Kindle E-Books on the Cheap: A Weekly Selection (12 Jan 2009)

Once you've purchased an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, the wonderful world of public domain, Creative Commons and free e-book promotions opens up to you. In this weekly Kindle Reader feature, I point you to a few of the most interesting new free (or very cheap) e-books available for download from the web.

Free e-book selections for this week include an historical adventure of derring-do that you may remember from your childhood, the complete tragedies of Shakespeare in one omnibus edition, one of the most popular mystery tales of Mary Robert Rinehart, the American Agatha Christie, and verses of an English poet often called the third great Victorian poet, after Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning.

The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Emma Orczy, 1865-1947. HISTORICAL FICTION. Download site: Feedbooks. Format: Mobipocket/Kindle. Price: Free.
"Baroness Emma Orczy ... was a British novelist, playwright and artist of Hungarian noble origin. She was most notable for her series of novels featuring the Scarlet Pimpernel. Some of her paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. In this historical adventure set during the French Revolution, the elusive Scarlet Pimpernel sets out to rescue men, women and children facing the horrors of the guillotine, while evading the relentless pursuit of his arch enemy, Chauvelin." - Feedbooks.

Other Scarlet Pimpernel novels available at Feedbooks include I Will Repay (1906),The Elusive Pimpernel (1908), El Dorado (1913) and The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1919). Film versions of the Scarlet Pimpernel include the perennial favorite 1934 Leslie Howardvehicle and a more recent (1982) version with Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour.

The Complete Tragedies, by William Shakespeare, 1564-1616. PLAYS. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: Free.
This omnibus edition includes all the tragedies of the Bard: Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Otello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus and Troilus and Cressida.

The Bat, by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) and Avery Hopwood. MYSTERY. Download site: MobileRead. Format: Mobi/PRC. Price: Free.
"Neither threats nor unearthly sounds could budge Miss Cornelia from the isolated country mansion she shared with her pretty niece, hysterical maid, laconic butler, and the nice young man who just might be a fugitive. Even knowing that she was a prime target for the vicious, elusive killer known as The Bat didn't faze this spirited spinster. Miss Cornelia longed to play detective, and on a storm-swept night, she got her chance at the game and her turn at The Bat!" - Amazon.

"Mary Roberts Rinehart ... was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase 'The butler did it', although she did not actually use the phrase herself, and also considered to have invented the 'Had-I-But-Known' school of mystery writing. The Bat (1920) was a play first, then got turned in a movie and this novel. It is one of Rinehart's most popular mystery stories." - MobileRead.

Poetical Works, by Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888. POETRY. Download site: ManyBooks. Format: Kindle. Price: Free.
Poetry by the author of Dover Beach. Matthew Arnold was an English poet, and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools to pay the bills. Read more about Matthew Arnold and his poetry at Poet Seers.