A Pretty Amazing Book Deal

~ beetleypete

I was lying in bed last night, scrolling through some Amazon recommendations.

I found this.

That’s not a typo. ALL of Charles Dickens’ novels for £0.75 p.
That is 86 cents in Euros.
And 96 cents, US.

All of his novels, downloaded in under a minute.
Wonderful classic British literature, and timeless too.

I remember when my grandmother bought all of Dickens’ collected works in leather-bound hardback volumes.
She paid for that collection for years, one book at a time.

I accept that a Kindle edition is far from glamorous.
But at 75 p, it is an absolute bargain, better than any other I have ever seen.

Obviously, I bought it!

61 thoughts on “A Pretty Amazing Book Deal”

    1. I knew they were all free, EW. But I didn’t necessarily want to download them individually. I wasn’t aware that there were free complete works in one download, but 75p is a reasonable fee for someone to compile them all. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. What a deal! I’ve noticed the classics are sometimes free in Google Books too!

    By the way, I’m using Chrome for blogging this morning and it seems to be working correctly. I can see now that the comment box looked different sometimes in MS Edge but I hadn’t understood why. It was dropping my WP login. Goodbye Anonymous! For good, I hope. 🙂

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  7. It certainly IS a bargain, an dtyhat’s why traditional bookstores are becoming an extinct species. Regrettably so!
    That being said, I must admit that of late I’ve been buying more and more Kindle books – with a bad conscience, though – because:
    – it’s so easy to “carry” them around when travelling
    – it’s so easy to get them
    – I am running out of space on the book shelves

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  9. Like you say, Pete, it is a very good deal. At the moment (an probably for the foreseeable future) I don’t have a Kindle, so I’ll have to pass. I haven’t had any appetite for the classics for a while now; I’m not sure why, but it seems daft to force myself to read them only because they’re classics. That might change, but right now I’m enjoying current books, both fiction & non-fiction. Cheers, Jon

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    1. I might have ended it with Oliver having great expectations to become the editor of the Pickwick group of Papers, but having to resign himself to being the manager of a shop full of old curiosities, before ending his days living in a very bleak house. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. I am pretty sure it’s after 70 years, maybe a 100, literature becomes part of the public domain. You can find classic literature for free on-line. That book companies make you pay anything is a sucker punch. Of course, the author’s contracts vary as do countries’ terms. Book stores do their best to create nostalgic collections for one’s bookcases. I, being foolishly traditional, enjoy holding the book with my hands and seeing it on my bookshelf. I won’t read books on a kindle or whatever. 😉

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    1. Yes, they are free online individually, but I don’t mind paying such a small price for someone to have collected them all into one volume, Cindy.
      I got the Kindle Tablet so I could read easily in bed at night. The lighting on the screen makes it so much easier for me. But if I had your younger eyes, I would also stick with real books. 🙂
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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        1. I swore to never buy anything but real books. Then when my eyes got worse, I found I couldn’t concentrate on them at night. I do still buy paper books. I have bought around ten this year. But I don’t try to read them after dark.
          Best wishes, Pete. x

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  16. In pre Kindle days, when my younger son was a teenager, he discovered you could buy Dickens paperbacks for 99 pence at WHSmith – not to read them himself but as ideal Christmas and birthday presents for elderly relatives. However my aunt and uncle were delighted with his excellent choice and loved rediscovering Dickens.

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    1. Thanks, Janet. I understand that much of Dickens’ work is available free now. I love his books, and always have. One of my earliest reading memories is of being engrossed in ‘Great Expectations’.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  19. I have a complete set of 21 volumes which were a gift to me on my 50th birthday. It took me four years to read them and the first year was a year of adaption to his remarkable style of writing. Some are in essay form commenting on life in general. Dickens often tells a miniature story within a story and generally that story is to highlight a character. The other marvellous thing about the great man is his perceptive morality which he shows at work even among the poor and destitute. He paints humanity as it is and will often reduce the reader to tears.
    All great classical literature is available for free on Gutenberg they also list the 100 most read books interestingly Pride and Prejudice is always among the top ten. For those who wish to listen the site Librivox is worth looking at the readers are all members of the public and some are quite professional in their delivery.

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    1. Thanks for the extra information, FM. I read all my Grandmother’s Dickens’ books as a child, and loved his writing style. I hope to revisit them now I have bought this collection.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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