When we think of adventure we envision feats of derring-do, perilous journeys into the remote wilderness, swashbuckling deeds on the high seas, and survival in the face of impossible odds. Now, in a collection that challenges our very notion of adventure, Joseph Bristow brings together twenty-three riveting tales, penned by such masters as Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Zane Gray, but with notable contributions from such unexpected sources as Margaret Atwood, Tim O'Brien, and Daphne Du Maurier. Here readers will find bravery and boldness in settings that range from desert islands to the Java Sea, from war-torn Europe to deepest Africa, and from India to the Canadian wastes. Bristow offers many classic works of adventure, such as Edgar Allan Poe's MS Found in a Bottle, Mark Twain's The Private History of a Campaign that Failed, and Joseph Conrad's The Lagoon. Along side these, he also includes Margaret Atwood's offbeat Death by Landscape and Tim O'Brien's On the Rainy River (where the adventure lies in dodging the draft as opposed to going to war). An exhilarating collection of classic and contemporary tales, The Oxford Book of Adventure Stories is sure to amuse, intrigue, captivate, and challenge every lover of fiction.