Free summaries
Adventure — page 58
5,964 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 58 of 125.
Gold Hunting in Alaska
Joseph Grinnell
The Arctic wilderness offers a harsh, indifferent stage for human folly, as a company of hopeful dreamers discovers that the true weight of Alaska lies not in its gold, but in the endurance of the spirit.
Lone Pine: The Story of a Lost Mine
R. B. (Richard Baxter) Townshend
A hardened American prospector finds himself entangled in the volatile, cross-cultural conflicts of the New Mexico frontier, where greed and ancient tribal honor collide under a vast desert sky.
Mollie and the Unwiseman Abroad
John Kendrick Bangs
A whimsical traveler and his toy companions journey from the quiet of home to the wonders of Europe, only to discover that the truest comfort lies in the familiar. This lighthearted tale follows a curious, eccentric character as he navigates the complexities of foreign travel with a logic all his own.
Nuggets in the Devil's Punch Bowl, and Other Australian Tales
Andrew Robertson
These tales capture the rugged spirit of the Australian frontier, where fortune is often found in the dirt and the line between honest toil and desperate deceit is thinner than a shearer’s blade.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 6
Mark Twain
The village of St. Petersburg is a place of small-town gossip, hidden treasures, and deep-seated fears. Beneath the surface of childhood play, a dark secret binds two boys to a murderer.
The Boy Scouts Under Fire in Mexico
John Henry Goldfrap
Four American scouts venture into the chaos of the Mexican Revolution to recover a lost fortune, testing their mettle against both the hazards of the frontier and the uncertainty of war.
The Jungle Girl
Gordon Casserly
A young British officer finds his life transformed by a dangerous, forbidden romance and a perilous rescue mission across the rugged, untamed frontiers of the Himalayas.
The king's ring
Zacharias Topelius
A copper ring, rumored to hold the power of invulnerability, binds the fates of a Swedish king and a young Finnish officer across the brutal battlefields of the Thirty Years' War.
The Pirate Slaver: A Story of the West African Coast
Harry Collingwood
A midshipman’s harrowing survival story unfolds on the dangerous West African coast, where a British naval officer becomes a prisoner to the very slavers he was sworn to suppress.
The Rifle Rangers
Mayne Reid
The Rifle Rangers is a high-stakes military adventure set against the backdrop of the Mexican-American War. It follows a band of scouts through the perilous landscapes of Mexico, delivering a fast-paced tale of narrow escapes, hidden identities, and the romantic entanglements of soldiers in a foreign land. Its…
The Taming of Red Butte Western
Francis Lynde
The desert, a place where men go to lose their grip, tests a railroad superintendent’s resolve. He must transform a lawless, broken division before the heat, the corruption, and his own self-doubt destroy him.
The Texan Scouts: A Story of the Alamo and Goliad
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
A young scout navigates the brutal collapse of the Texas Revolution, witnessing the fall of the Alamo and the tragedy of Goliad while fighting for survival against the forces of Santa Anna.
Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice, or, the Wreck of the Airship
Victor Appleton
HOOK Armed with a map to a hidden valley of gold, a young inventor faces treacherous Arctic ice, rival sabotage, and desperate survival in his quest for wealth.
Wild Adventures round the Pole
Gordon Stables
Driven by the romantic spirit of adventure, a band of spirited companions journeys toward the Arctic, facing ice, pirates, and the haunting solitude of the frozen north.
Adventures of an Angler in Canada, Nova Scotia and the United States
Charles Lanman
This travelogue chronicles a mid-19th-century journey through the rugged landscapes of North America, blending technical angling observations with romantic, meditative reflections on the natural world and the passage of time.
"Forward, March": A Tale of the Spanish-American War
Kirk Munroe
This stirring piece of turn-of-the-century fiction follows a young man’s journey from a quiet life in New Orleans to the front lines of the Spanish-American War, capturing the fervor and idealism of 1898.
H.M.S. ----
John Graham Bower
This work offers a mosaic of life within the British Navy during the First World War, capturing the intimate rhythm of sailors, officers, and the machinery of conflict. It functions less as a traditional novel and more as a series of interconnected sketches, vignettes, and poetic interludes that paint a portrait of…
John Vytal: A Tale of the Lost Colony
William Farquhar Payson
This atmospheric historical novel breathes life into the enigma of the Roanoke colony, blending the harsh realities of colonial survival with a haunting, romantic search for meaning amidst an enduring historical mystery.
Little Tom
Václav Tille
A tiny prince, sole survivor of an underground kingdom, navigates a gargantuan world of humans and insects. He seeks his place in a landscape that is both beautiful and terrifyingly immense.
Nautilus
Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
A lonely, imaginative orphan finds his life transformed when a mysterious, charismatic sailor arrives in his small town, offering him a gateway to the wide, wonders-filled world he has always dreamed of.
Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet
Harold L. (Harold Leland) Goodwin
HOOK A young lieutenant and his squad must outwit a rival power to secure a drifting, thorium-rich asteroid. Survival depends on their grit and technical ingenuity in the unforgiving vacuum of space.
Second Base Sloan
Christy Mathewson
After fleeing home and living as transients, two young friends chase a dream of baseball glory in a gritty, fast-paced world that demands resilience, talent, and a little bit of luck.
Sporting Scenes amongst the Kaffirs of South Africa
Alfred W. (Alfred Wilks) Drayson
A colonial officer’s candid account of frontier life and hunting expeditions in mid-19th-century South Africa, blending natural history with the gritty realities of bush travel.
Tekla: A Romance of Love and War
Robert Barr
A young emperor travels in disguise through a land of fracturing alliances, finding that the sharpest weapon in a chaotic realm is not a sword, but a well-timed truth.
