Free summaries
Adventure — page 27
5,964 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 27 of 125.
The Cuckoo Clock
Mrs. Molesworth
A lonely girl discovers that her household’s antique timepiece is a gateway to hidden realms, where moral lessons are taught through wonder.
The Pirates of Shan: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story
Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
Two boys race across the globe to rescue missing friends, braving a remote volcanic island and a dangerous maritime syndicate.
Barry Blake of the Flying Fortress
Gaylord Du Bois
The young pilot finds his wings in the clouds, but soon learns that the true test of his character lies in the grueling, desperate reality of the Pacific air war.
Benita, an African romance
H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
A desperate hunt for hidden treasure in the African wilderness becomes a struggle for survival, where the boundary between the living and the dead begins to dissolve under the weight of ancient secrets.
Benton of the Royal Mounted: A Tale of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police
Ralph S. (Ralph Selwood) Kendall
A rugged, introspective lawman patrols the vast, unforgiving expanses of the Canadian West, grappling with the heavy burden of duty and the ache of profound isolation.
Newton Forster
Frederick Marryat
A young merchant sailor navigates the brutal realities of impressment, war, and societal ambition, eventually discovering his own path to fortune amidst the unpredictable tides of the nineteenth-century British maritime world.
The Awakening of the Desert
Julius Charles Birge
A group of men venture from Wisconsin into the vast, untamed Western frontier, witnessing the final, transformative years of the Oregon Trail before the arrival of the railroad.
The Blockade Runners
Jules Verne
A daring Scottish skipper risks his life and his ship to navigate the treacherous Union blockade, all to rescue a prisoner of the American Civil War and win the heart of the man’s daughter.
The Rival Submarines
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
A naval officer finds himself caught in a high-stakes duel between two rival submarine commanders, one a shadowy vigilante and the other a rogue pirate threatening international peace.
The Rover Boys at Colby Hall
Edward Stratemeyer
Four young cousins leave the comforts of home to face the rigid, demanding world of a prestigious military boarding school. They must navigate intense academic pressure, athletic rivalries, and the schemes of jealous bullies.
Tom Swift and His Air Glider
Victor Appleton
A young inventor faces global peril and high-altitude storms to rescue a political exile from the Siberian wilderness, relying on his own ingenious aeronautical designs to survive.
A desert drama
Arthur Conan Doyle
This account of a mid-19th-century Nile excursion gone wrong explores how sudden, violent displacement forces a group of disparate travelers to confront their own shallow priorities and deep-seated fears.
A Set of Rogues: Namely Christopher Sutton, John Dawson, the Señor Don Sanchez Del Castillo De Castelaña and Moll Dawson
Frank Barrett
A troupe of penniless actors attempts a desperate, elaborate swindle involving a stolen identity and a secret fortune. What begins as a lark spirals into a harrowing journey of sacrifice, slavery, and redemption.
Richard of Jamestown
James Otis
This account follows a young apprentice who navigates the brutal reality of the early Virginia colony, offering a child’s perspective on the starvation, mutiny, and survival that defined the settlement of Jamestown.
The Ghost of Mystery Airport
Van Powell
A trio of young aviation enthusiasts must defend their local airfield from a haunting specter, only to discover that the ghost in the clouds is a high-stakes cover for a buried pirate fortune.
The story of Ida Pfeiffer and her travels in many lands
Anonymous
A nineteenth-century woman defies the constraints of her era by traveling solo across the globe, surviving shipwrecks, tropical fevers, and encounters with hostile authorities to document the world's most remote corners.
Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa
Andrew A. Anderson
This account captures the raw, expansive experience of a decades-long life in a wagon, mapping the vast, untamed territories of South Central Africa during the mid-19th century.
Adventures of an Aide-de-Camp
James Grant
A young British officer survives the shifting, violent landscape of the Napoleonic Wars in Italy, moving through a web of brigands, secret societies, and crumbling ruins. This narrative blends the grit of military campaigning with the heightened, often tragic, romanticism of the early nineteenth century.
Captain Bayley's Heir: A Tale of the Gold Fields of California
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A young man wrongly accused of theft escapes to the California gold fields, where his character and labor eventually clear his name. This is a classic tale of redemption, resilience, and Victorian morality.
Captain Scraggs
Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne
A penny-pinching skipper and his boisterous crew navigate the treacherous waters of the Pacific in this spirited, episodic tale of maritime misadventure and dubious get-rich-quick schemes.
Connie Morgan in Alaska
James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx
A young boy ventures into the frozen, unforgiving Alaskan wilderness to rescue his partner, discovering that true strength in the North is measured by loyalty, endurance, and the bonds forged between comrades.**
For Love of a Bedouin Maid
Voleur
A soldier’s life is consumed by the shadow of Napoleon, tracing a path from the deserts of Egypt to the halls of power and, finally, to a tragic, watery end.
Tales of Secret Egypt
Sax Rohmer
These linked tales transport readers to an atmospheric, turn-of-the-century Egypt where ancient curses, hidden treasures, and forbidden romances simmer just beneath the surface of daily life.
The adventures of Captain O'Shea
Ralph Delahaye Paine
An intrepid sailor seeks his fortune across the globe, navigating colonial uprisings, mysterious island kings, and lethal secret societies with a steady hand and a quick wit.
The Cruise of the Midge (Vol. 1 of 2)
Michael Scott
A spirited, atmospheric adventure through the treacherous Caribbean, where a young merchant’s cruise descends into a feverish odyssey of piracy, naval warfare, and supernatural unease.
