Free summaries
Adventure — page 35
4,189 public-domain adventure books, summarised. Page 35 of 88.
Hudson Bay
R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The vast, untamed wilderness of the Canadian North remains a world apart, a landscape defined by extreme seasons, precarious survival, and the relentless rhythm of the fur trade.
Japhet in Search of a Father
Frederick Marryat
A young foundling casts off his humble origins to pursue a desperate, lifelong quest for his unknown father, traversing the shifting social landscapes of nineteenth-century England.
Porto Bello gold
Arthur D. Howden (Arthur Douglas Howden) Smith
This is a tale of maritime intrigue where the lines between political ambition and plain piracy blur under the tropical sun. It captures a high-stakes power struggle set in a world of tall ships, hidden charts, and desperate men, serving as an expansion of the lore surrounding a famous literary island.
Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World
Francis Pretty
A harrowing record of survival and discovery, this firsthand account details the first English circumnavigation of the globe. It transforms a dangerous maritime expedition into a singular, epoch-defining feat of endurance and navigation.
Sir John Constantine: Memoirs of His Adventures At Home and Abroad and Particularly in the Island of Corsica: Beginning with the Year 1756
Arthur Quiller-Couch
A young man’s idyllic life in Cornwall shatters when he is thrust into a dangerous, quixotic campaign to claim a lost throne in Corsica, revealing the heavy price of inherited ambition.
The Lost Explorers: A Story of the Trackless Desert
Alexander MacDonald
A veteran prospector and two young engineering students venture into the unforgiving Australian wilderness to hunt for gold and uncover the secrets of the fabled "Never Never Land.
The Young Forester
Zane Grey
The wild, untamed landscapes of the American West beckon to a young man eager to prove his worth, turning a dream of professional forestry into a harrowing trial of survival against corrupt timber interests.
Virginia: the Old Dominion: As seen from its colonial waterway, the historic river James, whose every succeeding turn reveals country replete with monuments and scenes recalling the march of history and its figures from the days of Captain John Smith to the present time
Frank W. Hutchins
A gentle, meandering voyage up the historic James River provides a window into the colonial past, blending the comforts of a floating home with the echoes of Virginia’s storied landscape.
Wine-Dark Seas and Tropic Skies: Reminiscences and a Romance of the South Seas
A. (Arnold) Safroni-Middleton
This memoir captures the fleeting, sun-drenched, and often tragic encounters of a young traveler adrift in the South Seas. It is a work of atmospheric longing, blending the raw reality of colonial island life with a haunting, elegiac reverence for a world on the brink of extinction.
Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
A resourceful uncle takes his nieces on a cross-country motor trip, only to find that the journey holds more than just scenery. A broken-down car and a chance encounter with a girl in need transform their vacation into a mission of mercy.
Bonnie Prince Charlie
G. A. (George Alfred) Henty
A young man’s perilous quest to rescue his imprisoned father becomes a turbulent journey through the failed Jacobite uprising of 1745.
Droll stories of Isthmian life
Evelyn Saxton
This collection of sketches captures the humid, transient, and often disillusioned atmosphere of the Panama Canal Zone during the great American construction era. It offers a candid glimpse into a world where social standing was volatile and the promise of a new life often dissolved into the monotony of colonial…
Facing the World
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
HOOK A determined orphan escapes a cruel guardian to master his own fate, finding adventure and unlikely allies on the high seas and beyond.
The Adventures of Joel Pepper
Margaret Sidney
The little brown house is full of noise, mischief, and heart, as a family of children learns that the greatest adventures are the ones they create for themselves.
The adventures of Twinkly Eyes the little Black Bear
Allen Chaffee
The forest is a place of constant lessons, where every creature must master the arts of swimming, climbing, and survival or fall victim to the unforgiving wilderness.
The Chaplain of the Fleet
Walter Besant
A young woman’s hidden past as the wife of a nobleman she does not know creates a dangerous secret that threatens to destroy her future happiness.
The Hilltop Boys: A Story of School Life
Cyril Burleigh
The camaraderie of a private boarding school is tested when a scholarship student arrives, only to find himself the target of both a group of local bullies and a dark secret from his own past.
The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Volume 2 (of 2): And Lamme Goedzak, and their Adventures Heroical, Joyous and Glorious in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere
Charles de Coster
A wandering jester and his gluttonous companion navigate the blood-soaked landscape of sixteenth-century Flanders, serving as the defiant, unkillable spirit of a people fighting for their freedom.
The man among the monkeys
Léon Gozlan
A shipwrecked survivor finds himself enslaved by a society of apes that mimics the rigid, corrupt bureaucracy of the civilized world he left behind.
Wild Western Scenes: A Narrative of Adventures in the Western Wilderness, Wherein the Exploits of Daniel Boone, the Great American Pioneer are Particularly Described
J. B. (John Beauchamp) Jones
In the untamed wilderness of the American frontier, a group of disparate wanderers finds their destinies entwined with the legendary Daniel Boone amid perilous encounters with nature and shifting loyalties.
Across the Salt Seas: A Romance of the War of Succession
John Bloundelle-Burton
A soldier sent on a desperate mission to intercept Spanish treasure finds his destiny tangled with a mysterious youth and a haunted, repentant buccaneer.
Armorel of Lyonesse: A Romance of To-day
Walter Besant
A young woman discovers that her isolated island life hides a fortune, leading her into the complex, predatory world of Victorian London’s artistic elite.
Harper's Young People, November 30, 1880: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
An engaging Victorian time capsule, this collection offers a window into the past through the earnest stories, practical lessons, and curious recreations that shaped the minds of young readers in the late nineteenth century.
