Free summaries
Adventure — page 79
3,840 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 79 of 80.
The Return of Tharn
Howard Browne
A prehistoric warrior traverses a perilous landscape of jungles and cities to rescue his captured beloved. He finds himself caught in a complex web of political betrayal involving a powerful king and a scheming nobleman.
The Son of Columbus
Molly Elliot Seawell
A portrait of filial devotion and historical ambition, this narrative follows the son of a legendary explorer as he navigates the dangers of the Spanish court and the anxieties of a world on the brink of discovery.
The strange people
Murray Leinster
An elusive magazine photograph leads an adventurous young man into the New Hampshire hills, where he stumbles into a isolated community's deadly clash with a tyrannical master.
The West Point Rivals
Upton Sinclair
HOOK In the high-pressure world of the West Point summer encampment, seven inseparable underclassmen find themselves caught in a series of escalating pranks, perilous midnight encounters, and a desperate struggle against both their rivals and a mysterious, wild-eyed cave-dweller.
Travel Stories Retold from St. Nicholas
Various
The world is a vast, interconnected tapestry of wonders, waiting to be traversed by those with the curiosity to seek them out. This collection of accounts transforms distant landscapes into intimate, shared experiences.
Andrée and His Balloon
Henri Lachambre
Three men step into a wicker car beneath a mountain of varnished silk, drift northward past the crags of Spitzbergen, and melt into the Arctic mist.
Barney Blake, the Boy Privateer
Herrick Johnstone
A spirited young sailor boards an American privateer in 1813 to chase British shipping across two oceans, encountering sharks, bullfights, and mirages.
Boy Scouts on a Long Hike
Archibald Lee Fletcher
A high-stakes hike across Indiana tests eight Boy Scouts when a series of unexpected emergencies turns their routine trophy attempt into a true wilderness rescue mission.
Chunky, the Happy Hippo: His Many Adventures
Richard Barnum
A young hippopotamus explores his native African river, encounters jungle animals, gets captured by hunters, and travels across the ocean to find his place in a city circus and park menagerie.
Exit Betty
Grace Livingston Hill
A young bride flees her own altar, swapping her white satin for a borrowed coat, to escape a coerced marriage and discover true faith and love in a quiet village home.
Frank Nelson in the Forecastle
Harry Castlemon
Abducted on the San Francisco docks, a young sportsman must navigate a brutal whaling captain, a mutinous crew, and a deadly hunt on the open ocean to earn his way home.
Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the High Sierras
Josephine Chase
A quiet mountain excursion erupts into a high-altitude game of cat and mouse when a group of seasoned young travelers stumbles across train robbers in the California wilderness.
History Repeats
George O. (George Oliver) Smith
An empire built on bribery and trade faces a quiet challenge when a lone operative and his telepathic dog navigate its corrupt alleys to rescue an abducted diplomat's daughter.
Lanier of the Cavalry
Charles King
A brave young cavalry officer endures wrongful suspicion and a week under house arrest to protect a friend's foolish secret.
Laperouse
Scott, Ernest, Sir
A legendary French navigator vanishes into the Pacific, leaving behind a mystery that haunts maritime history for generations. This account reconstructs the life and final, ill-fated expedition of an Enlightenment-era explorer.
Motor Matt on the Wing
Stanley R. Matthews
When a ruthless loan shark tries to rob a dead inventor’s widow of her late husband's experimental biplane, a brilliant teenage mechanic steps into the breach to pilot the untried machine in a high-stakes military trial.
Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
A group of young scouts embarks on a summer journey by houseboat, only to become entangled in a series of strange mysteries involving a missing man, a locked locker, and a misunderstood boy from the slums.
Saved from the Sea
William Henry Giles Kingston
A midshipman's unexpected command of Arabic becomes a lifeline after a catastrophic shipwreck strands his small group of survivors on the formidable African coast.
The Adventures of M. D'Haricot
J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston
A young French Royalist flees to England, where his conspiratorial ambitions crumble into an affectionate, comedy-filled immersion in British society.
The Harlequin Opal: A Romance. Vol. 2 (of 3)
Fergus Hume
Under a blazing tropic sun, a fractured republic reels as an ambitious usurper, a sacred Aztec gem, and a trapped lover collide in a sweep of jungle, sea, and war.
The King's Esquires
George Manville Fenn
A missing gem, a bold royal disguise, and a nocturnal flight across the Channel set two young esquires on a collision course with national destiny.
The Motor Maids by Palm and Pine
Katherine Stokes
A seasonal getaway to Florida brings unexpected adventure when four young women encounter hidden identities, family disputes, and coastal mysteries along the sunlit shores.
The Perils and Adventures of Harry Skipwith by Land and Sea
William Henry Giles Kingston
A young Englishman set on seeing the world leaves home for America, only to be swept through shipwrecks, river pirate ambushes, and buffalo drives across the continent.
The Rulers of the Lakes: A Story of George and Champlain
Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler
A wilderness of woods and water becomes a chessboard for survival, where every rustling leaf promises an ambush and every quiet bay hides a fleet of war canoes.
