ENG 651 - American Literature Pre-1860

From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers insight into the dark underworld of the city. Children’s chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries and ballads were all part of a vibrant culture of street literature. This collection, drawn from the holdings of the Lilly Library, will be of interest to 19th century scholars researching: working-class culture, street literature, popular music, urban topography, ‘slumming’, prostitution, the Contagious Diseases Act, the Temperance Movement, social reform, Toynbee Hall, police and criminality.

This collection contains nineteenth and twentieth century American women's travel diaries and correspondence from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.

Taking the phenomenon of the Grand Tour as a starting point, this resource explores the relationship between Britain and Europe from c.1550 to 1850, exploring the Anglo-European response to continental travel for pleasure, business and diplomacy.

Over two centuries on-line for full-text searching of the London publication, more than 7 million articles, from 1785-1985. Widely recognized as the source for authoritative reports on politics, law, business and society. Extensive coverage of parliamentary debates, royal doings, obituaries, official appointments. Does not include the Sunday Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Times Educational Supplement, the Times Higher Education Supplement. Also available in the Gale NewsVault, a searchable collection of historical newspapers.

Most every 18th century book printed in England, over 125,000 titles, over 25 million pages. Full-text, fully searchable. This "Long Century" gave birth to several major revolutions: the intellectual, industrial, French and American revolutions. During this Age of Enlightenment publishers issued books on an endless variety of subjects. During this century literacy spread widely and with great passion readers devoured books.

Searchable full-text collection of 96 complete works of English prose from the period 1700–1780 by writers from the British Isles. Key figures covered include Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, Laurence Sterne and Jonathan Swift. In addition to a scanned version of Sterne's Tristram Shandy, the collection also contains two different editions of Richardson's Clarissa and Pamela, and of Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Eighteen Century Drama contains the Larpent Collection from the Huntington Library, which archives almost every play submitted for licence between 1737 and 1824. Also included are the diaries of Larpent’s wife and professional collaborator Anna, recording her criticisms of plays, as well as insights into theatrical culture and English society. It also includes playbills, theatre records and correspondence for social context.

Bringing together rare journals printed between c1685 and 1835, this resource covers social, political and literary life, providing an opportunity to examine a variety of topical issues, and to compare a range of perspectives on the debates of the day.

"Advice Literature for men and women." Access to approximately 50,000 images of original manuscript and printed material, including a strong core of documents from the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Ephemeral material such as ballads, cartoons and pamphlets are featured alongside diaries, advice literature, medical journals, conduct books and periodicals.