The Wreck of the Titan or, Futility - by Morgan Robertson

Free US/UK Kindle Classic published
years before the Titanic sank and
predicting its fate!

Long winter nights lend themselves to contemplation.  Sometimes that contemplation is of inexplicable coincidence.  How is it, for example, that a book could be written about an unsinkable ship, the Titan, which hit an iceberg and sank with insufficient lifeboats?  Easy you say, there have been thousands of riffs on the sinking of the Titanic!  Yes, but only one was written years before the sinking . . .

The Wreck of the Titan or, Futility by American author Morgan Robertson was a short novel written 14 years before the Titanic sank. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  

 It was originally titled Futility and was published in 1898.  It was republished after the Titanic sinking with this updated title, but the only change was to bring the Titan's tonnage in line with the Titanic.  The other similarities to the Titanic, right down to the watertight compartments, were in the original edition. 

I often owe a debt to Wikipedia.  After you read the book, see their compilation of these coincidences.  SPOILER ALERT, you have to page past a plot summary on Wikipedia to read about the many similarities between the Titan's fate and the Titanic's sad ending.

And while I am giving Wikipedia credit, see also the fascinating article on the author, Morgan Robertson, who was a sailor who saw how a ship called "unsinkable" could be overcome by an ice berg.  It is not unthinkable that a passenger on the Titanic might have brought this book aboard. 
Perhaps a foreboding overtook them and they set this book aside . . .

From the bridge, engine-room, and a dozen places on her deck the ninety-two doors of nineteen water-tight compartments could be closed in half a minute by turning a lever. These doors would also close automatically in the presence of water. With nine compartments flooded the ship would still float, and as no known accident of the sea could possibly fill this many, the steamship Titan was considered practically unsinkable.

Shivers . . .

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.

Penrod - by Booth Tarkington

Free US/UK Kindle Classic

Once upon a time, a Hoosier child (Indiana was a state famous for authors, so we had a lot of readers) would read Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Penrod.  Who?  Penrod was an Indiana "Huck Finn" - with smoother edges- created by Hoosier author, Booth Tarkington in 1914. (US Edition)  (UK Edition)  

A bitter soul dominated the various curved and angular surfaces known by a careless world as the face of Penrod Schofield. Except in solitude, that face was almost always cryptic and emotionless; for Penrod had come into his twelfth year wearing an expression carefully trained to be inscrutable. Since the world was sure to misunderstand everything, mere defensive instinct prompted him to give it as little as possible to lay hold upon. Nothing is more impenetrable than the face of a boy who has learned this, and Penrod's was habitually as fathomless as the depth of his hatred this morning for the literary activities of Mrs. Lora Rewbush--an almost universally respected fellow citizen, a lady of charitable and poetic inclinations, and one of his own mother's most intimate friends.

Oh yes, Penrod has to appear in a children's play!  It is the end of the world . . .

UK readers will enjoy this as well. Penrod is very much an "everyboy."

He must wear a costume for the play:

The upper part of his body was next concealed from view by a garment so peculiar that its description becomes difficult. In 1886, Mrs. Schofield, then unmarried, had worn at her "coming-out party" a dress of vivid salmon silk which had been remodelled after her marriage to accord with various epochs of fashion until a final, unskilful campaign at a dye-house had left it in a condition certain to attract much attention to the wearer. Mrs. Schofield had considered giving it to Della, the cook; but had decided not to do so, because you never could tell how Della was going to take things, and cooks were scarce.

Dog lovers, there is a beautifully delineated portrait of Duke:

And then there are those quiet moments that bring back childhood more clearly than play . . .

And now, a plaintive little whine sounded from below Penrod's feet, and, looking down, he saw that Duke, his wistful, old, scraggly dog sat in the grass, gazing seekingly up at him. The last shaft of sunshine of that day fell graciously and like a blessing upon the boy sitting on the fence. Years afterward, a quiet sunset would recall to him sometimes the gentle evening of his twelfth birthday, and bring him the picture of his boy self, sitting in rosy light upon the fence, gazing pensively down upon his wistful, scraggly, little old dog, Duke.

Don't let Penrod remain neglected and fall further into obscurity.  Booth Tarkington is America's most forgotten and underrated author.  He twice won the Pulitzer for excellent novels, but once upon a time it was Penrod that made him beloved, not his awards or prize winning novels.

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.