Thursday, February 24, 2011

House of Mirth - by Edith Wharton

House of Mirth (UK edition) (Deutsch edition) is one of those “novel of manners” books.  Written in 1905 by Edith Wharton, the novel is set in New York society. It shares something in tone, I think with The Great Gatsby. Both books are, in part, about social climbing.

It is a very well written book, although I did not find the heroine too likable.  But then loving the characters is not always the point.

You can tell right from the first paragraphs that this is a good narrative with well-defined characters, so I will leave you there . . .
Selden paused in surprise. In the afternoon rush of the Grand Central Station his eyes had been refreshed by the sight of Miss Lily Bart.


It was a Monday in early September, and he was returning to his work from a hurried dip into the country; but what was Miss Bart doing in town at that season? If she had appeared to be catching a train, he might have inferred that he had come on her in the act of transition between one and another of the country-houses which disputed her presence after the close of the Newport season; but her desultory air perplexed him. She stood apart from the crowd, letting it drift by her to the platform or the street, and wearing an air of irresolution which might, as he surmised, be the mask of a very definite purpose. It struck him at once that she was waiting for some one, but he hardly knew why the idea arrested him. There was nothing new about Lily Bart, yet he could never see her without a faint movement of interest: it was characteristic of her that she always roused speculation, that her simplest acts seemed the result of far-reaching intentions.


An impulse of curiosity made him turn out of his direct line to the door, and stroll past her. He knew that if she did not wish to be seen she would contrive to elude him; and it amused him to think of putting her skill to the test.
(UK READERS, please note that pricing info may vary and as a US resident  I am not always able to see prices on UK Kindle books)


This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
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UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

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Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sir Richard Francis Burton & Travel Literature (To the Gold Coast for Gold)

 “The glory of an explorer, I need hardly say, results not so much from the extent, or the marvels of his explorations, as from the consequences to which they lead.” - Sir Richard Francis Burton
And I am most happy when those consequences are a good piece of travel writing!

One of my favorite genres is “travel literature.”  Readers in the UK are lucky, because they have more of these books than anywhere else.  And it is not a new genre, so we are able to reach back into the pre-copyright books and read classics of travel literature.

Sir Richard Francis Burton is one of the more famous travel writers.  He was traveling during the 1800’s.  A number of the books are on Kindle, at varying prices.  I have selected “To the Gold Coast for Gold A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes. Volume I” which is free.  (UK version) (Deutsch edition)

Here is an example and it is not so different from travel writing today . . .
“Next morning an absurd old person, in a broad red baldrick, came on board and counted noses, to ascertain that we had not brought the dreaded small-pox from the Ionian Islands. After being graciously and liberally allowed to land, we were visited by the local chapmen, whose goods appeared rather mixed–polished cowhorns and mildewed figs, dolls in costume and corrosive oranges; by the normal musical barber, who imitates at a humble distance bird and beast; and by the vendor of binoculars, who asks forty francs and who takes ten.”
I don’t know about Volume II, but I will be happy to take a voyage with Burton through Volume 1.

 
This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

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Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Crime and Punishment - by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I have always found Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment a difficult book. (UK edition)  (Deutsch edition) But maybe after a couple of decades and two failed attempts, I need to give it another try.

Jan Kott, the author of “Shakespeare, our Contemporary,” wrote of how some of Shakespeare’s plays seem not to speak to us while others are so fresh they might come from stories in our newspapers.  In the 1950’s a play like Measure for Measure, with a politician willing to grant a pardon in exchange for sex, seemed like a fantasy.  We would hardly think that now.  And so a book I found so difficult, about a man who could justify a murder for money, seems more plausible in our age of casual brutality and the pursuit of riches at all costs.
‘"What do you want?" the old woman said severely, coming into the room and, as before, standing in front of him so as to look him straight in the face.


"I've brought something to pawn here," and he drew out of his pocket an old-fashioned flat silver watch, on the back of which was engraved a globe; the chain was of steel.


"But the time is up for your last pledge. The month was up the day before yesterday."


"I will bring you the interest for another month; wait a little."


"But that's for me to do as I please, my good sir, to wait or to sell your pledge at once."


"How much will you give me for the watch, Alyona Ivanovna?"


