Classics

Electronic books, or ‘ebooks’, have of course been with us since the dawn of handheld computing. And their staple fare has been out-of-copyright novels from the likes of H.G.Wells and Lewis Caroll, for which the raw text is available, by definition, for free. Classics simply comprises (in its first version, anyway) thirteen of these famous works of free fiction, as shown. So we have ‘The Time Machine’, ‘Paradise Lost’, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, and so on. What’s different here is the presentation.

The developer’s aim, that of making reading accessible on the iPhone, is laudable and, to be fair, the production values here are high, but ultimately this is more a proof of concept that a finished compendium. Considering that there are many hundreds of free ebooks available of classic literature from the same authors, having only thirteen is a bit limiting.

One possible excuse might be that someone has to source illustrations, but only a handful of the titles here have them (e.g. Alice in Wonderland’), so the developers haven’t exactly gone overboard. Some titles even quote a credit for a cover illustration when there isn’t one on the main title page at all – just the thumbnail on the virtual bookshelf.

On the plus side, the feel of ‘turning a page’ is animated beautifully, using the immediate response of the iPhone’s lovely apacitive touchscreen and a simple side swipe of the finger. A pick list at the top right of the screen gives immediate access to any chapter at will.

The standout, but understated, feature here is that a separate bookmark is maintained for each of the thirteen books in the library – so you can be in the middle of reading a number of them and Classics will remember to start you off in the right page for each of them – a nice touch.

A great start at both an iPhone book reader and an introduction to English (popular) Literature, but Classics needs to go further in
scope if it, itself, is to become a classic.