Free summaries
Adventure — page 87
4,170 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 87 of 87.
Oakdale Boys in Camp
Morgan Scott
Six high school friends camp at a secluded Maine lake, where a fistfight, a capsized boat, and a nocturnal ghost hunt forge an unexpected bond.
Pee-wee Harris, F.O.B. Bridgeboro
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
A Boy Scout's adventures in a relay race, a flivver, and the great outdoors.
Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp
Alice B. Emerson
A run-in with a furious pasture bull sets a winter vacation in motion, launching a group of boarding school friends into a high-stakes northern wilderness adventure.
The abysmal invaders
Edmond Hamilton
Beneath a modern Illinois swamp lies a long-buried subterranean world, where intelligent scaled reptiles ride bloodthirsty dinosaurs and plot the sudden, fiery re-conquest of the earth's surface.
The adventures of Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico
Francis L. (Francis Lister) Hawks
A young Spanish adventurer sets sail for the New World, overthrows an empire through sheer cunning and ruthless resolve, and ends his days forgotten by the crown he enriched.
The Breaking of the Storm, Vol. I
Friedrich Spielhagen
A sweeping gale brings a disgraced naval officer, a scrupulous general, and an idealistic young woman onto the same storm-battered coast. Personal honor and financial ambition collide as the Prussian shore braces for both an ecological catastrophe and the corrupt schemes of high society.
The Desert Trail
Dane Coolidge
Across a sun-baked border, two distinct worlds face each other: an American frontier town buzzing with fortune-hunters and a Mexican landscape torn apart by violent political upheaval and coveted gold.
The Enchanted Island
Fannie Louise Apjohn
A prince marooned on a haunted isle must undo the dark sorcery binding four island kingdoms before he can reclaim his throne.
The frontiersmen
Gustave Aimard
An adventurous traveler in the eighteenth-century wilderness meets a pioneer family whose quiet home on the border of Iroquois territory is about to become a battleground.
The Girl Scout Pioneers
Lilian Garis
A small-town troop of Girl Scouts discovers that following their code leads to real-world mystery, missing badges, and forgotten girls in need of rescue.
The Loss of the Australia: A narrative of the loss of the brig Australia by fire on her voyage from Leith to Sydney
Adam Yule
A night fire in the mid-Atlantic reduces a vessel to ashes, casting survivors into open boats with minimal water, where only discipline and faith stand between them and a desperate death upon the sea.
The Putnam Hall Cadets
Edward Stratemeyer
A boarding school filled with adventure, mystery, and the challenges of growing up.
The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition
Gerald Breckenridge
Three teenage chums join a Northern expedition, relying on their custom radio gear to navigate deadly wilderness ambushes, rogue outlaws, and sudden Arctic blizzards.
The Wrecking Master
Ralph Delahaye Paine
An honest, high-stakes sea adventure where teenage rivals and seasoned captains collide over a suspicious shipwreck along the Florida Reef.
Till the Clock Stops
J. J. (John Joy) Bell
A ruined heir, a room locked against time, and a green box holding either a fortune or a snare—this is high-tempo Edwardian entertainment written with a dry Scottish wit and an unyielding momentum.
Tom Slade with the Boys Over There
Percy Keese Fitzhugh
A pair of young Americans escapes a German prison camp and relies on scoutcraft, luck, and sheer nerve to survive behind enemy lines during World War I.
Ulf Van Yern, and Other Ballads
George Borrow
A son demands blood for a slain father, a knight rides toward a fatal challenge, and lovers discover their affection is forbidden by blood.
Uncle Wiggily's Airship
Howard Roger Garis
A gentler era of childhood imagination takes flight when a kindly old rabbit crafts an airship out of a laundry basket, a few colorful toy balloons, and a household electric fan.
Walker of the Secret Service
Melville Davisson Post
On the edge of the law, a young man enters a shadowy world of train holdups, cunning evasions, and double-crosses, only to find that the true mastery of crime lies in the art of unraveling it.
Within the Capes
Howard Pyle
A quiet rural courtship shatters into a dangerous privateering voyage, a desolate shipwreck, and a backwoods murder trial.
An Account of the Escape of Six Federal Soldiers from Prison at Danville, Va
W. H. (William Henry) Newlin
This is a harrowing, firsthand account of a desperate flight from a Confederate prison. It captures the raw mechanics of survival, the constant shadow of capture, and the profound moral cost of choosing life over a fallen comrade.
At Large
E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung
A quiet Australian gold-seeker returns home to reclaim his life and his love, only to find a mysterious rival standing in his path.