"You come with such trifles, my good sir, it's scarcely worth anything. I gave you two roubles last time for your ring and one could buy it quite new at a jeweler's for a rouble and a half."


"Give me four roubles for it, I shall redeem it, it was my father's. I shall be getting some money soon."


"A rouble and a half, and interest in advance, if you like!"


"A rouble and a half!" cried the young man.


"Please yourself"—and the old woman handed him back the watch.’
It may be time I gave this early detective story and early psychological thriller another chance.  We don’t all have the same taste in literature, but I respect a novel that so many would agree is one of the greatest ever written. 

This is the original Constance Garnett translation. 



This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Grace Livingston Hill

At one time I had almost all of Grace Livingston Hill’s books and I have probably read all of her novels.  She wrote dozens and dozens of romances.  The ancient copies I had were the only books I have ever seen that had been eaten by bookworms.  But it was so hard to find her books that I kept them and read around the holes! 

These are old-fashioned romances, usually about someone meeting a partner across class boundaries. Her heroines are often naïve, but with great native intelligence.   There is a strong religious theme to the books.  Often the heroine (or the hero) has a religious awakening along with falling in love.

I know a religious aspect is off-putting to some people.  All I can say is I did not feel preached to.  Maybe that is because the books are about old-fashioned girls from an earlier time.
"At one stopping-place a good woman advised Elizabeth to rest on Sundays. She told her God didn't like people to do the same on His day as on other days, and it would bring her bad luck if she kept up her incessant riding. It was bad for the horse too. So, the night being Saturday, Elizabeth remained with the woman over the Sabbath, and heard read aloud the fourteenth chapter of John. It was a wonderful revelation to her. She did not altogether understand it. In fact, the Bible was an unknown book. She had never known that it was different from other books. She had heard it spoken of by her mother, but only as a book. She did not know it was a book of books.


She carried the beautiful thoughts with her on the way, and pondered them. She wished she might have the book. She remembered the name of it, Bible, the Book of God. Then God had written a book! Some day she would try to find it and read it.


"Let not your heart be troubled"; so much of the message drifted into her lonesome, ignorant soul, and settled down to stay."
Several of Hill’s books are available free (or cheap!).  The quotes here are from The Girl from the Montana which is free.  This book is not available from the UK, but UK readers can download her novel The Finding of Jasper Holt.  It is £1.40.  These books –although all different- are formulaic.  If you like one of her books, you likely would like any of them. 
 
This is a typical judgment from one of Hill’s heroines:
"Geraldine Loring was almost—well, fast, at least, as nearly so as one who was really of a fine old family, and still held her own in society, could be. She was beautiful as a picture; but her face, to Elizabeth's mind, was lacking in fine feeling and intellect. A great pity went out from her heart to the man whose fate was in that doll-girl's hands."
"Fast" is not good in Hill's world and is an outdated condemnation to us. But clear eyes, keeping your word and having a will of steel is never out of fashion and that is why these are still enjoyable romances.



This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Alice in Wonderland - by Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland is one of the top free Kindle books. And the free Kindle edition is a good example of why free is not always worth it.

Can you imagine Lewis Carroll’s wonderful book without John Tenniel’s drawings?  No grinning Cheshire cat?  Unthinkable!  But it can be yours for free on Amazon.

There is a lively debate in the comment section for this bowdlerized edition about whether or not people should complain about something that is free.  Well of course you should.  It is a waste of time and effort to download this free edition.  That is the whole point of this blog, to steer people to the best version of a classic book.

For 89 cents, you can get  . . . well just let me quote the remarkable product description for The Complete Alice in Wonderland (Kindle Master Editions).  (£2.10 UK edition) (EUR 2,38 Deutsch edition)
AT LAST, the definitive version of Alice in Wonderland! Uniquely (and painstakingly) created for the Kindle, this volume contains the complete texts of: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There; Alice’s Adventures Under Ground; The Nursery “Alice”; and The Hunting of the Snark (with Carroll’s letter revealing how the Snark belongs to the lore of Wonderland!). This edition is fully supported with extensive materials found nowhere else. Features include: all of Carroll's poems and prefatory material; Sir John Tenniel’s masterful illustrations; additional illustrations by Henry Holiday and Lewis Carroll; and a special glossary of Victorian and Carrollian terms (not merely “Jabberwock,” “vorpal” and “frabjous day,” but also such curiosities as "Wednesday week," "treacle" and “bathing-machine.”). Bonus materials exclusive to this edition include: the lost “Wasp in a Wig” chapter, with commentary; diary entries and letters from Alice and Lewis Carroll; uniquely written explanatory notes; source poetry for all of Carroll’s poems and songs; biographies for Charles Dodgson and Alice Pleasance Liddell; extensive and unique chronologies; fascinating background essays; and much, much more. This Kindle Master Edition, THE COMPLETE ALICE IN WONDERLAND, is the only complete and authoritative electronic Alice, collected, annotated and edited by Kent David Kelly to offer the perfect balance of completeness, enjoyment, and ease of use. Come experience this wonderful classic, now with an overflowing treasury of secrets which you have never experienced before!
 Whew!  How can you not buy that?

