ELECTRON PRESS FREE BOOKS

Electron Press free books represent a special selection of the most interesting and hard to find public domain titles, all uniquely available here in both Adobe Acrobat PDF and PDA (prc) formats.  Additional titles will be made available frequently, so check back soon to see if we’ve added that lost classic you’ve been searching for.

Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio documents the inexorable mutation of slow-paced, rural small town life to the faster, . . . more Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio documents the inexorable mutation of slow-paced, rural small town life to the faster, harder, commercialized society brought by the industrial revolution as it matured and swept across the midwest. These interconnected stories are based on the town and people of Clyde, Ohio, where Anderson spent his boyhood near the end of the nineteenth century. The novel explores the adolescent's craving for newness and a limitless future, his desire to escape the stifling conformity and stale horizons of the old-fashioned small town, even as it reflects the adult's longing for a kinder, simpler, slower past. Written in a unique, haunting style that combines a brooding, lyrical attention to detail with a strong current of emotional and psychological insight, Winesburg, Ohio is an absolutely sui generis classic in the canon of American lit.

Download this book in PDA format (prc/"doc")
Download book in Acrobat pdf format (right click to download)

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

Herman Melville's Moby Dick is on one level simply the story of a man’s obsession with a whale . . . more Herman Melville's Moby Dick is on one level simply the story of a man’s obsession with a whale. Considered by most the ultimate classic of American literature, the book is so layered with shadings and meanings, so filled with facts and musings, that no review or critical book can do it justice. Although reading Moby Dick is a bit of a hard slog at times, the overwhelming beauty of Melville's language always saves the day.

Download this book in PDA format (prc/"doc")
Download book in Acrobat pdf format (right click to download)

Proposed Roads to Freedom

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell's Proposed Roads to Freedom is one of the best known introductions to the subjects of Marxism and Socialism . . . more Bertrand Russell's Proposed Roads to Freedom is one of the best known introductions to the subjects of Marxism and Socialism, Anarchism and Syndicalism. The book provides a concise overview from historical, philosophical, political and economic perspectives on these subjects. The eloquence of the great logician-philosopher’s writing style is illustrated by these first words from the book’s Introduction: "The attempt to conceive imaginatively a better ordering of human society than the destructive and cruel chaos in which mankind has hitherto existed is by no means modern: it is at least as old as Plato, whose Republic set the model for the Utopias of subsequent philosophers. Whoever contemplates the world in the light of an ideal . . . must feel a great sorrow in the evils that men needlessly allow to continue, and . . . an urgent desire to lead men to the realization of the good which inspires his creative vision. It is this desire which has been the primary force moving the pioneers of Socialism and Anarchism, as it moved the inventors of ideal commonwealths in the past."

Download this book in PDA format (prc/"doc")
Download book in Acrobat pdf format (right click to download)