Free summaries
Adventure — page 74
3,840 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 74 of 80.
Battling the clouds
Frank Cobb
Bound by honor and driven by a desperate quest for justice, two young aviators embark on a daring airborne cross-country rescue mission.
Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm
Alice B. Emerson
An orphan girl's quick temper and fierce sense of justice clash with the grim realities of an austere rural homestead.
Brave Old Salt
Oliver Optic
An ambitious young naval officer navigates hidden traitors, perilous surfs, and fierce ironclad battles to defend the Union at sea.
Bull Hunter
Max Brand
A massive, soft-spoken mountain outcast discovers his own terrifying physical power, learns to shoot, and tames an unridable stallion, forging a fiercely loyal life alongside an aging legendary gunfighter.
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 686: February 17, 1877
Various
Adrift upon unpredictable currents, derelict ships drift across oceans without a single living soul aboard, presenting an eerie spectacle of abandonment and survival that captures the human imagination.
Enchantment
Harold MacGrath
The magic of chance turns everyday Manhattan streets into stage sets for romance, mix-ups, and sudden midnight rescue.
Guilt of the Brass Thieves
Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt
A fiery river emergency, stolen factory metals, and two fiercely competitive teenagers converge in this fast-paced mid-century mystery.
Harper's Young People, November 2, 1880: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
Lighthearted entertainment and practical instruction meet in an illustrated Victorian periodical designed to inform, amuse, and connect late-nineteenth-century children across a rapidly changing American landscape.
Launch the lifeboat!
Walton, O. F., Mrs.
A child’s innocent question on a sunny beach opens the door to a quiet, profound reflection on survival, memory, and faith.
Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
A solitary child, confined to a quiet room by illness, travels the globe through the power of a giant sphere and her own vivid imagination.
Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718)
Daniel Defoe
A Scottish soldier spends twenty-eight years serving foreign powers, slowly discovering that the crown he fights for is merely a pawn in another nation’s political games.
Overdue: The Story of a Missing Ship
Harry Collingwood
A seventeenth-year-old midshipman assumes command of an abandoned emigrant vessel, navigating mutiny, uncharted seas, and island exile to bring his charge home.
Ruth Fielding Homeward Bound
Alice B. Emerson
A young American nurse and a captive aviator navigate sabotage, air raids, and a treacherous ocean crossing in a high-stakes struggle to return home from the European front.
Stan Lynn: A Boy's Adventures in China
George Manville Fenn
A English youth faces fire, water, and betrayal along the riverways of turn-of-the-century China, discovering that courage is less about wielding a rifle than staying grounded when adults lose their heads.
The Boy Scout Camera Club
G. Harvey (George Harvey) Ralphson
In the rugged mountains of the American South, a company of city-bred Boy Scouts uses cameras, woodcraft, and quiet grit to outwit a desperate gang of kidnappers and save a child.
The Boy Scouts Through the Big Timber
Carter, Herbert, active 1909-1917
Lost in the Rocky Mountain foothills, a fat and clumsy tenderfoot must learn to survive on his own while his fellow Boy Scouts race against time, wild beasts, and treacherous timber thieves to rescue him.
The Curlytops at Uncle Frank's Ranch
Howard Roger Garis
A city boy and his sister set off for a summer on a Montana cattle ranch, where simple curiosity turns a wide-open landscape into an endless playground.
The Exiles and Other Stories
Richard Harding Davis
Men and women flee their pasts, clash over honor and love, and risk everything in strange lands or quiet drawing rooms.
The Golden Boys and Their New Electric Cell
L. P. (Levi Parker) Wyman
Two inventive brothers in rural Maine devise a revolutionary battery cell, only to find themselves hunted by opportunistic local rivals and ruthless kidnappers.
The Grammar School Boys in Summer Athletics
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
A small-town summer shifts between diamond dust and river water as six dependable boys navigate rivalries, stolen clothes, and a local mystery.
The Pilgrim of Castile
Lope de Vega
A sea wreck on the Catalan coast casts up a lover disguised as a pilgrim, sparking a dizzying chain of mistaken identities, sea-bound catastrophes, and madness.
The Talking Leaves: An Indian Story
William O. Stoddard
A stolen white captive, a long-lost father disguised as a warrior, and two young women torn between cultures collide across the nineteenth-century Southwest.
The wanderings and fortunes of some German emigrants
Friedrich Gerstäcker
Disillusioned by grand promises of American abundance, a band of German pioneers confronts the harsh realities of the nineteenth-century wilderness.
A Tale of Two Tunnels: A Romance of the Western Waters
William Clark Russell
A rogue captain steals a fortune to fund a lawless life at sea, dragging a headstrong woman into a dark, fateful romance that defies her father’s desperate pursuit.
Amadis of Gaul, Vol. 4
Vasco de Lobeira
HOOK The legend of a peerless knight reaches its conclusion as clashing empires and forbidden romance collide in a final, sweeping test of loyalty and honor.
Billy Whiskers' Adventures
Frances Trego Montgomery
An adventurous goat, a dog, and a cat return from the battlefields of Europe to embark on a whimsical, high-spirited journey across America toward their family home.
Bright-Wits, Prince of Mogadore
Burren Laughlin
A gifted prince must conquer a series of complex spatial and logical challenges to prove his worthiness, rescue a kingdom from usurpers, and claim his bride.
