Bartleby.com - Find Classic Books & References

Do you like nothing more than to curl up in front of a fireplace with hot chocolate and a classic novel? Do you like to reference quotes in your speeches, or read the biography of Walt Whitman? Bartleby.com is a fantastic and comprehensive collection of classic books, poems, quotes, and reference material for students, teachers, researchers and the 'intellectually curious.' Featuring preeminent resource materials such as the Columbia Encyclopedia, Roget's Thesaurus, King James Bible, Oxford Shakespeare, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Gray's Anatomy and much, much more, there is hardly a subject matter or reference you can't find on this site. You can search by reference, verse, fiction, nonfiction. All of it is free, but the site also links you to Amazon.com if you would like to purchase you own copies of whatever resource.

"Welcome to Bartleby.com: Great Books Online THE CONCLUDING line of Herman Melville's classic American short story Bartleby, the Scrivener reads Ah Bartleby, Ah Humanity! And so, Bartleby.com—after the humble character of its namesake scrivener, or copyist—publishes the classics of literature, nonfiction, and reference free of charge for the home, classroom, and desktop of each and every Internet participant. Bartleby.com began as a personal research experiment in 1993 and within one year published the first classic book on the Web (Whitman's Leaves of Grass). Since its incorporation in 1999 and the release of preeminent contemporary reference works, Bartleby.com becomes the most comprehensive reference publisher on the web, meeting the needs of students, educators, and the intellectually curious."

This site is one of the most visited sites on the web, and for good reason. I have never seen such an extensive reference list anywhere, nor have I found so many incredible free online books, poetry and essays -- all classics in their own right. If I were a student, this site would be bookmarked and likely visited nearly every day. It is similar to Wikipedia, but verifiable.

Does this site compete with Wikipedia for users? Are they always adding new material, books, essays, etc. or is the material static? How do they decide what new material gets uploaded?