BRITISH LITERATURE: BEGINNINGS TO 1800

Compiled and maintained by Jamie Schmid, M.S.L.I.S.
Reference Librarian and English Liaison Librarian
Updated December 12, 2008

ENCYCLOPEDIAS & DICTIONARIES

Andrews, John F., ed. Shakespeare's World and Work: an Encyclopedia for Students. New York: Scribners, 2001.
     Ref. PR2892 .S56 2001

Boyce, Charles. Critical Companion to William Shakespeare: A Literary Reference To His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 2005.
     Ref. PR2892 .B69 2005

Dobson, Michael and Stanley Wells, eds. The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
    Pius Library PR2892 .O94 2001 (Available in e-book and print format.)

Gray, Douglas. The Oxford Companion to Chaucer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
    Ref. PR1924 .O94 2003 (Available in e-book and print format)

Hager, Alan, ed. The Age of Milton: An Encyclopedia of Major 17th-Century British and American Authors. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
    Ref. PR431 .A36 2004

Hamilton, A.C. ed. The Spencer Encyclopedia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990.
    Ref. O'size PR2362 .S64 1990

Hunter, William B., Jr., ed. A Milton Encyclopedia. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1978-.
    Ref. PR3580 .M5

Kastan, David Scott. The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
    Ref. PR19 .O95 2006

Olsen, Kirstin. All Things Shakespeare: an Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's World. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.
     Ref. PR2892 .O56 2002

Rogers, Pat. The Alexander Pope Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.
     Ref. PR3632 .R64 2004

Rossignol, Rosalyn. Chaucer A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Works. New York: Facts On File, 1999.
    Ref. PR1903 .R67 1999

Wells, Stanley. A Dictionary of Shakespeare. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
     Pius Library PR2892 .W43 1998 (Available in e-book and print format.)

CRITICISM

Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988-.
     Ref. PN610 .C53
Features excerpts of criticism on the works of authors who died before 1400.

Harris, Laurie Lanzen, ed. Shakespearean Criticism: Excerpts From the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry, From the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984-.
     Ref. PR2965 .S43 1984
Significant excerpts of published criticism on the works of William Shakespeare.

Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984-.
     Ref. PN86.L52
Excerpts of literary criticism and general information on authors who died between 1400 and 1799.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Milton Bibliography (1664-1799)
"This bibliography tries to bring together all manuscripts and editions of John Milton's works and all studies and critical statements concerning his life and works, all allusions and quotations, and all significant imitations during the years 1624-1799."

Edmund Spencer World Bibliography
Searchable archive of bibliographies, abstracts, and reviews from Spenser Newsletter and The Spenser Review

Sir Philip Sidney World Bibliography
An annotated bibliography of material by and about Sir Philip Sidney from his lifetime to the present.

BIOGRAPHIES

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Collection of 50,000 biographies of persons of note associated with the British Isles from the fourth century BC to 2000. Remote access is available only to SLU students, faculty, and staff.

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Search the SLU Libraries Catalog to find books, book chapters, and essays. If you are unable to find what you need, search MOBIUS, a library catalog that contains the holdings of over fifty college and university libraries in Missouri.

To find criticism of an author's works, perform a subject search in the SLU Libraries Catalog on the author's name (last name, first name) and then select the subject heading that ends in "criticism and interpretation." For example, search for "Spencer, Edmund" and select the subject heading that says "Spenser Edmund 1552?-1599 Criticism And Interpretation."

When looking for criticism of a particular work, perform a subject search in the SLU Libraries Catalog on the name of the work. For example, search for "Canterbury Tales" as a subject, not as a title.

You can also use a keyword search to find literary criticism that relates to a particular aspect of the works that you're researching. For example, you could perform a keyword search for "Shakespeare and race."

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Remote access to library databases is available to SLU students, faculty, and staff. Log in with your SLUNetID and password.

MLA International Bibliography - 1926-present
Indexes books, book chapters, dissertations and articles from over 4,400 journals in language, linguistics, literature, and folklore.

JSTOR
This archival journal resource provides access to the full-text of over 550 journal titles, including many literature and history journals. Note that the last 1 to 7 years of each journal are not available in this resource.

Project Muse
This electronic journal collection provides full-text access to over 300 scholarly journals, including many in the humanities.

Humanities Full Text - 1984-present
Indexes and/or abstracts over 600 humanities periodicals. Full text is available from approximately 230 journals.

International Medieval Bibliography - 1967-present
Covers the European Middle Ages (c. 400-1500). Indexes articles and review articles from about 4,500 journals, essays from Festschriften, conference proceedings, etc. 

Iter Bibliography- 1784-present
Indexes articles about the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700) drawn from complete runs of over 1,026 journal titles publishing articles about this period, as well as over 51,000 citations to monographs and material found in monographs.

Historical Abstracts - 1964-present
Covers the world's scholarly literature on the history of the world, except the United States and Canada, from 1450 to the present. 

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Early English Books Online (1473-1700)
"Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War." Remote access to library databases is available to SLU students, faculty, and staff.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (1701-1800)
“Delivers every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.” Remote access to library databases is available to SLU students, faculty, and staff.

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MLA - Citation Styles (The Center for Writing Studies, UIUC)

MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Using MLA Style to Cite and Document Internet Sources

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
     Reference Desk LB2369 .G53 2003

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