Free 19th-century books coming this spring

Dear Kindle owners: If you’re one of those aesthetes who find most 21st-century novels a bit thin and amateurish, get ready to immerse yourself in the world of 19th-century British fiction in all its grandiloquent glory. According to the Times Online, the British Library is planning to make available 65,000 of its 19th-century works of fiction—all for free. The Kindle versions will contain the typeface and illustrations of the books’ first editions, many of which are nearly impossible to find outside of the British Library.

The best part: Included in this batch of free books will be approximately 30,000 rare titles that have been out of print for over a century and aren’t available in other public libraries. Thus, in addition to reading first-edition works by the Austens, Dickenses, Eliots, and Brontës (pictured), you’ll be able to explore thousands of now-unknown works by forgotten authors. No doubt there will be some long-lost gems to be rediscovered, plus plenty of delightfully ribald Victorian trash.