Amazon Kindle users will be able to download more than 65,000 19th century classic books for free thanks to a project run in partnership between the British Library and Microsoft. Starting in the spring of 2010, the works of authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy will be available in e-book format including the original illustrations (where applicable) and a period type face to give an e-book which has an antique look.

The British Library\’s Chief Executive, Dame Lynne Brindley, said that making 19th century fiction available would expose some forgotten literary gems to a new readership. Approximately 25 million electronically stored pages are planned to be made available.

Over the past three years the British Library has worked with Microsoft to digitally store text and images from works which are out of copyright. Special \”Turning The Pages\” software, which Microsoft helped to develop, allows users to access rare books and manuscripts from authors such as Lewis Carroll, Mozart and Leonardo da Vinci. In addition to viewing a visual representation of a page turning, readers can zoom in to a page, change the orientation and view details of illustrations.

At least one copy of every work of literature published in the UK is held in the British Library. Approximately 40% of the 19th century works held there are not available in other libraries.

The spring launch of the 19th century literature is the latest phase in an ongoing digitizing project which has already made around two million 19th century British newspaper pages available. A further 50 million items are planned to be stored in this manner by 2020. Scanning of 20th century books which are out of copyright is planned to start in the near future – but finance for this part of the project has yet to be confirmed.

Readers who have a preference for more conventional reading material will be able to purchase hard copies of the books which will have the same \”first edition\” look and feel as the originals from Amazon. Prices are estimated to start at around $ 23.

Discover the Amazon Kindle reader for yourself – and have a look at the wide range of Kindle accessories available to help you customise your reader.