LibGuides: English Language and Literature: Find Books, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias

About This Page

This page provides information and links to find books in print or electronic format in the Library catalogue, the Reference collection, online through the Libraries databases and on the Internet. Pages are also provided for information by genre, including Novels & Fiction; Poetry; Drama & Plays; and Criticism & Theory.

Dictionaries/Encyclopedias

Cambridge Histories Online
Includes access to over 250 titles covering 15 different academic subjects.
Contains The Cambridge History of Philosophy 1870–1945 and the Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy
Dictionary of Old English (DOE)
The Dictionary of Old English: A to G online defines the vocabulary of the first six centuries (600-1150 AD) of the English language. The DOE compliments the Middle English Dictionary (which covers the period 1100-1500 AD) and the Oxford English Dictionary (which documents the development of the English language to the present), the three together providing a full description of the vocabulary of English.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements and includes alphabetically-arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
Traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources.
Oxford Reference
Multi-part database of the online versions of seminal Oxford University Press texts. Each topical division contains the searchable version of the latest edition of published dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Other Catalogues

English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)
Lists over 460,000 items published between 1473 and 1800 mainly, but not exclusively, in English, published mainly in the British Isles and North America and from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries.
WorldCat (OCLC)
WorldCat is a global network of library content and services. WorldCat holds tens of millions of bibliographic records that represent more than one billion items. It encompasses hundreds of languages and all formats, including rapidly growing numbers of electronic resources and digital objects.

E-Books and Digital Texts

Early English Books Online (EEBO)
(1473-1700) Provides digital access to 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Researchers can view images that accurately reflect the way the works appeared in their original printed editions in many subject areas, including: English literature, history, and philosophy.

Ebook collections in UVic Libraries
Internet Archive - Texts
A repository of digitized out-of-copyright books and other texts. This resource includes a Canadian Libraries section, thematic pages, and much more.
Springer Ebooks
Springer's online platform, SpringerLink, integrates Springer eBooks with millions of articles from Springer's peer-reviewed journals. Strong in STEM fields, this platform also includes some humanities topics.

Subjects Biomedical Engineering, Business, Computer Engineering, Earth and Ocean Sciences, Ebooks, Education, Engineering, Law, Microbiology, Political Science, Public Administration, Social Work, Sociology

Shakespeare Survey Online
A yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production, since 1948. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies, and of the year's major British performances.
Women Writers Online
Presents all of the Women Writers Project (WWP) texts currently available online and includes the texts which appear in the Renaissance Women Online (RWO).

Wright American Fiction 1851-1875
This is a collection of 19th century American fiction, as listed in Lyle Wright's bibliography American Fiction, 1851-1875. There are currently 2,887 volumes included (1,763 unedited, 1,124 fully edited and encoded) by 1,456 authors.

Biographies

To find individual author biographies in UVic Libraries' collection, search in the Subject field by the author's last name, first name. Scroll down on the left-hand side to refine the results to the Subject of Biography. Biographies may also be included under the general subject heading for an author if there is no biography sub-heading.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Please note: This database is licenced for 3 simultaneous user only. Please log off at the end of your session. An illustrated collection of 59,558 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2011. Excludes living people.
Gale Literature Criticism
Comprised of 10 individual Gale series, Literature Criticism Online represent a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres. Excellent resource for biographical information. Search by "named author" to find author overviews for hundreds of literary figures.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online
Provides comprehensive access to the series dedicated to making literature and its creators better understood and more accessible. The series provides reliable information on authors and their works in an easy to understand, engaging format, while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. Dictionary of Literary Biography includes the main series, documentary, and yearbook volumes.

Select Books

Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies by Harner, James L.
James L. Harner's Literary Research Guide, which Choice calls "the standard guide in the field," evaluates important reference materials in English studies. Since the publication of the first edition in 1989, tens of thousands of students and educators have used the Guide as an aid to scholarly research.

The following selected titles will help you get started with your literary research.

An Introduction to Literary Studies by Klarer, Mario
In this volume Mario Klarer provides the essential beginner’s guide to literary studies. He offers a concise, easy-to-understand discussion of central issues in the study of literary texts
Research Methods for English Studies by edited by Gabriele Griffin
Each chapter in Research Methods for English Studies focuses on one particular method and offers concrete, practical advice on how to utilize it. Approaches discussed include textual analysis, biographical interpretation, discourse analysis, interviewing, visual methodologies, archival methods, quantitative analysis, ethnographic methods, oral history, and creative writing.
Research Guide for Undergraduate Students: English and American Literature, 6th ed. by Baker, Nancy L.
Call Number: PR56 B34 2006
For nearly twenty-five years A Research Guide for Undergraduate Students has helped students avoid the pitfalls of conducting library research for term papers and theses. Updated and revised, the sixth edition shows undergraduates how to use their research time efficiently and how to locate and evaluate material available from electronic databases and the Internet.

Dictionaries/Encyclopedias

Contemporary British Novelists
Location: Reference
Call Number: PR889 R46
Dictionary of British Literary Characters: 20th-century Novels
Location: Reference
Call Number: PR888 C47D53
Gale Literature Resource Centre
This database consists of 3 parts: Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Oxford Reference
Multi-part database of the online versions of seminal Oxford University Press texts. Each topical division contains the searchable version of the latest edition of published dictionaries and encyclopedias.
Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English
Location:Reference
Call Number:PS374 S5R43
Reader's Guide to the Canadian Novel
Location: Reference
Call Number: PS8187 M68 1987
Guide to Twentieth-Century Women Novelists
Location: Reference
Call Number: PR888 W6W44

English Language Dictionaries

DCHP-2 : A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles As an historical dictionary, this work shows changes in the meanings of words over time, using dated quotations to illustrate these shifts.

Dictionary of Old English (DOE) The Dictionary of Old English (DOE) defines the vocabulary of the first centuries (600-1150 A.D.) of the English language.
Middle English Dictionary The print MED, completed in 2001, has been described as "the greatest achievement in medieval scholarship in America." Its 15,000 pages offer a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500, based on the analysis of a collection of over three million citation slips, the largest collection of this kind available.
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources.

Oxford English Dictionary (in print) A 20 volume set, located in the Reference collection, the Oxford English Dictionary is the ultimate authority on the usage and meaning of English words and phrases, and a fascinating guide to the evolution of our language. It traces the usage, meaning and history of words from 1150 AD to the present day. No dictionary of any language approaches the OED in thoroughness, authority, and wealth of linguistic information. The OED defines over half a million words, and includes almost 2.4 million illustrative quotations, providing an invaluable record of English throughout the centuries. (1989)

English language dictionaries in print are found at PE1620 - PE1693. Recent editions are for library use only, and are found in the Reference collection. Older editions may be borrowed, these are found in McPherson Library stacks (third floor).