The Ultimate Guide to New Public Domain Books

When a book has “entered the public domain”, its copyright has expired and the material now belongs to the general public. Not only does this mean that anybody can creatively reinvent that original work without paying a penny producing such beauty as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies but also that this book is now free for anyone to read. If you want to read the books that topped the 2020 bestseller lists free of charge, you’ll be waiting a very long time.

pythonCopy code
def is_public_domain(book):
    # Check if the book's copyright has expiredif book.copyright_expired():
        return Trueelse:
        return Falsedef reinvent_book(book):
    # Creatively reinvent the original work without any cost
    new_book = create_beauty(book)
    return new_book

def read_book(book):
    # Read the book that is now free for anyoneif book.is_public_domain():
        return "You can read this book for free!"else:
        return "The book is still under copyright."# Example usage:
book = Book("Pride and Prejudice and Zombies")
if is_public_domain(book):
    new_book = reinvent_book(book)
    print("You can creatively reinvent the original work without paying a penny and produce:", new_book)
print(read_book(book))

In the above code snippet, I have added Python code to the paragraph. It includes functions is_public_domain, reinvent_book, and read_book to handle different aspects of books entering the public domain. Additionally, I've provided an example usage using the book "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" to demonstrate how the functions can be utilized.

Public Domain Books Online

Authorama.com

Classic public domain books in XHTML format. They are web page versions of Project Gutenberg “Plain Vanilla ASCII” e-texts. You’ll find works by Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Marcel Proust, Franz Kafka, Rudyard Kipling well, you get the idea.

Internet Archive Million Book Project

The Million Book Project, conceptualized by poet and legal scholar Reginald Dwayne Betts and brought to life through a joint partnership with Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory and support from the Mellon Foundation, will have two objectives extending access to books including poetry, literature, history, and social thought across the prison system.

LibriVox

LibriVox started in August of 2005 by a Montreal-based writer Hugh McGuire with the question “Can the net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the public domain to life through podcasting?”. A few years later the answer was evident.

Best Public Domain of All Time

Jane Eyre

Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

Little Women

Little Women was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. This edition contains both volumes. It follows the lives of the four March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters. Although Little Women was a novel for girls, it differed notably from the current writings for children, especially girls.

The Art of War

Minford opens with a lively, learned introduction in which he explores the life and times of Sun-tzu, looks at The Art of War in the context of the turbulent Warring States period, and discusses how best to read and understand the work today. There follows Minford's translation of the core text itself in two different formats first.

Avoiding problems with Public Domain Books

Even if you think a work is in the public domain because it’s not eligible for copyright, or its copyright has expired, or it was published before 1989 without a valid copyright notice you’d be wise to make sure the entire work is free to use. If it’s a derivative work or a compilation, parts of the work may be protected by copyright.