Wings Over the Rockies
Ambrose Newcomb
High-flying aerial acrobatics collide with a wilderness rescue mission when two government aviators plunge into the Rocky Mountains to solve a disappearance that has baffled the nation.
Woodside
Caroline Hadley
A gentle Victorian chronicle of three siblings discovering the natural world during a season spent at their grandfather's country home.
A Noble Queen: A Romance of Indian History (Volume 1 of 3)
Meadows Taylor
A young woman and an old blind physician tend a wounded nobleman by a roar of white water while intrigue gathers in the high courts of sixteenth-century India.
Around the Camp-fire
Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir
Six city-weary friends flee the July heat of Fredericton, escaping into the Canadian wilderness for a weeks-long canoe trip across New Brunswick’s rivers, lakes, and portages.
Crown and Anchor: Under the Pen'ant
John C. (John Conroy) Hutcheson
Stepping aboard a nineteenth-century Royal Navy vessel means entering a world of iron discipline, roaring seas, and sudden, heartbreaking loss.
Decatur and Somers
Molly Elliot Seawell
Two young American naval officers form an unbreakable bond while steering through the perils, rivalries, and explosive combats of the Barbary War.
Elsie and Her Loved Ones
Martha Finley
Multi-generational family gatherings, quiet coastal retreats, and historical storytelling define a gentle, faith-filled domestic world.
Foes in Ambush
Charles King
In a sun-scorched Arizona desert where ambush waits behind every jagged crag, a heavy military payroll attracts outlaws, renegades, and Apaches, forcing a handful of weary soldiers and vulnerable travelers into a desperate fight for survival.
Harper's Young People, March 23, 1880: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
This issue captures the texture of late nineteenth-century American childhood through a mix of moral verse, instructional prose, serialized sea adventure, history, and active reader correspondence.
Harper's Young People, May 17, 1881: An Illustrated Weekly
Various
Four young boys set sail in a modified boat, discovering that clear rules and mutual respect are essential to navigating both open waters and life ashore.
Jack Winters' Campmates
Mark Overton
A summer camping trip turns into a high-stakes detective mission when three small-town friends venture into the deep woods with a camera and a secret assignment.
Jungle and Stream
George Manville Fenn
A young English boy and a Siamese prince stand shoulder to shoulder against tiger strikes, crocodile jaws, and a violent palace coup in nineteenth-century Siam.
Kaffir, Kangaroo, Klondike: Tales of the Gold Fields
Thad. W. H. (Thaddeus William Henry) Leavitt
A woman in disguise leads her partner through Australian sand, a gold-seeker stumbles upon a phantom mine in his sleep, and a disgraced nobleman harvests pearls in New Guinea to reclaim his ancestral home.
Motor Matt's Queer Find
Stanley R. Matthews
A flying machine and a disputed iron chest draw teenage mechanic Motor Matt and his chums into a labyrinth of swamp voodoo, stolen treasure, and double-crosses across Louisiana.
Out with Gun and Camera
Edward Stratemeyer
The forest holds both the wild game these young adventurers seek and the unexpected traces of a vanished circus.
Parrot & Co
Harold MacGrath
A disgraced engineer wanders the Far East under an alias, bound to a parrot and a heavy secret, until a chance encounter on a muddy riverboat pulls him back toward the world he left behind.
Rimrock Jones
Dane Coolidge
A rough-hewn Arizona prospector strikes it rich, loses his copper mine to financial sharks, and fights his way through stock raids and courtroom battles to reclaim his fortune and the woman he loves.
The Boy Trapper
Harry Castlemon
High in the timber of the Mississippi Valley, a farm boy fights to pull his family out of poverty while two cruel rivals and his own father try to tear his earnings from his hand.
The Country of the Dwarfs
Paul B. (Paul Belloni) Du Chaillu
Deep in the Equatorial African jungle, an intrepid explorer journeys beyond mapped territories to encounter the secretive, yellow-complexioned Obongo dwarfs.
The Cruise of the Noah's Ark
David Cory
A young girl's tiresome penmanship lesson transforms into a grand sea voyage when her toy Noah's Ark floats away on a sudden nursery flood.
The Eight-Oared Victors: A Story of College Water Sports
Lester Chadwick
A swollen river brings the chance to row, but stolen trophies and a missing pin threaten to ruin the season before it starts.
The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 21: South of France
Giacomo Casanova
A gentleman adventurer crisscrosses the eighteenth-century Mediterranean, navigating high-stakes card games, extravagant occult frauds, and intricate romantic affairs with equal parts audacity and charm.
The Moon Destroyers
Monroe K. Ruch
A catastrophic earthquake lays waste to New York City, leading scientists to discover that lunar gravitational tides threaten to shatter the Earth's fractured crust. Humanity's only salvation is a high-stakes expedition to literally vaporize the moon.
The pirate's gold
Gordon Stables
An old piratical log leads three Highland companions across the Atlantic, where hidden Spanish doubloons and a tense high-seas chase await.