What's Entailed in Finding Good Critical Articles:

Finding Literary Criticism on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

A Carolina Day School Helpsheet

Reference Works

~ Best Bet. Novels for Students (multiple volumes). REF 809 TEL

P&P is in volume 1. A lovely long article with information on theme, characters, etc.

~ Best Bet. British Writers . REF 820.9 BRI

Twenty-page article on Austen and her works.

Masterpieces of Women's Literature . REF 809 MAG

The P&P article has sections on Form and Contents, Analysis, and Content.

Masterpieces of World Literature . REF 809 MAG

Brief but informative character descriptions, a detailed plot summary, and a critical evaluation of the novel.

Critical Survey of Long Fiction . REF 809.3 Cri 2000 V1

Ten pages on Austen and her works with a section on P&P.

Reference Guide to English Literature . REF 820.3 Ref 1991

Short article (vol. 4) on P&P; article on Austen (vol. 1).

Circulating Books

There are many books, called literary criticism , that analyze certain writers' works. Some deal with characters, scenes, or themes commonly found in a particular writer's work. Other books may deal with only one work, especially if it is well known or influential.

I have put the books we have on reserve.  

To find these books in a library catalogue, look up your author as a subject (you want books about the author and his/her work, not by the author). In a large library, you may have to look at the subheading under the author's name called “Criticism and interpretation” (example: Welty, Eudora – Criticism and interpretation ) to differentiate from the books dealing mostly with the author's life. There may even be subheadings for particularly well-known works.  

Remember that you can find the books in the UNCA library by checking their online catalogue while you are here at CDS!  

Don't forget the WEB (Web Resource Library) listings in the catalogue!

Student Resource Center

This subscription database contains articles from many reference works and periodicals. If you get the password from the librarian, you can search The Student Resource Center from home 24/7.

Available from the library web page under "Subscription Databases." After you log in, choose Student Resource Center Gold .

When the Search box appears, type in pride and prejudice (you'll be searching your book's title as a subject since you want information about the book).

The first section to appear will be about ten articles under the “Reference” tab. In the list that appears, note that the critical essays are identified as "criticism" in the far right column. Click on the "magazine" or “academic journals” tabs for articles in periodicals, but beware: the search will use “pride prejudice” as keywords (as it won't find any under “subject”), and many unrelated articles will appear only because the words “are somewhere in the text. You'll also be looking at a lot of movie reviews.

NCLive Databases

( brought to you by your public library)

NCLive is a host of databases brought to you by your local public (or academic) library. You must have a library card and a password to access these databases. You can access NCLive from the CDS Library webpage.

• Connect to NCLive from the CDS Library's webpage or type nclive.org into your browser's address bar.
• Choose your own public library . Type in the password that you will obtain by calling your library and asking the reference department.
• Choose "Browse Resources."
• Choose "Alphabetic List."
• Choose "Academic Search Premiere." You will be taken to The EBSCO database provider site.
• Choose the "Databases" tab. Note that "Academic Search Premiere" is already checked.
• Check the boxes in front of "MAS Ultra" and " Masterfile Premiere".
• Choose "Continue."
• Choose "Advanced Search."
• In the Search Box, type in austen , jane .
• In the box next to the search box, choose the “SU Subject Terms” option.
• Check the box next to “Full Text” on the Limiters below the search box.
• Click on the Search button.
• In the results that appear, click on the PRIDE & Prejudice (Book) link that appears on the left side of the screen under “Narrow Results by Subject” or you'll be wading through a lot of movie reviews.

On the Web:

The Voice of the Shuttle Jane Austen page : http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=1478

has a good listing of internet links, including some criticism.

ks 3-07