Uncover Forgotten Gems in Classic Literature – For FREE!

If you’re looking to fill your bookshelves, classics are where it’s at. Whether you like pretty hardbacks or just want to read as much as you can for as little as possible, the out-of-copyright classics are unbeatable – accessible to be printed by all means that they can be bound, illustrated, or distributed by anyone… and the nonbinary royalty of free access to classics is Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg is typeset correctly, accessible to all, and 100% free of charge – when you know that it exists you need never pay for a shitty cash-grab ebook of something and be disappointed that it’s unreadable. Their website, though, can be a little hard to navigate, so here’s how you can find a scorching summer read in amongst the odd translations, the outdated nonfiction, and the multiple editions of the same book.

Remember: although in the UK (where I live) copyright has expired for works by authors and artists who passed away in or before 1954, Gutenberg works to US copyright laws, and, as such, nothing later than 1929 is available there. Old books it is, then.

Some tips for the Gutenberg surfer:

• beware translations, as the translation, too, must be out-of-copyright, meaning it was probably done by a rich white guy over 100 years ago and may affect the content and style of what you’re reading (Or: Why The Decameron You’re Reading Isn’t Gayer)
• I am a fan of reading online as it means you can dip in anywhere, but remember to keep a note of where you are (for example, copy into a OneNote document the last phrase you read to search the page for on the next device you use)
• I am once again shilling for StoryGraph, the superior book tracking app, on which you can search your TBR shelf specifically for books that were published in a specific date range. Import your Goodreads data, then search in your own wishlist for books from before 1929 to see if you can access any of them for free

It Used To Be Popular

The bestsellers of history have often faded into relative oblivion. Whether its fandom is literally dead, the author was socially rejected for some reason, or it’s just considered in the same way we look on popular fiction now, often books are propelled by discourse into something more. Sometimes that conversation continues (Harriet Beecher Stowe is benefitting from the emancipation movement even today), but generally it peters out, and what scandalised one generation is considered benign by the next.

Did you know that Dracula was outsold in its own time by another supernatural thriller? That women have always been just as successful as men? And that people were doing dances about the latest craze since 1860? Take a look at the much easier to navigate lists on Wikipedia or a knowledgable blog, search for a list of ‘forgotten [your interest] books’, or look into bestselling books from 1929 and before, and you’ll find them on Gutenberg. Or listen to me, your tame librarian, with some picks I think will suit if you like a bestseller:

• If you like romantasy for its ballrooms, villainous lovers, and strong heroines, try The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
• If you’ve been reading in the current trend of Korean and Japanese translated works, try The Bibliomaniac, which marries a cosy book theme with an undercurrent of violence and social commentary. Think Butter x Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, The Vegetarian x Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.
• If you appreciate that everything has a touch of spice in it these days, try Venus in Furs or Fanny Hill
• If you like a long series full of tropes, Walter Scott has got you.
• I’ve seen the movie of The Magnificent Ambersons and I would be surprised if I didn’t enjoy the book, though I haven’t yet gotten around to it. If you like reading the Booker shortlist, try this Pulitzer winner.
• If you like a villain era, you must meet Lydia Gwilt.
• If dark academia is your vibe, try Regiment of Women.

Some Books Feel Insane Now

Parody is not a genre that ages well. When you’re pretending to be the current Poet Laureate as a joke the humour is lost when that guy is lost to history. Peppered with references you don’t even know you’re missing, reading old parodies can feel full of non-sequiturs, characters who act entirely opposite to who they say they are, and heightened action… they can be a great way to learn about the past, or just engaged with on a surrealist level and screaming ‘wtf?!’ aloud.

• If you like joining in on memes from viral news, from feral hogs to the Coldplay couple, try Heinrich Heine’s Atta Troll. This salt king deserves to be remembered for more than a schmaltzy poem he wrote as a young man.
• If you like watching video essays multiple times because you missed a reference, try Nightmare Abbey, a satire of the British Romantics that confuses aspects of Byron and Percy Shelley… deliberately?
• If you know why Anne Rice isn’t welcome in fandom circles, try Shamela or Joseph Andrews, two books which are arguably better than the text they mock. But first do a cursory google on Colley Cibber or honestly you’ll be swimming against the current.
• If you’re interested in the Celtic or royal themes that keep cropping up in modern YA, why not try Castle Rackrent for a history of Ireland?
• If you want your satire to be about ordinary people you may have met, try Ship of Fools.

History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, It Rhymes

Yes, we are in hell. But! Hell has come to us before, and other people felt it, and we can take solace from their experience of hell, which looked different to the hell we are currently in.

