7 h 26 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 26 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if standing by a friend means stepping into a country's struggle for power?
In The White Mice, Richard Harding Davis brings Americans into a Venezuela where power is insecure and opposition is dangerous. Political conflict reaches into private life, turning personal loyalties into choices with consequences. These adventurers cannot simply watch from a safe distance. They must judge people, choose sides, and act under pressure.
Romance adds another pull to an adventure already charged with public unrest. Love offers no escape from political danger; it makes the decisions more intimate. Davis puts action at the heart of the story, asking what courage serves and what loyalty demands when taking a friend's side draws someone into a struggle far larger than themselves.
What you’ll discover
- Loyalty under pressure Follow adventurers whose allegiance to others draws them beyond the safety of private concerns.
- A dangerous political world Enter a Venezuelan setting where insecure power gives personal decisions a wider reach.
- Courage with a purpose Explore an adventure that asks not only who acts bravely, but why they act.
- Love amid public unrest Discover romance bound to political risk, where love makes difficult choices more deeply personal.
- Action that tests character Meet Americans pushed beyond ordinary experience, with little room to remain detached observers.
Who will love it
Readers who love cheerful adventures, secret plots and brisk romance in a tropical port will enjoy this book. It suits those who relish a hero joking under fire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A joke becomes a promise
- His father sees only the cost
- Pity gives the friends their purpose
- An ordinary excuse protects the plan
- Inez turns a riddle into hope
- Roddy refuses his father's political bargain
- Roddy hides loyalty behind apparent cruelty
- The rescue breaks with business interests
- Small loyalties stand against careless power
Who’s who
- Roddy ForresterA cheerful former Yale pitcher and construction magnate's son who decides to rescue a prisoner and falls in love along the way.
- Peter de PeysterRoddy's quick-witted college roommate, who first hears the call of the White Mice and keeps his friend's plans from falling apart.
- Inez RojasThe General's younger daughter, raised in Europe and half American, who wants her father free and chooses a stranger over the plotters.
- General Miguel RojasA frail, honest statesman called the Lion of Valencia, jailed for two years because the people love him.
- Pino VegaA charming colonel and exile who leads a revolution backed by Forrester money and hopes to marry Inez.
- Sam CaldwellThe clever, unscrupulous third vice president of the construction company, who wants Vega in power and Rojas kept in prison.
- McKildrickThe silent American foreman who knows how to open the tunnel and joins the White Mice at the risk of his job.
- PedroThe old Rojas family servant who offers his life for the master and carries messages between Inez and Roddy.
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The White Mice
by Richard Harding Davis · 1909
Four young Americans joke about rescues in Yokohama before Roddy sets out to rescue a jailed Venezuelan general.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What does a laboratory mouse have to do with a political prison? At a tea house in Yokohama, a naval lieutenant describes how a small white mouse near a submarine's engines squeals at escaping gas.
The White Mice at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 15 min3 h 20 min fast, 5 h slow
- Length
- 60,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1909by Richard Harding Davis
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A joke in a tea house becomes an oath
The book opens with the old fable of the lion and the mouse. Then the story moves to two places far apart. In one, an old man shivers in a prison cell. In the other, four young Americans sit on the floor of a tea house in Yokohama.
The prisoner is General Don Miguel Rojas, once called the Lion of Valencia. He has spent two years in a dungeon beneath the fortress at Porto Cabello.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1909
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Davis, Richard Harding. The White Mice. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-mice.
Davis, R. H. (2026). The White Mice. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-mice (Original work published 1909)
Davis, Richard Harding. The White Mice. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-mice.
@book{davis2026white,
author = {Davis, Richard Harding},
title = {The White Mice},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-white-mice},
note = {First published 1909}
}
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What is The White Mice about?
It follows two young Americans, Roddy Forrester and Peter de Peyster, who try to free an imprisoned Venezuelan general through a forgotten tunnel. Along the way Roddy falls in love with the general's daughter and runs into his father's company, which backs a rival.
Why are they called the White Mice?
The name comes from a joke in a Yokohama tea house. A navy officer says a white mouse in a submarine squeals at gas leaks and saves sailors, so four friends found a society whose members must each save a life.
Who is General Rojas in The White Mice?
He is a respected Venezuelan statesman and diplomat, known as the Lion of Valencia. President Alvarez fears him and keeps him in a damp cell at Porto Cabello, while his wife and daughters wait in exile on Curaçao.
The author
Richard Harding Davis
1864–1916 · American journalist and fiction writer
American journalist and fiction writer.
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