4. Find Sources

Now you're ready to find sources for your project. Use the recommended resources below to search for useful information. Try to find sources that provide evidence to support your thesis or main idea. If you're having trouble, ask a librarian for help!

Literary Criticism

The following databases have lots of sources for literary criticism. Begin your search by entering the name of the work. If there are a lot of results, you can add the word "and," and then the historical, literary or cultural event you are researching.

Gale Literature
- This link opens in a new window
Gale Literature allows you to search all of Gale’s literary databases and literature eBook titles in one database.
EBSCO Literature Databases
- This link opens in a new window
Search 2 EBSCO literary databases at once: Literary Reference Source and Academic Search Premier. Proxy Bypass
Bloom's Literature
- This link opens in a new window
Writings of Harold Bloom as well as other critics. Features author biographies, overviews, synopses, analyses and literary criticism of thousands of works from novels to poetry to plays, video segments, in-depth full-text entries on literary topics and themes and a literary timeline. Proxy Bypass
Gale eBooks: Literature Collection
- This link opens in a new window
Gale eBooks included literature criticism series: Short Stories for Students, Drama For Students, Poetry For Students, Novels for Students, Epics for Students and Shakespeare for Students.

Historical Sources

If you are looking for the historical or cultural context of a piece of literature, try these resources!

Gale in Context: World History
- This link opens in a new window
Full-text articles from leading scholarly publications, primary sources, images, maps and charts.
Modern World History
- This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive look at world history including art, music, literature, politics and other aspects of culture from the mid-15th century to current times including United States. Thousands of subject entries, biographies, images, videos and slideshows, maps and graphs, primary sources, and timelines combine to provide a detailed and comparative view of the people, places, events, and ideas that have defined modern world history and culture.

Victorian Literature and Culture by Maureen Moran
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1441147934
Publication Date: 2006-11-16
Provides an introduction to literature and its context from 1837-1900.
A New Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture by Herbert F. Tucker (Editor); Herbert F. Tucker (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781118624494
Publication Date: 2014-05-05
Offers experienced guidance to the literature of nineteenth-century Britain and its social and historical context.
A History of Victorian Literature by James Eli Adams
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1282116029
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Provides a broad overview of Victorian imperialism and its influence on poetry,
fiction, and other literary genres.
Reading Victorian Poetry by Richard Cronin
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1444354973
Publication Date: 2011-11-23
Offers close readings of poems by a range of canonical and lesser known writers from the Victorian era by renowned scholars.
Victorian Literature and the Victorian State: Character and Governance in a Liberal Society by Lauren M. E. Goodlad
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0801881544
Publication Date: 2004-12-07
Goodlad traces how key British writers were caught between their desire to promote the freedom of individuals by restricting the state and their desire to make individuals better through the state’s support.
British Literature and the Life of Institutions: Speculative States by Benjamin Kohlmann
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0192573187
Publication Date: 2021
This book places literary studies in dialogue with political theory, philosophy, and the history of ideas in examining literature of the Victorian era.
Victorian Literature and Finance by Francis O'Gorman (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0191536008
Publication Date: 2007-03-01
This book seeks to understand and theorize the relationship between high finance and literary writing in the 19th century.

Picturing Reform in Victorian Britain by Janice Carlisle
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1139698494
Publication Date: 2012
This book examines how Victorians, as creators and viewers of images, visualized the politics of franchise reform.
Uneven Developments: the Ideological Work of Gender in Mid-Victorian England by Mary Poovey
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1282070118
Publication Date: 2014-03-28
Poovey shows how representations of gender took the form of a binary opposition in mid-Victorian culture and discusses the role of this opposition in various discourses and institutions-medical, legal, moral, and literary.
Mixed Feelings: Feminism, Mass Culture, and Victorian Sensationalism by Ann Cvetkovich
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0585022623
Publication Date: 1992-01-01
Drawing on Marxist, feminist, and Foucauldian cultural theory, Cvetkovich investigates the sensation novel's power to produce emotional responses, its representation of social problems as affective ones, and the difficulties involved in assessing the genre as either reactionary or subversive.
Victorian Political Culture 'Habits of Heart and Mind' by Angus Hawkins
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0191044148
Publication Date: 2015-01-01
An original exploration of the distinctive values and cultures behind the political and constitutional transformations of the Victorian age.
The Victorian Era by John F. Wukovits
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1420509330
Publication Date: 2013-06-15
Provides an overview of important historical events and periods, focusing on the Victorian era in Great Britain, lasting from Queen Victoria's ascension to the throne in 1837 until her death in 1901.
Religious Vitality in Victorian London by W. M. Jacob
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0192897403
Publication Date: 2021-11-17
This innovative text challenges many of the widely held assumptions about the place of religion in Victorian society and in London, the world's first great industrial and commercial metropolis.
Victorian England: Aspects of English and Imperial History 1837-1901 by L. C. B. Seaman
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0203323513
Publication Date: 1995-01-01
This clear and thought-provoking examination of the years from Queen Victoria's accession to the close of the century, pays particular attention to the post-1875 period.

Search for Books & eBooks

Use the search box below to search the SCC Library Catalog for physical books (in one of our library locations) and eBooks. You can also open the Library Catalog or use the Advanced Search for more search options.