British Library to offer free downloads
The British Library will offer Amazon Kindle owners free downloads of 19th century literature.
More than 65,000 rare first editions of 19th century fiction are to be made available for free public download by the British Library.
Owners of the e-reader Amazon Kindle will be able to view works by both obscure and well-known authors including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy.
The library, which has at least one copy of every book published in the UK, is focusing on 19th century literature because the copyright has run out on these books, meaning they can be offered for free.
Microsoft, which is funding the project, and the British Library have been scanning the books over the past three years.
A large number of "penny dreadfuls", downmarket books popular during the 19th century, will also be made available for download, while Amazon will sell printed paperback copies of a number of first editions, including Austen's Pride and Prejudice, for around £15.
Most of the books currently available on Kindle are by contemporary authors as these are the most profitable.
The library called for the removal of barriers to the mass digitisation of Orphan Works – books with no known owner.
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