Index of books, articles, and other publications on literature in English from Anglo-Saxon times to the present. Covers more British publications than MLA International Bibliography. Includes links to some full text. From the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA).
English Language & Literature
Major Research Tools
Guide to literary critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
"A selective, annotated guide to reference sources essential to the study of British literature, literatures of the United States, other literatures in English, and related topics."
Searchable archive of literary texts and complementary reference resources.
Database containing biographical information on authors as well as literary criticism, book reviews, and plot summaries.
Index of scholarly articles, edited books, and dissertations on literature, languages, film studies and folklore. Includes MLA Directory of Periodicals, which provides detailed information on periodicals covering literature and languages. You can also search MLA International Bibliography through the ProQuest interface.
Searchable version of the Oxford English Dictionary, which traces the origins and usage of English words.
Collection of English language dictionaries and thesauruses.
Collection of dictionaries and other reference works on literature from Oxford University Press.
Other Suggested Research Tools
A collection of 52 works providing "access to the thought, perspectives and creative abilities of black women as captured in books and pamphlets published prior to 1920." A project from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Digital Schomburg of the New York Public Library.
Digitized images from American magazines and journals that originated between 1741 and 1900. Includes general interest magazines, children's publications, women's magazines, and literary and professional journals.
Collection of full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events. The site also includes sections devoted to rhetorical devices, Christian rhetoric, 9/11 rhetoric, movie speeches, and political speeches.
Digitized collection of children's books published in the United States and Great Britain between 1850 and 1900. From the University of Florida Libraries.
Lists of bestsellers, Book of the Month Club selections, and "critically acclaimed and historically significant" books for each year of the 20th century.
Digitized collection of British manuscripts, including poems, plays, novels, diaries, journals, religious writings, and correspondence. Consists of two parts (Medieval and Renaissance, and 1660-1900), which can be searched separately or together. Note that while the full text of the manuscripts is not searchable, a searchable, detailed description is provided for each.
Digital collection of early English news media from the 17th and 18th centuries. Includes pamphlets, broadsides, periodicals, and an extensive collection of London newspapers.
Provides links to medieval manuscripts available on the Web.
Biographical dictionary covering the "lives of Irish men and women who made a significant contribution in Ireland and abroad, as well as those born overseas who had noteworthy careers in Ireland."
An online edition of four directories: Directory of poetry publishers, Directory of small press/magazine editors & publishers, International directory of little magazines & small presses, and Small press record of books in print.
Includes Series I ("Evans"), nearly every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America from 1639-1800, and Series II ("Shaw-Shoemaker"), American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century. Also includes supplements to the collection from the Library Company of Philadelphia.
"Collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820."
Collection of texts printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473 to 1700. Includes literary texts, sermons, legal documents, scientific treatises, and many other types of works.
Digital collection of 180,000 English language books, pamphlets, essays, and broadsides published from 1701 to 1800. Titles cover history, fine arts, medicine, science, literature, law, philosophy, and religion.
Directory of electronic literature ("poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction that make significant use of electronic techniques or enhancements").
Index of essays published in books and periodicals.
Index of journal articles and books on film and media studies. Includes some full text.
A master index to reference works, such as Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Dictionary of Literary Biography, published by Gale; these works contain biographical information about authors, excerpts of criticism of their works, and short bibliographies. Most of these series are available in Skillman's reference collection; Literature Resource Center provides online access to some of these works.
Encyclopedia of GLBT art, literature, film, music, and popular culture.
Index of major journals in the humanities and social sciences
Database of word-entries from English dictionaries, bilingual and polyglot dictionaries, and other lexical works published from 1480 to 1700.
The full text of several academic literary reference sources. Especially useful for finding lengthy, critical biographies of widely studied authors. Note that when you perform a subject search for an author's name you must enter the author's last name first.
Skillman's guide to the options available for finding criticism of literary works.
Collection of primary sources for the study of American social history, featuring books and journals published primarily between 1850 and 1877.
Map of London during the late 16th and early 17th centuries with descriptions of streets, sites, and churches.
Online version of Middle English Dictionary, which provides meaning and usage of English words from 1100 to 1500. Includes links to a bibliography of sources used in dictionary and texts of Middle English verse and prose.
A gateway to Chaucer texts and the Chaucer Bibliography Online, which indexes Chaucer research from 1975 to the present.
Shakespeare's complete works online, including the plays, sonnets, and longer poems. Advanced search functions include a character search, concordance search, and full-text search.
Scholarly, biographical articles on noteworthy people who inhabited or were connected with the British Isles. (Does not include information on people still living.)
An index to hundreds of interviews of famous authors published in the Paris Review since its founding in 1953, plus many full-text interviews.
Index of plays written from antiquity to the present and published from 1949 to the present. Searchable by title, author, subject, style, genre, cast type, and more.
An online collection of recordings of poets reading their work. For each poet represented, a biography and select bibliography is also included.
Online version of Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index. Contains references to articles, books, news reports, and motion picture reviews, including both scholarly and fan writings. Covers horror as well as science fiction and fantasy.
Encyclopedia of English-language science fiction, with entries covering authors, themes, awards, etc.
Index and full text of the Times Literary Supplement (London), an important source of reviews of books, plays, and films.
Collection of primary sources that provide a context for understanding the place of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) in American culture. Includes representative antebellum texts related to Christianity, sentimental culture, anti-slavery, and minstrel shows as well as responses to the novel.
Information on politics, culture, and society of the Victorian era (1837-1901). Originating materials from English literature courses at Brown University; additional contributions from scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates from institutions around the world.
Full-text editions of texts by English and American women published between 1400 and 1850.
Searchable bibliography with annotated entries for books, articles, reviews, and other materials related to Shakespeare.
Searchable collection of 19th century American fiction. Works are available as images and as text.