Adventure novels online

From FIBIwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

During the 70 years of the Victorian era, the British Empire nearly quadrupled its territory, exploring the interior of Africa and Pacific islands and colonizing Asian nations one after another. Against this backdrop, British people held an unprecedented strong interest in the world. The blossoming of adventure stories that responded to boys' longings for and interest in the unknown was inextricably linked to the extension of the British government's imperialist policy that bolstered hope and confidence in Great Britain as an invincible state[1]

This category of literature continued to be popular through the Edwardian and later years.

This article is generally in respect of adventure stories for younger readers, written by authors such as George Manville Fenn, G A Henty, Herbert Strang and Percy F. Westerman.

Also see

External links

Historical books online

Military Campaigns

Arranged according to the dates of the campaigns.

3rd Carnatic War
2nd Maratha War
1st Burma War
Librivox Audio version Archive.org
2nd Sikh War
Indian Mutiny
The Great White Hand or, The Tiger of Cawnpore: a Story of the Indian Mutiny by J E Muddock 1896 Archive.org

For younger readers

Gil the Gunner; or The Youngest Officer in the East by George Manville Fenn 1892 Archive.org. A boys’ adventure story about a young officer in the Bengal Horse Artillery.
2nd Burma War
Chitral and Tirah Campaigns
3rd China War
First World War
  • Western Front adventure stories for younger readers by Herbert Strang. Gutenberg.org.
A Hero of Liége: A Story of the Great War 1914.
Fighting with French: A Tale of the New Army 1915.
Burton of the Flying Corps. 1916
Percy F Westerman wrote many books with a WW1 background, available at Gutenberg.org

General

Arranged by date of publication

The Jewelled Lizard by W. Dingwall Fordyce c 1908 Archive.org. An adventure story for younger readers, with a Sumatra setting.
Dingwall Fordyce also wrote "The Adventures of Babi. A pet mongoose in Sumatra", a chapter in Wide World Magazine, 1911, and Our Secret Society c 1910. However, it is unknown if the setting for the latter is also Malaysia/Indonesia.
The Jungle Girl by Gordon Casserly 1922 Archive.org
Both these books were set in the North East of India, where the author, an officer in the Indian Army had been stationed. Also see his book Life in an Indian Outpost [Buxa Duar, North East India] by Major Gordon Casserly, Indian Army, first published c 1910. Archive.org.
  • "The Wolf of Kabul" Rover and Wizard January 25th 1964. A transcription. britishcomics.20m.com. This appears to be a reprint, first published in the 1930s in Wizard,[2] a weekly magazine for boys published by DC Thomson of Dundee . Story involving Bill Samson (“His real job is surveying the frontier and making maps of the mountains and passes”) and his offsider Private Chung whose weapon was the Clicky-Ba. Wolf of Kabul Wikipedia.

References

  1. Birth of Adventure Novels from “Chilldren’s Books in The Victorian Era from the Winnington-Ingram Collection”
  2. "Boy's Own adventures" 27 April 2006 yorkshirepost.co.uk.