Subject Guides: English & Related Literature: 18th C Literature

Primary Sources - Online Resources

17th & 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers This link opens in a new window
The collection includes almost 1 million pages from around 1,270 titles and while the majority of these originate from London, there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the colonies.
A digitised version of the newspapers, news-books, pamphlets, ephemera, and other early forms of newspapers from the Reverend Charles Burney Collection held at the British Library. The collection includes almost 1 million pages from around 1,270 titles and while the majority of these originate from London, there are also some English provincial, Irish and Scottish papers, and a few examples from the colonies.

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African American Poetry (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
A database of nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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American Periodicals Series Online (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Digitized images of the pages of American magazines, journals and newspapers originating between 1741 and 1900. APS Online includes over 1,500 titles ranging from America 's first scientific journal, Medical Repository, to popular magazines like Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal.
American Periodicals Series Online is a major database containing digitized images of the pages of American magazines, journals and newspapers originating between 1741 and 1900. APS Online has over 7 million pages of content spanning nearly 200 years of American history up to Americas entry into World War II, and includes over 1,500 titles ranging from America 's first scientific journal, Medical Repository, to popular magazines like Vanity Fair and Ladies' Home Journal.

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British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
The immediate experiences of approximately 500 women including some from the 18th century, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters. Lady Mary Pierrepont Wortley Montagu, Henrietta Hobart Howard Berkeley, Countess of Suffolk and Anna Seward are amongst those included.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is a major collection of diaries and correspondence spanning more than 400 years and giving access to the personal experiences of nearly 500 women. It contains around 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries and over 4,000 facsimile pages of previously unpublished manuscripts. Letters and diaries of famous historic and literary figures can be found alongside the thoughts and experiences of ordinary women, including the unpublished letters and diaries of women who served during both world wars. The texts themselves are accompanied by biographies of the authors and bibliographic details of the sources.

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British Literary Manuscripts Online, c. 1660-1900 This link opens in a new window
British Literary Manuscripts Online provides an insight into the lives and works of Britains major writers across two hundred years by giving access to complete facsimile copies of author manuscripts including poems, plays, and novels, private correspondence, diaries and journals, drawings and handwritten notes.

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British Periodicals Collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the searchable full text of almost 500 periodicals published between the 1680s and the 1930s and covers a wide range of subjects from across the arts, sciences and social sciences.
British Periodicals provides access to the searchable full text of almost 500 periodicals published between the 1680s and the 2000s and covers a wide range of subjects from across the arts, sciences and social sciences.

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Early American Imprints Series 1: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
With more than 36,000 items, this collection includes virtually every book, pamphlet and broadside published in America during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new window
Allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in the fields of history, literature, religion, law, fine arts, science and more. It includes works by authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Goethe, Olaudah Equiano, Aphra Behn etc.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is the most ambitious single digitisation project ever undertaken which offers wide access not only to a century of the nation's intellectual heritage, but also works from earlier periods which were valued and printed or reprinted during the eighteenth century.

A library of over 180,000 eighteenth-century printed books, with more than 33 million scanned facsimile pages. Each title has a full citation record from the English Short Title Catalogue and is fully searchable - including full-text and illustrations multi-disciplinary. A research resource for all disciplines.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Eighteenth Century Drama This link opens in a new window
The collection includes over 2,500 plays, epilogues, prologues, addresses and songs submitted for licence along with the diaries of Larpent’s wife and professional collaborator Anna, recording her criticisms of plays, and hundreds of further documents including playbills, theatre records and correspondence between key theatrical figures.
Documents from the John Larpent Collection, an archive of almost every play submitted for licence between 1737 and 1824. Larpent was the English Inspector of Plays from 1778-1824 and preserved plays submitted for licence under the 1737 Licensing Act.

The collection includes over 2,500 plays, epilogues, prologues, addresses and songs submitted for licence along with the diaries of Larpents wife and professional collaborator Anna, recording her criticisms of plays, and hundreds of further documents including playbills, theatre records and correspondence between key theatrical figures.

