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 swashbuckling adventure, witty banter, secret codes and underground passages, and a romance that grows between two stubborn, quick-minded people. It suits anyone who enjoys a good-hearted hero in a tight spot.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A fable and a toast in Yokohama
- A father, a company and a cynic
- Two friends take a hard look at a prison
- Curaçao, spies and a startling attack
- A daughter, a riddle and a hidden tunnel
- Rivals, a duel and a father's secret
- Moonlight, sharks and the digging begins
- What the story is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Rodman ForresterCalled Roddy, he is a cheerful ex-pitcher and a failed apprentice who turns his full charm and nerve to freeing a prisoner.
- Peter de PeysterRoddy's dry-witted college roommate and the Order's Most Secret Secretary, who plans carefully while pretending to complain.
- Inez RojasThe younger daughter of General Rojas, half American, brave and independent, who wants only her father's freedom.
- General Don Miguel RojasThe honest, much loved statesman called the Lion of Valencia, locked in a damp cell by President Alvarez.
- Pino VegaA handsome, vain colonel who leads a revolution financed by the Forrester company and wants to marry Inez.
- Sam CaldwellThe company's clever, cynical third vice president, who handles bribes and plots and wants Rojas kept out of the way.
- McKildrickThe lean, silent F. C. C. foreman and engineer who knows how to open the tunnel and what dynamite can do.
- Doctor VicentiThe young prison doctor who admires Rojas and agrees to prepare him from inside the cell.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 26 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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The White Mice
by Richard Harding Davis · 1909
Four idle Americans form the Order of the White Mice, and one finds a dying general's prison in Venezuela.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The White Mice is an adventure novel by Richard Harding Davis, the American reporter and storyteller who died in 1916. It mixes a daring rescue, a political uprising and a love story, all set in Venezuela.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A fable and a toast in Yokohama
The book begins with the old fable of the lion and the mouse. The narrator draws a cheerful moral from it: this is a small world, and a helper may turn up where you least expect one. Then the story turns to General Don Miguel Rojas, once called the Lion of Valencia. He is sixty years old and has spent two years in a dungeon at Porto Cabello, where harbor water seeps through the limestone and the candle sputters.
The scene then jumps across the globe to the tea house of the Hundred and One Steps in Yokohama. Four young Americans sit shoeless on mats. Rodman Forrester, called Roddy, is a former Yale pitcher and the son of a famous builder of lighthouses. His close friend Peter de Peyster is from an old Hudson River family. A third is a rich brewer's son who calls himself the Orchid Hunter, and the fourth is a navy lieutenant named Perry.
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What is The White Mice about?
It follows Roddy Forrester and Peter de Peyster, two young Americans in Venezuela who try to rescue an imprisoned general. Along the way they meet his brave daughter, face spies and rivals, and use a secret tunnel found through a coded message.
Why are they called the White Mice?
The name comes from a naval story about a white mouse in a submarine's engine room that squeals at leaking gas and saves the crew. The friends form an order whose members must each save someone's life.
Who is General Rojas in The White Mice?
General Don Miguel Rojas, called the Lion of Valencia, is a respected statesman and diplomat. President Alvarez fears his popularity and locks him in a damp dungeon at the fortress of San Carlos in Porto Cabello.
The author
Richard Harding Davis
1864–1916 · American journalist and fiction writer
American journalist and fiction writer.
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