Begumbagh: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny
George Manville Fenn
Amidst the terror and smoke of a besieged outpost, a soldier discovers that courage is rarely about glory, and far more about the quiet determination to protect the people walking alongside you.
Camp Mates in Michigan
St. George Rathborne
A wilderness paddle through the Michigan peninsula becomes a test of woodcraft and nerve when three boys cross paths with a pair of desperate poachers.
Dan Carter-- Cub Scout
Mildred A. (Mildred Augustine) Wirt
A muddy river, a locked shed full of stolen game birds, and a missing Scout badge test the honor of Den 2. Mildred A. Wirt’s classic tale delivers an earnest, atmospheric mystery where young boys face down adult suspicion with quiet resolve.
Dave Darrin's First Year at Annapolis: Two Plebe Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy
H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
Two small-town high school graduates report to the United States Naval Academy, where academic pressure, upperclass hazing, and malicious frame-ups test their resolve to become naval officers.
Draw Swords! In the Horse Artillery
George Manville Fenn
Set in mid-nineteenth-century British India, this classic military adventure tracks a spirited young officer whose courage, horse mastery, and steady integrity transform a rogue gunner and win the trust of a royal court.
Flying the Coast Skyways
Ambrose Newcomb
A pair of daring young secret agents takes to the southern skies to dismantle a massive, high-tech smuggling syndicate hiding in the coastal swamps.
Harper's Round Table, July 16, 1895
Various
A late-nineteenth-century boy slides over the icy gunwale into a night-bound boat, risking his life for a fight he is still too young to join.
Jane, Stewardess of the Air Lines
Ruthe S. Wheeler
When seventeen newly graduated hospital nurses face an uncertain job market, two of them take to the clouds and transform a nascent commercial airline industry.
John Deane of Nottingham: Historic Adventures by Land and Sea
William Henry Giles Kingston
A young man from Nottinghamshire leaves his home to work the roads and trade routes of England, only to find himself swept through high-seas warfare, Jacobite conspiracies, and a sprawling journey toward late-earned peace.
Motor Matt's Hard Luck
Stanley R. Matthews
Plunging straight into the skies over Lake Michigan, three young companions battle an unscrupulous gang of airship thieves to claim their own aerial future and see justice done.
Nan Sherwood's Winter Holidays
Annie Roe Carr
When winter breaks over Michigan, a snowbound train and a crowded Chicago cinema become the backdrop for a schoolgirl's quiet courage.
Renshaw Fanning's Quest: A Tale of the High Veldt
Bertram Mitford
A solitary rider retreats into the South African bush after a bitter rejection, setting off a chain of events involving violent frontier skirmishes, lost diamond maps, and deadly treachery.
Stepsons of Light
Eugene Manlove Rhodes
They were the men who won the West—not through flawless virtue, but through sheer persistence, humor, and a refusal to be crushed by circumstance.
The Camp Fire Girls on the March
Jane L. Stewart
Forging bonds over smoke and ashes, a group of resilient young women discovers that real strength lies in mutual service and unconditional kindness.
The Frontiersman: A Tale of the Yukon
H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody
A missionary’s lonely devotion to a rugged Yukon wilderness is tested by the arrival of lawless prospectors and a woman seeking her lost brother.
The Island of Gold: A Sailor's Yarn
Gordon Stables
Across shifting seas and mysterious Pacific shores, two orphaned siblings journey from a humble canal boat to a forgotten island filled with hidden treasures and deadly perils.
The Lucky Piece: A Tale of the North Woods
Albert Bigelow Paine
A restless young heiress and an aimless man of wealth discover that true devotion requires purpose, courage, and a deep reckoning with the past. Set against the serene, shifting wilderness of the Adirondack Mountains, the story tracks a quiet transformation from idle privilege toward independent strength.
The Voyage of the Rattletrap
Hayden Carruth
Three travelers roll across the nineteenth-century Dakota prairies in a covered wagon, facing prairie fires, sudden gales, and stubborn livestock with quiet humor and resourcefulness.
Three Young Knights
Annie Hamilton Donnell
After finishing their grueling farm chores, three brothers take to the open road on bicycles, turning their modest hard-earned freedom into a series of quiet, good-hearted rescues and memorable adventures.
With Porter in the Essex: A Story of His Famous Cruise in the Southern Waters During the War of 1812
James Otis
Boys who run away to sea usually expect glory; Ezra McKnight and Philip find hard labor, brutal discipline, and a front-row seat to the bloody collapse of an American frigate.