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Eighteenth Century Journals This link opens in a new window
Rare printed journals, periodicals and newspapers of the long eighteenth century not covered in EEBO, ECCO or Early English Newspapers. The Portal features many short run items and very rare materials. The five separate collections included in the Portal are:

Module 1: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1693-1793, from the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Module 2: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1699-1812, from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Module 3: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1680-1816, from British Library Newspapers, Colindale and Cambridge University Library.
Module 4: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1708-1820, from Chetham's Library, Manchester and the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
Module 5: The Lady’s Magazine and other titles, 1712-1835, from Birmingham Central Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library and Liverpool John Moores University Library.
Rare printed journals, periodicals and newspapers of the long eighteenth century not covered in EEBO, ECCO or Early English Newspapers. The Portal features many short run items and very rare materials. The five separate collections included in the Portal are:
- Module 1: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1693-1793, from the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
- Module 2: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1699-1812, from the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin.
- Module 3: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1680-1816, from British Library Newspapers, Colindale and Cambridge University Library.
- Module 4: Newspapers and Periodicals, 1708-1820, from Chetham's Library, Manchester and the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
- Module 5: The Ladys Magazine and other titles, 1712-1835, from Birmingham Central Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library and Liverpool John Moores University Library.
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Empire Online This link opens in a new window
An exciting collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world
Over 60,000 images of original manuscripts and printed material 1492-1962 from libraries and archives around the world.

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Gerritsen Women's History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Digital copies of books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the revolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights
More than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

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Grand Tour This link opens in a new window
This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works gives an insight into the English abroad c1550 to 1850. The primary material includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, maps, paintings, sketches, and architectural drawings.
This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works gives an insight into the English abroad c1550 to 1850. The primary material includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, maps, paintings, sketches, and architectural drawings. Secondary sources include introductory essays; a searchable, full-text version of John Ingamells Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800; a selection of digitised source material from the Brinsley Ford Archive at the Paul Mellon Centre, London, and an indexed collection of hundreds of modern photographs of Italy, providing a detailed visual source of all the historical sites, palaces and streets visited by tourists.

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Literary Manuscripts: 17th and 18th Century Poetry from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds This link opens in a new window
The manuscripts include contemporary copies of poems by writers like Colvil, Dryden, Fairfax, Marvell, Pope, Rochester, Swift, and others, anonymous items, songs, riddles, popular tags and epitaphs. Many of the manuscripts have never previously been indexed and made available and much of the poetry is unpublished or appears with significant differences in manuscript
A collection of facsimile images of over 190 manuscripts from the major deposit of 17th and 18th century verse held in the Brotherton Collection at the University of Leeds.

The manuscripts include contemporary copies of poems by writers like Colvil, Dryden, Fairfax, Marvell, Pope, Rochester, Swift, and others, anonymous items, songs, riddles, popular tags and epitaphs. Many of the manuscripts have never previously been indexed and made available and much of the poetry is unpublished or appears with significant differences in manuscript.

Nearly all of the 6,600 poems within the collection have been fully indexed by first line, last line, attribution, author, title, date, length, verse form, content, bibliographic references, manuscript and record number.

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Past Masters - English Letters This link opens in a new window
Full-text of letters by authors including Samuel Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Daniel Defoe, Horace Walpole, Jane Austen and Fanny Brawne.
A full text collection of the correspondence, diaries, memoirs and notebooks from many of the most distinguished writers, statesmen, scientists, churchmen, explorers and philosophers in British history.

Primary Sources - Microfilms

Colonial discourses: series one: women, travel and empire, 1660-1914.
English cartoons and satirical prints, 1320-1832, in the British Museum.
Illuminates the opinions and propaganda of their day with their myths, fantasies and slogans. Included is the work of Hollar, Hogarth, Gillray, Rowlandson and Cruikshank, as well as many minor and unknown artists. To be used in conjunction with the Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum
French Revolution Research Collection
- Section 1: Newspapers
  The early Revolution saw an explosion in periodical and ephemeral newspapers. The 100,000 original pages reproduced here represent the full range of papers active during the 1790s.
- Section 11: War and the colonies
  Covers the structure of the Revolutionary army and navy and the collapse of French colonies overseas.
- Section 12: Culture
  Revolutionary expression in music, theatre, poetry, fiction, calendar dates, festivals, monuments, costume, fashion, images, symbols, and allegories; plus resistance to change and the survival of traditional forms
Macfarlane, Alan. Records of an English village: Earls Colne, 1400-1750

