Sometimes, Public Domain recommendations ends up looking like an uninviting list of all classic books in existence. So I thought it would be nice with a thread where sequences of words are used to descripe
why a certain Public Domain book is worth reading. Here's mine own recommendations:
There is loads of cooking books about ethnic food, that is, food from other part of the world than your own. But I has alway thought it a rather new phenomena. So I was quite surprised when I discovered
365 FOREIGN DISHES, a collection of ethnic recipes published in 1911, which gives the brave reader a new recipe for each day of the year. So if you're in for a helping of
German Stewed Brains, this is the book for you!
Download 365 Foreign Dishes:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10011
THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK (1874) is a nonsense-poetry by Lewis Caroll. The tale is funny, but with a rather groteque undertone, which fits nicely with the hyperdetailed, caricatured illustrations. The story centers loosely about the hunt for a legendary and mysterious creature called the Snark. So, I guess its theme is a bit like Moby Dick, only a bit more insane.
Download The Hunting of the Snark:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29888
PETER AND WENDY (1911), the novel behind Disneys classic Peter Pan movie, is a piece of litterature that I somehow never gets to finish. But it is a great read. Like Douglas Addams novels, the thing is stuffed with fantastic ideas. Even before the kids enters Neverland, there are lots of magic realism. The kids has a dog as babysitter, and finding a leftover shadow belonging to one of the childrens imaginary friends is considered a practical problem that doesn't warrent further thought.
Considering that this is a childrens book, it has some interesting content. There is a great deal of death and nudity, and it is even mentioned that the faries are doing orgies. We don't get any details, but still. And when Hook murders one of his men, the author has made it clear that he has made that murder happen for the readers sake.
I think what determines if one like this book is wether one think its victorian writing style is cool or irritating. I like it a lot!
Quotes:
"You may be sure Mrs. Darling examined the shadow carefully, but it was quite the ordinary kind."
"He was one of those deep ones who know about stocks and shares. Of course, nobody really knows, but he quite seemed to know, and he ofthen said stocks were up and shares were down in a way that would have made an woman respect him."
"To die will be an awfully big adventure."
'Tinker Bell,' he called softly, after making sure that the children were asleep, 'Tink, where are you?' She was in a jug for the moment, and liking it extremely; she had never been in a jug before.
Download Peter and Wendy:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/3413/p...eter-and-wendy
KOKHEYA SHEKAWAT HOSSEIN was a prominent feminist, who in 1911 established a school for Muslim girls that exists to this day. She had early learned English by his older brother. This was done in secret, her family was against it. At age 16, she married a widower in his 30s. Like her brother, he was a supporter of women's education, so he gave her further education in English. In the year 1905 she wrote
SULTANA'S DREAM, one of the first examples of feminist science fiction. It was printed in the Indian Ladies' Magazine.
(SPOILER WARNING! - SOME CONTENT OF THE STORY REVEALED BELOW)
At the beginning of the story, the narrator is in the twilight between dreaming and awake. From here, she moves on a dream trip into a utopian future world called Ladyland. You work two hours a day, the kitchens are clean and bright and powered by solar energy, water is collected from the clouds, the earth is cultivated by electric motors and transported by air. Religion is based on Love and Truthfulness and the streets are covered with moss and beautiful flowers. This bliss is made possible by that society's problematic elements - the men - are under strict control. Utopia has has a bit of dystopia about it and the pompous Victorian language gives the story a grotesque glow.
The danish crime novel MØGKÆLLINGER also ponders about the benefits of locking men up, but here, the author distances herself from the books imprisonment and castration terrorism by letting it be the work of the books insane villain, thus implying that such behavior is not very nice. SULTANA'S DREAM, on the other hand, goes all the way, and descripes how the perfect society can be archived, not by equality between men and women, but by women having the power to suppress the male population. The short story is influenced by that era optimistic belief that technological advances could create a new and better world. This is in stark contrast to Mother Lines from 1978, when the technology is seen as a threat.
Download Sultana's Dream:
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/6719/sultana-s-dream