Researching the reception history and reputation of authors and works
There are many different ways to approach finding both contemporary and newer reviews of novels and works. This section will highlight a few. If you need assistance finding 19th century reviews, reach out to Sherri for assistance.
1. Books / Ebooks
Charles Dickens in Context by Call Number: Ebook (also owned in print)ISBN: 9780521887007Publication Date: 2011Essays place Dickens in context. Included are a look at reviews from the 19th and 20th centuries.
George Eliot: Critical Assessments by Call Number: PR4688.G465 1996 v.1, v.2, v.3, v.4ISBN: 9781873403396Publication Date: 1996Volume one includes nineteenth-century reviews and responses.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins and William Thackeray by Their Contemporaries by Call Number: Shannon PR462 .L587 2007 v.1ISBN: 9781851968190Publication Date: 2007Considers the reputations and biographical portrayal of three innovative and controversial writers. Mary Elizabeth Braddon is the focus of volume 1.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: The 1818 Text, Contexts, Nineteenth-century Responses, Modern Criticism by Call Number: Shannon PR5397 .F73 M36 1996ISBN: 9780393964585Publication Date: 1996Norton editions of works like Frankenstein include a section for contemporary critical responses. Some other editions may also - for Frankenstein, see the 1992 Bedford edition edited by Johanna M. Smith, for example..
Robert Louis Stevenson: The Critical Heritage by Call Number: Ebook (also owned in print)ISBN: 9780415134675Publication Date: 1995Provides reviews of Stevenson's works from the time they were released.
2. Secondary Source Databases
The database Orlando includes snippets of critical reviews peppered throughout the list/timeline of British women's writings (and some men).
You might find articles or books listed in MLA International Bibliography that discuss the reception or review of a particular title.
3. Primary Source Databases
Finally, you can access some of our primary source periodical and newspaper databases to look for contemporary nineteenth-century reviews of novels and other works. For a list of other newspaper and periodical collections of possible interest, see the Primary Sources - Find Historical Newspapers, Periodicals, Diaries, & More tab of the English Language & Literature Guide.
Times Literary Supplement (TLS) Historical Archive includes the complete online fully-searchable edition of the TLS from the first edition in 1902 through 2019.
PAO: Periodicals Archive Online allows you to search the full text of nearly 400 international humanities and social sciences journals published from 1770 to the 1990s.
JSTOR also includes historical publications, so run a search in this database and limit your results to the time period just after the work was published to find contemporary reviews.
British Periodicals includes hundreds of periodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth (some up to 1939), reproduced in high-resolution facsimile page images. The periodicals cover literature and the arts, as well as philosophy, history, science, and social science.
British Library Newspapers includes newspapers sourced from the extensive holdings of the British Library. It includes over 160 newspaper titles that span up into the twentieth century.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers includes key newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, Norfolk Journal and Guide, Pittsburgh Courier, NY Amsterdam News, Baltimore Afro-American, Washington Post, and The Guardian & The Observer.