Modern Classics: Free EPUB Editions

The short twentieth-century novel that made the old forms feel too slow: decade-defining satires, psychological case studies and the books that invented the modern ending.

Start with: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser or The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Each page carries chapter summaries, a word count, reading time and the free EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB downloads.

These free EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB editions are all under 60,000 words, which is why so many reading lists start here.

18 free editions · ~1,537,000 words in total · 1835–1926 · EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB

All 18 Modern Classics titles

• Father Goriot — Honoré de Balzac (1835), ~88,000 words
• The Awakening — Kate Chopin (1899), ~67,000 words
• Sister Carrie — Theodore Dreiser (1900), ~156,000 words
• The Gift of the Magi — O. Henry (1905), ~2,000 words
• The House of Mirth — Edith Wharton (1905), ~129,000 words
• The Jungle — Upton Sinclair (1906), ~149,000 words
• White Fang — Jack London (1906), ~75,000 words
• A Room with a View — E. M. Forster (1908), ~65,000 words
• Ethan Frome — Edith Wharton (1911), ~35,000 words
• Dubliners — James Joyce (1914), ~71,000 words
• The Age of Innocence — Edith Wharton (1920), ~102,000 words
• Siddhartha — Hermann Hesse (1922), ~42,000 words
• The Enchanted April — Elizabeth von Arnim (1922), ~78,000 words
• Ulysses — James Joyce (1922), ~261,000 words
• The Prophet — Kahlil Gibran (1923), ~12,000 words
• The Great Gatsby — F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925), ~47,000 words
• The Trial — Franz Kafka (1925), ~87,000 words
• The Blue Castle — L. M. Montgomery (1926), ~69,000 words

How to choose your next book

The list runs from the oldest publication date to the newest, not from easiest to hardest. If you are new to the period, start with the earliest; the later books are usually arguing with the earlier ones. If you only want one, pick by time rather than reputation: under 50,000 words is a weekend, 50,000 to 120,000 is two weeks of evenings, and anything above 150,000 wants a reading plan.

Frequently asked questions

Are these editions really free?

Yes. Every title on this page is in the public domain in the United States and most other countries, and the download links go directly to complete EPUB, AZW3 and KEPUB files with no account and no paywall.

Where do the texts come from?

The texts are taken from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks, both of which proofread against printed editions. Each book page names its source and notes the edition used.

Which format should I choose?

EPUB for Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books and most reading apps; AZW3 for older Kindles that accept sideloaded files; KEPUB for Kobo devices, which render Kobo’s own pagination and reading statistics.

How long will these books take to read?

This shelf totals about 1,537,000 words. At 300 words per minute that is roughly 85.4 hours of reading, and each card shows its own word count.

Can I start with a shorter book?

Yes. Start with the shortest title in the list above: several are under 60,000 words and one or two can be finished in a single evening.

Other shelves on editions.ink

Victorian Novels (30) · Detective & Mystery (22) · Gothic & Horror (22) · Science Fiction (8) · Adventure & Sea (24) · Children's Classics (14) · Philosophy (27) · Poetry & Epics (8) · Modern Classics (18) · Drama (4) · the complete free classic-fiction catalog · word counts and reading times · all authors · series in reading order · books by decade.

Newest additions

Fresh editions are added here automatically, newest first.