There are many reference books for the study of English literature. A few useful ones are listed here; other, similar books will be located near these on the reference shelves.
These books talk about the theme, style, structure, and purpose of literary works. One specialized source is:
| REF 828.91209 T57zd | J.R.R. Tolkien encyclopedia: scholarship and critical assessment |
An easy source to begin with is Magill Masterplots, including:
| REF 823.00924 M39 | Masterplots. Rev. 2nd ed. |
| REF 809 M39 1996 | Masterplots II : British and Commonwealth fiction series. |
Each Masterplots entry is two or three pages long. It gives a summary of the story, with information on the type of plot, time of the action, locale, date of publication, and principal characters. A short critical section following the plot summary talks about the theme, interpretation, style, and technique of the work.
A complete set of all Masterplots sets is available on CD at the Reference Desk. You can search by title or author and find all the Masterplots entries on that work in full text.
More extensive sources for criticism of authors' work are found in the Literature Resource Center database. (See below.)
You may wish to check whether there may be items on reserve for ENG221. Reserve items are kept at the library's Circulation desk.
EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier displays a screen with multiple spaces for key words, as shown below. Try putting "Tolkien" on the first line and the title of the book on the second line. Then check off the boxes next to "Chemeketa Periodicals," "Full text," and "Scholarly journals." Click "Search. If you find too many book reviews, try adding "Not reviews," in the Subject, as shown in the illustration.
These reference books and sites will explain specialized literary terms that may be found in works of criticism:
| R 801.95014 H31 | A glossary of contemporary literary theory |
| R 803 C18 | A multicultural dictionary of literary terms |
| R 803 C74 | The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms |
| Also available online in Oxford Reference Online | |
| R 803 H73 | A Handbook to Literature |
| R 803 M55 | Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature |
| Also available online in Literature Resource Center | |
| R 820.3 Ox2 | The Oxford Companion To English Literature |
| Also available online in Oxford Reference Online | |
| R 820.9 C14 | The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English |
| REF 293.13 L64 | Handbook of Norse mythology |
| REF 299.16 M19 | Dictionary of Celtic mythology |
| REF 398.209415 Oh5 | The lore of Ireland : an encyclopaedia of myth, legend and romance |
| R 801.95014 H31 | Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable |
| REF 803 B43 1996 | Benet's reader's encyclopedia |
| [online] | Oxford Reference Online has eight reference books on mythology and folklore |
A user-friendly book on Norse mythology, not in reference, is
| 293.13 C88 | The Norse myths |
Encyclopedia Mythica online covers Norse and Celtic mythologies, among others.