The adventure novel is a literary genre of novels that has adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, as its main theme. Adventure has been a common theme since the earliest days of written fiction. A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or content. ... For other uses, see Novel (disambiguation). ... Look up adventure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In literature, a theme is a broad idea in a story, or a message or lesson conveyed by a work. ...

Indeed, the standard plot of Medieval romances was a series of adventures. Following a plot framework as old as Heliodorus, and so durable as to be still alive in Hollywood movies, a hero would undergo a first set of adventures before he met his lady. A separation would follow, with a second set of adventures leading to a final reunion. Variations kept the genre alive. As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... Heliodorus of Emesa, from Emesa, Syria, was a Greek writer generally dated in the 3rd century of the Common Era, and is known for the ancient Greek romance or novel called the Aethiopica (the Ethiopian Story) or sometimes Theagenes and Chariclea. According to his own statement, his fathers name... The quintessential adventure film. ... For other uses, see Hero (disambiguation). ...

From the mid 19th century onwards, when mass literacy grew, adventure became a popular subgenre of fiction. Examples of that period include Alexandre Dumas, père, Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Emilio Salgari, Louis Henri Boussenard, Thomas Mayne Reid, Sax Rohmer, Edgar Wallace, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and Robert Louis Stevenson. Alexandre Dumas redirects here. ... This article is about the French author. ... H. Rider Haggard, author Sir Henry Rider Haggard (June 22, 1856 – May 14, 1925), born in Norfolk, England, was a Victorian writer of adventure novels set in locations considered exotic by readers in his native England. ... Emilio Salgari. ... Louis Henri Boussenard (4 October 1847 — 11 September 1911) was a French author of adventure novels, dubbed the French Rider Haggard during his lifetime but better known today in Eastern Europe than in Francophone countries. ... Thomas Mayne Reid (April 4, 1818 - October 22, 1883), was an Irish-American novelist. ... Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward (February 15, 1883 - June 1, 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was a prolific English novelist. ... The Mixer (1927), 1962 Arrow paperback edition. ... J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ... -1...

Adventure novels often overlap with other genres, notably war novels, crime novels, sea stories, Robinsonades, science fiction, fantasy, and Westerns. Not all books within these genres are adventures. Adventure novels take the setting and premise of these other genres, but the fast-paced plot of an adventure focuses on the actions of the hero within the setting. A war novel is a novel in which the primary action takes place in a field of armed combat, or in a domestic setting (or home front) where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, or recovery from, war. ... Sherlock Holmes, pipe-puffing hero of crime fiction, confers with his colleague Dr. Watson; together these characters popularized the genre. ... A sea story is a work of fiction set largely at sea. ... Robinsonade is a literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... For other uses, see Fantasy (disambiguation). ... Cover of a book by Louis LAmour, one of Western fictions most prolific authors. ...

See also

• Men's adventure, also known as the sweats, a genre of pulp magazine featuring tales of exotic adventure and wartime heroism.
• Picaresque novel
• Robinsonade
• War novel