English, Drama, Film and Creative Writing: Books and eBooks

Information on books, journals, databases and other useful english, drama & film resources.

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Reference Books

Reference items are helpful for finding background information such as definitions and spelling, facts and figures, translations, statistics and topical overviews of subjects. Reference books can be found both in print and online. See here for further information

Useful online reference material for this subject include:

Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA) This link opens in a new window
The Dictionary of Irish Biography is Ireland's national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition covers nearly 11,000 lives. It describes and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.
Oxford English Dictionary Online (OUP) This link opens in a new window
Traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP) This link opens in a new window
Authoritative biographical resource offering access to over 50,000 biographies of distinguished persons from all walks of life who have shaped the lives of the British Isles and beyond. Coverage: from earliest time to 2002. Includes deceased persons only. Powerful advanced search capabilities. Print version available in James Joyce Library at GR920.042/DIC.
Oxford Reference Online (OUP) This link opens in a new window
Oxford Reference Online consists of a wealth of facts, figures, definitions, and translations found in dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

Books

Books and eBooks are listed in OneSearch, our resource discovery service. Useful titles available via UCD Library include:

Academic Complete (Proquest Ebook Central) This link opens in a new window
An extensive multidisciplinary collection of online titles covering life, health, social and physical sciences, and humanities.
Early English Books Online (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700 - from the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War.

English Literature in Context by Paul Poplawski (Editor); Valerie Allen (Contribution by); Andrew Hiscock (Contribution by); Lee Morrissey (Contribution by); Peter J. Kitson (Contribution by); Maria Frawley (Contribution by)
Call Number: 808.9POP
Publication Date: 2008
Text for studying British literary history and criticism.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (Gale) This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century, the world's largest library of the printed book on microfilm.
Literature Online (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
With over a third of a million full-text works of poetry, prose and drama in English, together with the definitive online criticism and reference library, Literature Online is the world's largest cross-searchable database of literature and criticism.
Women Writers Online This link opens in a new window
The Brown University Women Writers Project is a long-term research project that aims to make texts by pre-Victorian (1400-1850) women writers accessible to a wide audience of scholars, students and general readers. All of these texts can be browsed, searched, and analysed using tools which provide access to the full XML encoding.

Special Collections

Special Collections contains unique book, archival and manuscript collections. UCD students and staff, and external users can consult the collections in the Special Collections reading room. Special Collections is located on Level 1 of the James Joyce Library.