Free summaries
Adventure — page 63
3,840 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 63 of 80.
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…
When the Mountain Shook
Robert Abernathy
A young couple, fleeing a blood feud into the forbidden heart of a volcanic mountain, accidentally awaken an ancient, malevolent tyrant from a two-millennium sleep.
White Wolf's Law: A Western Story
Hal Dunning
The Wolf is a wanderer who lives outside the law, a man whose reputation for lethal precision precedes him into every town he enters. He is a ghost of the frontier, appearing only when chaos demands a reckoning.
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.
Hawtrey's Deputy
Harold Bindloss
A man embarks on a desperate, near-fatal voyage to the Arctic, leaving behind a woman caught between his quiet, unselfish strength and the persistent, flawed man she previously promised to marry.
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.
Po-No-Kah: An Indian Tale of Long Ago
Mary Mapes Dodge
This tale of pioneer peril captures the stark contrast between the security of a settled home and the terrifying vulnerability of the American frontier. It follows a family’s desperate resilience after a sudden abduction tears their world apart.
Red, White, Blue Socks, Part First: Being the First Book
Sarah L. Barrow
This playful tale follows a group of high-spirited New York boys who, fired by the patriotic fervor of the American Civil War, organize themselves into a miniature regiment. It is a portrait of Victorian childhood, where imagination and mimicry serve as the primary engines of growth.
Stand By The Union
Oliver Optic
A young Union naval officer must outwit his Confederate lookalike cousin to reclaim command of his ship and protect the nation’s interests during the height of the American Civil War.
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 Gun-Brand
James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx
A rugged, high-stakes standoff unfolds in the vast, frozen wilderness, pitting a resolute frontiersman against a cunning criminal mastermind in a battle for the soul of the North.
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.
Arctic Adventures
William Henry Giles Kingston
This narrative follows a young man’s perilous journey into the frozen North in search of a missing brother, offering a vivid, unvarnished look at the realities of 19th-century whaling. It captures the raw, unforgiving majesty of the Arctic and the resilience required to survive its crushing ice and relentless gales.
Connie Morgan in the Fur Country
James B. (James Beardsley) Hendryx
In the unforgiving expanse of the Canadian North, a young wilderness scout and his indigenous partner navigate treacherous landscapes and criminal outlaws to bring justice to the frontier.
"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…
Harper's Young People, June 22, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This artifact serves as a time capsule, preserving the varied literary diet, educational pastimes, and earnest social tone of an American childhood in the late nineteenth century.
Harper's Young People, June 29, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
Adventure, history, and moral instruction fill the pages of this Victorian-era children’s periodical, offering a vibrant window into the pastimes and education of nineteenth-century American youth.
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 Plunderer
Henry Oyen
HOOK A young man abandons the stifling confines of a city office to claim land in the Florida wilderness, only to find himself locked in a desperate struggle against a corrupt, powerful adversary.
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.
The Sandman: His Sea Stories
William John Hopkins
A gentle, rhythmic chronicle of life aboard the brig Industry, these maritime tales capture the wonder of the sea through the wide-eyed perspective of a boy named Jacob.
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.