• If you want to feel like you’re at a bacchanalia mocking the powerful whilst ultimately being reminded they have all the power, try The Beggar’s Opera.
• If you still want to believe in change, try Sybil.
• If you’ve felt we were in hell for years but oh god it just keeps getting worse, try the Parade’s End series.
• If you’re experiencing hell flavoured burnout, try New Grub Street.

I Just Wish Things Were Nicer

Children’s literature is gatekept and guarded, but there are so many peculiar,  charming, or influential stories that are accessible through Gutenberg. I would beware of giving them to an actual child until you have read them yourself and are happy with the religious angle or the morals, but do enjoy escaping into a world where things just… work out.

• If you want to remember to value your own education and prospects, try Daddy Long Legs.
• If you want to be the heroine of your own story and believe in the power of agency, try Pollyanna.
• If you want the anarchic, comedic violence that has always been popular in children’s stories, try Hilaire Belloc.
• If you want an imaginative fantasy series by a socialist, you need Edith Nesbit (the second one is better, though)
• If you want heartbreaking stories with a queer lens and a Romantic bent, you need Oscar Wilde

POC voices from history

When we discuss classic novels, we often see only white voices. This is ridiculous: feminists have shown how easy it is to replace women to their rightful place in the canon, and queer theorists have shown that queer voices have always been speaking. Why, then, is it such an outrage to practice critical race theory? Even if you are opposed to the theory, you cannot deny the value in reading the voices of people of colour and seeing their representation in media from the past. We have an understanding of how we think race relations were before our own times, and it would behove us to read more widely and experience the full spectrum of voices sharing their own experiences, often as people of colour but also living alongside other races and easily able to empathise with them.

• Israel Rank became the movie Kind Hearts and Coronets, and I’ve wanted to read it for years. I have legitimately no idea what the vibe will be, but one core difference from the film is that the half-Italian main character was originally Jewish, and the racism that is arguably a kind of classism in the movie is explicitly antisemitic in the book. I do not think that the author was Jewish (and I have in fact included Benjamin Disraeli, still Britain’s only Prime Minister of Jewish heritage, in another section) but it is nonetheless interesting to see a deliberately provocative and progressive voice from history highlight issues that are still at the forefront of public debate today.
• The Eatonville Anthology by Zora Neale Hurston is vignettes from historical African-American life. I want it to be nice, I want to see people of colour getting to enjoy moments in history.
• Another collection of vignettes from a Harlem Renaissance author is Cane by Jean Toomer. This one is set in the south, rather than the north, and shows again the multiplicity of black experiences with fully-realised black characters.
• One cannot discuss out-of-copyright black voices without the memoirs of enslaved people. This are never pleasant reads, but they were sensational for a reason: it is unthinkable to treat a human this way. The movie Twelve Years A Slave was based on one narrative, but so many people lived under slavery that we cannot just let one voice speak. Try Mary Prince, Harriet Jacobs (written under a pseudonym), or Charles Ball, who all experienced slavery in different places and under different enslavers. For a unique and more positive experience of these horrific times, try Phyllis Wheatley, whose enslavement was ended due to her incredible intellect and who lived free among the black community making a living from her pen.
• Olive Schreiner, another white campaigner, wrote The Story of an African Farm, which was one of my set texts in the postcolonial module I took as an undergrad. Whilst Schreiner herself was white I found this text valuable as a reminder that there was a black experience in South Africa before Apartheid, and to know about the multi- and inter-racial experiences globally historically.
• I do not know enough about Native America to recommend anything, but I am pleased to share the Gutenberg shelf full of Native history. This in itself is a valuable way to browse Gutenberg: choose a topic you’d like to know more about and explore the works they’ve tagged as belonging to that group. They contain ‘ripping yarns’ from the time, of course, but also autobiographies, ethnographies, and legends and stories from that culture.

On This Topic:

• A fun fact: Peter Pan is not in the public domain and in fact has a special act of parliament protecting its copyright, as J M Barrie gifted its rights to Britain’s foremost children’s hospital.
• One cannot recommend The Beggar’s Opera without mentioning its descendant The Threepenny Opera. Excellent versions available from the NT and Studio 54, but the original film is also out of copyright.
• I can’t believe I had to explain the feral hogs thing to my husband because of this week’s episode of Tasting History. He was never addicted to Twitter.

To-Do:

• Finish listening to new WAS album. It’s not their fault I never have more than half an hour at a time for music.
• Send hours to work.
• Book dental appointment.

Today’s Culture:

• I’m currently reading a fantastic modern book with an incredible title: You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty.
• I recently bought some stamps for my journal, after searching for ones that would be reusable. As such, I’m ISO a nice bronzey stamp pad (I only have silver rn)
• I am enjoying the rain so much, long may this cool weather last!!