Free summaries
Adventure — page 37
3,840 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 37 of 80.
Dick Merriwell's Pranks
Burt L. Standish
An American schoolboy and his comrades matching wits against kidnappers and conspirators across the harbors of Stamboul and the sands of Egypt.
Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892
Various
A window into late-nineteenth-century youth culture, this weekly periodical balances high-stakes fiction with everyday instructional grit.
Marco Paul's Voyages and Travels
Jacob Abbott
A twelve-year-old New York boy travels through rural New England with his older cousin, learning practical wisdom, self-discipline, and the physical realities of countryside labor along the way.
Mr. Fortescue: An Andean Romance
William Westall
Out of an quiet Essex fox hunt steps a globe-trotting adventurer whose secret, ciphered memoirs unravel decades of South American revolutions, Andean captivities, and lost volcanic civilisations.
Our Admirable Betty: A Romance
Jeffery Farnol
When an aging soldier retreats to his quiet estate to nurse his war wounds, he finds his peaceful seclusion completely disrupted by the spirited, bewitching young beauty who lives next door.
The Corner House Girls Under Canvas: How they reached Pleasant Cove and what happened afterward
Grace Brooks Hill
Four orphaned sisters and a giant, sweet-tempered stray dog find high adventure, coastal fires, and mysterious encounters during a summer camping trip on the New England shore.
The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas
Janet Aldridge
Courage and camaraderie meet the test of the elements when four small-town girls trade household chores for canvas tents, midnight spooks, and forest fires in an early twentieth-century summer camp.
The Phantom Ship
Frederick Marryat
A son sets out on a perilous, decade-spanning ocean quest to deliver a holy relic to his cursed father, the captain of the Flying Dutchman.
The Romance of War
James Grant
The Scottish Highlands meet the heat and peril of the Peninsular War in this sweeping chronicle of military ambition, divided loyalties, and the heavy price of personal honor.
The Sea Fairies
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
Deep beneath the Pacific waves, a young girl and a veteran sailor shed their terrestrial lives to wander an enchanted ocean kingdom full of wonders, monsters, and unexpected magic.
The Wolf Demon
Albert W. Aiken
A shadow glides across the moonlit Scioto valley, striking down frontier warriors with a single, savage blow.
The Young Outlaw
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A boy who would rather be a pig than hoe a potato runs away from his strict rural guardian, only to find that surviving on the streets of New York takes far more hustle than farming.
A Waif of the Plains
Bret Harte
Two abandoned children struggle across the 1852 American plains, fighting for survival as their wagon train leaves them behind in the vast wilderness.
At the Point of the Bayonet: A Tale of the Mahratta War
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A young English boy, raised as a Mahratta in secret, becomes a bridge between two warring empires.
Hopalong Cassidy
Clarence Edward Mulford
Out where the Southwest meets the desert, the boundary between order and outrage is drawn in lead. One bad-man with a quick draw can turn a quiet range into a graveyard.
In the grip of the Mullah: A tale of adventure in Somaliland
F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton
A son risks everything to rescue his captive father from a fanatical warlord in the heart of East Africa.
Mr. Isaacs, A Tale of Modern India
F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford
Across the rugged hills and glittering bazaars of nineteenth-century India, an extraordinary man's quest for ultimate truth reshapes the boundaries between earthly love and spiritual awakening.
Sustained honor: The Age of Liberty Established
John R. (John Roy) Musick
A young veteran of early American battles joins a new fight for naval independence and finds love, redemption, and a nation's true identity forged on land and sea.
The After House
Mary Roberts Rinehart
An ill-fated summer voyage turns into a bloody mystery, forcing an impoverished medical student turned deck-hand to take command of a terrified, isolated crew.
The Brassbounder: A Tale of the Sea
David W. (David William) Bone
Riding the icy gales of the deep sea, a square-rigged barque battles rounding the Horn, carrying a crew of seasoned sailors and young apprentices through terror, grueling labor, and the brutal reality of merchant seafaring.
The Cruise of the "Esmeralda"
Harry Collingwood
A lost inheritance, a decoded map, and a mutinous crew set the stage for a classic Victorian sea adventure across the Pacific.
The Princess Sophia
E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
A spirited Balkan sovereign chooses the thrill of the gaming table over the burdens of statecraft, setting off a battle of wits that stretches across generations.
The Romance of the Woods
Frederick Whishaw
The northern wilderness is a place of infinite quiet, where a hunter may lie waiting through the dusk while ancient stories stir the pine-scented air.
The Way of the Strong
Ridgwell Cullum
Driven by ambition, greed, and a long-buried secret, a northern wilderness outlaw rebuilds himself into a western wheat king, only to face his past when labor strikes and family ties converge.
