Free summaries
Adventure — page 37
5,964 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 37 of 125.
Peter Simple
Frederick Marryat
The sea takes a fool and tempers him into a man through cannon fire, French prisons, and the absurdity of naval command.
Samba: A Story of the Rubber Slaves of the Congo
Herbert Strang
An English teenager in the turn-of-the-century Congo steps into the middle of a brutal colonial rubber regime, organizing native resistance alongside a rescued boy named Samba to defend local villagers from rubber-tax enforcers.
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Complete (Volumes 1 and 2)
Robert Paltock
A shipwrecked mariner discovers a race of winged beings in a hidden, cavernous realm, finding himself cast as both a husband and a miraculous savior in a strange, subterranean world.
The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
Fox, John, Jr.
HOOK A young mountain orphan navigates a divided land, seeking his identity amidst the brutal conflicts of the American Civil War.
The Mutineers: A Tale of Old Days at Sea and of Adventures in the Far East as Benjamin Lathrop Set It Down Some Sixty Years Ago
Charles Boardman Hawes
A young Salem greenhorn boards a Canton-bound merchantman, only to discover that his ship’s true cargo is hidden gold and its real authority rests in the hands of mutineers.
The Pony Rider Boys on the Blue Ridge
Frank Gee Patchin
Adventures in the Blue Ridge Mountains quickly escalate when a summer trail ride turns into an encounter with mountain floods, hostile locals, and an illegal conspiracy.
The Taming of the Jungle
C. W. (Charles William) Doyle
A mail-cart driver braves rogue tigers, jungle blazes, and murderous outlaws across the Himalayan foothills, finding that human hearts are far wilder than the violent forest around them.
The Tent Dwellers
Albert Bigelow Paine
Two city friends and their guides plunge into the uncharted Nova Scotia wilderness for three weeks of trout fishing, rough camping, and enduring nature’s relentless comedy.
The Three Godfathers
Peter B. (Peter Bernard) Kyne
Three outlaws flee a botched bank robbery into the desert, only to find a dying mother who entrusts her newborn son to their care.
The Tremendous Event
Maurice Leblanc
An astounding cataclysm drains the English Channel overnight, forging a raw land bridge between France and England while plunging a desperate young lover into a lawless, newly surfaced wilderness.
The Young Trail Hunters
Samuel Woodworth Cozzens
A wagon train cuts across the South-West, where wild mustangs, Comanches, and panthers turn every mile into a test of nerve.
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
William F. Drannan
An orphan boy flees a tyrant, rides west beside Kit Carson, and spends thirty-one years shaping the wild trails, Indian wars, and booming settlements of the American frontier.
Tony, the Hero
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A young vagabond's true noble identity lies hidden behind a life of forced wandering, awaiting the courage to break free from his criminal captor.
David Lannarck, Midget: An Adventure Story
George S. Harney
A circus midget leaves the sideshow circuit for the American West, where his quick mind and sharp tongue prove far more effective than brute force.
Fire Mountain: A Thrilling Sea Story
Norman Springer
A clerk chained to a desk in San Francisco dreams of the open sea, only to find himself plunged into a deadly northern chase for a fortune hidden inside a volcano.
Harper's Round Table, August 20, 1895
Various
This turn-of-the-century children's issue captures the lively spirit, athletic rivalries, historical instruction, and outdoor adventures of late nineteenth-century youth culture.
Tales From Scottish Ballads
Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Wilson) Grierson
Border raids, enchanted birds, and supernatural pacts fill these dramatic retellings of classic Scottish minstrelsy. They bring historic lore to life with directness and spirit.
The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Third: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Ceylon and India
Thomas Wallace Knox
Two American teenagers and their mentor travel across nineteenth-century Asia, observing local customs, ancient architecture, and imperial politics while documenting their encounters with wildlife, village life, and colonial society.
The Claw
Cynthia Stockley
A young Englishwoman ventures into the rugged, dangerous wilderness of pioneer South Africa, where war, heartbreak, and a fateful romantic triangle test her spirit to its limit.
The Free Rangers: A Story of the Early Days Along the Mississippi
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
A young wilderness runner steps into a virgin forest where Kentucky's pioneers face spanish plots and tribal armies along the wide Mississippi.
The Motor Boys in Strange Waters
Clarence Young
A trio of teenage chums launch their motorboat into the uncharted, shiftless waterways of the Florida Everglades, where shifting islands, hostile local factions, and unpredictable wild weather threaten to swallow them whole.
The Pioneer Boys of the Missouri
St. George Rathborne
Two teenage cousins ride into the untamed American West to secure a vital land signature before a scheming rival robs their families of their homesteads.
The Slaves of the Padishah
Mór Jókai
Trapped between the crushing ambition of the Ottoman Empire and the cold expansion of the Habsburgs, a small seventeenth-century principality turns its court, its battlefields, and its prisons into a high-stakes arena of survival.
Captain Macklin: His Memoirs
Richard Harding Davis
A soldier dismissed in disgrace seeks a fresh war to prove his worth, finding that true command requires more than raw ambition.
In the Days of Poor Richard
Irving Bacheller
A young backwoods lover faces the fires of revolution, secret plots, and foreign intrigue to protect his country and win his lady.
Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas
W. Hastings Macaulay
Through the eyes of an observant American naval officer, this 1852 travelogue logs a years-long journey across the globe, charting the unpredictable harbors, colonial outposts, and cultural landscapes of nineteenth-century maritime Asia.
