English Literature

This guide provides a general introduction to Library and information resources for the study of literature in English.

What are review articles and where to find them?

Review articles are an important source of material for academic enquiry. Examples are:

  • Reviews of newly published books such as literary works and other forms of writing
  • Reviews of artistic works such as newly released films and current theatre performances
  • Reviews or evaluations of the research currently published on a specific topic

In literary studies, contemporary reviews of historical literary publications provide a unique perspective on how the works were received by literary critics or the general public at the time when the works were published.

Review articles can be found in journals, newspapers, databases, and specialist review publications such as New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, Contemporary Theatre Review, Film Review, etc. Of course, review articles can be found in the Library search DiscoverEd.

Finding reviews in journals

Many scholarly journals may include review articles. The following is a list of selected review journals:

Click the link below to retrieve a full list of book review journals or periodicals in DiscoverEd:

Finding review articles in DiscoverEd

Review articles can be found in DiscoverEd. Follow these simple steps :

1. Do Quick Search for the author's name or book title that you'd like to find review articles on (i.e. author's name as keyword, not as author search).

2. Filter the search results by selecting "Reviews" under filtering by "Resource Type" on the left side of the search screen.

Example:

To find review articles on Louise Glück, winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature, do Quick Search for "Louise Glück" (i.e. search for "Louise Glück" as keyword, not as author). Then filter the search results to "Reviews" as explained above:

Finding review articles in newspapers

Finding review articles in databases

You can search for book review articles in some databases. In ProQuest One Literature, you can prelimit your search results for book reviews through the following steps as the screenshot shows:

  1. In Basic Search mode, click "All content types"
  2. Select "Book Reviews"
  3. Click "Apply"
  4. Perform your searches

Finding review articles in historical archives