Free to read

174 Classic Books You Can Read Free Online

1605 to 1929, in three eras

Copyright expires, and when it does a book belongs to everyone. These 174 titles are old enough to read free and legally right now, and every one of them won a major prize or earned a place on one of our curated lists. Standard Ebooks supplies the carefully typeset editions and Project Gutenberg the rest. Nothing here costs anything, and we earn nothing when you click.

Books by era

Oldest first. Long eras are shelved by decade so you can land on the one you want.

Before 1800

7 books in 7 decades

1600s

1660s

1670s

1710s

1720s

1750s

1770s

The Nineteenth Century

85 books in 9 decades

1810s

1820s

1830s

1840s

1850s

1860s

1870s

1880s

1890s

The Prize Years, 1900 to 1929

82 books in 3 decades

1900s

1910s

1920s

Where these come from

Every text here is hosted by Standard Ebooks or Project Gutenberg, both of which publish only books whose copyright has expired. We link what they hold rather than judging copyright ourselves, so a book appears here when one of them has cleared and published it.