LibGuides: English: Historical & Classic Texts

Historical Texts

Discovering Literature
Exploring the Romantic and Victorian periods. Access to the British Library's literary and historical collections including numerous original manuscripts, first editions and rare illustrations.
Early English Books Online
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. Fully searchable.
Early European Books Online
Contains full-color, high-resolution facsimile images of all works printed in Europe before 1701, regardless of language, as well as some works published further afield. Includes a broad range of print sources dating back to the 15th century.
Eighteenth Century Journals Online
Rare journals printed between c. 1685 and c. 1815, illuminating all aspects of eighteenth-century social, political and literary life. Topics include: colonial life; provincial and rural affairs; the French and American revolutions; reviews of literature and fashion throughout Europe; political debates and London coffee house gossip and discussion.
Location Register Of English Literary Manuscripts and Letters
A searchable database of the manuscripts held at over 500 British and Irish repositories of all sizes, from the British Library to small-town museums. Includes manuscripts by literary authors of all genres, from major poets to minor science fiction writers and romantic novelists.
Oxford Scholarly Editions Online
Access to complete text of more than 170 scholarly editions of material written between 1485 and 1660, including all of Shakespeare's plays and the poetry of John Donne.
Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project
The largest collection of resources relating to Samuel Beckett, including manuscript material, correspondence, stage files relating to his plays, artwork and more.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
A fully text-searchable corpus of books, pamphlets and broadsides printed in Britain, Ireland, the US and territories under British colonial rule between 1701 and 1800.
Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive
The Stationers’ Company Archive is one of the most important resources for understanding the workings of the early book trade, the printing and publishing community, the establishment of legal requirements for copyright provisions and the history of bookbinding. Explore extremely rare documents dating from 1554 to the 21st century.

Shakespeare

Oxford Scholarly Editions Online
Access to complete text of more than 170 scholarly editions of material written between 1485 and 1660, including all of Shakespeare's plays and the poetry of John Donne.
Royal Shakespeare Company Collection
These high-definition, surround-sound recordings of William Shakespeare’s plays featuring the world’s best Shakespearean actors, like David Tennant, Sir Antony Sher, Paapa Essiedu, and Simon Russell Beale, and directors like Robin Lough and Dewi Humphrey.
Shakespeare in Performance
Access to rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library.
Shakespeare Survey
A yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Access from vol.1 1948 to vol 68 2015

Greek and Latin Literature

Loeb Classical Library
Contains more than 520 volumes of Latin, Greek and English texts, aiming to be a virtual library of all that is important in Greek and Latin Literature: epic and lyric poetry, history, travel, philosophy and oratory, medical writers and mathematicians, and the Church Fathers who make particular use of pagan culture.