Adventurousness
Adverse, Anthonyleads adventurous and romantic life in Italy, France, and America in the Napoleonic era. [Am. Lit.: Haydn & Fuller, 36]
hobbit-protagonist; has escapades with dwarfs. [Br. Lit.: The Hobbit]
picaresque victimizer and victim who encounters all the social classes of 18th-century Spain. [Fr. Lit.: Gil Blas; Benét, 395]
secret agent 007, whose exploits feature futuristic technology. [Br. Lit.: Herman, 27]
schlemiel has wild adventures among fabulous beasts on tropical isles. [Comics: Horn, 125]
Peter Rabbit’s thrill-seeking cousin. [Children’s Lit.: The Tale of Benjamin Bunny]
helps in Monmouth’s unsuccessful attempt to wrest the throne from King James. [Br. Lit.: Doyle Micah Clarke in Magill I, 585]
experiences adventures among pirates, cannibals, and slavers. [Br. Lit.: Defoe Robinson Crusoe]
hero of Wild West dime novels. [Am. Folklore: Walsh Modern, 115]
wanders the Low Countries, living by his wits and avenging the evil deeds of King Philip. [Belg. Lit.: Benét, 325]
19th-century young runaway becomes gaucho; Argentinian Huckleberry Finn. [Arg. Lit.: Don Segundo Sombra]
partisan of Napoleon, involved in love, intrigue, a duel, and ends up as a Carthusian monk. [Fr. Lit.: Stendhal The Charterhouse of Parma in Magill I, 135]
19th-century picaresque teenager travels down the Mississippi on a raft. [Am. Lit.: Huckleberry Finn]
amoral adventuress of many liasons. [Br. Lit.: Defoe Moll Flanders in Benét, 678]
gentleman undertakes world trip on wager. [Fr. Lit.: Around the World in Eighty Days]
battles storms, disaster, and a giant octopus in order to salvage a ship’s engine and win a bride. [Fr. Lit.: Toilers of the Sea in Magill II, 1037]
constantly launches into apparently hopeless adventures to combat evil powers. [Comics: Berger, 133]
17th-century hero travels to fanciful lands on extraordinary voyages. [Br. Lit.: Gulliver’s Travels]
shrewd rascal travels around Persia. [Fr. Lit.: Hajji Baba of Ispahan in Magill I, 343]
traced and hounded by enemies of England, has several narrow escapes. [Br. Lit. and Cinema: Buchan The 39 Steps in Magill I, 972]
cabin boy on pirate ship. [Br. Lit.: Treasure Island]
gallant warship captain in Napoleonic era. [Br. Lit.: Captain Horatio Hornblower]
as penance for killing a prince, submits to perilous journey to the East. [Ger. Lit.: Benét, 487; Ger. Opera: Oberon]
leader of Argonauts in successful quest for the Golden Fleece. [Gk. Legend: Brewer Dictionary, 500]
caught in the intrigues of Scottish factions, David Balfour and Alan Breck are shipwrecked, escape from the king’s soldiers, and undergo great dangers. [Br. Lit.: R. L. Stevenson Kidnapped]
orphan wanders streets of India with lama. [Br. Lit.: Kim]
tale of raft trip taken to prove sea-borne migration of peoples and culture. [Pacific Hist.: Kon-Tiki]
has adventures in Germany, France, and Portugal under a succession of names and professions. [Ger. Lit.: Mann The Confessions of Felix Krull in Magill III, 218]
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), legendary hero, led Arab revolt against Turkey. [Br. Hist.: Benét, 572]
16th-century picaresque novel about a runaway youth who lives by his wits serving, in succession, a blind beggar and several unworthy ecclesiastics. [Span. Lit.: Haydn & Fuller, 415]
19th-century sportsman with quixotic tales. [Br. Lit.: Humphry Clinker, Magill I, 394–397]
picaresque traveler and teller of tall tales. [Ger. Lit.: Baron Mücnchhausen]
infant lost in the Indian forest is brought up by a wolf pack. [Children’s Lit.: Kipling The Jungle Books in Magill I, 461]
submarine in which its builder, Captain Nemo, cruises around the world. [Fr. Lit.: Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]
travels throughout the world in the Nautilus, a submarine of his own invention. [Fr. Lit.: Jules Verne Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea]
(Ulysses) varied adventures after the Trojan War kept him away from Ithaca for ten years. [Gk. Myth.: Odyssey]
young rogue experiences escapades in England and on the Continent. [Br. Lit.: Peregrine Pickle in Magill I, 731-4]
13th-century Venetian merchant; brought Oriental wonders to Europe. [Eur. Hist.: Bishop, 222–224]
journeys include mutiny, shipwreck, savages, and the supernatural. [Am. Lit.: Poe, “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym” in Magill I, 640–643]
undertakes a dangerous African expedition in search of a lost diamond mine. [Br. Lit.: H. Rider Haggard King Solomon’s Mines in Magill I, 475]
exiled for killing in a duel, goes to sea, endures shipwreck and battles, and discovers his wealthy father. [Br. Lit.: Roderick Random, Haydn & Fuller, 644]
undergoes many adventures to regain his abducted bride. [Russ. Poetry: Ruslan and Lyudmilla in Haydn & Fuller, 653]
classic 19th-century adventuresome, all-American boy. [Am. Lit.: Tom Sawyer]
from callowness to audacity on 17th-century battlefields. [Ger. Lit.: Simplicissimus]
the Sailor has scores of adventures in the course of seven voyages. [Arab. Lit.: Arabian Nights]
19th-century French Quixote acts out his dreams of travel. [Fr. Lit.: Tartarin de Tarascon]
jungle man leads adventurous life. [Am. Lit.: Tarzan of the Apes]
inventor travels into future; sees degeneration of life. [Br. Lit.: The Time Machine]
picaresque novel of a young man in 18th-century England. [Br. Lit.: Haydn & Fuller, 745]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.