What are the best public domain books that you’ve read? My currently downloaded books include “The Time Machine”, “Pride and Prejudice”, “Frankenstein”, “War and Peace”, “On Liberty”, “Metamorphosis” (all from Librivox), etc. I especially like “Crime and Punishment” and “Brothers Karamazov” and others by Dostoevsky since they delve deeper into human psychology, values, and morality. Also to add, Librivox is so fucking cool and now I have something to listen to on my daily bus/car rides.

  • KanadrAllegria@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    1 hour ago

    I absolutely adore Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

    As an aside, I tried so hard to read Crime and Punishment(twice), but I don’t think I ever finished it. Or if I did I can’t remember the ending. Maybe I had a bad translation, or maybe I have a short attention span, I don’t know…

    (Sorry for the edit, I hit send before I was done typing)

  • banazir@lemmy.ml
    1·
    1 hour ago

    I’m throwing in The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, which I really enjoyed, and The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin, which is a really interesting travel journal. Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne is also great. And since you like Dostoevsky, maybe try Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev?

    People always praise Frankenstein, but I thought it was poorly written and frankly nonsensical. Shelley’s The Last Man is better, but a bit dull.

  • garden@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    12·
    4 hours ago

    Not a book suggestion, but I cannot recommend Standard Ebooks highly enough as a source of public domain ebooks. Professionally typeset, with consistent standards, all while being free and volunteer-driven!

    • Brian@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      1 hour ago

      Thank you for the link. I didn’t know about Standard Ebooks: looks like a very broad range of material!

  • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    4·
    4 hours ago

    Frankenstein really is a fantastic read. Anything by Ray Bradbury, I read the short story “The Pedestrian” in school and it had a strong impression on me.

  • kaitco@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 hours ago

    The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

    Most people are aware of her children’s books like A Little Princess and The Secret Garden, but she wrote dozens of other books and short stories for adults. The Shuttle is probably one of my absolute favorite books, and I re-read at least once a year.

  • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
    7·
    6 hours ago

    Dostoevsky is amazing. I’m not sure I could have followed his writing over audiobook, though. Tolstoy is an obvious add if you like Russian lit.

    I haven’t read any of it in a while, but I loved anything by Jules Verne when I was a kid. Frankenstein is arguably one of the first science fiction books, but Verne really made it a genre.

    Not to be too much of a “the book is better than the movie”-person, but Les Miserables is really good and has a lot deeper meaning than the play or movie based on the play. The Count of Monte Cristo is also worth a read.

  • whoareu@lemmy.ca
    5·
    6 hours ago

    “Starting forth” the best book to learn about forth or programming in general