Town and Country Public Library Guide to Sources of Literary Criticism

What is literary criticism?
Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works.  It is usually in the form of a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered literary criticism.  Criticism may examine a particular literary work, or may look at an author's writings as a whole. Source: The Internet Public Library

How do I find literary criticism?
This guide is designed to help students in researching a paper that requires sources of literary criticism. Both print and web sources are available.  Town and Country Public Library has several excellent book series available on literary criticism.  The Library also subscribes to the Gale Virtual Reference Library which includes many valuable literary criticism resources, including Novels for Students and Drama for Students.

If you cannot find the literary criticism information you need at our Library, ask Mr. Nelson, the reference librarian, or a librarian at the circulation desk for assistance.  He or she can help you locate resources from other libraries.  

BOOK SERIES (Located in 800s in Young Adult Department):  

Novels for Students – Young Adult Reference                           
Poetry for Students – Young Adult Reference
Short Stories for Students – Young Adult Reference
Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations  
Literary Companion to American Literature
Literary Companion to British Literature
Literature in Context
Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers – 800s in Adult Dept.

WEBSITES:

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is available here.

You will need to type in your fourteen digit library card number.  Next click on “Gale Virtual Reference Library.”  In the “Literature Search” section, do a search to pull up biographies and literary criticism.

Internet Public Library’s “Literary Criticism Collection” at http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/.  This IPL collection provides links to online sources of biography, bibliography, and criticism about major authors and works written worldwide.  The most comprehensive coverage is in American and British authors.

Yahoo’s “Literary Authors Listing” is a listing of sites about particular authors.
http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/Literary_Fiction/

Dwayne Nelson
Reference Librarian
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