The comments are all raves, too – with a few well-deserved kicks thrown in for the free edition. 

I leave you with a rather long excerpt from Alice because I couldn’t bear to cut any of it.
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. 'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

'I don't much care where—' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

'—so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. 'What sort of people live about here?'

'In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'

'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'

Alice didn't think that proved it at all; however, she went on 'And how do you know that you're mad?'

'To begin with,' said the Cat, 'a dog's not mad. You grant that?'

'I suppose so,' said Alice.

'Well, then,' the Cat went on, 'you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.'

'I call it purring, not growling,' said Alice.

'Call it what you like,' said the Cat. 'Do you play croquet with the Queen to-day?'

'I should like it very much,' said Alice, 'but I haven't been invited yet.'

'You'll see me there,' said the Cat, and vanished.

Alice was not much surprised at this, she was getting so used to queer things happening. While she was looking at the place where it had been, it suddenly appeared again.

'By-the-bye, what became of the baby?' said the Cat. 'I'd nearly forgotten to ask.'

'It turned into a pig,' Alice quietly said, just as if it had come back in a natural way.

'I thought it would,' said the Cat, and vanished again.

Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in which the March Hare was said to live. 'I've seen hatters before,' she said to herself; 'the March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad—at least not so mad as it was in March.' As she said this, she looked up, and there was the Cat again, sitting on a branch of a tree.

'Did you say pig, or fig?' said the Cat.

'I said pig,' replied Alice; 'and I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly: you make one quite giddy.'

'All right,' said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

'Well! I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice; 'but a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!'


This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

The Secret Garden - by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Have any men read The Secret Garden? (£1.89 UK edition)  (EUR 0,99 Deutsch edition) I would be very impressed if a man told me he was reading this beloved book.

Did any women not read this as a child?  Here is your chance to once again -or perhaps for the first time-  visit a world where secret gardens may be restored and made to grow more than flowers. 

But before we visit the garden, we make a stop in India under the British Raj.

"Is it so very bad? Oh, is it?" Mary heard her say.


"Awfully," the young man answered in a trembling voice. "Awfully, Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago."


The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.


"Oh, I know I ought!" she cried. "I only stayed to go to that silly dinner party. What a fool I was!"


At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the servants' quarters that she clutched the young man's arm, and Mary stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder. "What is it? What is it?" Mrs. Lennox gasped.


"Some one has died," answered the boy officer. "You did not say it had broken out among your servants."
 The book has a chapter index with links.  Here is an Amazon review:

I hadn't read The Secret Garden since I was a kid. I'm so glad I found it on Kindle and read it again as an adult! What a wonderful story! And as a free Kindle book, it's hard to pass up!


I gave it 4/5 stars only because the formatting didn't quite come out perfect (a few squares with question marks in it appeared). Still, it's easy to read despite the few errors.
So many people are re-discovering books they loved as children, that are now free on the Kindle.  Others are discovering literature they only knew by titles or perhaps from playing the card game "Authors!"  For whatever reason you might pick up "The Secret Garden," I think you will like it; I read it again a few years ago and it did not disappoint.