The Wreck of the Golden Mary
Charles Dickens
A dark, blinding fog hides an iceberg from a dedicated crew carrying forty-four passengers and a fortune in gold toward the promise of California.
The Young Emigrants
Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick
Bound by a common destination, a small band of hopeful travellers turns away from the familiar shores of home to build a new existence in the wild, open spaces of the American continent.
Tom Slade
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
The story of a young delinquent’s transformation proves that a boy’s roughest edges can be reshaped when given purpose, trust, and real responsibility.
Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat
Victor Appleton
A brilliant young inventor down to his last options takes a sub-sea gamble for three hundred thousand dollars in gold.
Voyage of the Paper Canoe: A Geographical Journey of 2500 Miles, from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, During the Years 1874-5
Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes) Bishop
A sole traveler glides through the inland waterways of a changing continent, navigating treacherous bays, quiet canals, and murky cypress swamps in a fragile craft made of paper.
A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee": From the Diary of Number Five of the After Port Gun (Russell Doubleday): The Yarn of the Cruise and Fights of the Naval Reserves in the Spanish-American War
Russell Doubleday
A group of green New York college boys and clerks step onto a converted auxiliary cruiser and transform into the battle-tested naval gunners of the Spanish-American War.
A Voyage to Cacklogallinia: With a Description of the Religion, Policy, Customs and Manners of That Country
Samuel Brunt
A stranded English sailor discovers an empire of giant, speaking poultry, rising through its corrupt political ranks only to embark on a desperate spaceflight to the moon.
John Corwell, Sailor and Miner
Louis Becke
In the unforgiving waters of the eighteenth-century Pacific, a ship captain's dangerous quest for island gold collides with imperial ambition, maritime peril, and sudden, tragic treachery.
Left on Labrador
C. A. (Charles Asbury) Stephens
Four young men buy a schooner, set sail for Hudson Strait, and find themselves marooned on the icy, wind-swept coast of Labrador.
Memoirs of Arsène Lupin
Maurice Leblanc
This is the story of a young man’s first steps into a life of shadow, chronicling the formative, high-stakes duel between a burgeoning mastermind and a legendary temptress. It explores the dawn of a career defined by audacity, wit, and a refusal to be mastered by anyone.
Overland Red: A Romance of the Moonstone Cañon Trail
Henry Herbert Knibbs
An adventurous, poetry-quoting vagabond and his young companion crisscross the Southwest, dodging the law while pursuing a hidden gold claim that will change their fortunes forever.
Polly and Her Friends Abroad
Lillian Elizabeth Roy
A wealthy mother attempts to force her unassuming daughter into European nobility, but a lively crew of American art students intervenes with good humor and unexpected detours.
The Dog Crusoe and his Master
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A young hunter and his extraordinary hound cross the uncharted Great Plains, facing wild horses, grizzly bears, and hostile tribes to deliver a message of peace.
The Land of Frozen Suns: A Novel
Bertrand W. Sinclair
Kidnapped off a St. Louis riverfront and impressed into steamship labor, an orphaned young man is swept into the lawless northern fur trade, where he must choose between competing loyalties to survive frozen, hostile wildernesses.
The Trial of William Tinkling: Written by Himself at the Age of 8 Years
Charles Dickens
Children play at adult authority with deadly seriousness, only to discover that the real world refuses to comply with their elaborate dramatic rules.
Then I'll Come Back to You
Larry Evans
A mountain orphan with a bone-hard will and a secret heritage clawed his way into the world of men to claim the girl he loved, only to find that winning her meant fighting every power that sought to break him.
Tom Swift and His Motor-Boat
Victor Appleton
An inventive teenager buys a damaged lake launch at auction, fixing its motor only to discover that the boat holds a hidden secret that draws dangerous rivals and local thieves.
Adrift in the Unknown
William Wallace Cook
A rogue burglar and four greedy millionaires are hurled through space inside a floating iron tower, discovering that interplanetary travel is mostly a matter of bad company and awkward celestial politics.
Dave Porter in the Far North
Edward Stratemeyer
High-energy schoolboy antics quickly give way to a perilous wilderness expedition when an earnest American youth ventures into the snowy Norwegian mountains to locate his missing father.
Dreadnoughts of the Dogger: A Story of the War on the North Sea
Robert Leighton
A young Sea Scout’s wartime vigilance on the North Sea leads to a series of confrontations with enemy infiltrators and naval raiders.
Hair-Breadth Escapes: The Adventures of Three Boys in South Africa
H. C. (Henry Cadwallader) Adams
Left behind on the African coast by a sudden turn of fate, three English schoolboys must navigate a wilderness of wild beasts, hostile tribes, and unforgiving terrain to find their way back to civilization.
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.