Literature Criticism: Find Books

Academic libraries arrange literature by language, by country, by historical period, and by author, in that order. Works BY a particular author and criticism ABOUT those works are usually shelved together. So once you find the right area for your author, be sure to look around on the shelf!

Call numbers to know: (all on Pfau Library's 4th Floor):

• PJ 6100-7900: Arabic language and literature
• PN 1600-6000 (drama, theatre, film, mass media)
• PQ 1-3999: French literature
• PQ 6001-8929: Spanish literature
• PR: British literature
• PS: American literature
• PT: German literature

Can't find enough material? Try a search of Google Books. If you do find a relevant book of criticism, just the "preview" version may be enough to give you the information you need.

GoogleBooks

Find books, videos, and other items from CSUSB in OneSearch:

Hints:

• If you do a "Keyword" search, be aware that you will find both the work itself plus anything that mentions the work, so look carefully at the results.
• Don't be discouraged by the length of a criticism book! Check the table of contents and the index for material that is actually relevant to your topic, which may be only one chapter or a few pages.
• Sometimes you'll find entire books of criticism about a single piece of literature, but often you won't. Don't overlook general surveys of an author's work; they may contain valuable information that isn't obvious until you check the contents and index.

Every library has a catalog, so you can go directly to the catalog of any library that interests you in order to search their holdings.

The tools below will search multiple library catalogs at once: