Magazine and Journal Articles
Searching free article databases such as Magportal.com and Findarticles.com should produce some results. Try searching by both author and the name of the work. Also try Atlantic Monthly Online which contains critical reviews of influential books with an archive going back to the 19th century.
Remember if you or your students do utilize online resources you’ll need to know how to cite them. Check out the IPL’s Citing Electronic Resources for help.
Study Guides
Study guides are very popular with students. Three that are worth having a look at are Novelguide, Spark Notes, and Bookrags. You'll find novel summaries, character analyses, theme analyses, chapter summaries, questions for study, and author information.
And finally, Don't Forget the Library
While there are some great literary criticism resources on the Internet now, many sources aren’t yet available electronically, or they are available only by subscription through your local school or public library. As such, the library is still an important part of any search for literary criticism.
Here are just some of the things that may be available at your local library:
Literature and Its Times : Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them, published by the Gale Group. This is a handy five volume resource, particularly for researching the historical context in which a book was written. You’ll also get a plot summary, character analyses, some criticism, author details, and suggested further reading.
Novels for Students : Presenting Analysis, Context and Criticism on Commonly Studied Novels, also from Gale. This nine volume series gives information such as author biography, plot summary, characters, themes, style, historical and cultural context, critical overview, sources for further study, and criticism.
Contemporary Literary Criticism. Another great Gale resource which contains excerpts from criticism of the works of today's novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, scriptwriters, and other creative writers.
Magill’s Masterplots. Is available in both print and electronic format, and contains plot digests, critical essays, character descriptions, and author biographies for works of world literature, drama, and poetry.
And if you can’t find these specific resources at your local library, just ask the librarian for similar types of titles such as Contemporary Authors, Discovering Authors, and the Dictionary of Literary Biography to name a few. A great way to see which Gale resource contains information on the authors and titles you're looking for is to check Gale’s Literary Index.
