Literatures in English

Quick online reference tools for biographical info and fact-checking for literary research

Bartleby.com Quotations  Includes Bartlett's 1919 10th edition, Columbia World of Quotations (1996), and more

Cambridge History of English and American Literature History before 1921, fully searchable

Concordances of Great Books Includes 200 texts no longer under copyright, including Austen, Dickens, Shakespeare, Twain, the Brontes, and others

Glossary of Literary Terms and Handbook of Rhetorical Devices Very brief definitions and examples

Guide to Grammar and Style Quick reference site for questions about proper punctuation, grammar and word usage

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism  Includes entries on on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods

Literature Resource Center  Best searched by author, includes extensive biographical and critical information

Glossarial Database of Middle English From Harvard's Chaucer pages, the online version of concordances for the Riverside Chaucer and works by John Gower

Literature Online (LION) Reference Collection Includes Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story, Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Encyclopedia of the Novel, New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, and Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English

Middle English Compendium Include the Middle English Dictionary and related resources

MLA Style | MLA Style FAQ  Includes info for citing web sources.  Print copies of the MLA Style Manual are available in most libraries PN147 .G444 1998 or 808.027 G437, M685, 1998, as is the MLA Handbook, LB2369 .G53 2003 or 808.027 G437, M685, 2003 

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)  Includes word origins and quotations showing their range of meanings from the time they entered the language to the present

Oxford Reference Online Includes full-text Oxford bi-lingual and English dictionaries, plus Oxford companions and encyclopedias in literature, philosophy, theater, and other fields

Roget's Thesauri  Roget's 1922 edition, and Roget's II:  The New Thesaurus  3rd ed., 1995