First Year Seminar 19:
Big Books
Fall 2002
LIBRARY CATALOGS AND GENERAL BACKGROUND | LITERARY-CRITICAL SOURCES | DICKENS | CITING SOURCES
Library Catalogs and General Background
Start research in the 4-college online
library catalog (for Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke and Smith) from
the Library's homepage; there is a separate UMass
catalog. You can search in the library catalogs by AUTHOR,
by SUBJECT,
by TITLE,
or by KEYWORD.
Personal names can always be subjects. But remember that a name is always
listed last name first for author and subject searches: "dickens, charles"
not "charles dickens". For a SUBJECT which is not just a name, you have
to choose the exact word or phrase chosen by libraries to define your
topic. For example, "science fiction, american" will give you
books about science fiction written by authors in the United States; imagine
"soldiers -- czechoslovakia -- fiction" for Hašek's novel.
If official subject terminology is hard to guess, just try keywords. Once
you have found books on your topic, you can click on the subject links.
When you need quick background information as you read, try
Britannica Online.
A general encyclopedia often works best. Don't forget that a good English-language
dictionary is always essential. Amherst librarians like OED
Online or its 20-volume version, the Oxford English Dictionary
(Ref PE 1625 O87 1989).
Literary-Critical Sources in General
Finding Book Reviews
Library's webpage which gives tips for finding reviews, an
important source for evaluation of books, expecially very recent books
MLA International Bibliography. 1963-
An online listing of scholarly articles about literature,
genres, linguistics, and more. You can search by an author's name if you
want articles about him; you can look up keyword topics. No book reviews.
Expanded
Academic ASAP. 1980-
An index to articles from a wide variety of academic journals.
It lists articles from many disciplines -- literature, history, gender,
etc. Many references link to the complete text of the articles.
Dickens
Charles Dickens wrote so long ago and is so famous that you
will probably need relatively little beyond the books you can find in
the online
library catalog to put together the history of David Copperfield.
But, just in case, here are a few more suggestions:
The Major Authors Edition of the New Moulton's Pre-Twentieth-Century
Criticism of British and American Literature to 1904. Volume 5: Victorian
(Ref PR 85 M33 1985):
Excerpts from personal accounts, letters, critical essays,
etc., about Dickens -- all written in the nineteenth century.
Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature Volume 4: 1800-1900 Third
edition. (Ref Z 2011 N45 1999)
A big, complicated listing of original editions, reprints,
reviews, critical studies for 19th-century British authors. Excellent
place for evlauations of Dickens' work by Dickens' contemporaries.
Oxford companion to English Literature (Ref PR 19 O94 2000)
For quick look-up of names, works, styles, etc., associated
with English literature.
Encyclopedia of European Social History (Ref HN 373 E63 2001)
A scholarly encyclopedia with substantial, scholarly articles
about places, economic and political changes, demography, media, marriage,
family structures, and much more. Bibliographies at the end of articles.
Oxford Companion to British History (Ref DA 34 O93 1997)
Find brief identifications and notes on people, places, intellectual
and political movements, etc., in British hisotry. Good to fill in some
blanks when you are reading about 19th-century literature.
Citing Sources
Be sure to credit the sources you use for a research project
-- whether printed books and journals, online texts, or websites. The
Bibliography
Styles Handbook: MLA Format from the Writers Workshop at University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tells you how to cite all kinds of sources
in a form acceptable to courses in literature.
Do you have questions about research in this course? Contact Margaret Adams Groesbeck (magroesbeck)