Free summaries
Adventure — page 71
5,964 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 71 of 125.
Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch
Evelyn Raymond
HOOK A young girl living on a rugged California ranch must solve a series of mounting mysteries to save her home from ruin, proving her mettle against betrayal and shifting fortunes.
Motor Matt's "Century" Run
Stanley R. Matthews
The open road in early 20th-century Arizona demands a steady hand and a fast machine. When a desperate governor needs a courier, a young mechanic must race against time and outrun a gang of ruthless smugglers.
Newton Forster
Frederick Marryat
A young merchant mariner navigates the brutal realities of the Napoleonic-era navy and the schemes of high society to claim his own destiny. This seafaring journey balances hard-won professional ambition with a tender, enduring quest for personal belonging.
Sammie and Susie Littletail
Howard Roger Garis
The adventures of a rabbit family living in an underground burrow offer a gentle look at the small, domestic dramas of the animal world. These stories chronicle the daily lives of two young rabbits, Sammie and Susie, as they navigate the challenges of growing up in the woods near Orange Mountain.
Sheilah McLeod: A Heroine of the Back Blocks
Guy Boothby
A man recounts his turbulent life in the Australian outback, centering on a woman whose unwavering loyalty saves him from disgrace and despair.
Shoulder to shoulder
Gordon Stables
The life of a soldier is a tapestry of loyalties, etched in the blood and camaraderie of the battlefield. Spanning the Napoleonic era to the War of 1812, this narrative follows a young Highlander’s transition from a boy in the hills to a veteran of the British Empire.
The Boy Pilot of the Lakes
Frank V. Webster
A resourceful orphan battles a corrupt mate on the Great Lakes, proving his worth through perilous shipboard rescues and daring navigational challenges.
The Camp Fire Girls Amid the Snows
Margaret Vandercook
HOOK In the quiet, snow-swept hills of New Hampshire, a group of young women attempts to build a life of self-reliance, service, and sisterhood within the walls of a rustic mountain cabin.
The Fight for Constantinople: A Story of the Gallipoli Peninsula
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
A young naval officer finds himself behind enemy lines during the Gallipoli campaign, embarking on a high-stakes race to survive and disrupt the German and Turkish defenses.
The Golden Amazons of Venus
John Murray Reynolds
A stranded explorer encounters a civilization of warrior women on a cloud-veiled Venus, only to find himself embroiled in an ancient prophecy of destruction and a war against reptilian invaders.
The last spike, and other railroad stories
Cy Warman
The iron horse barrels across the American frontier, carrying the hopes of a nation and the grit of the men who built its path. These stories capture the dust, the steam, and the relentless drive of a mechanical age.
The Motor Boat Club off Long Island
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
The Rocket, a sixty-foot motor cruiser, serves as the nerve center for a high-stakes battle between cunning financiers and the young, resourceful mariners who pilot them through dangerous coastal waters.
The Rebel Chief: A Tale of Guerilla Life
Gustave Aimard
The wild mountains of Mexico serve as the stage for a sprawling, high-stakes game of political intrigue and personal vengeance. A desperate struggle for legacy and survival unfolds against a backdrop of shifting loyalties and revolutionary upheaval.
The Sea Monarch
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
A rogue vessel of impossible power emerges from the fog, forcing a young naval officer to choose between his duty to the Crown and a front-row seat to the future of maritime warfare.
The treasure of Mushroom Rock
Sidford F. (Sidford Frederick) Hamp
Two English schoolboys flee their boarding school to seek their fortune in the American West, only to find themselves ensnared in a desperate struggle for survival against rugged terrain and ruthless outlaws.
The Wreckers
Francis Lynde
An honest railroad executive struggles to modernize a corrupt Western line while dodging sabotage, political intrigue, and a ruthless syndicate determined to ruin his reputation and his life.
Tough yarns, vol. 1 (of 2)
M. H. (Matthew Henry) Barker
This collection of maritime narratives captures the raw, volatile spirit of the nineteenth-century British navy. It serves as an evocative portrait of seafaring life, blending historical naval exploits with the intimate, often tragic, oral histories of veterans.
