Adventure fiction is the oldest narrative form there is: a journey, a series of obstacles, a return. The six books here run from the Homeric template to the Arctic and the Pacific, and include the two greatest sea novels in English.
Books in this collection
- Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883 · ~67,000 words · ~3.7 hours
- Moby-Dick — Herman Melville, 1851 · ~206,000 words · ~11.4 hours
- The Odyssey — Homer, 1879 · ~125,000 words · ~6.9 hours
- Robinson Crusoe — Daniel Defoe, 1719 · ~121,000 words · ~6.7 hours
- Around the World in Eighty Days — Jules Verne, 1873 · ~65,000 words · ~3.6 hours
- The Call of the Wild — Jack London, 1903 · ~32,000 words · ~1.8 hours
A reading order
The template: The Odyssey — voyage, monsters, homecoming. The survivor: Robinson Crusoe — one man, one island, and the invention of the realistic novel. The voyage out: Treasure Island for boys’ adventure at its purest; Around the World in Eighty Days for the itinerary as plot. The deep end: Moby-Dick — the sea novel that became something else entirely. The north: The Call of the Wild — adventure as regression to the animal.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Which adventure classic should I read first?
Treasure Island for pace, The Call of the Wild for length, Moby-Dick for the full experience.
Is Moby-Dick an adventure novel?
Partly — it is a sea narrative, an encyclopaedia and a metaphysical argument at once.
Which of these are suitable for children?
Treasure Island and The Call of the Wild; Robinson Crusoe and The Odyssey with some editing; Moby-Dick not before the teens.
Why is The Odyssey on an adventure list?
Because it is the template: voyage, monsters, homecoming, and a hero who survives by intelligence.
Are these editions complete?
Yes, unabridged.
Are the sea terms hard to follow?
Moby-Dick is the hardest; the others can be read without any nautical knowledge.