The Monarchs of the Main
Walter Thornbury
This historical chronicle maps the rise and eventual ruin of the buccaneers, exploring how displaced hunters and escaped servants transformed from isolated survivalists into the most feared maritime predators of the seventeenth-century Spanish Main.
The Romany Rye: A Sequel to 'Lavengro'
George Borrow
This sprawling, idiosyncratic narrative follows a wandering scholar and smith as he navigates the wilder fringes of English society. It is a work of defiant individualism, blending autobiography, linguistic obsession, and social commentary.
A Thief in the Night: Further adventures of A. J. Raffles, Cricketer and Cracksman
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
A charmingly amoral portrait of high-stakes larceny, this collection captures the thrill of the chase and the quiet, desperate bond between an aging gentleman burglar and his loyal, if long-suffering, accomplice.
Climbing on the Himalaya and Other Mountain Ranges
Norman Collie
The high-altitude explorer traverses the world’s most formidable ranges, finding both sublime beauty and profound loss in the thin air of the Himalayas and the rugged wilderness of the North American Rockies.
In the Midst of Alarms
Robert Barr
In a world of rapidly changing headlines and shifting loyalties, two men find that the most dangerous battleground is not a war, but the unpredictable human heart.
Thrilling Adventures by Land and Sea
James O. Brayman
The world is a precarious place, filled with sudden reversals of fortune, narrow escapes from catastrophe, and the persistent, quiet courage of those who refuse to succumb to despair.
Tom Swift and His Big Tunnel
Victor Appleton
The young inventor Tom Swift journeys to the high Andes to solve a crisis in a massive construction project, pitting his scientific ingenuity against sabotage and the challenges of a treacherous mountain range.
Under Drake's Flag: A Tale of the Spanish Main
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
The Spanish Main and the high seas of the Elizabethan age serve as the backdrop for this saga of four young men whose accidental separation from Francis Drake’s fleet launches them into a world of peril.
Wanderings in Patagonia
Julius Beerbohm
The vast, unforgiving plains of South America hold secrets for those brave enough to traverse them. Through endurance and unexpected encounters, a journey across the wild Patagonian interior reveals a rugged, untamed beauty.
Winona of the Camp Fire
Margaret Widdemer
HOOK A group of spirited young women finds that leadership, responsibility, and community service are not burdensome duties, but the very ingredients for a life of high-spirited adventure.
With Beatty off Jutland: A Romance of the Great Sea Fight
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
Two brothers thrust into the center of the First World War face the fury of the North Sea and the dark designs of enemy saboteurs.
A Woman Tenderfoot
Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson
The wilderness is not a place to be observed from a distance, but a theatre of physical endurance, sudden danger, and profound, unvarnished beauty. This account serves as both a gritty memoir of the American West and a spirited manual for the adventurous woman of the nineteenth century.
Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished: A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
This Victorian tale captures the stark transition from the desperate squalor of London’s slums to the redemptive promise of the Canadian wilderness. It is an earnest, episodic chronicle of salvation, both social and spiritual.
Four Young Explorers
Oliver Optic
Four young men embark on an extensive voyage through tropical waters, seeking adventure, scientific discovery, and a deeper understanding of the diverse cultures inhabiting the East.
More cargoes: 1897
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
The sea is rarely as dangerous as the men who sail upon it, particularly when they are bored, hungry, or scheming to avoid work. This collection of linked stories captures the droll, often frantic life of small-vessel sailors in the late nineteenth century.
Mr. Justice Raffles
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
A legendary gentleman thief finds his composure tested when a ruthless moneylender threatens to dismantle his carefully curated life of crime and cricket.
Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer: A Romance of the Spanish Main
Cyrus Townsend Brady
This historical romance depicts the rise and gruesome fall of a notorious pirate, portraying him not as a swashbuckling hero, but as a cruel and calculating villain.
The Boy Scouts' Mountain Camp
John Henry Goldfrap
A band of spirited Boy Scouts pits their wits and training against a gang of ruthless criminals to recover a long-lost treasure. It is a classic tale of youthful ingenuity and courage.
The Forest
Stewart Edward White
A meditation on the art of living outdoors, this work captures the spirit of the North Woods through the eyes of a seasoned traveler. It is a guide to the physical and psychological transformation that occurs when one exchanges the comforts of civilization for the wilderness.
The Lost King of Oz
Ruth Plumly Thompson
The search for a missing monarch leads a ragtag band of adventurers through the magical geography of Oz to recover a lost throne. This whimsical quest bridges the gap between folklore and modern artifice.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 10
Robert Louis Stevenson
A young man finds himself thrust into a web of betrayal and high-stakes survival, forced to navigate the treacherous political landscape of 18th-century Scotland. This collection brings together two distinct narratives of fortune, folly, and the enduring bonds of unlikely friendship.
True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World
A. W. (Adolphus Washington) Greely
This collection of accounts chronicles the stark, unwavering courage displayed by explorers and indigenous guides during the perilous discovery of the North American Arctic. It offers a sober look at the human cost of mapping the frozen frontier.
Wild Folk
Samuel Scoville
The wild creatures of the forest, swamp, and sea lead lives defined by constant vigilance, maternal devotion, and the relentless pressure of survival. These intimate, observed portraits bridge the divide between human understanding and the secret rhythms of the natural world.