Rollo in Naples
Jacob Abbott
This book follows a young boy’s educational travels through the storied landscapes of southern Italy, blending practical lessons in independence with the awe of classical discovery. It serves as a gentle, instructive guide for young readers encountering the wonders of the ancient world.
The Adventures of Bobby Coon
Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess
A restless sleeper, a displaced home, and a broken leg lead a raccoon through a series of harrowing encounters in the Green Forest. This story explores how fear is often a product of misunderstanding, and how kindness can bridge the divide between wild neighbors.
The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack
Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess
The journey of a migrating duck, separated from her mate by the reach of human hunters, finds hope through the unlikely intervention of the forest creatures. This story chronicles a persistent search for safety in a landscape haunted by the threat of "terrible guns.
The Life and Adventures of Baron Trenck, Volume 1
Trenck, Friedrich, Freiherr von der
This is a bracing, high-stakes chronicle of a life defined by extraordinary resilience, depicting a man repeatedly crushed by the gears of eighteenth-century European power. It offers a gripping, unvarnished look at an aristocrat’s descent from royal favor into the depths of political imprisonment and wanderlust.
The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician
Edwin Lester Arnold
A Phoenician warrior, cursed with a thousand-year-long, deathless existence, drifts through the shifting tides of British history, seeking peace while witnessing the rise and fall of empires.
Afloat in the Forest
Mayne Reid
After a corrupt solicitor exiles two brothers to South America, a catastrophic shipwreck leaves them stranded in the heart of a flooded Amazonian jungle.
Bruin: The Grand Bear Hunt
Mayne Reid
HOOK Two aristocratic Russian brothers embark on a global expedition to collect the skin of every bear species, fulfilling a demanding paternal challenge that requires them to traverse the world without ever doubling back.
Monarch, the Big Bear of Tallac
Ernest Thompson Seton
A legendary grizzly bear is captured, displayed, and broken by the modern world, tracing a tragic trajectory from mountain king to captive curiosity.
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 05, Issue 25, January 1893: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
This volume represents a preserved snapshot of Victorian intellectual and domestic life, blending rigorous investigative fiction with the whimsical, moralistic, and often idiosyncratic sensibilities of its era. It serves as a time capsule of 1893, capturing how a refined public consumed both its mysteries and its…
The Triumph of John Kars: A Story of the Yukon
Ridgwell Cullum
A battle for justice in the desolate Yukon, where a man of iron resolve fights to dismantle a corrupt monopoly and save a family from a hidden, murderous conspiracy.
Trail's End
George W. (George Washington) Ogden
A lone stranger steps into a lawless Kansas cattle town, tasked by a woman’s plea to tame a violent frontier. He eventually trades the chaos of the pistol for the quiet redemption of the wheat field.
A Pirate of the Caribbees
Harry Collingwood
The high seas demand courage, but some men are born to hunt the monsters who turn the ocean into a graveyard of burning timber and broken lives.
Chasing an Iron Horse
Edward Robins
A daring Union sabotage mission unfolds across the Georgia countryside, where a young recruit and his companions attempt to steal a Confederate locomotive and turn the tide of the Civil War.
Claim Number One
George W. (George Washington) Ogden
Comanche sits at the edge of the world, a temporary tent city where thousands gamble their futures on a government land lottery. Hope and greed collide on the burning white plains, where Claim Number One becomes the obsession of desperate men and a catalyst for a life-altering journey.
Fair Margaret
H. Rider (Henry Rider) Haggard
A spirited English merchant’s daughter and her cousin are abducted by a vengeful Spanish nobleman, forcing a daring rescue across the sea and into the dangerous, intrigue-filled courts of medieval Spain.
John Frewen, South Sea Whaler: 1904
Louis Becke
A whaling officer, driven from his ship by a brutal captain, finds his life irrevocably linked to a stranded widow, a mutinous crew, and the complex loyalties of the South Pacific.
Nevermore
Rolf Boldrewood
A proud, impulsive young man flees his ancestral home to seek fortune in the Australian goldfields, only to find that his aristocratic spirit is no match for the brutal, unforgiving realities of frontier life.
Paddy Finn
William Henry Giles Kingston
A spirited Irish midshipman navigates the perils of the Napoleonic-era Royal Navy, finding adventure, danger, and lifelong companionship on the high seas.
Peter the Whaler
William Henry Giles Kingston
A wayward teenager’s impulsive escape to sea transforms into a harrowing struggle for survival against the unforgiving ice of the Arctic.
Rick and Ruddy: The Story of a Boy and His Dog
Howard Roger Garis
The bond between a boy and his dog serves as the heart of this gentle, episodic tale. It explores the loyalty, shared adventures, and mutual protection that define the relationship between a young master and his rescued companion.
Rounding up the Raider: A Naval Story of the Great War
Percy F. (Percy Francis) Westerman
Three British officers, captured by a deceptive German surface raider, must outwit their captors and navigate the treacherous wilds of East Africa to aid the Royal Navy’s hunt.
The Broad Highway
Jeffery Farnol
A man of letters casts aside his books to wander the English countryside, only to find himself entangled in a dangerous inheritance, a mysterious romance, and a life of manual labor. This is a story about shedding one’s pretenses to discover the dignity of the road.
The Ghost Camp
Rolf Boldrewood
The untamed landscape of the Australian bush serves as the backdrop for a tale of redemption, where the scars of a convict past meet the promise of a new life found in the goldfields.
The Silly Jelly-Fish: Told in English
Basil Hall Chamberlain
The King of the Dragons desires a cure for his ailing wife, but his choice of messenger leads to a series of blunders that forever alters the anatomy of the ocean’s inhabitants.
Through Arctic Lapland
C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
A journey into the silent, sun-drenched wilds of the high north, where the traditional ways of the Lapland people meet the relentless, buzzing reality of an Arctic summer.