Every Friday, Marilyn Knapp Litt, who blogs at ClassicKindle.com, brings us her recommendation of a free classic book to discover (or rediscover) on Kindle. Find more of Marilyn’s recommendations at her blog, ClassicKindle.com, a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the Kindle. You can also get Marilyn’s blog on Kindle and I recommend that you “Like” the Classic Kindle Facebook page as well so you don’t miss anything. Here’s Marilyn’s post:

Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.

Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?

That demmed, elusive Pimpernel.”

This ditty is by everyone’s favorite fop, Sir Percy Blakeney.

If you enjoy a cracking good read and can immerse yourself in the bloody French Revolution without having nightmares of the guillotine- read The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.

An author with such a colorful name must be a colorful writer and you will not be disappointed. The excellent movie with Leslie Howard is mostly forgotten and probably the eponymous character’s name is better known than his story. Here is your chance to cheat death with the Pimpernel and it won’t cost you a penny! Sir Percy Blakeney is also thrown in for free . . .

“I saw the Scarlet Pimpernel alone, for a few moments in Calais,” said Sir Andrew, “a day or two ago. He crossed over to England two days before we did. He had escorted the party all the way from Paris, dressed–you’ll never credit it!–as an old market woman, and driving–until they were safely out of the city–the covered cart, under which the Comtesse de Tournay, Mlle. Suzanne, and the Vicomte lay concealed among the turnips and cabbages. They, themselves, of course, never suspected who their driver was. He drove them right through a line of soldiery and a yelling mob, who were screaming, `A bas les aristos!’ But the market cart got through along with some others, and the Scarlet Pimpernel, in shawl, petticoat and hood, yelled `A bas les aristos!’ louder than anybody. Faith!” added the young man, as his eyes glowed with enthusiasm for the beloved leader, “that man’s a marvel! His cheek is preposterous, I vow!–and that’s what carries him through.”

Download your free copy of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” by Baroness Emmuska Orczy here >>>

Every Friday, Marilyn Knapp Litt, who blogs at ClassicKindle.com, brings us her recommendation of a free classic book to discover (or rediscover) on Kindle. Find more of Marilyn’s recommendations at her blog, ClassicKindle.com, a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the Kindle. You can also get Marilyn’s blog on Kindle and I recommend that you “Like” the Classic Kindle Facebook page as well so you don’t miss anything. Here’s Marilyn’s post:

The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913 by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, published in 1922, is an account of the disastrous Scott expedition.  If it is axiomatic that the worse the trip, the better the travel book, this is the book that proves it.

This book is quite long and you feel pulled into the world of the trip.  The author is desperate to prove the goal of the trip was the science, not the pole.  I certainly believe it was for him.

The beauty of the ice in the Antarctic is supposed to be beyond photography.  It is not beyond the power of description.

We have had a marvellous day. The morning watch was cloudy, but it gradually cleared until the sky was a brilliant blue, fading on the horizon into green and pink. The floes were pink, floating in a deep blue sea, and all the shadows were mauve.

I got so used to “man-hauling” that the phrase no longer seemed strange.

A large lead in the sea-ice to the south of the Tongue necessitated some hours’ work in man-hauling all sledges along the back of the Tongue until a way could be found down on to safe ice.

This is the book that made me weep over penguin eggs and I am not easily moved to tears.

After devoting much time to the study of penguins Dr. Wilson came to the conclusion that Emperor embryos would throw new light on the origin and history of birds, and decided that if he again found his way to the Antarctic he would make a supreme effort to visit an Emperor rookery during the breeding season. When, and under what conditions, the Cape Crozier rookery was eventually visited and Emperor eggs secured is graphically told in The Winter Journey. The question now arises, Has ‘the weirdest bird’s-nesting expedition that has ever been made’ added appreciably to our knowledge of birds?

It is my dream to visit the Antarctic.  If I never get there, this book put me there in a way that even the best travel books fail to do. I was immersed in the trip and the difficulties of the trip. Emotionally and physically grueling, (surviving participants said service in the trenches was not as bad as the pole trip)  but a very satisfying account of what really was the worst journey in the world.

Download your free copy of “The Worst Journey in the World: Antarctic 1910-1913” by Apsley Cherry-Garrard here >>>

Every Friday, Marilyn Knapp Litt, who blogs at ClassicKindle.com, brings us her recommendation of a free classic book to discover (or rediscover) on Kindle. Find more of Marilyn’s recommendations at her blog, ClassicKindle.com, a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the Kindle. You can also get Marilyn’s blog on Kindle and I recommend that you “Like” the Classic Kindle Facebook page as well so you don’t miss anything. Here’s Marilyn’s post:

Have any men read The Secret Garden? I would be very impressed if a man told me he was reading this beloved book.

Did any women not read this as a child?  Here is your chance to once again -or perhaps for the first time- visit a world where secret gardens may be restored and made to grow more than flowers.

But before we visit the garden, we make a stop in India under the British Raj.

“Is it so very bad? Oh, is it?” Mary heard her say.

“Awfully,” the young man answered in a trembling voice. “Awfully, Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago.”

The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.

“Oh, I know I ought!” she cried. “I only stayed to go to that silly dinner party. What a fool I was!”

At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the servants’ quarters that she clutched the young man’s arm, and Mary stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder. “What is it? What is it?” Mrs. Lennox gasped.

“Some one has died,” answered the boy officer. “You did not say it had broken out among your servants.”

 

The book has a chapter index with links.  Here is an Amazon review:

“I hadn’t read The Secret Garden since I was a kid. I’m so glad I found it on Kindle and read it again as an adult! What a wonderful story! And as a free Kindle book, it’s hard to pass up!

I gave it 4/5 stars only because the formatting didn’t quite come out perfect (a few squares with question marks in it appeared). Still, it’s easy to read despite the few errors.”

So many people are re-discovering books they loved as children, that are now free on the Kindle.  Others are discovering literature they only knew by titles or perhaps from playing the card game “Authors!”  For whatever reason you might pick up “The Secret Garden,” I think you will like it; I read it again a few years ago and it did not disappoint.