The Adventures of a Three-Guinea Watch
Talbot Baines Reed
An old silver timepiece narrates its journey through mid-nineteenth-century Britain and India, tracking the lives of the schoolboys who buy, lose, and rediscover it.
The eternal savage
Edgar Rice Burroughs
An ancient earthquake shakes a caveman forward into the modern African wilderness, while a recurring dream draws a young American woman back to the dawn of time to find her lost hunter.
The Giraffe Hunters
Mayne Reid
A relentless pursuit across the nineteenth-century African interior tests four young colonial hunters as they face dangerous game, hostile forces, and the daunting task of capturing live wild giraffes.
The Man in the Twilight
Ridgwell Cullum
A visionary scheme to build the world's largest pulp mill in the wilderness of Labrador founders on a secret flaw of character, leaving its grand legacy to an unsuspecting successor and an estranged daughter.
The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley
James Otis
A handful of boys in the Mohawk Valley take up arms to defend their homes, only to find themselves thrust into the brutal center of the American Revolution.
The Untamed
Max Brand
A phantom-like nomad with an animal's senses fights to protect his wild nature when a brutal outlaw circle and the woman he loves both try to pull him into civilization.
A lady's captivity among Chinese pirates in the Chinese seas
Fanny Loviot
Swept away by a sudden typhoon off the Chinese coast, a young Frenchwoman finds her merchant ship boarded, plundered, and held captive by ruthless pirates.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 16 to 20
Mark Twain
A boy floating down the Mississippi on a raft must navigate the line between society’s cruel laws and his own growing conscience while protecting a fleeing friend.
Cruisings in the Cascades: A Narrative of Travel, Exploration, Amateur Photography
G. O. (George O.) Shields
This account of nineteenth-century western exploration captures a vanishing frontier through the eyes of an avid sportsman, photographer, and chronicler of the rugged wilderness. It serves as both a travelogue and a historical record of a rapidly changing American landscape.
Ralph in the Switch Tower
Allen Chapman
Ralph Fairbanks is a young man of steady character and quick reflexes who finds his calling at the controls of a busy railway switch tower. He must outwit local criminals, protect his widowed mother’s interests, and maintain the complex, life-or-death schedules of the Great Northern Railroad.
Seven years in South Africa, volume 1 (of 2)
Emil Holub
This account documents a physician’s rigorous scientific expedition through the South African interior during the 1870s. It captures a landscape defined by harsh terrain, colonial expansion, and the complex social tapestry of the diamond fields.
The Shore Road mystery
Franklin W. Dixon
A daring pair of teenage brothers transforms into amateur sleuths to dismantle a criminal operation that has paralyzed a quiet coastal town with a string of brazen automobile thefts. Through a combination of strategic risk-taking and mechanical know-how, they navigate a dangerous cat-and-mouse game against a…
Tom Burnaby: A Story of Uganda and the Great Congo Forest
Herbert Strang
This stirring adventure follows a young Englishman, Tom Burnaby, who ventures into the heart of Central Africa to rescue his uncle from a treacherous trap set by Arab slave traders. Relying on ingenuity, military discipline, and the loyalty of his companions, he transforms from a determined youth into a legendary…
Treasure and Trouble Therewith: A Tale of California
Geraldine Bonner
The lives of two sisters, a desperate bandit, and a manipulative stranger collide amidst the encroaching shadow of a monumental natural disaster. This narrative maps the intersection of greed, romance, and sudden, irreversible catastrophe.
Bannertail: The Story of a Graysquirrel
Ernest Thompson Seton
This narrative captures the life of a gray squirrel named Bannertail, tracing his journey from an orphaned kitten to the patriarch of a thriving woodland colony. It is a detailed portrait of instinct, survival, and the intricate connection between wildlife and the forest.
Billy Bounce
W. W. (William Wallace) Denslow
A young messenger traverses a surreal landscape of living inanimate objects and impossible creatures, proving that courage and optimism are the only weapons one truly needs to overcome fear.
Bransford of Rainbow Range: Originally Published under the title of Bransford in Arcadia, or, The Little Eohippus
Eugene Manlove Rhodes
A charismatic, quick-witted cowboy finds himself caught in a web of false accusations and bank robbery, forcing him to outrun both the law and a dangerous rival to clear his name.
Dead Man's Rock
Arthur Quiller-Couch
The Great Ruby of Ceylon carries a lethal inheritance, binding a young man to a vendetta that spans from the rugged Cornish coast to the dark corners of London. This is a tale of obsession, where a blood-stained gem exacts a heavy toll on three generations.
Mae Madden
Mary Murdoch Mason
Mae Madden is a spirited young American traveler whose impulsive heart and vivid imagination lead her into a web of romantic intrigue and dangerous fascination while touring Italy.
North Woods Manhunt (A Sugar Creek Gang Story)
Paul Hutchens
HOOK A group of boys on a wilderness camping trip find themselves caught in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a desperate, wanted man.
One of the 28th: A Tale of Waterloo
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A young man navigates the perils of the Napoleonic Wars, from the treacherous English Channel to the blood-soaked fields of Waterloo, in search of his own fortune and his family’s rightful inheritance.
The Arctic Prairies
Ernest Thompson Seton
A naturalist follows the trail of the North wind to find the last, untamed reaches of the Great Lone Land, where wild buffalo still roam the silent Arctic prairies.