This is an attempt to reconstruct the lives of individuals from surviving documents. It also provides detailed background on the village, the project, and documents. The material includes church records, state records and estate records.
Sex and sexuality, 1640-1940: literary, medical and sociological perspectives

Sex and Sexuality seeks to make available a broad range of rare printed texts describing changing attitudes towards sex and the body. It offers:
- Medical works on the body, sex, and venereal diseases
- Writings on sexual habits, such as Bienville's Nymphomania (1775) and accounts of James Graham's 'celestial bed' through which electrical currents were passed in order to give couples 'superior ecstasy'
- Works on masturbation from Onania (1729) to Tissot's A Treatise on the Crime of Onan (1766).
Women's autobiographies from Cambridge University Library
- Pt. 1.Rare printed autobiographies covering thirty-two women's lives, 1713-1859
- Pt. 2.Rare printed autobiographies covering nineteen women's lives, 1780-1889
  Recollections of a family history can reveal differing regional cultures. Childhood memories frequently recall the inequalities between brothers and sisters, particularly in relation to education; the different types of work undertaken by women, and the wages they received; the numbers of women involved in voluntary work for which no official records were held; private thoughts relating to marriage, spinsterhood and romance. These autobiographies also reveal women's aspirations in life: socially what was expected of them, and privately what they felt they should aspire to.

Secondary Sources - Databases & Indexes

Bibliography of British and Irish History (Brepolis) This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive guide to historical writing about the history of Britain, Ireland, and the British overseas from 55BC to the present.
Previously known as the Royal Historical Society Bibliography this is a comprehensive guide to historical writing about the history of Britain, Ireland, and the British overseas from 55BC to the present.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
LION - Literature Online This link opens in a new window
A searchable, online library of over 300,000 works of English and American poetry, prose and drama. It includes the full text of works by authors such as Jane Austen, Byron, Milton and Shelley.
This resource is a searchable, online library of over 300,000 works of English and American poetry, prose and drama. It also provides access to a growing collection of online journals, reference works, author biographies and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL).

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
This bibliography contains citations for journal articles, books, book chapters and theses in literature, language, linguistics and folklore.
This bibliography contains citations for journal articles, books, book chapters and theses in literature, language, linguistics and folklore. It is the major literature bibliography.

The publication years covered by this resource are from the 1920s onwards.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Oxford Scholarship Online: Literature This link opens in a new window
Titles from Oxford University Press covering a wide range of topics, themes and periods in literature.
Titles from Oxford University Press covering a wide range of topics, themes and periods in literature.

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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities.
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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European Views of the Americas: 1493 to 1750 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
A bibliographic database of European printed records relating to the Americas, created from "European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed in Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750".

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Secondary Sources - Journals

The eighteenth century: theory and interpretation

Applies contemporary theory and methodology to all aspects of culture 1660-1800, including literature, history, fine arts, science, history of ideas, and popular culture.
Eighteenth-century fiction

Devoted to the critical and historical investigation of imaginative prose of the period 1660-1832.
Studies in eighteenth-century culture

Selects papers of the highest quality and broadest intellectual interest in the field, particularly promising directions of research in the field.
Studies in English literature, 1500-1900

In a single volume, readers might find an argument for attributing a previously unknown work to Shakespeare or de-attributing a famous work from Milton, a study of the connections between class and genre in the Restoration Theater, an interdisciplinary exploration of the art of the miniature and Fielding' s novels, or a theoretical exposition of the "material sublime" in Romantic poetry written by women.

Primary Sources - Special Collections

Cooper Abbs Collection
Interesting items include first editions of the later volumes of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy, signed by the author; of Thomas Percy's Reliques of ancient English poetry (1765); and of Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a grandfather (1830). There is also a sixteenth-century edition of Thucydides, once part of the Royal Library, sold by the British Museum as a duplicate in 1787.

A catalogue of the Cooper Abbs Collection (PDF , 628kb)

Dyson collection
The Dyson Collection's principal authors are Dryden, Pope, and the Romantic poets.Its treasures include the first subscription edition of James Thomson's The Seasons (1730) with illustrations by the architect William Kent; the first and second editions of William Wordsworth's Lyrical ballads (1798 and 1800); and the first edition of John Keats' Endymion (1818).


Medieval	Renaissance	Eighteenth Century	Nineteenth Century	Twentieth Century - Current	Global and Postcolonial Literature	Yorkshire Connections to Literature
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