Today, the Internet is full of great, free resources for your literary reading pleasure – whether you prefer full-length books, short stories, or poetry. Great literature has been making the migration to the electronic format for years, but now, with big companies and universities getting into the act, the number of high-quality free e-books has never been greater. The resources that follow include some of the best sites for free literature, including books, short stories, and poetry in many styles.
Books
A huge number of books written before the advent of modern copyright legislation are now in the public domain, to be adapted and transmitted by any organization with the determination and patience to do so. Thanks to that fact, and recent advances in communications technology, thousands of free electronic books are available on the Internet, many of them faithful reproductions of literary classics from around the world.
Project Gutenberg: One of the oldest and best-established websites devoted to hand digitization of published books in the public domain. Includes a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction full-text e-books covering works from the 20th century to the Middle Ages.
The Online Books Page at UPenn: Collection of over 35,000 full-text free books verified by the University of Pennsylvania. Searchable by author, title, subject, and date; new listings are added on a regular basis.
Questia Online Library: Over five thousand books, including classic literary works from authors like Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, and more. Also includes nonfiction literary and scholarly works from major thinkers like Freud and others.
Classic Book Library: Collection of electronic books divided by subject, including historical fiction, romance, children’s literature, science fiction, and mystery. Also includes a selection of nonfiction scientific and historical texts.
Great Literature Online: Full-length and short works from a collection of over 100 classic authors, including great American writers, orators and thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome, and philosophers past and present. Includes a good mix of fiction and nonfiction.
Free Books at the Internet Public Library: Includes books in the categories classical literature, classical Chinese texts, English literature, drama, poetry, legends and myths, and contemporary fiction. Also includes further Internet resources for finding more free books and poetry online.
Authorama: Public Domain Books: Index of illustrated, well-formatted full-length works covering a range of subjects.
Free eBooks: Collection of literature including world, American, classical British, modern British, and more. Also includes nonfiction music, philosophy, religion, science, and travel, among others.
Read Print Library: Searchable database including works from authors like Agatha Christie, George Orwell, O. Henry, Robert Frost, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and more.
Free Books From the Literature Network: Works from over two hundred classic writers.
LibriVox: Unique free service for distributing electronic versions of books in the public domain.
Bartleby: Great Books Online: Easily accessible index of fiction and nonfiction works including some unusual categories like Arabian literature, presidential inauguration speeches, and more.
Classic Bookshelf: Searchable index of electronic books with variable font and size for more convenient reading.
Read Books Online: Full text novels, short stories, poems, essays, and plays.
Chest of Books: Variety of books on art, architecture, business, finance, cooking, New Age, and other topics. Covers a larger selection of topics than most other sites, and includes scanned illustrations for some of the texts.
Public Literature: Books in HTML, plain text, .pdf and audio formats.
Bibliomania: Free books, poems, articles, short stories, and dramatic works. Some works also include complementary study guides.
International Children’s Digital Library: Richly illustrated free books for children. Presented as a series of slides directly in the browser; no need for further downloads or software.
Public Bookshelf: Free online romance novels by contemporary authors.
Perseus Digital Library: Free service of Tufts University focusing on classical fiction, history, and philosophy texts from the ancient Mediterranean world.
DailyLit: Free texts across a range of nonfiction and fiction types, also including some non-English texts in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Fiction eBooks: Index of classical American novels and short stories.
Children’s Storybooks Online: Free online children’s stories presented as a series of scans. Vivid illustrations and very fast-loading.
Short Stories
It can be a bit trickier finding good examples of the art of short story writing on the Internet. Among fans, even defining what exactly qualifies as a short story can be difficult! Even so, many works of great authors are freely available online. These include staples like Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and dozens of others from the golden age of American and British short story writing, as well as many contemporary writers who are doing their part to keep the tradition of literary short fiction alive.
Classic Short Stories Online: Searchable index of classic short stories.
Classic Short Stories: Full text from renown American and British authors.
Classic Reader: Includes free books, fiction, nonfiction, and short stories.
East of the Web: Large website devoted to short stories and short story anthologies from contemporary writers.
The Richmond Review: Online literary journal featuring short stories, essays, and poetry primarily from recent British authors.
Robert Burton Robinson Online: Free short stories from this author of suspense and mystery. Also includes free novels from several different series by Robinson.
Rob Hopcott and Friends: Free online fiction in short and long format, including resources for finding more free reading material online.
Free Speculative Fiction Online: Free contemporary and classic science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative fiction, from current and historical authors. Includes short fiction sourced from major magazines throughout the early 20th century.
Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe: Complete works of the renowned author of horror short stories and poetry. Also includes timeline, histories, and other resources related to Poe’s life.
Short Stories by Mark Twain: Collections of dozens of short stories from the iconic American author.
Langston Hughes Links: Works and other resources on the works of Langston Hughes.
The World of Jack London: Detailed retrospective website about Jack London, including free works – novels, nonfiction, poetry, short stories, essays, journalism and plays.
American Classic Literature: Full text of twenty significant stories in the history of American literature, including pieces by Shirley Jackson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ambrose Bierce, Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, and others.
Poetry
Poetry is one of the oldest, and traditionally one of the most respected, literary art forms in the world. Literary fiction, dramatic works, and a wide range of other artistic products all incorporate elements of poetry – and poetry itself can be among the most emotionally stirring of all creative works. As one would expect, the Internet is home to thousands of collections of poetry, from the works of Shakespeare to American poets of the 19th century and works from authors all over the globe.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Complete works of the legendary bard, including drama and poetry, as compiled and verified by staff of the university newspaper of MIT.
Works of E.E. Cummings Online: Brief selection of the most memorable poems from the classic American poet and essayist.
Academy of American Poets: Emily Dickinson: Biography and works of Emily Dickinson. Same website includes similar archives for other classic American poets.
Famous Poetry Online: Free archive of classic poetry principally in the American and British traditions. Poetry is arranged by subject, including Christian, romantic, sad, funny, and others.
Poem Hunter: Searchable archives of thousands of poems from across the spectrum of English-language poetry. Includes a thriving community with commentary on each poem.
Poetry Archive: Recordings of historic and contemporary American poets reading their work, available free of charge.
Poetry America: Index of hundreds of poetical works organized by theme and author.
Poems For Free: Another large, free thematic index of classic and modern poetry.
Death is in my coffee: Dark Poetry/Finding inspiration from darkness and tragedy by author Frank DeF.
Black Cat Poems: Site devoted to “darker” classic poetry. Themes covered include death, funerals, war, religion, and more.
Complete Classics: Over a thousand poems from 200 writers, presented in the form of complete bibliographies of each poet.
e-Poems: Love poems, poetry advice, and further Internet poetry resources from a contemporary author.
Famous Poets and Poems: Top poetry from Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein, and other celebrated poets.
Tears in a Bottle Collection: Christian poetry inspired by Biblical verses. Includes links to a variety of other poetry resources and communities.
World of Poets: Free contemporary poetry and other content catering to a worldwide community of contemporary poets who post and critique one another’s work.
Shadow Poetry: Works from 32 renowned poets, mainly of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Famous Poems Library: More works from dozens of great poets, searchable by author’s name and name of poem.
American Poetry Review: Respected journal of contemporary poetry that offers free access to recent poems and other content.
These works are some of the most influential in American history. These writings continue to inspire and be imitated. Often these works are printed at home for use in school assignments. Be sure and stock up on ink and toner cartridges.
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