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:

Gene Stratton-Porter was an Indiana author. She wrote about an evocative swamp near Fort Wayne called “The Limberlost.” The story was that someone named Limber stumbled in and never came out. I read her books as a girl and dreamed of visiting that nearby natural wonder, as I was a Hoosier gal myself. Her most popular books was Freckles.

The scene was intensely attractive. The thickness of the swamp made a dark, massive background below, while above towered gigantic trees. The men were calling jovially back and forth as they unharnessed tired horses that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content, the grain given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly wiped the flanks of his big bays with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he softly whistled, “O wha will be my dearie, O!” and a cricket beneath the leaves at his feet accompanied him. The green wood fire hissed and crackled merrily. Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped around the big black kettles, and when the cook lifted the lids to plunge in his testing-fork, gusts of savory odors escaped.

Freckles approached him.

“I want to speak with the Boss,” he said.

The cook glanced at him and answered carelessly: “He can’t use you.”

The color flooded Freckles’ face, but he said simply: “If you will be having the goodness to point him out, we will give him a chance to do his own talking.”

With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a rough board table where a broad, square-shouldered man was bending over some account-books.

“Mr. McLean, here’s another man wanting to be taken on the gang, I suppose,” he said.

“All right,” came the cheery answer. “I never needed a good man more than I do just now.”

The manager turned a page and carefully began a new line.

“No use of your bothering with this fellow,” volunteered the cook. “He hasn’t but one hand.”

I saw a couple of reviews on Amazon that caught my attention:

I would like to say that I really love Gene Stratton Porter’s books. I have read Freckles (the first one I read at age 11), followed by A Girl of the Limberlost, Her Father’s Daughter, and The Harvester. Each one was beautifully written, with great detail, beautiful nature, and incredible feeling. I couldn’t put any of them down until I finished them. I am excited to try and read some of her other books, the titles of which I discovered here on Amazon.

And

This is the best book I have ever read! I am 13 years old, and have read the book twice. Gene Stratton Porter is a great writer, and has wonderful concepts.

I always give high marks for enthusiasm, even youthful enthusiasm.

And lest you think they are children’s books, I read them as a child, as I did Dickens and many other books. Porter’s works were popular with children, but they were written for adults. Those older books were offered to children, because adult themes were not explicit. But, I appreciate subtlety in a novel. In particular, I was offered these books because they were by an Indiana author. I wonder how many other forgotten authors are read only in their own state. There was a long list of Indiana authors as the Hoosier state was once known for its writers. Except for Kurt Vonnegut, they are all free Kindle classic writers now! I have already written about the marvelous Booth Tarkington. There will be more . . .

The draining of her beloved swamp was said to have hastened Porter’s death. In Googling for my blog today, I was amazed and pleased to find that restoration of the swamp was started in 1991. It seemed the farmland never did stop flooding. Maybe I will get to see that memorable swamp after all.

Download your free copy of Freckles 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:

When I hear or read a review of an interesting book, it used to be I made a note. Now I download a sample chapter and put it in a folder on my Kindle. When I want a book, I read the sample and if I want it, I can buy or, better yet – borrow it!

But my Kindle is also full of classic books I can keep and they didn’t cost a penny.

I was going to blog about Anne of Green Gables today, but the free version has a corrupted text that leaves out sections of the story. Then I thought, I’ll do Anne of Avonlea. Same problem!

So I turned to one of the less familiar sequels, Anne’s House of Dreams. The novel is free and the text is not corrupted.

Red-headed Anne Shirley of Prince Edward Island, Canada, is one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created. And she is not just popular in the English speaking world. The series of books by L.M.Montgomery have made Prince Edward Island an improbable tourist destination for the Japanese.

Fans of the series will understand why I selected this section to quote!

So it fell out that Marilla and Mrs. Rachel Lynde and the twins came to Four Winds for Christmas. Marilla had the face of a woman who had circumnavigated the globe. She had never been sixty miles away from home before; and she had never eaten a Christmas dinner anywhere save at Green Gables.

Mrs. Rachel had made and brought with her an enormous plum pudding. Nothing could have convinced Mrs. Rachel that a college graduate of the younger generation could make a Christmas plum pudding properly; but she bestowed approval on Anne’s house.

“Anne’s a good housekeeper,” she said to Marilla in the spare room the night of their arrival. “I’ve looked into her bread box and her scrap pail. I always judge a housekeeper by those, that’s what. There’s nothing in the pail that shouldn’t have been thrown away, and no stale pieces in the bread box. Of course, she was trained up with you–but, then, she went to college afterwards. I notice she’s got my tobacco stripe quilt on the bed here, and that big round braided mat of yours before her living-room fire. It makes me feel right at home.”

Those of us who love Anne Shirley cannot get enough of her or Marilla or Rachel Lynde. If you do not know the incomparable Anne Shirley, then you are in for a treat.

Download your free copy of Anne’s House of Dreams 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:

At one time I had almost all of Grace Livingston Hill’s books and I have probably read all of her novels. She wrote dozens and dozens of romances. The ancient copies I had were the only books I have ever seen that had actually been eaten by bookworms. But it was so hard to find her books that I kept them and read around the holes!

These are old-fashioned romances, usually about someone meeting a partner across class boundaries. Her heroines are often naïve, but with great native intelligence. There is a strong religious theme to the books. Usually the heroine has a religious awakening along with falling in love.

I know a religious aspect is off-putting to some people. All I can say is I did not feel preached to. Maybe that is because the books are about old-fashioned girls from an earlier time. Here is an excerpt from today’s free classic book, The Girl from Montana:

At one stopping-place a good woman advised Elizabeth to rest on Sundays. She told her God didn’t like people to do the same on His day as on other days, and it would bring her bad luck if she kept up her incessant riding. It was bad for the horse too. So, the night being Saturday, Elizabeth remained with the woman over the Sabbath, and heard read aloud the fourteenth chapter of John. It was a wonderful revelation to her. She did not altogether understand it. In fact, the Bible was an unknown book. She had never known that it was different from other books. She had heard it spoken of by her mother, but only as a book. She did not know it was a book of books.

She carried the beautiful thoughts with her on the way, and pondered them. She wished she might have the book. She remembered the name of it, Bible, the Book of God. Then God had written a book! Some day she would try to find it and read it.

“Let not your heart be troubled”; so much of the message drifted into her lonesome, ignorant soul, and settled down to stay.

This is a typical judgment from one of Hill’s heroines:

Geraldine Loring was almost—well, fast, at least, as nearly so as one who was really of a fine old family, and still held her own in society, could be. She was beautiful as a picture; but her face, to Elizabeth’s mind, was lacking in fine feeling and intellect. A great pity went out from her heart to the man whose fate was in that doll-girl’s hands.

“Fast” is not good in Hill’s world and is an outdated condemnation to us. But clear eyes, keeping your word and having a will of steel is never out of fashion and that is why these are still enjoyable romances.

Download your free copy of “The Girl from Montana” here >>