The Return of Sherlock Holmes - by Arthur Conan Doyle

Free Kindle Classic US & UK
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
- by Arthur Conan Doyle

You can never read too much Sherlock Holmes!  Back in 2010, I reviewed The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Now, I offer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1905 collection of short stories, The Return of Sherlock Holmes. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  

You may recall Lestrade of Scotland Yard . . .

"Anything remarkable on hand?" he [Lestrade] asked.

"Oh, no, Mr. Holmes—nothing very particular."

"Then tell me about it."

Lestrade laughed. "Well, Mr. Holmes, there is no use denying that there IS something on my mind. And yet it is such an absurd business, that I hesitated to bother you about it. On the other hand, although it is trivial, it is undoubtedly queer, and I know that you have a taste for all that is out of the common. But, in my opinion, it comes more in Dr. Watson's line than ours."

"Disease?" said I.

"Madness, anyhow. And a queer madness, too. You wouldn't think there was anyone living at this time of day who had such a hatred of Napoleon the First that he would break any image of him that he could see."

Holmes sank back in his chair. "That's no business of mine," said he.

That passage just feels so familiar, like easing into house slippers after being on your feet all day.  Although, I believe Holmes kept tobacco in his slippers!

If you do not know these stories, I envy you the chance to discover them for the first time.  And if you already know the reason for this “queer madness,” enjoy the story within the story by focusing on the relationship between Holmes and those in his small circle of acquaintances. 

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

US readers, 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.

Kidnapped - by Robert Louis Stevenson

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Kidnapped
- by Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped is an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  

These editions are called “Dover Children's Evergreen Classics,” but this is well known as a children’s book read by adults.  It is probably the precocious child who reads Stevenson these days . . .

I asked him if he had ever heard tell of a house they called the house of Shaws.

He stopped his cart and looked at me, like the others.

"Ay" said he. "What for?"

"It's a great house?" I asked.

"Doubtless," says he. "The house is a big, muckle house."

"Ay," said I, "but the folk that are in it?"

"Folk?" cried he. "Are ye daft? There's nae folk there--to call folk."

"What?" say I; "not Mr. Ebenezer?"

"Ou, ay" says the man; "there's the laird, to be sure, if it's him you're wanting. What'll like be your business, mannie?"

"I was led to think that I would get a situation," I said, looking as modest as I could.

"What?" cries the carter, in so sharp a note that his very horse started; and then, "Well, mannie," he added, "it's nane of my affairs; but ye seem a decent-spoken lad; and if ye'll take a word from me, ye'll keep clear of the Shaws."

Yes, it is a mystery, and redolent with Scottish dialect.  You will probably have a burr in your voice when you have finished following the kidnapped protagonist on his journey home to reclaim his inheritance.

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

US readers, 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.

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man - by James Weldon Johnson

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The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
- by James Weldon Johnson

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a 1912 novel by James Weldon Johnson, an early black writer.  It is a story of a man crossing the color line.(US Edition)  (UK Edition)  

He starts his schooling as a white boy in an integrated classroom.

I shall never forget how she turned on me. "Don't you ever use that word again," she said, "and don't you ever bother the colored children at school. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." I did hang my head in shame, not because she had convinced me that I had done wrong, but because I was hurt by the first sharp word she had ever given me.

It is well written and provocative:

I became interested in the life of Christ, but became impatient and disappointed when I found that, notwithstanding the great power he possessed, he did not make use of it when, in my judgment, he most needed to do so. And so my first general impression of the Bible was what my later impression has been of a number of modern books, that the authors put their best work in the first part, and grew either exhausted or careless toward the end.

I think you will find this work is sustained right straight through.

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

US readers, 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.

The Adventures of Roderick Random- by Tobias Smollett

Free Kindle Classic US & UK
The Adventures of Roderick Random
- by Tobias Smollett

The Adventures of Roderick Random, is a Tobias Smollett novel from 1748 that is hysterical and a reminder that humor is not a new literary device. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)

There is a familiar beginning, with what I find to be a laugh out loud twist.

Of my Birth and Education

I was born in the northern part of this united kingdom, in the house of my grandfather, a gentleman of considerable fortune and influence, who had on many occasions signalised himself in behalf of his country; and was remarkable for his abilities in the law, which he exercised with great success in the station of a judge, particularly against beggars, for whom he had a singular aversion.

I like this chapter heading too:

 CHAPTER IV

My Grandfather makes his Will—our second Visit—he Dies—his Will is read in Presence of all his living Descendants—the Disappointment of my female Cousins—my Uncle's Behaviour

So if this is your cup of tea, you are in for a rollicking ride! 

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

US readers, 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.

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - by M.R. James

Free Kindle Classic US & UK
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
- by M.R. James

A recent New Yorker article was about M.R. James and how his stories have recently been republished.  Of course, I immediately went to look for the originals and you are in luck.  Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is a 1904 collection of still creepy stories by M.R. James. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)

(The scene is a church)

'Won't you go home?' he said at last; 'I'm quite well able to finish my notes alone; you can lock me in if you like. I shall want at least two hours more here, and it must be cold for you, isn't it?'

