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English: Books

Primo catalogue

Search Omni to find items at Laurier, UW and UG:

  • novels, plays, collections of poetry by title
  • works by specific authors
  • books (monographs) about literary works (literary criticism)
  • books on literary genres (eg. English drama) or literary movements (eg. postcolonialism)
  • book-length biographies, bibliographies (lists of works by or about authors or subjects), dictionaries, and other reference materials
MLA Bibliography

Use the MLA Bibliography to identify more books and book chapters on your topic:

  • do not limit to "peer reviewed" (this will eliminate all books and book chapters)
  • use "Get it @ Laurier" to connect to the Primo catalogue
  • book isn't in Primo?
Finding literary criticism
  1. For authors , try browsing in Primo by subject on author's last name, followed by first name: eg. Dickens, Charles. Here are some results. Note that for this author, criticism is available for specific works and topics:
    • Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. Characters Children
    • Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. Criticism and Interpretation
    • Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. Criticism and interpretation History
    • Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. David Copperfield
  2. For a particular period , browse by subject in Primo on the general category, then look for the century, followed by more specific subdivisions:
    • English literature
    • English literature 20th century
    • English literature 20th century Bibliography
    • English Literature 20Th Century History and Criticism
    • English literature 20th century History and criticism Dictionaries
Book reviews
Research guides

Below are a selection of research guides for English. To find more, search the Primo Catalogue for the subjects: literature, research, methodology.

Literary research guide: an annotated listing of reference sources in English literary studies, by Harner, James L.
Modern language Association, 2008. Print location: Z2011.H34 2008
American literature scholar in the digital age, by Earhart, Amy; Jewell, Andrew
University of Michigan Press, 2011. Print location: PS51.A64
Handbook to literary research, by Eliot, Simon; Owens, W.R.
Routledge, 1998.
Literary research and Canadian literature : strategies and sources
Scarecrow, 2011. Print location: PS8039.5.R49
Literary research and postcolonial literatures in English, by Christenberry, H. Faye et al
Scarecrow, 2012.
Reference sources for Canadian literary studies, by Joseph Jones
University of Toronto Press, 2005. Print location: Z1375.J66
More resources for finding books
Finding biographies

For book-length biographies, search the person's name as a "subject" in Primo

General guides

Literature Online (LION), 8th century to present
Biographies of writers in English and also of major writers in languages other than English.
Literature Resource Center
Includes full text from Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography
Gale's Literary Index
Index to publications of the Gale Group, a major reference book publisher, including Contemporary Authors, and Dictionary of Literary Biography.

Women authors

British women authors, see: call numbers beginning PR 111

Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature
1992. Brief descriptions of selected women writers from across the world and from all time periods. Print location.
Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe
1997. Biographical essays and lists of works for writers from antiquity to the present. Print location.

English authors

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
More than 50,000 biographies of people of distinction in the British Isles and its colonies, from the 4th century to the 21st. New edition of the 1885 work; also includes the original edition: do a search, then select "DNB Archive" from the left-hand column.

Poets: see call number range PR 541 - PR 611; Dramatists: see call number range: PR 106, PR 623 - PR 737; Prose Writers: see call number range PR 781; Novelists: see call number range PR 830 - PR 888

Canadian authors

See call numbers starting PS 8081

Contemporary Canadian Authors
1996. A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to writers in all genres. Print location.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Historical, biographical dictionary with scholarly articles on individuals who died on or before 1930. Biographies for later individual are being added; see "New Biographies" on the sidebar.

American authors

See call number range PS128 - PS 490

Australian authors

Oxford Companion to Australian Literature

African and Caribbean authors

See call numbers beginning PR 9205