to the rise of steam, capturing the vanishing artistry of the nineteenth-century British merchant marine.
The Great Captain: A Story of the Days of Sir Walter Raleigh
Katharine Tynan
A loyal orphan finds his purpose—and his own lost identity—in the shadow of a legendary Elizabethan explorer. This is a quiet, meditative account of a life spent in the service of greatness.
The Trail of the Seneca
James A. (James Andrew) Braden
Two young pioneers in the Ohio wilderness find their lives imperiled when a deceitful Seneca outcast manipulates tribal superstition to frame them for murder and witchcraft.
Across Iceland
W. (William) Bisiker
This travelogue documents a turn-of-the-century scientific expedition across the rugged, volcanic terrain of Iceland. It offers an evocative, firsthand look at a landscape defined by shifting ice, boiling springs, and the resilience of its inhabitants.
Rescue Dog of the High Pass
Jim Kjelgaard
A boy labeled a failure by his village finds his true purpose in the high, frozen reaches of the Alps alongside a giant, misunderstood dog.
The Rover of the Andes: A Tale of Adventure on South America
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The Andes serve as the backdrop for a sprawling, earnest quest through dangerous mountain passes and lawless plains, where a quiet search for a lost daughter transforms into a test of character and faith.
The Treasure of the Isle of Mist
W. W. (William Woodthorpe) Tarn
A young girl’s solitary search for wonder leads her across the threshold of a hidden world, where the boundaries between the mundane and the magical dissolve. This gentle, philosophical fable explores the necessity of curiosity and the wisdom of the child’s heart.
When London Burned
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
Cyril Shenstone, a young man of noble birth but shattered fortunes, navigates the tumult of seventeenth-century England, proving his worth through naval gallantry and resilience during London's darkest hours.
Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk
Gilbert Parker
This collection of stories captures the volatile intersection of colonial ambition and the untamed frontiers of the late 19th-century Pacific, charting the collision between rigid codes of honor and the raw, often brutal realities of exile.
The Happy Family
B. M. Bower
This collection of interconnected tales captures the spirited, often mischievous camaraderie of a Montana cow-camp. It offers a vivid, humorous window into the rugged lives and evolving bonds of the men of the Flying U.
Desert Gold
Zane Grey
The desert is a crucible, burning away the superficial layers of civilization to reveal the raw, often violent, nature of the human spirit.
The World of Ice
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A classic Victorian Arctic adventure, this narrative tracks a perilous whaling expedition that turns into a desperate struggle for survival against the encroaching ice.
The Golden Hope: A Story of the Time of King Alexander the Great
Robert H. (Robert Higginson) Fuller
A sweeping historical novel, this tale follows a band of young Greeks swept into the orbit of Alexander the Great as he attempts to forge a vast, unified empire across Asia.
The Mabinogion Vol. 1
Schreiber, Charlotte, Lady
These medieval Welsh tales breathe with the vitality of ancient oral tradition, weaving together supernatural mystery, chivalric duty, and the shifting landscape of a legendary past. They offer a window into a world where magic and mortal courage are inextricably linked.
The Boy With the U.S. Miners
Francis Rolt-Wheeler
The hazards of the earth and the grit of the men who extract its riches define this classic tale of industrial adventure. It bridges the gap between scientific instruction and the raw excitement of a frontier discovery.
David Balfour: Being Memoirs Of His Adventures At Home And Abroad, The Second Part: In Which Are Set Forth His Misfortunes Anent The Appin Murder
Robert Louis Stevenson
A young man finds himself caught in the lethal machinery of 18th-century Scottish politics, forced to navigate dangerous loyalties to save an innocent life and protect his own integrity.
Captain Cook: His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries
William Henry Giles Kingston
The life of the eighteenth-century navigator James Cook remains a quintessential tale of humble beginnings, profound discovery, and the relentless pursuit of scientific knowledge across the unknown corners of the globe.
On Foreign Service
T. T. (Thomas Tendron) Jeans
This is a classic naval adventure where the rigid traditions of the Royal Navy collide with the chaotic volatility of a South American revolution. It captures the transition from peace-time drills to the grim, immediate reality of modern warfare.
Morien: A Metrical Romance Rendered into English Prose from the Mediæval Dutch
Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay) Weston
This chivalric romance follows a forgotten knight of the Round Table and his quest to uncover his origins, weaving together the disparate threads of Arthurian legend into a singular, action-driven journey.
South with Scott
Mountevans, Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, Baron
A first-hand account of the tragic Terra Nova expedition, this narrative documents the harrowing struggle to reach the South Pole and the subsequent ordeal of those left behind to wait in the frozen dark.