If you're hunting for a legal PDF of 'Ernest', think of it like tracking down a rare record in a used bookstore: there are official shelves and shady alleys, and I always point people toward the shelves. First, check whether the work is in the public domain — that depends on the author's date of death and your country. If it is, places like Project
gutenberg, HathiTrust, and some national library digital collections often host perfectly legal downloads. If 'Ernest' is older or by an author who died more than 70 years ago (in many countries), that raises the odds it's legally available for free.
If it's not public domain, your best bet is library lending or the publisher. Use OverDrive/Libby, Hoopla, or your local library's digital catalogue: many libraries lend PDFs or EPUBs for free through those apps. University repositories, the Internet Archive (which offers controlled digital lending), and the Open Library can also provide legal borrow copies. For academic or short-form works, look at ResearchGate, JSTOR, Project MUSE, or the publisher's own site — sometimes publishers release free chapters or full PDFs under specific licenses.
Finally, always verify rights info before downloading: look for a rights statement, license (like CC-BY), or a clear public domain tag. If the title is still in print, consider buying the ebook — supporting the author matters. If you want a quick search trick, search the title plus the publisher name and add terms like "public domain", "PDF", or "digital edition". Personally I tend to start at my local library's portal and then move outward; it's saved me from accidental piracy more than once and made me discover editions I love.