Research Guides: Literature: Reference and More: Book Reviews &amp; Literary Criticism

Book Reviews and Literary Criticism

Book reviews are critiques of the work written contemporaneously with the publication of the book being reviewed; they are a good way to assess the original reception of the work under consideration. Literary criticism, on the other hand, continues long after the original publication.

Databases and Indexes

Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window
Book Review Digest Plus is a library tool that brings together book reviews on a wide range of topics, from a variety of sources.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to older issues of seminal scholarly journals.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The index for literature. Search MLA to find literary criticism, book reviews, and just about anything relating to communication.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to all journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, including recent publications.
ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new window
Literary criticism, authors' biographies, reference resources with citations. PQ1L provides useful information for researching literature. Includes the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL), which has scholarly book reviews.
Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Beginning in 1890, the Reader’s Guide is one of the most comprehensive places to locate articles from popular periodicals. The database extends through 1982.

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals 1802-1974
Ten volumes of book reviews.

Background & Reference Information

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
A full-text searchable database of articles on individual critics and theorists, critical and theoretical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism
Covers both traditional topics such as literature and history, poetry, drama and the novel, and also newer topics such as the production and reception of literature.

Sample Library of Congress Subject Headings

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