Free summaries
Adventure — page 42
4,170 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 42 of 87.
Camp Fire Yarns of the Lost Legion
G. Hamilton-Browne
A seasoned veteran recounts the visceral realities of frontier warfare, blending tactical maneuvers with the coarse, candid humor of men living on the precarious edges of colonial expansion.
Half A Chance
Frederic Stewart Isham
A convicted man escapes a watery grave to rebuild his life in London society, only to find his past closing in as he falls for an aristocratic woman.
Harper's Round Table, November 12, 1895
Various
Two young brothers leap into a swollen river after a fishing rod, setting in motion a broad tableau of turn-of-the-century American youth.
In Clive's Command: A Story of the Fight for India
Herbert Strang
A young Shropshire boy runs away to sea, falls into the hands of a smooth-talking villain, and fights his way through the eighteenth-century conquest of India.
My Lady of the North
Randall Parrish
A Confederate captain carrying vital dispatches through mountain passes finds his duty upended when a Union woman, trapped between warring armies, forces him to choose between military honor and an impossible love.
Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy
Frank R. Stockton
A wanderer through icy forests, subterranean ruins, and sky-high clouds discovers that the world is far larger and stranger than it appears at home.
She Blows! And Sparm at That!
William John Hopkins
Young Tim leaves his home port to spend four years aboard a whaling vessel, growing into a seasoned seaman through the sheer discipline of high-seas survival.
Tarzan and the lost empire
Edgar Rice Burroughs
A legendary hero of the jungle ventures deep into the African interior to solve a mysterious disappearance, only to stumble upon a lost world of ancient Roman soldiers clinging to life in the wilderness.
The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Jr
David Cory
A brave young cat puts on red-topped boots and sets out across a landscape of nursery rhymes to find his legendary father.
The Captain of the Kansas
Louis Tracy
A disabled ocean liner drifts toward the treacherous reefs of South America, forcing its crew and passengers into an unforgiving wilderness where survival demands far more than seamanship.
The Caves of Fear: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story
Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
High in the mountains of Asia, an ancient cave conceals a rare natural phenomenon—and a ruthless criminal network that will kill to keep it secret.
The Dark Frigate
Charles Boardman Hawes
A boy raised on the high seas returns to seventeenth-century England, only to be swept back out to sea aboard a treacherous frigate where mutiny, murder, and piracy wait in the shadow of the sails.
The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the "Fram," 1910-1912
Roald Amundsen
A white, frozen plain stretches to the horizon, broken only by towering blue glaciers, yawning crevasses, and a tiny line of men and dogs moving steadily toward the southernmost point on Earth.
Crusoe in New York, and other tales
Edward Everett Hale
A solitary man builds a secret homestead on a hidden New York lot, carving out an island of self-reliance inside the bustling city.
French and English: A Story of the Struggle in America
Evelyn Everett-Green
The wilderness of North America becomes a crucible for two young men caught between the rival ambitions of empires. Their journey reflects the violent, transformative struggle that eventually redraws the map of a continent.
Gaspar the Gaucho: A Story of the Gran Chaco
Mayne Reid
This Victorian adventure follows a courageous band of companions through the mysterious, untamed wilderness of the Gran Chaco as they struggle to rescue a kidnapped young woman.
Idylls of the Sea, and Other Marine Sketches
Frank Thomas Bullen
The sea is an infinite theatre of tooth and claw, where majestic leviathans descend into ink-black depths to battle ancient, tentacled horrors.
Kid Scanlan
H. C. (Harry Charles) Witwer
A fighter's left hook proves far more effective than high-minded intellect in navigating the chaotic, fledgling world of early Hollywood silent filmmaking.
Sport in Abyssinia
Mayo, Dermot Robert Wyndham Bourke, Earl of
Rough tracks, relentless heat, and unpredictable wilderness define an expedition into nineteenth-century East Africa. A young British officer recount his travels through terrain where game is elusive, logistics collapse, and local politics dictate survival.
The Day of Judgment
Joseph Hocking
A young loom-maker, unjustly imprisoned and burdened by his mother’s ruined past, discovers that the famous judge who presides over his region holds the key to his own identity.
The Lost Valley
J. M. (James Morgan) Walsh
A gold strike in the bush, a dying uncle’s puzzle, and a secluded Australian valley hold the key to a family's lost inheritance.
The Open Polar Sea: A narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States"
I. I. (Isaac Israel) Hayes
Driven by youth and scientific ambition, an American commander leads a small vessel into the frozen perils of the Far North, pursuing the legendary ice-free basin surrounding the Pole while testing the absolute limits of human endurance.
The Shadow of the Czar
John R. Carling
An English officer stumbles into a web of Balkan statecraft, secretly guarded princesses, and Russian intrigue in a forgotten principality.
The Spoilers
Rex Beach
A crooked receiver and a corrupt judge conspire to steal Alaska’s richest gold claim, forcing two prospectors into a lawless battle to reclaim their mine.
Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 2
Parry, William Edward, Sir
Navigating dense pack ice, brutal arctic wintering, and treacherous ice-floe treks requires a delicate mix of stoic discipline, ingenuity, and profound respect for the extreme environment.
With Lee in Virginia: A Story of the American Civil War
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
Born into the wealthy planter elite of Tidewater Virginia, a young man must navigate the brutal unraveling of his world when war fractures his nation and forces him to choose between duty, conscience, and survival.
By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories
Louis Becke
A harsh sun sweeps over the barrier reefs and quiet rivers of the Pacific, where trader and native live side by side.
Crusoe's Island: A Ramble in the Footsteps of Alexander Selkirk: With Sketches of Adventure in California and Washoe
J. Ross (John Ross) Browne
An observant 1849 traveler journeys across the Pacific, through rugged California trails, and into chaotic Nevada silver towns, recording every absurd and dangerous encounter with dry, irrepressible humor.
Early Australian Voyages: Pelsart, Tasman, Dampier
John Pinkerton
Across centuries of maps drawn from imagination and rumor, three real navigators carved out the jagged contours of Australia, replacing mythical continents with dangerous reefs, barren coasts, and unpredictable currents.
Eastern Nights - and Flights: A Record of Oriental Adventure
Alan Bott
Captivity in the Ottoman Empire turns a downed British aviator into an inventor of desperate schemes, trailing through prison camps, fake lunacy, and disguises.
Eva's Adventures in Shadow-Land
Mary D. (Mary Dummett) Nauman
A young girl ventures past her quiet parlor into a realm of magical trials, sentient nature, and elusive fairy creatures.
Joe's Luck
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
Left penniless after his father's death, an independent teenager escapes a stingy employer to seek his fortune in the 1850s California Gold Rush.
Oregon and Eldorado
Thomas Bulfinch
Nature lays clear water-pathways across both South and North America, inviting ambitious travelers to cross a continent from sea to sea.
The Boy Ranchers at Spur Creek
Willard F. Baker
When cattle rustlers steal the deeds to Spur Creek, three young cousins must defend their family’s range against desperate sheep herders in this classic Western adventure.
The Death Ship: A Strange Story, Vol. 1 (of 3)
William Clark Russell
A English seaman steps from a doomed merchantman onto a ghostly Dutch ship cursed to beat against Cape storms forever.
The Forest of Swords: A Story of Paris and the Marne
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
An American volunteer and his French airman comrade race across a war-torn landscape, carrying crucial intelligence as millions of soldiers clash in the pivotal defense of Paris.
The Harbor Master
Theodore Goodridge Roberts
A remote Newfoundland cove hides a community of wreckers whose fierce leader claims every prize of the sea until a shipwrecked singer and a brave sailor challenge his brutal rule.
The Lighthouse
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The sea yields no secrets without labor, and even the rocks off Scotland’s coast demand a heroic cost in sweat and courage.
With Rifle and Bayonet: A Story of the Boer War
F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton
A lad driven from home finds his footing in the fires of the veldt, fighting for country and comrades with cool resolve.
A Voyage in a Balloon (1852)
Jules Verne
A lone aeronaut takes to the German skies, only to discover his unexpected passenger is a dangerous fanatic determined to steer them both into eternity.
Bellarion the Fortunate
Rafael Sabatini
A fortune-hunting scholar turns military genius to save a realm—and the proud princess who mistrusts him—in Sabatini’s grand, Machiavellian renaissance adventure.
Black Bartlemy's Treasure
Jeffery Farnol
A chained gally-slave breaks free to pursue a deadly vendetta, only to find himself stranded on an uncharted island alongside his greatest enemy's daughter.
Bonnie Prince Fetlar: The Story of a Pony and His Friends
Marshall Saunders
A city-bred Shetland pony narrates his summer in the Ontario backwoods, where he helps a lonely, motherless boy heal from secrets, fear, and family strife.
Dave Darrin's Second Year at Annapolis
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
Courage, duty, and class honor intersect on land and sea as a determined young midshipman navigates the trials of his second year at the United States Naval Academy.
Stories and Legends of Travel and History, for Children
Grace Greenwood
Travel becomes a doorway to the past when a curious reader explores historic gardens, ancient cathedrals, and mysterious coastlines across England and Ireland.
The Flight of the Silver Ship: Around the World Aboard a Giant Dirgible
Hugh McAlister
A high-minded prep-school graduate steps into the captaincy of a massive dirigible to complete a historic, storm-tossed circumnavigation of the globe.
The Queen of the Pirate Isle
Bret Harte
A nine-year-old girl leads three young companions away from their quiet home into a grand adventure that transforms childhood imagination into real-world fortune.
The Sorcerer's Stone
Beatrice Grimshaw
An unscrupulous sorcerer’s priceless gem drives two luckless adventurers through cannibal villages, deep-sea diving brawls, and tropical madness across the wild frontier of early twentieth-century Papua New Guinea.