Guides: English Literatures: Find Reviews

Finding Book Reviews

Book reviews are excellent sources for discovering how a book was received immediately following its publication. Typically book reviews are published in the year of a book's publication and the three years immediately following. Keep this in mind as you search print sources for reviews of a particular book.

Below you will find sources for locating current book reviews, and to the right are sources for historic book reviews.

Find Current Book Reviews

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Provides full text for publications covering academic areas of study including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies. Limit search to "Book Review" under Document Type.

Book Review Index
Indexes book reviews from 1965 to the present. Request from Off Campus Shelving.
An Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities
Request from off-campus shelving.

Choice Reviews Online This link opens in a new window
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries is the premier source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education. Each year Choice publishes more than 7,000 reviews.
Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window
Indexes the major scholarly English-language journals in the humanities (including history and literature) since 1984. For prior years, use Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective. Limit search to "Book Review" under Document Type.
Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 This link opens in a new window
Indexes book reviews and articles from English-language periodicals, including scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines. Covers a wide range of interdisciplinary fields (including sciences into the 1950s), represented in a broad array of humanities and social sciences journals. For articles published after 1984, use Humanities Full Text.
New York Review of Books This link opens in a new window
Full text of the New York Review of Books from the first issue in 1963 to the present.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Combines several of the Library's heavily used databases, including ProQuest Research Library, into one easy-to-search interface. Thousands of journals, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, and other scholarly content on a very broad range of topics and sources.
Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Index to the most popular general-interest magazines and journals published in the United States. For 1890 to 1982, use the Readers' Guide Retrospective. Limit search to "Book Review" under Document Type.

Find Historic Book Reviews

American Periodicals Series Online (1740 to 1940) This link opens in a new window
Digital images of historically significant American periodicals from 1740 to 1900, including literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and popular magazines. All typography, drawings, graphic elements, and article layouts appear exactly as originally published. Allows searching by article type (e.g., letter, obituary, poetry, recipe, ad, editorial cartoon, review).
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, archaeology, architecture, and the social sciences.

Critical Heritage Series
The Critical Heritage Series reprints historic reviews of major literary authors. Each volume focuses on a particular author from the 17th through 20th centuries.
Critical Assessments of Writers in English Series
Series provides a chronological overview of criticism on specific American and British authors from the late 18th through early 20th centuries. Also contains a chronology and bibliographies of primary and secondary sources.

Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 This link opens in a new window
Indexes book reviews and articles from English-language periodicals, including scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines. Limit search to "Book Review" under Document Type.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text of selected, important scholarly journals in a number of fields. Note: journals in JSTOR usually do not include the most recent three to five years. Limit search to "Reviews" under Item Type.

The New York Times Book Review Index, 1896-1970
Available in print on the 3rd floor of Lauinger Library.

Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new window
Use this article database to search for a wide range of topics from general interest and popular magazines of the past (1890-1982), such as the Saturday Evening Post and Life. Limit search to "Book Review" under Document Type.
Times Literary Supplement, 1902-2014 This link opens in a new window
First appearing in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, the venerable Times Literary Supplement (TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London. See TLS for literary culture and book reviews. TLS Historical Archive contains every page of every issue of the Times Literary Supplement published 1902-2014.
For more current issues see:
HoyaSearch TLS Entry