The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes

Citation

Blakesley Lindsay, E. (2000), "The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes", Online Information Review, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 401-411. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2000.24.5.401.8

Bartleby.com provides free full‐text access to many volumes of poetry, prose and non‐fiction, including numerous reference books such as dictionaries, Bartlett’s and Simpson’s quotation collections, Roget’s Thesaurus, Gray’s Anatomy, the most recent Columbia Encyclopedia, and various English usage guides. Also included in their reference collection is the item reviewed here, an online replication of The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (http://www.bartleby. com/cambridge/), an 18‐volume encyclopaedia published between 1907 and 1921 by Cambridge University Press. Volumes I‐XIV cover English literature; Volumes XV‐XVIII cover American literature. The Encyclopedia consists of essays on various literary topics, such as “The Drama, 1860‐1918” or “Political Writing since 1850”, entire chapters and biographical sketches of authors, and entries which summarise and discuss specific works of literature. Three indexes are provided: one each for chapters, authors and bibliographies. The chapter index provides a hyperlinked listing of all the chapters within the sections, so users may go directly to the area of their interest. The author index lists authors alphabetically and provides links to the essays about their works. The bibliography index takes users directly to the extensive notes and bibliographies provided for each chapter within the larger sections. In addition to these indexes, the general table of contents is available for browsing. Clicking on the section title takes users to the detailed listing of contents for the section. Along with these points of access, there is a search engine available. The search engine can be used to search the whole site or to limit to a single work on the site. Limiting to the Cambridge History and searching for Shakespeare returns 5,586 items. Given that the search engine returns items with any mention of the search term, users may find it more fruitful to scan the chapter listing for the sections on Shakespeare. However, a more limited or precise search may be preferred; for example, a search for Othello retrieves a more manageable 44‐item result set.

The Cambridge History is a very interesting historical reference book. Literary scholars and enthusiasts may find it fascinating to compare more recent opinions about various authors to the critical material here, to see which theoretical influences were shaping the work, or to discover authors who may be neglected by contemporary reference materials but were deemed important enough for inclusion between 1907 and 1921. Given that the print edition is long out of print and difficult to locate, this online version is most welcome. In addition to providing convenient access to useful texts, this site is very clear and readable, easy to navigate, and, overall, is highly recommended.