Project Gutenberg Metadata API

This API provides a simple way to retrieve metadata about books from Project Gutenberg in JSON format.

The API has a single endpoint that accepts a book ID and returns metadata about that book.

GET /?id={book_id}

Where {book_id} is the Project Gutenberg book ID.

GET /?id=1342

This will return metadata for "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen (book ID 1342).

The API returns a JSON object with the following fields (when available):

• id: The Project Gutenberg book ID
• title: The title of the book
• author: The author of the book
• publicationDate: The publication date
• language: The language of the book
• subjects: An array of subject categories
• downloadLinks: Links to download the book in various formats
• source: Link to the original Project Gutenberg page

• 400 Bad Request: Missing or invalid book ID
• 404 Not Found: Book with the specified ID not found
• 500 Internal Server Error: Server-side error

GET /?id=1342

{
  "id": "1342",
  "source": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342",
  "title": "Pride and Prejudice",
  "author": "Austen, Jane",
  "publicationDate": "1998-06-01",
  "language": "English",
  "subjects": [
    "England -- Fiction",
    "Courtship -- Fiction",
    "Young women -- Fiction",
    "Love stories",
    "Domestic fiction",
    "Sisters -- Fiction",
    "Social classes -- Fiction"
  ],
  "downloadLinks": {
    "html": "https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342-h/1342-h.htm",
    "text": "https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342.txt",
    "epub": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.epub.images",
    "kindle": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.kindle.images"
  }
}

• This API scrapes data from Project Gutenberg's website and may break if their site structure changes
• Results are cached for 24 hours to reduce load on Project Gutenberg's servers
• Please be respectful of Project Gutenberg's resources and don't make excessive requests