White Fire
Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell
In a world of high-stakes industrial espionage, a young factory worker discovers a mysterious “white fire” capable of welding impossible metals, launching him into a race against shadowy rivals to claim inventions that will change the future.
Across Texas
Edward Sylvester Ellis
This frontier adventure chronicles a perilous rescue mission across the Texas plains, testing the mettle of two young men as they confront outlaws and the unforgiving wilderness.
Corporal 'Lige's Recruit: A Story of Crown Point and Ticonderoga
James Otis
The revolutionary fervor of 1775 draws two unlikely companions into the heart of the American struggle, where they prove that courage is not the exclusive domain of professional soldiers. A young boy and a veteran sergeant embark on a perilous mission to secure the capture of Ticonderoga, discovering that the path…
Hawaiian Sea Hunt Mystery
Andy Adams
The Brewsters trade their Indianapolis home for the sun-drenched shores of Hawaii, only to find themselves entangled in a high-stakes race against a ruthless engineer. A simple mining conference quickly spirals into a desperate quest to rescue a kidnapped scientist and recover a fortune in rare rocket-fuel ore.
In Camp With A Tin Soldier
John Kendrick Bangs
A young boy’s afternoon nap turns into an extraordinary military campaign when his nursery toys come to life, beckoning him into a strange, whimsical world of tin soldiers and giant adversaries.
My Hildegarde
St. George Rathborne
This is a breathless tale of obsession, revolution, and long-deferred reconciliation set against the turbulent backdrop of a Central American port city. It captures the frantic, high-stakes energy of early 20th-century adventure fiction, where personal vendettas are settled with equal parts grit and grandiloquence.
Our sentimental journey through France and Italy: A new edition with Appendix
Elizabeth Robins Pennell
A lighthearted travelogue that trades the stuffy comfort of a train carriage for the grit and grace of a tricycle, this account captures the late nineteenth-century urge to reclaim the slow, sensory discovery of the European landscape.
The Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Shôn Catti: Descriptive of Life in Wales: Interspersed with Poems
T. J. Llewelyn (Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn) Prichard
The legend of a Welsh trickster comes to life in these pages, blending rural folklore with the sharp wit of a man who outsmarts the powerful to champion the downtrodden.
The Camp Fire Girls on the Open Road
Hildegard G. Frey
HOOK A determined young teacher finds her true calling by organizing her difficult rural students into a Camp Fire Girls group during the height of the Great War.
The Death Ship: A Strange Story, Vol. 3 (of 3)
William Clark Russell
This atmospheric maritime novel depicts a terrifying encounter with the legendary Flying Dutchman, exploring the psychological toll of immortality and the desperate struggle for human survival against a supernatural, ageless curse.
The Fur Bringers: A Story of the Canadian Northwest
Hulbert Footner
In the rugged expanses of the Canadian Northwest, a young fur trader battles a corrupt monopoly and his own complex feelings for the daughter of his most formidable rival.
The Meadow-Brook Girls Across Country
Janet Aldridge
A group of resourceful young women embarks on a cross-country hiking challenge, testing their endurance and wits against nature, a rival club of boys, and a series of perilous adventures in the great outdoors.
The sailor hero
F. C. (Francis Claudius) Armstrong
A spirited foundling rises through the ranks of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars, navigating high-seas combat and the dangerous political intrigues of a displaced noble family.
The summer holidays
Amerel
This is a gentle, instructive chronicle of a young boy’s visit to his cousins in the country, where every excursion becomes an opportunity for character-building and scientific discovery. It invites readers to look at the natural world with curiosity and to view their fellow creatures with kindness.
Tom Slade on the River
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
A quiet, observational scout finds his own way to do good, proving that character is built in the spaces between official badges and public recognition.
