These materials are useful for basic research in English studies. If you need more help with your research or finding resources, contact Library staff.
Searching for Books
Library Catalogue
Find books at our library catalogue. The items you need will likely be found in the following areas:
- PE: English language
- PN: Literature in general
- PR: English literature
- PS: Canadian & US literature
- PS 8001-8599: Canadian literature
- PZ: Children & young adult literature
Virtually browse the shelves
When you find a book that goes well with your topic and you want to see what would be around it on the shelf, click on Browse the Shelf on the book’s item details page. You can use the arrow keys on either side to see what other books have been shelved in that subject and may be useful for your papers.
Library Databases
- Academic Search Premier: Indexes journals and magazines from all subject areas.
- JSTOR: The Scholarly Journal Archive: Back issues of important scholarly journals.
- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: Contains literary criticism and history of English and American literature. All eighteen volumes of this title are now available online.
- Early English Books Online – TCP: More than 40,000 texts from those 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.
- Theses Canada: Contains full text Canadian theses.
Literary Criticism
Begin search for works of literary criticism in the Academic Search Premier & JSTOR databases. Use the word “criticism” as one of the search terms. E.g. Margaret Atwood and handmaid’s tale and criticism.
Do similar searches in the library catalogue for books with literary criticism.
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: Contains literary criticism and history of English and American literature. All eighteen volumes of this title are now available online.
Writing & Citing
- MLA Style
- Online citation creators
- How to cite Canadian Government documents (Queens University)
- Writing Help
Web Resources
General Web Resources
- Bartleby: Includes access to books and information related to literature, reference, and verse.
- Celebration of Women Writers: Includes texts, biographies, portraits.
- gltbq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture: Archived encyclopedia of articles relating to literature and the arts, including bibliographies and related links.
- ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Interdisciplinary bibliography of scholarly research on the period from 400 to 1700.
- Inter-Play: Index to plays in collections, anthologies, and periodicals. Includes over 18,000 plays. Produced by the Portland State University Library and includes call numbers for materials in that library. To find local call numbers, check the Primo catalogue.
- Literary Criticism: from the Internet Public Library. Search by author or title or browse by period.
- Playdatabase.com: Finding aid for thousands of plays and monologues
- The Poetry Archive: A collection of recordings of poets reading their own work out loud. Also includes The Children’s Poetry Archive.
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database: Provides a large number of citations to articles, books, news reports, obituaries, motion picture reviews, and other materials about science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Includes both scholarly and fan writings.
English Literature – Medieval
- Geoffrey Chaucer: Includes a line-by-line translation of The Canterbury Tales and information on Chaucer’s life and times.
- Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies: Scholarly, well-organized site. Includes Old and Middle English texts.
- New Chaucer Society: Includes texts, biographical materials and cultural materials.
- TEAMS Middle English Texts: (The Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages). Full text of hundreds of works. Includes introductions for each work.
English Literature – Early Modern
- Renaissance Materials: Multiple editions of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sydney, Harrison, Ellis, James I, and others’ works; hyperlinks allow comparisons of textual variants.
- English Renaissance in Context: Digitized texts and tutorials.
- Luminarium: Middle English, Renaissance, and early 17th Century literature. Includes texts, biographies, essays, sources.
- The Shakespeare Quartos Archive: A digital collection of pre-1642 editions of Shakespeare’s plays.
- Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto: Compares the British Library’s quarto editions.
English Literature – 18th Century
- Eighteenth-Century Collections Online: Collection of 18th-century works from the perspectives of literary and cultural studies. Includes novels, play, poems, memoirs, and treatises.
English Literature – Romantic
- British Women Romantic Poets, 1789-1832: Full texts of poetry by selected British and Irish women writers.
- Romantic Circles: Includes links to texts, publications, conferences. Scholarly and well-organized.
English Literature – Victorian
- Victorian Literary Studies Archive: Hyper-Concordance: Concordances to the works of more than 100 authors.
- Victorian Web: Literature, philosophy, politics, science, art, and more.
- Victorian Women Writers Project: Well-organized, growing collection of primary sources.
English Literature – 20th Century
- Electronic Poetry Center: Texts and biographies of experimental and innovative poets.
- Modernist Journals Project: Selection of full-text journals, books, and essays along with visual art from the early 20th century.
Canadian Literature
- Canada’s Early Women Writers: Includes “biographical and publication information for more than 470 women who lived in Canada or wrote about Canada” and published before 1940.
- Canadian Literature Archive: Information on selected Canadian authors and publications.
- Canadian Poetry: Produced by the University of Toronto, includes biographies, bibliographies, and some full text poems of contemporary poets, links to poetry journal websites, and links to other Canadian poetry sites.
- Canadian Poetry Archive: From the National Library. Contains the full text of selected poems from over 100 early English- and French-language Canadian poets from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
American Literature
- African American Women Writers of the 19th Century: Several dozen full text works, including essays, fiction, and poetry.
- Academy of American Poets: Information about all Academy members. Includes biographies, news of performances, multimedia content, and links to related sites.
- American Verse Project: A growing archive of American poetry written prior to 1920
- Mark Twain in His Times: How Twain’s works were created, marketed, performed, reviewed.
- PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: Covers periods, themes, and authors.
- Storytellers: Native American Authors Online: Authors listed alphabetically and by tribe.
Australian Literature
- Australian Literary and Historical Texts: A collection of eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century texts.
Postcolonial Literature
- Postcolonial Studies (Emory University): Includes biographical and bibliographical information on authors and theorists.