Free summaries
Adventure — page 62
4,170 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 62 of 87.
Aniwee
Dixie, Florence, Lady
A band of young English travelers and South American allies venture into the Chilean wilderness, navigating wild beasts, strange tribes, and natural disasters in a spirited quest for a lost child and an ancient gold mine.
Campfire Girls in the Allegheny Mountains
Stella M. Francis
The Flamingo Camp Fire girls face a perilous Christmas holiday when a labor dispute in a mining town turns into a web of kidnapping and mystery.
Captain Mugford: Our Salt and Fresh Water Tutors
William Henry Giles Kingston
A group of brothers and their tutors embark on a classic maritime adventure, finding that the true perils of life are often found not just in the crashing surf, but in the character they build together.
Dave Porter and the Runaways
Edward Stratemeyer
HOOK A persistent student navigates school rivalries, a mysterious "wild man" in the woods, and the fallout of a local hotel bombing, ultimately striving to secure his graduation during his final term at Oak Hall.
Fighting the Whales
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
A young sailor ventures into the perilous waters of the South Seas to support his widowed mother, discovering that the true challenge is not just the sea, but the titanic struggle against the sperm whale.
In the Far East: A Narrative of Exploration and Adventure in Cochin-China, Cambodia, Laos, and Siam
W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport) Adams
A sweeping chronicle of nineteenth-century exploration, this narrative captures the perilous journeys through the untamed landscapes and diverse cultures of Indochina. It documents the relentless pursuit of geographical knowledge in a region then undergoing profound political and social shifts.
Jack the Young Cowboy: An Eastern Boy's Experiance on a Western Round-up
George Bird Grinnell
A young man from the East ventures into the rugged, vanishing wilderness of the American West to discover that the romantic life of a cowboy is, in truth, a demanding labor of dust, grit, and constant peril.
Lake Ngami
Charles John Andersson
This detailed account of nineteenth-century African exploration chronicles a harrowing quest to reach the remote Lake Ngami, documenting the endurance required to traverse a harsh and largely uncharted wilderness.
Mother Carey's Chicken: Her Voyage to the Unknown Isle
George Manville Fenn
A young man’s dream of maritime adventure turns into a desperate struggle for survival when his family’s ship is crippled in the Java Seas. This classic boys' adventure tale blends high-stakes survivalism with the wonder of discovery.
Motor Matt's Prize
Stanley R. Matthews
This fast-paced adventure follows a young mechanical prodigy as he navigates a high-stakes motorboat race, overcoming sabotage and personal injury through sheer technical skill and loyalty. It is a classic example of early twentieth-century boys' fiction, characterized by its brisk pacing, earnest moral lessons,…
"My Merry Rockhurst": Being Some Episodes in the Life of Viscount Rockhurst, a Friend of King Charles the Second, and at One Time Constable of His Majesty's Tower of London
Egerton Castle
A seasoned courtier of King Charles II struggles to reconcile his cynical, worldly existence with the purity of a secret, lifelong devotion. He must protect his impressionable son from the corruption of a decadent age while guarding a haunting, unspoken truth.
Nelson the Newsboy
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
A nameless, impoverished newsboy navigates the unforgiving streets of New York, protecting the innocent while inadvertently moving toward a hidden, noble inheritance.
Partners of the Out-Trail
Harold Bindloss
A struggling bush telegraphist inherits a grand English estate, only to find that his new life demands as much grit, courage, and clear-headed decision-making as his days in the raw, unforgiving wilds of British Columbia.
Son of Power
Will Levington Comfort
A young man discovers an innate, wordless mastery over wild animals, drawing him into the deep jungles of India to protect the creatures and people he loves.
The Crooked Stick
Rolf Boldrewood
The scorching sun of the Australian outback illuminates a young woman’s restless heart, where a desperate, impulsive search for romance leads her to nearly choosing the wrong path for a lifetime.
The Furnace of Gold
Philip Verrill Mighels
The relentless allure of gold draws dreamers and scoundrels alike to the harsh Nevada wilderness, where fortunes are forged in the dust and the true character of men is tested by fire.
The Motor Boys After a Fortune
Clarence Young
Three adventurous friends race a conniving rival across the country to locate a fabled radium deposit hidden in the treacherous depths of the Grand Canyon.
The Tiger-Slayer: A Tale of the Indian Desert
Gustave Aimard
A disgraced nobleman seeking redemption in the American frontier finds himself caught in a lethal collision between desperate European settlers and vengeful Apache warriors.
The Winning of the Golden Spurs
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
The fortunes of war and the weight of a hidden lineage collide in this sweeping tale of an archer and his son during the Hundred Years' War.
Warwick Woodlands: Things as they Were There Twenty Years Ago
Henry William Herbert
This narrative captures a lost world of American field sports, where the rhythm of the seasons and the camaraderie of the hunt define the moral and physical landscape.
Young Tom Bowling: The Boys of the British Navy
John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson
A vivid, firsthand account of late nineteenth-century maritime life, this narrative follows a young recruit’s transition from a civilian boy to a seasoned sailor within the British Royal Navy.
A Flight with the Swallows
Emma Marshall
A sheltered child leaves the quiet cathedral town of her upbringing to confront the wider, more demanding world of duty and loss. Through a journey to the sunny South, a fragile girl discovers that growing up requires stepping outside one’s own heart.
An Old Sailor's Yarns
N. (Nathaniel) Ames
Sailors’ lives, defined by the relentless rhythms of the sea and the harsh indifference of authority, unfold here in a series of gritty, observant tales.
Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island
Janet D. Wheeler
A group of schoolgirls discovers a hidden mystery when they find three abandoned children after a dramatic shipwreck near a remote lighthouse. This is a story about the intersection of youthful curiosity, the kindness of strangers, and the sudden, sobering realities of life beyond the classroom.
Campmates: A Story of the Plains
Kirk Munroe
Glen Eddy, an orphaned youth living in uncertainty, sets out to discover his origins and prove his worth by joining an ambitious railroad engineering expedition across the American frontier.
Cat o' mountain
Arthur O. (Arthur Olney) Friel
The rugged isolation of the Shawangunk Mountains serves as the backdrop for a tense, atmospheric struggle between a man haunted by the past and a woman fiercely protective of her wild, mountain home. This narrative blends the grit of a manhunt with the budding, hard-won romance between two outsiders.
Dave Dawson on Guadalcanal
Robert Sidney Bowen
The fate of the Allied Pacific offensive rests on the shoulders of two young pilots, pushed to their limits in a relentless gauntlet of aerial combat, capture, and escape.
Dick Merriwell Abroad
Burt L. Standish
A young American prodigy and his loyal Texan companion traverse Europe, constantly thwarting the schemes of a persistent, villainous rival.
Harper's Young People, May 18, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This weekly publication serves as a vibrant, multifaceted time capsule of late 19th-century American childhood, blending serialized adventure, educational guidance, and a bustling community of young readers. It captures the curiosity and earnest spirit of an era transitioning into the modern age.
Jack Ranger's Gun Club
Clarence Young
A group of boarding-school friends trade the classroom for the rugged Wyoming wilderness, where they hunt game and uncover a strange, high-altitude mystery.
Linda Carlton, Air Pilot
Edith Lavell
Driven by an unyielding desire to fly, a daring seventeen-year-old defies societal expectations and her father's doubts to become a skilled pilot.
Men into space
Murray Leinster
A pioneer risks everything in a hand-rigged nose cone, proving that the vacuum above the sky belongs to human daring rather than automatic instruments.
Munchausen XX
W. G. Worfel
This picaresque narrative follows a self-styled adventurer through a series of increasingly impossible exploits, blending tall-tale humor with a whimsical, pseudo-scientific quest for a mysterious princess. It presents a world where human ingenuity, coupled with absurd mechanical and natural solutions, overcomes…
Prince Vance: The Story of a Prince with a Court in His Box
Arlo Bates
A spoiled prince learns the weight of responsibility when his arrogant pranks accidentally shrink his entire royal court into a small, portable box.
Salute to Adventurers
John Buchan
The life of a merchant is rarely described as a high-stakes thriller, but for one young Scot, a simple business venture across the Atlantic becomes a desperate race against frontier war and madness.
Seed of the Arctic Ice
Harry Bates
The silent, frigid depths of the Arctic conceal a sophisticated civilization of intelligent, seal-like beings who guard their secrets with brutal efficiency. Two lost hunters must navigate this alien society to survive.
Stories by English Authors: The Sea
Unknown
The sea is a realm where the laws of man and nature collide, leaving sailors to navigate the thin line between survival and the supernatural. This collection captures the ocean not merely as a backdrop, but as a living, unpredictable force that tests the soul.
The Boy Allies with the Cossacks
Clair W. (Clair Wallace) Hayes
The sky is a dangerous place, and the ground is no safer, for two young aviators caught in the vast, grinding gears of the Great War.
The Flying Girl
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
A young woman finds her calling in the dangerous, nascent world of early aviation, proving that grit and mechanical intuition belong to no single gender.
The Forest Lovers
Maurice Hewlett
This historical romance follows a knight and an outcast girl through the perils of a wild, medieval forest, where a forced marriage evolves into a profound, hard-won understanding of love.
"The Gallant, Good Riou", and Jack Renton: 1901
Louis Becke
The sea is a stage for both monumental duty and primal survival. These two accounts explore the extremes of human conduct when isolated upon the vast, indifferent Pacific.
The Log of the Flying Fish: A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure
Harry Collingwood
The Flying Fish is a marvel of Victorian imagination, a vessel that defies the limits of earth, sky, and sea to carry its crew toward the furthest horizons of discovery.
The Mission
Frederick Marryat
An elderly baronet seeks closure regarding his lost family, sparking a perilous expedition into the African interior where colonial history, natural wonders, and the hazards of the wild test the endurance of three determined men.
The Pony Rider Boys in Alaska
Frank Gee Patchin
A group of young adventurers ventures into the rugged Alaskan wilderness, where they navigate treacherous mountain passes and confront duplicitous claim-jumpers in a quest to secure a legendary gold strike.
The Pony Rider Boys in Louisiana
Frank Gee Patchin
The Pony Rider Boys arrive in the Louisiana canebrake seeking adventure, only to find themselves entangled in the schemes of smugglers and the relentless perils of the swamp.
The Prince and the Pauper, Part 6
Mark Twain
The boy King of England, stripped of his royal status, must navigate a world that views his truth as madness. He learns that the weight of a crown is nothing compared to the cold reality of a hungry, disbelieving heart.
The Ranch Girls at Home Again
Margaret Vandercook
This final volume of a popular early twentieth-century series follows a group of young women as they transition from their adventurous youth into the responsibilities of adult life, romance, and community leadership on a Wyoming ranch. It captures the tension between the call of the Western frontier and the lure of…
The Three Sapphires
William Alexander Fraser
The stage is set in the lush, tension-filled landscape of British India, where a British secret agent and a naive nobleman stumble into an elaborate web of imperial intrigue. This story follows their struggle against a charismatic, Oxford-educated prince who hides a dangerous, insurrectionist agenda behind a veneer…