'Good heavens!' said the little man, whom the suggestion seemed to throw into a state of unaccountable terror, 'such a thing cannot be thought of for a moment. Leave monsieur alone in the church? No, no; two hours, three hours, all will be the same to me. I have breakfasted, I am not at all cold, with many thanks to monsieur.'

'Very well, my little man,' quoth Dennistoun to himself: 'you have been warned, and you must take the consequences.'

Reviewers of these stories emphasize their ability to raise the hair on your arms – which is more than many newer ghost stories can say.  No ghost like an old ghost!

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

US readers, 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.

Captain Blood - by Rafael Sabatini

Free Kindle Classic US & cheap UK
Captain Blood
- by Rafael Sabatini

Captain Blood is a 1922 novel by Rafael Sabatini. (US Edition)  (£1.29 UK Edition)  [Please note the UK index is part of a multi-novel collection.  The novel on its own is much more pricey.]  It was popular as a novel and popular as a film with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone.

Here is a bit from a home invasion where the military is looking for, and finding rebels:

Then the Captain stepped to the press, and pulled open one of the wings of its massive oaken door. He took the huddled inmate by the collar of his doublet, and lugged him out into the open.

"And who the devil's this?" quoth he. "Another nobleman?"

Mr. Blood had a vision of those gallows of which Captain Hobart had spoken, and of this unfortunate young shipmaster going to adorn one of them, strung up without trial, in the place of the other victim of whom the Captain had been cheated. On the spot he invented not only a title but a whole family for the young rebel.

"Faith, ye've said it, Captain. This is Viscount Pitt, first cousin to Sir Thomas Vernon, who's married to that slut Moll Kirke, sister to your own colonel, and sometime lady in waiting upon King James's queen."

It is a great adventure tale with a quick thinking accidental Irish pirate!

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

US readers, 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.

Our Mutual Friend - by Charles Dickens

US/UK Kindle Classic

Happy 200^th Birthday, Charles Dickens!  What better way to celebrate than download a free copy of Our Mutual Friend.  (US Edition)  (UK Edition) This is Dickens last completed novel and it was published in 1865.  It is not one of his most popular, but it has an enthusiastic following among those who have read it. It is somehow closer to the sensibilities of our time, because it has a dark humor.

He was shy, and unwilling to own to the name of Reginald, as being too aspiring and self-assertive a name. In his signature he used only the initial R., and imparted what it really stood for, to none but chosen friends, under the seal of confidence. Out of this, the facetious habit had arisen in the neighbourhood surrounding Mincing Lane of making christian names for him of adjectives and participles beginning with R. Some of these were more or less appropriate: as Rusty, Retiring, Ruddy, Round, Ripe, Ridiculous, Ruminative; others, derived their point from their want of application: as Raging, Rattling, Roaring, Raffish. But, his popular name was Rumty, which in a moment of inspiration had been bestowed upon him by a gentleman of convivial habits connected with the drug-markets, as the beginning of a social chorus, his leading part in the execution of which had led this gentleman to the Temple of Fame, and of which the whole expressive burden ran:

Thus he was constantly addressed, even in minor notes on business, as 'Dear Rumty'; in answer to which, he sedately signed himself, 'Yours truly, R. Wilfer.'

Dickens gave us so many memorable novels and characters that it is a pleasure to be able to continue to discover them.  Here’s to Rumty and to Our Mutual Friend!

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

US readers, 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.

The Taming of Red Butte Western - by Francis Lynde

US/UK Kindle Classic

The Taming of Red Butte Western is a 1910 novel by Francis Lynde.  (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  

The word “Western” in the title actually refers not to the genre, but to the name of a railroad, the “Red Butte Western Railroad.”  The British Kindle edition which I cannot download because I have a US Kindle is annotated.  What is to annotate?  Maybe they want to be sure you know "butte" rhymes with "cute."

And for the UK Edition, instead of the usual boring cover that you see for free books, there is no cover shown.  The placeholder is a Manga style drawing of a woman shaving her legs.  (Apparently Amazon reads my blog, because the picture and the reference to "annotations" have been removed.

But if it is the same book (and I am sure it is), you are in for a treat!

Pitching over the hilltop summit, within a minute of each other, the two trains raced down the first few curving inclines almost as one. Mile after mile was covered, and still the perilous situation remained unchanged. Down the short tangents and around the constantly recurring curves the special seemed to be towing the passenger at the end of an invisible but dangerously short drag-rope. 

Lidgerwood began to grow uneasy. On the straight-line stretches the following train appeared to be rushing onward to an inevitable rear-end collision with the one-car special; and where the track swerved to right or left around the hills, the pursuing smoke trail rose above the intervening hill-shoulders near and threatening. With the parts of a great machine whirling in unison and nicely timed to escape destruction, a small accident to a single cog may spell disaster.

What would a railroad novel be without the chance of a train wreck?

Here is a pithy review from one of those perspicacious Amazon reviewers.

"Even though this was written long ago the characters are not much different from those of today. The main character is a man troubled by a personal demon who must try to bring a recalcitrant bunch of RR workers back into line. I loved the old RR terminology of the steam era. The story line in this Western was pretty interesting too. A good free read well worth the download.”

He forgot to mention there is a romance . . .

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

US readers, 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.