Literature

• Connected Histories 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

If you want to trace details about a specific person or place, or perhaps need inspiration for creative writing, this could be just what you need! Connected Histories provides an all-in-one search across electronic content available on various sites such as 19^th Century British Pamphlets, the Clergy of the Church of England, Charles Booth Archive, Convict Transportation Registers, Proceedings of the Old Bailey, British Newspapers 1600-1900 etc. If you find something useful on a resource we pay for e.g. British Newspapers, you may need to follow the link to that resource from the Finding Articles page within these Subject Pages.

• Europeana 

A cultural gateway into over 50 million digitised documents, maps, images and newspaper archives from across Europe. Thematic collections include World War I, fashion, industrial heritage, personal stories and sport. Special newspaper collections include issues covering the Paris World Exhibition of 1889, World War I and Eastern Europe in 1989.

• The Gothic 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

A very useful site put together by the British Library containing images, plus essays by leading academics on different aspects of gothic literature.

• The John Johnson Collection 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

An online archive of just under 68,000 printed items covering aspects of everyday life in Britain in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. You will find posters and handbills for theatrical and non-theatrical entertainments, broadsides relating to murders and executions, book and journal prospectuses, popular topographical prints, and a wealth of different kinds of printed advertising material.

Watch this short video introducing the collection.

• Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Politics and Society (NCCO) 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

This archive contains primary sources covering the development of urban centres and the major restructuring of society that took place during the Industrial Revolution. The collections offer an understanding of key events such as Chartist agitation, Anti-Corn Law disturbances, the Peterloo massacre and tensions underlying policy formation and the nature of Victorian government. Home Office records reflect the varied responsibilities of the Home Secretary's office, including petitions to the Crown, appointments to public offices, disturbances and sedition, inventions, poor relief, prison administration, public health, public order, and the universities.

Get an overview in this short video.

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

The national record of over 60,000 biographies, 72 million words, 11,000 portraits of significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century - extremely useful for detailed biographies about literary figures.

• Romantic Circles 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

A set of online research tools - including chronologies, indexes, concordances and bibliographies - created by academic experts for the study of the Romantics, their contemporaries, and their cultural contexts.

• UK Parliamentary Papers 1688-2005 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

Search or browse one of the most detailed primary sources for the history of Britain and its former colonies. Reports from military officers serving abroad are included, as well as Command Papers, Bills, Committee reports. Hansard is available from 1803-2005. (See UK Parliament link if you need more recent papers.)

This has lots of primary sources to support the MA Victorian Gothic.

• The Victorian Web 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

A highly-rated American academic site about all aspects of UK Victorian literature and culture. You will find primary and secondary texts (including scholarly book reviews) covering Victorian economics, literature, philosophy, political and social history, science, technology, and visual arts (painting, architecture, sculpture, book design and illustration, photography, decorative arts, including ceramics, furniture, jewelry, metalwork, stained glass, and textiles, costume and various movements, such as Art Nouveau, Japonisme, and Arts and Crafts).

• The William Morris Society 

fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

Details about the life and work of this important nineteenth century figure. Links to his work are included as well as full-text, critical articles about his work.