Library & Cultural Services: Literature: Primary Text Collections

Primary Source Collections

The library subscribes to a number of resources which you can use to access primary texts (e.g. novels, plays and other literary works) and other original source material. A few of the most important resources for Literature are listed below.

Collections of Poetry, Prose and Drama

ProQuest One Literature (includes Literature Online)
A fully searchable library of English and American literature. It contains over 350,000 works of poetry, prose and drama in full text, written between 600 A.D. and the present day. It also includes secondary litereature, such as biographies of major writers and the full text of over 330 literature journals.
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Drama online
A digital library of the most studied, performed and critically acclaimed plays from the last two and a half thousand years, accompanied by scholarly notes, annotated texts, critical analysis and contextual information.
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Alexander Street Press. Drama texts collection (e-book platform)
The Drama Texts Collection from is a collection of over 14,000 plays spanning nearly a millennium of dramatic writing, covering the core works of the Western canon alongside often-forgotten World Drama titles.
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Early modern books
Early Modern Books covers material from the British Isles and Europe for the period 1450-1700. An integrated search across both Early English Books Online (EEBO) and Early European Books (EEB) allows scholars to view materials from over 225 source libraries worldwide. EEBO's content draws on authoritative short-title catalogues of the period and features many text transcriptions specially created for the product. Content from Europe covers the curated Early European Books Collections from 4 national libraries and London's Wellcome Library.

Other Primary Sources

Archives of Sexuality and Gender
A significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. The library has access to the following collections: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Parts I & II; Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture

First World War Portal
From personal collections and rare printed material to military files, ephemera, and artwork, The First World War Portal highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians, and governments on both sides of the conflict and in multiple theatres of war.
Federated Access Login Options: The UK Access Management Federation
Gender : identity and social change
Essential primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. This expansive collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, and the men’s movement.
Federated Access Login Options: The UK Access Management Federation
LGBT magazine archive
Archival runs of 27 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material serves disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts. Publications may contain explicit content.
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Romanticism: life, literature & landscape
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape offers access to rare literary sources relating to William Wordsworth and the Romantic period. The collection offers an insight into the working methods of the poet and the wider social, political and natural environment that shaped much of his work and that of his contemporaries. In addition, the collection makes available the writings of Dorothy Wordsworth, as well as verse manuscripts and correspondence from leading figures in the Romantic period such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey and Robert Southey.
Federated Access Login Options: The UK Access Management Federation
Women's magazine archive
An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period.
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