The Blue Dragon: A Tale of Recent Adventure in China
Kirk Munroe
The fate of a nation and the bond between two boys collide during the turbulence of the Boxer Rebellion.
The Bronze Bell
Louis Joseph Vance
The mystery of a stolen photograph and a cryptic antique leads a man into a dangerous web of conspiracy spanning from a quiet American town to the heart of British India.
The Indian Chief: The Story of a Revolution
Gustave Aimard
The daring of a lone visionary meets the cold machinery of colonial politics in this dramatized account of a doomed French expedition to Mexico. It is a tale of ambition, betrayal, and the heavy price of idealism.
The Lost Trail
Edward Sylvester Ellis
A teenager and his friend navigate a perilous frontier, pursued by hostile warriors through the dark forests of the Mississippi River valley.
The Mystery of the Fifteen Sounds
Van Powell
The thrill of the hunt lies not in the wilderness, but in the laboratory, where a young man discovers that the most dangerous frontiers are those defined by sound, light, and the precision of a scientific mind.
The Ocean Wireless Boys and the Lost Liner
John Henry Goldfrap
A young radio operator stumbles into a high-stakes conspiracy of spies and secret codes aboard a luxury ocean liner, testing his courage and his technical skill in a race against time.
The Prince and the Pauper, Part 9
Mark Twain
Two boys separated by the vast gulf of sixteenth-century social class find their lives permanently altered when a chance encounter leads them to trade places.
Under King Henry's Banners: A story of the days of Agincourt
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
Young Geoffrey Lysle, a squire of noble birth, embarks on a perilous quest across the English Channel to rescue his captive father from the clutches of a treacherous Norman baron on the eve of the historic Battle of Agincourt.
A Boy Trooper with Sheridan
Stanton P. Allen
The path to the front is paved with broken promises and heavy gear, but the journey home reveals the true weight of a soldier’s sacrifice. This account captures the raw, unvarnished reality of a teenager’s enlistment in the Union cavalry.
Buffalo Bill's big surprise
Prentiss Ingraham
A legendary frontiersman confronts outlaws and supernatural rumors in this fast-paced tale of the American West, where every mystery is eventually solved by a well-placed bullet.
Poor Jack
Frederick Marryat
The boy who grows up begging on the banks of the Thames finds a life far beyond the copper coins he once collected. This is a story of seafaring adventure, social ambition, and the quiet dignity of earned prosperity.
Randvar the songsmith
Ottilie A. (Ottilia Adelina) Liljencrantz
A Viking singer finds his life entwined with a nobleman’s dark secret in the mysterious, legendary lands of Norumbega.
Schwatka's Search: Sledging in the Arctic in Quest of the Franklin Records
William H. (William Henry) Gilder
A harrowing, firsthand account of a desperate overland expedition, this narrative documents the final, successful search for the lost records of the ill-fated Franklin explorers.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 84, October, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
This volume captures the mid-Civil War American imagination, weaving together field dispatches, intimate memoir, and sharp political analysis from a country in the throes of self-definition. It serves as a vital bridge between the battlefront and the parlor.
The Camp Fire Girls in the Maine Woods
Hildegard G. Frey
The Winnebago tribe finds the true spirit of "Work, Health, and Love" beneath the pines of Maine, where the summer wilderness proves to be the ultimate classroom for character.
The Dispatch-Riders: The Adventures of Two British Motor-cyclists in the Great War
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
Two young motorcyclists find themselves caught in the opening weeks of the Great War, racing through the chaos of Belgium to deliver urgent military dispatches.
The Drums of War
H. De Vere (Henry De Vere) Stacpoole
A young man’s fated journey through the crumbling grandeur of the Second French Empire unfolds against the encroaching shadow of the Franco-Prussian War. This evocative narrative blends personal obsession with the inexorable tide of history.
Around the World on Wheels, for The Inter Ocean: The Travels and Adventures in Foreign Lands of Mr. and Mrs. H. Darwin McIlrath
H. Darwin McIlrath
This account documents an ambitious, multi-year cycling expedition that circled the globe in the final years of the nineteenth century. It serves as a candid, grit-filled record of a world transitioning into the modern age through the eyes of two American travelers.
Arthur Brown, The Young Captain
Elijah Kellogg
Gratitude and industry serve as the twin anchors of this maritime tale, where a young man’s brush with death leads him into the orbit of a veteran captain who once owed everything to the boy's own father.
Billy Topsail, M.D.: A Tale of Adventure With Doctor Luke of the Labrador
Norman Duncan
Billy Topsail is a rugged Newfoundland youth whose life is defined by the relentless sea and the harsh, icy wilderness. Through a series of perilous encounters, he finds his calling in the service of a remote medical outpost.
Billy Whiskers Out for Fun
Frances Trego Montgomery
Seeking a life beyond the drafty barn, an aging, restless goat sets off on a cross-country journey, dragging his loyal companions into a series of improbable and mischievous escapades.
Camp Venture: A Story of the Virginia Mountains
George Cary Eggleston
A determined group of city boys and their mentor face the harsh realities of the Appalachian wilderness, where they must outwit illicit distillers to secure their own survival and a hidden fortune.
Dick Onslow Among the Redskins
William Henry Giles Kingston
An adventurous young traveler journeys westward across North America, enduring harrowing encounters with bears, rattlesnakes, and hostile tribes, all while seeking a new life in the distant promise of California.
Erskine Dale—Pioneer
Fox, John, Jr.
A boy raised by the Shawnee returns to the world of his ancestors, only to find himself caught between two warring cultures and the pull of a woman who represents the life he once lost.