The Best Free Ebooks to Download Right Now

A brilliant, sharp-edged novel of the Jazz Age by its most famous chronicler.

With his impeccable lineage and Harvard education, twenty-five-year-old Anthony Patch is one of the sparkling lights of New York society. The presumptive heir to an enormous fortune, he marries the tempestuous Kansas City socialite Gloria Gilbert, and the two embark on a life of wild extravagance and profligate pleasure, assuming that whatever they cannot afford today they will be able to pay for tomorrow. But when Anthony’s inheritance disappears, so too does his sense of invincibility. A brief tour in the Great War—where he finds comfort in another woman’s arms—cannot correct Anthony’s downward trajectory, and the marriage that began with such glittering promise ends in shambles.

Fitzgerald’s next novel, The Great Gatsby, would be his masterwork. But The Beautiful and Damned, with its evocative parallels to his relationship with Zelda and its prescient portrait of a man tumbling from dazzling heights to gloomy depths, is arguably his most personal.

The delightful debut of G. K. Chesterton’s most famous literary creation.

In his day, Flambeau was a legend of the underworld. Even now, his old confederates remember with pride the Tyrolean Dairy scheme, in which he built a thriving milk business despite owning not a single cow. But today the master thief finally meets his match. Attempting to steal a priceless cross, Flambeau runs afoul of Father Brown, an ordinary-looking priest with amazing insight into the criminal mind. With grace, logic, and good humor, the stout little clergyman soon reforms one of England’s most notorious villains.

In thrilling tales such as “The Blue Cross,” “The Secret Garden,” and “The Hammer of God,” G. K. Chesterton’s immortal priest-detective applies his extraordinary intuition to the most intricate of mysteries. No corner of the human soul is too dark for Father Brown, no villain too ingenious. The Innocence of Father Brown is a testament to the power of faith and the pleasure of a story well told.

In this philosophical novel, the celebrated author of Atlas Shrugged presents a searing portrait of a dystopian future in which all ego has been erased.

In a world where science and learning are banned and the simple utterance of the Unspeakable Word, I, is punishable by death, a man named Equality 7-2521 struggles with his unquenchable desire to investigate, to think, to know. His instincts are a “curse” that threatens to bring him to the attention of a government dedicated to the elimination of the self. But Equality 7-2521 cannot ignore his true nature, just as he cannot ignore the fruits of his curiosity: the discovery of the mysterious “power of the sky.” His great awakening—in heart, mind, and soul—represents the inevitable triumph of the individual over the collective.

A riveting, thought-provoking parable based on the author’s experience of life in a socialist state, Anthem serves as an invaluable introduction to Ayn Rand, her fiction, and her philosophy.

A fascinating forerunner of modern science fiction: The mind-bending story of a prodigy in Edwardian England.

Born to a famous cricket player, Victor Stott is a giant-headed, awkward boy who never cries or says a word. At first, he is branded an idiot, but as he grows up it becomes apparent that Victor possesses a superior intelligence. He can master any language, memorize entire libraries—perhaps even control people with his mind. As word of his otherworldly gifts spreads, so too do fears of what he might be capable of.

First published in 1911 and considered to be the first novel about a superman, The Wonder is a masterpiece of speculative fiction and a compelling portrait of what it means to be extraordinary.