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Book reviews and literary criticism : print resources

Book reviews and literary criticism

The Library holds a large collection relating to book reviews and literary criticism. This guide contains selected print works only.

A book will usually be reviewed in the year it is published, or the following year. Therefore, to find a review you should know the author, the title and the date of publication. Indexes will provide citations of book reviews. Full text sources will provide the entire review.

Catalogue search tips

To search for work about a particular author, use the Advanced Search option and enter the name of the author eg. Miles Franklin. Select By or about a person from the drop-down box on the right.

To find reviews and criticism about a particular work, use the Advanced Search option and enter the name of the book, eg. True History of the Kelly Gang as a Phrase. In the second search box enter search terms such as review or criticism and select to search for Any of these terms.

Book reviews appear in newspapers and scholarly journals. To locate these you can use a Title search of a particular periodical, such as Australian Book Review. To see a list of all periodicals which are devoted primarily to literature reviews use a Browse subjects search for:

There are also a number of subject headings which can be used to locate collections of book reviews. Select the Browse subjects search. Examples of this search include:

Reference collection

Available on open access in the Main Reading Room.

Book Review Index. 1985+
Annual index to book reviews appearing in over 400 publications from the US, Europe and Australia. BRI includes citations to reviews of any type of book, periodical or reference work. The index is in two parts, the first arranged by the name of the author of the work being reviewed and the second by title of book reviewed. RF 028.1016 BOO.
Book Review Index: A Master Culmination.1965-1984.
A 10 volume cumulation of every review citation that appeared in the BRI series from 1965-1984. It includes reviews of 740,500 books from 530 sources. RF 028.1016 BOO.
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals.1802-1974.
A companion volume to Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals. Provides author and title access to about 500,000 reviews that appeared in over 150 humanities journals. RFq 001.3 C731.
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals.1886-1974.
A 15 volume set providing author and title access to more than one million book reviews which appeared in the back files of 459 scholarly journals in history, political science and sociology. RF 028.1 C731.
Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism. 1999.
A guide to literary theory and criticism with entries on individuals, theories and concepts. RF 801.9503 E56.
Index to Australian Book Reviews. 1965-1981.
An index to reviews of books of Australian interest published in Australian periodicals. RF015.94 IND.
Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities .1960-1990.
Originally an index to book reviews which fell within the broad subject area of humanities. From 1971 onwards, an index to all book reviews in selected humanities periodicals. RF 011 IND

The following four works form part of the Gale Literary Criticism Series. Selections from these resources are available online through the Literature Resource Center.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. 1973+
Over 200 volumes of criticism and commentary on authors who are living or died after December 31, 1999. RF 809.04 CON.
Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. 1981-1992.
Criticism on authors who died between 1800 and 1899. RFq 809.04 NIN.
Twentieth Century Literary Criticism 1978+
Criticism on authors who died between 1900 and 1999. RF 809.04 TWE.
Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism 1988+
Provides an introduction to critical commentary of authors of antiquity to the fourteenth century. A cumulative author and title index is included in each volume. RFq 809.005 CLA.

Selected print resources

These resources must be requested through the catalogue.

Australian Book Review 1978+
The official journal of the National Book Council (Australia). Latest issue held in the Main Reading Room. Selective full text available online through APAFT. NLq 028.1 AUS

The following three titles form part of the Wilson Literature Series:

Book Review Digest. 1906-2002.
Cites and provides excerpts of reviews of current English-language fiction and nonfiction books. CAC S 015.73 BOO (also available online1983+).
Essay and General Literature Index. 1900-2002.
Cites essays and articles contained in collections of essays and miscellaneous works published in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. S 801.6 ESS (also available online 1985+).
Fiction Catalog. 1941-2003.
Fiction Catalog is a selective annotated list of fiction for adults that includes both established and contemporary works either written in or translated into English. S 808.830016 FIC (also available online 2000+).

See also: