Guide to English Language & Literature

Encyclopedias & Handbooks

These works can be useful for answering brief questions or verifying facts on literary topics.

Online:

• Brewer, E. Cobham. The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus, 1898.

Searchable hypertext version. "Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words That Have a Tale to Tell..." From Bartleby.com, 2000.
See also printed copy: HODGES Reference PN43.B65 1981

• Cambridge History of English and American Literature, edited by A.W. Ward, et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907-21.

"Considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published, the Cambridge History contains over 303 chapters and 11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing." From Bartleby.com.

• Encyclopedia of Literature

From the Literature Resource Center. Definitions of literary terms and ideas.

• Frazer, James George, Sir. The Golden Bough. New York: Macmillan, 1922.

"A monumental study in comparative folklore, magic and religion..." From Bartleby.com, 2000.

• Glossary of Literary Terms

Provides definitions of major concepts.

• Handbook of Rhetorical Devices

"This book contains definitions and examples of more than sixty traditional rhetorical devices, all of which can still be useful today..."

• The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism

Encyclopedia of literary and critical theories and concepts.
See also printed copy: HODGES Reference PN81.J55 1994

• Literature Online (LION) - Reference

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
• KnowledgeNotes™ Student Guides
• Literature Online biographies
• New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
• Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English


• New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd. ed., edited by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
  From Bartleby.com.
  See also printed copy: HODGES Reference E169.1.H614 2002


• Oxford Reference Online - Literature

A collection of literary guides from Oxford University Press. Includes:

• The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
• The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature
• The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature
• The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
• The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature
• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms
• A Dictionary of Shakespeare
• The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English
• A Dictionary of Writers and their Works

Printed:

• Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia, 4th ed., edited by Bruce Murphy. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996.
  HODGES Reference PN41.B4 1996


• The Cambridge History of English Literature, edited by A.W. Ward. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1917 [1933].
  HODGES Reference PR83.C22 1917
  See also online from Bartleby.com.


• Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, 3rd. ed. Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press, 1999.
  HODGES Reference PN771.E5 1999


• Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. Glaister's Glossary of the Book, 2nd. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
  HODGES Reference Z118.G55 1979


• Harman, William. Handbook to Literature, 9th. ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
  Hodges stacks PN41.H355 2003


• Reference Guide to American Literature, 4th. ed., edited by Thomas Riggs. Detroit : St. James Press, 2000.
  HODGES Reference PS129.R44 2000


• Reference Guide to English Literature, 2nd. ed., edited by D.L. Kirkpatrick. London: St. James Press, 1991.
  HODGES Reference PR106.S7 1991