Buckskin Mose
George W. Perrie
This narrative serves as a firsthand account of the American frontier in the mid-19th century, blending the rapid-fire pacing of a dime novel with the grim, personal realities of life in the West.
Captain John Smith
C. H. Forbes-Lindsay
A portrait of early American history, this account follows the relentless ambition and strategic brilliance of a man whose life became the backbone of the Jamestown settlement.
Dastral of the Flying Corps
Rowland Walker
A young pilot navigates the deadly skies of the Great War, balancing the brutal reality of aerial combat with the fragile, enduring hope for a peaceful world beyond the clouds.
Fred Fearnot's New Ranch: and How He and Terry Managed It
H. K. (Harvey King) Shackleford
Fred Fearnot and Terry Olcott are two young men of exceptional grit and marksmanship who transition from the cutthroat world of Wall Street to the open spaces of a Texas ranch. They seek not only profit but a life of mastery, where their ability to handle both financial markets and frontier threats defines their…
Harper's Young People, March 15, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This collection of serial stories, correspondence, and puzzles serves as a window into the recreational life and moral education of late nineteenth-century American youth. It captures the rhythm of an era through the eyes of children engaged in the dual pursuits of rigorous self-improvement and imaginative play.
Kit of Greenacre Farm
Izola L. (Izola Louise) Forrester
An energetic young woman, desperate to save her family’s farm, initiates a series of impulsive adventures that transform her household and lead to an unexpected archaeological discovery.
Langford of the Three Bars
Kate Boyles Bingham
In the rugged expanses of the South Dakota cattle country, a powerful rancher and a struggling attorney join forces to break the iron grip of a notorious rustler.
Little Jack Rabbit and Chippy Chipmunk
David Cory
A curious rabbit ventures through the woods to greet the changing seasons, navigating the joys of friendship and the constant threat of nearby predators.
Marion's Faith
Charles King
A soldier battles slander and betrayal on the untamed frontier, sustained only by the unwavering devotion of the woman who believes in his character when all others doubt him.
Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise
Louis Arundel
The Motor Boat Boys embark on a perilous, high-speed race down the Mississippi River, navigating treacherous currents and winding tributaries to capture the prestigious "Dixie Cup" while encountering lawless river drifters along the way.
Norah of Billabong
Mary Grant Bruce
The spirit of the Australian bush breathes through these pages, capturing a world of horses, campfires, and the deep, enduring bonds of family and friendship. It is a story of resilience, where the vast, quiet landscape acts as the backdrop for both exhilarating adventure and sudden, sharp tragedy.
South from Hudson Bay: An Adventure and Mystery Story for Boys
Ethel C. (Ethel Claire) Brill
This adventure follows a group of young settlers navigating the dangerous, lawless frontiers of early 19th-century Canada. Amidst the brutal rivalry between fur-trading companies, a small band of friends must survive the brutal winter and the machinations of an unscrupulous outlaw.
Stories jolly: stories new: stories strange & stories true
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
This collection of tales offers a glimpse into the late Victorian imagination, where high-stakes adventure and moral instruction occupy the same domestic space. These stories capture the anxieties and curiosities of a generation of children navigating a world that felt both grandly expansive and strictly orderly.
The Adventures of a Squirrel, Supposed to be Related by Himself
Anonymous
A small, displaced squirrel recounts his harrowing journey from cage to cage, offering a window into the capricious world of humans. This humble narrative reveals the fragility of life for those kept as playthings.
The African Trader
William Henry Giles Kingston
After his father’s sudden death, a young boy seeks his fortune at sea, only to face the perils of the African coast, a deadly fever, and a harrowing encounter with a slave trader.
The Auto Boys' Mystery
James A. (James Andrew) Braden
A quiet summer camping trip in the northern woods transforms into a high-stakes manhunt when four adventurous friends stumble upon a stolen fortune and a desperate criminal.
The Flying Boys in the Sky
Edward Sylvester Ellis
The dawn of the aviation age arrives with a pair of intrepid young pilots, a mysterious professor, and a perilous race against criminals. This story captures the breathless wonder of early flight alongside a high-stakes search for a kidnapped child.
The Harlequin Opal: A Romance. Vol. 1 (of 3)
Fergus Hume
A group of Victorian adventurers sails to a volatile South American republic, where they become entangled in a dangerous plot involving a fabled opal, indigenous prophecy, and a brewing revolution.
The heart of Thunder Mountain
Edfrid A. Bingham
The landscape of the San Luis Valley holds a legend of a golden, wild stallion—an outlaw ghost horse known as Sunnysides—and the man who risks everything to tame him. In this atmospheric Western, a stranger’s obsession with a mountain peak and a beautiful woman’s secret arrival entangle in a dangerous dance of…
The Journal of Jacob Fowler: Narrating an Adventure from Arkansas Through the Indian
Jacob Fowler
The American West’s vast, unmapped expanse becomes a tangible reality through the observant eyes of a pioneer trader in 1821.
The Log of a Sea-Waif: Being Recollections of the First Four Years of My Sea Life
Frank Thomas Bullen
The deep-sea world of the late nineteenth century remains etched in memory, not through romantic adventure, but through the visceral, unvarnished reality of a youth spent among the salt-crusted masts and unforgiving fo'lk'sles of the merchant marine.