Tom Swift in the City of Gold
Victor Appleton
This adventure series entry follows a young inventor and his companions as they brave treacherous landscapes and human rivals to discover an ancient, hidden civilization. It serves as a quintessential example of early twentieth-century juvenile technological optimism.
Dave Dawson at Casablanca
Robert Sidney Bowen
Two veteran fighter pilots are thrust into a high-stakes intelligence mission across the Atlantic, tasked with protecting a monumental diplomatic meeting from a shadowy Nazi conspiracy.
Don Winslow of the Navy
Frank V. (Frank Victor) Martinek
A seasoned Naval commander infiltrates a criminal syndicate’s lair to dismantle a global conspiracy. This high-stakes adventure pits duty and daring against a ruthless enemy in a race for international security.
How Canada Was Won: A Tale of Wolfe and Quebec
F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton
This adventure follows a resourceful young colonial scout whose tactical genius turns the tide of the French and Indian War. It is a classic tale of frontier skirmishes, shifting loyalties, and the ultimate struggle for the heart of Canada.
In the Yellow Sea
Henry Frith
The harrowing, true-to-life account of a young man caught in the crossfire of the Sino-Japanese War, this narrative offers a vivid, boots-on-the-ground look at a pivotal moment in East Asian history.
Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of E. W. Hornung
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
This collection serves as a definitive roadmap through the prolific output of a master of turn-of-the-century suspense and colonial adventure. It offers a comprehensive glimpse into the creative breadth of a storyteller who bridged the worlds of London high society and the rugged Australian bush.
Ned, the son of Webb: What he did
William O. Stoddard
HOOK A young boy’s quiet afternoon by a lake transforms into a vivid, perilous journey through the legendary battles that shaped the future of England.
Stories of the Railroad
John A. (John Alexander) Hill
Railroad men are not merely machine operators; they are the keepers of secrets, the architects of their own moral codes, and the silent witnesses to a rapidly industrializing American frontier. These tales capture the raw, soot-stained reality of a profession where life, death, and duty collide on the tracks.
The Boy Chums in the Gulf of Mexico
Wilmer M. (Wilmer Mateo) Ely
Two inseparable friends navigate the dangerous, high-stakes world of Florida sponge fishing, encountering cutthroat rivals, hidden shipwrecks, and violent feuds in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Heart of the Ancient Wood
Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir
The silent, watchful forest of New Brunswick acts as both a sanctuary and a crucible for a young woman who discovers that her truest companions are not among her own kind, but among the wild beasts of the wood.
The River Motor Boat Boys on the Columbia
Harry Gordon
This book follows a group of resourceful boys as they traverse the wild Columbia River in their motorized vessel, seeking adventure and outrunning suspicion in a rugged, mountain-bound landscape.
The Rover Boys at Big Bear Lake
Edward Stratemeyer
Four spirited cousins embark on a summer excursion to a remote wilderness, where they must navigate both the challenges of the great outdoors and the persistent interference of their academic rivals.
The Squirrel's Pilgrim's Progress: A Book for Boys and Girls Setting Forth the Adventures of Tiny Red Squirrel and Chatty Chipmunk
J. D. (James Douglas) Williams
The world is a grand, instructive puzzle for those willing to look closely. Through the eyes of a young squirrel, nature reveals its secrets, its dangers, and its lessons in character and community.
Through Unknown Tibet
M. S. (Montagu Sinclair) Wellby
The vast, unforgiving expanse of the Tibetan plateau provides the backdrop for this grueling, unvarnished account of two British officers attempting to cross an uncharted wilderness on horseback.
Journal of Landsborough's expedition from Carpentaria, in search of Burke & Wills
William Landsborough
Tasked with locating a lost expedition, a determined explorer traverses the Australian interior, ultimately uncovering vast, fertile landscapes that reshape the continent’s pastoral future.
Martin Conisby's Vengeance
Jeffery Farnol
An embittered castaway’s quest for vengeance transforms into a journey of self-discovery, where the line between enemy and ally blurs under the brutal, sun-drenched laws of the Spanish Main.