The following provides a starting point from which you can begin your research according to your information needs. See also the English Literature Guide for more resources.
Selected books from our library collection:
The Essential Writings of Jonathan Swift
The Cambridge Companion to John Dryden
Novel Beginnings: experiments in eighteenth-century English fiction
Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern LiteratureWhen you need current, up-to date information, it is best to look for journal articles. Journal articles in peer-reviewed journals assume that you know the basics about the subject.
Here is a list of research databases that will work best. Remember that each database will give you different results so try each one.
Examples searches:
Another way to find journal articles is to try and find the references listed in your readings. For example this citation:
Wheeler, D. (2012). 'What an Englishman in parliament oughto be': The politics of Dryden's 'To my honour'd kinsman'. Studies In Philology, 109(1), 132-152. doi:10.1353/sip.2012.0002
Copy the journal title, Studies In Philology, and go to the UFV Journals List . Paste the journal title into the search box and see what database offers online access.
In this case, Project Muse. Make sure to double check the dates of coverage because the search only checks the journal title. In this case the coverage starts in 2003 so we are okay. Click on the Project Must link, choose the "search journal" tab and enter the article title "What an Englishman in parliament" into the search box. You should then be able to locate the actual article.
"The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. "