This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

The Virginian - by Owen Wister

The full title is apparently The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains but I have read it several times and only know it as The Virginian.  (£1.45 UK edition) (EUR 1,90 Deutsch edition)
What a good book this is!  It is one of the better Westerns and just a very absorbing, entertaining novel.  It was written in 1902, when we were not that far removed from what is termed "the old West."
It was now the Virginian's turn to bet, or leave the game, and he did not speak at once. Therefore Trampas spoke. "Your bet, you son-of-a—."
The Virginian's pistol came out, and his hand lay on the table, holding it unaimed. And with a voice as gentle as ever, the voice that sounded almost like a caress, but drawling a very little more than usual, so that there was almost a space between each word, he issued his orders to the man Trampas: "When you call me that, SMILE." And he looked at Trampas across the table.
Yes, the voice was gentle. But in my ears it seemed as if somewhere the bell of death was ringing; and silence, like a stroke, fell on the large room. All men present, as if by some magnetic current, had become aware of this crisis. In my ignorance, and the total stoppage of my thoughts, I stood stock-still, and noticed various people crouching, or shifting their positions.

Now some people say this narrator - a greenhorn who is friends with the eponymous protagonist -  mars the book.  Sometimes his presence is forced and perhaps he is annoying at times, but I can't say he interferes with my enjoyment of the novel.
It is deservedly well known as an iconic Western that was made into movies and a television show.  But, as a teenager I was delighted with the love story and I enjoyed re-reading it as an adult for the romance.  Which does not mean I don't enjoy a good throw down over cards!



This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Dracula - by Bram Stoker

Thank you to my Kindle UK readers who have made this the #1 literature blog on Amazon UK! 

From Sookie Stackhouse, through Victoria Winters, the lineage of vampire girlfriends ultimately leads back to Lucy, the victim of Count Dracula.

MINA MURRAY'S JOURNAL


26 July.--I am anxious, and it soothes me to express myself here. It is like whispering to one's self and listening at the same time. And there is also something about the shorthand symbols that makes it different from writing. I am unhappy about Lucy and about Jonathan. I had not heard from Jonathan for some time, and was very concerned, but yesterday dear Mr. Hawkins, who is always so kind, sent me a letter from him. I had written asking him if he had heard, and he said the enclosed had just been received. It is only a line dated from Castle Dracula, and says that he is just starting for home. That is not like Jonathan. I do not understand it, and it makes me uneasy.


Then, too, Lucy, although she is so well, has lately taken to her old habit of walking in her sleep. Her mother has spoken to me about it, and we have decided that I am to lock the door of our room every night.


Mrs. Westenra has got an idea that sleep-walkers always go out on roofs of houses and along the edges of cliffs and then get suddenly wakened and fall over with a despairing cry that echoes all over the place.

Dracula is an epistolary novel, told in letters, journal & diary snippets and newspaper articles. (UK edition) (Deutsch edition)  It is not a sexual romp as you often find in vampire novels these days – but readers of the Twilght series may find echos of the sublimated sex from that series.

As with all epistolary novels, the form sometimes causes awkward constructions.  See my emphasis below.

They have a legend here that when a ship is lost bells are heard out at sea. I must ask the old man about this. He is coming this way…

Of course it is not the only awkward moment . . .

He is a funny old man. He must be awfully old, for his face is gnarled and twisted like the bark of a tree. He tells me that he is nearly a hundred, and that he was a sailor in the Greenland fishing fleet when Waterloo was fought. He is, I am afraid, a very sceptical person, for when I asked him about the bells at sea and the White Lady at the abbey he said very brusquely,


"I wouldn't fash masel' about them, miss. Them things be all wore out. Mind, I don't say that they never was, but I do say that they wasn't in my time. They be all very well for comers and trippers, an' the like, but not for a nice young lady like you. Them feet-folks from York and Leeds that be always eatin' cured herrin's and drinkin' tea an' lookin' out to buy cheap jet would creed aught. I wonder masel' who'd be bothered tellin' lies to them, even the newspapers, which is full of fool-talk."

I am not quite sure what this is about, other than a little foreshadowing.

You can find traces of vampires in folklore and literature, but Dracula is the novel that engendered all the vampire novels we read today.  I hope the “comers and trippers, an' the like” here will enjoy this very popular download.


This blog is a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try. 
Join me on Twitter, FaceBook, or Pinterest.

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For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK readers may go to this Amazon link to subscribe.  (Slightly more than half my readers are from the UK)

US readers may go to this Amazon link

Thank to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it online.  I love to get good reviews!  Who wouldn't?  Should you care to leave a review, follow these links for UK readers or US readers.