# Your favorite public domain literature? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816 "2013-05-08T17:06:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/1 "2013-05-08T17:06:14Z")
[ul] [li] **Roughing It** by Mark Twain (It was either this or Huckleberry Finn but I think Roughing It holds up on repeated readings. I read that one of the Apollo missions took a copy with them.)[/li][li] **Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads** by Rudyard Kipling (It was either this or Kim but this fine collection of poetry I can return to again and again. My grandfather kept a copy with him during his service in the war.)[/li][li] **Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary** (It was either this or Candide, but as with the Kipling selection, I can revisit this collection of essays.)[/li][li] **The Importance of Being Earnest** by Oscar Wilde (Great social satire combined with great dialogue.)[/li][li] **Aesop’s Fables** (Not just for children, really)[/li][li] **The Art of War** by Sun Tzu (Not just for the battlefield, really)[/li][/ul] [Twenty Places for Public Domain E-Books](http://mashable.com/2007/11/12/public-domain-ebook-sources/) ---
**Author:** ![Nom\_de\_Plume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/2 "2013-05-08T18:15:00Z")
_The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle _The Complete Works of William Shakespeare_ by William Shakespeare (seemingly) Pretty much everything by Edgar Rice Burroughs ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/3 "2013-05-08T18:42:29Z")
The \*Sherlock Holmes \*stories \*Little Fuzzy \*by H. Beam Piper ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/4 "2013-05-08T19:45:47Z")
> [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#): > > Pretty much everything by Edgar Rice Burroughs I once met a person who, like me, was a huge ERB fan. Once we started talking though, we soon discovered that we had not read one book in common. He had read all the Tarzan books while I had pretty much read everything _not_ Tarzan, e.g. Mars, Venus, Moon, etc. ERB wrote a lot of books. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/5 "2013-05-08T19:48:21Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > \*Little Fuzzy \*by H. Beam Piper Wow, didn’t realize it was public domain [but it is](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137). ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/6 "2013-05-08T19:52:02Z")
Sherlock Holmes, nearly anything by Twain, Alice in Wonderland (and Through the Looking Glass), the writings of James Branch Cabell (especially The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck) and G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories and The Man Who Was Thursday. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/7 "2013-05-08T20:31:18Z")
The Phantom of the Opera is in public domain. Considering all the money the musical has made, Leroux’s descendants must be seeing red. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/8 "2013-05-08T20:42:23Z")
Australia’s Project Gutenberg has _Gone With the Wind_ and some works by Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and others that are still protected in the U.S… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/9 "2013-05-08T20:55:21Z")
Pretty much Mark Twain. I agree with standingwave in that \*Roughing It \*is great, but The Innocents Abroad is great too. Here’s anotehr treasure: [http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/twainold/twain.html](http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/twainold/twain.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/10 "2013-05-08T20:58:46Z")
Carroll’s Alice books. Sheridan LaFanu’s Carmilla. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/11 "2013-05-08T21:10:57Z")
The juvenile novels of Horatio Alger, Jr. Classic 19th-century three-decker novels by Trollope, Eliot, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/12 "2013-05-08T22:51:36Z")
There’s good stuff coming available every year. Some of my public domain free e-book treasures include works by E.F. Benson, E.M. Delafield, Colette, Ada Leverson, Proust, Elizabeth Gaskell, Jane Austen, E.H. Young, and Emily Eden. I also love \*The Young Visiters \*(sic) by Daisy Ashford. I also have found some good oldies for kids that I love to reread: Frances Hodgson Burnett, E. Nesbit, _The Princess and Curdie_ by George MacDonald, _The Swiss Family Robinson_, _The Story of Live Dolls_ by Josephine Scribner Gates. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/13 "2013-05-09T15:49:27Z")
Twain. Dickens. Frankenstein-keep going back to that one. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/14 "2013-05-09T16:07:15Z")
I agree with Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, G. K. Chesterton, and Lewis Carroll. And when I was a kid I loved Frank Baum’s _Oz_ books. ---
**Author:** ![Implicit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Implicit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Implicit)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/15 "2013-05-09T17:00:20Z")
\*Hunger \*by Knut Hamsen _Daughter of Time_ by Josephine Tey _The Picture of Dorian Grey_ by Oscar Wilde _The Secret Garden_ by Frances Hodgson Burnett _Ethan Frome_ by Edith Wharton ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/16 "2013-05-09T17:28:37Z")
Two of my favourites are **Vanity Fair** and **David Copperfield**. (Thackeray and Dickens have their fair share of clunkers, though.) ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/17 "2013-05-09T18:08:45Z")
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” I never tire of **Pride and Prejudice**. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/18 "2013-05-09T18:28:27Z")
Out of the books that no one has mentioned yet: _War and Peace_ - Leo Tolstoy _Anna Karenina_ - Leo Tolstoy ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-public-domain-literature/657816/19 "2013-05-09T19:38:09Z")
I just read for free on my Kindle **The Diary of a Nobody** , by George and Weedon Grosmith. It’s a short comic novel, originally published in England in the 1890s. It purports to be the diary of a somewhat stuck up, somewhat small-minded middle class man the era. It’s amusing and has a quirky charm, although I think some of the reviews on Amazon are overly-enthusiastic. > **[The Diary of a Nobody](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_nobody)** > > The Diary of a Nobody is an English comic novel written by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in Punch magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in book form, with extended text and added illustrations, in 1892. The Diary records the daily events in the lives of a London clerk, Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son William Lupin, and numerous friends and acquaintances over a period of 15 months. > Before their coll... > **[Diary of a Nobody - Kindle edition by Grossmith, George, Grossmith, Weedon....](https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Nobody-George-Grossmith-ebook/dp/B000JMKX4W)** > > Diary of a Nobody - Kindle edition by Grossmith, George, Grossmith, Weedon. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Diary of a Nobody. It was made into a 2007 one-man BBC TV movie staring Hugh Bonneville (of Downton Abby fame.) Again, while not the best thing I’ve ever seen, the movie has its quirky charm. > **[The Diary of a Nobody (TV Movie 2007) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0944833/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)** > > The Diary of a Nobody: Directed by Susanna White. With Hugh Bonneville. Comic misadventures of a middle-class clerk named Charles Pooter whose snobbery and social aspirations far outpace his lowly station in life.