This Literary guide uses Geoffrey Chaucer as an example for conducting research on an author.
Reference Books
Browse the Reference area in Literature for various encyclopedias, both general and special such as the following.
If you know the Classification fields in language and literature, a quick browse will retrieve many major encyclopedias such as Cambridge Companion to English Literature and more specialized topics such as
A Critical Companion to Chaucer Ref. PR1903.R63 2007
Provides background to various literary topics, such as rhyme schemes, usually studied in conjunction with Chaucer's works. It also provides summaries to the Tales as well as the other works by Chaucer.
Regular Book Collection
Searching for Chaucer
Works on Chaucer's life, writings are located by starting with the
SUBJECT heading:
Chaucer, Geoffrey, d.1400.
From that point match the subheading such as Adaptations, Biography, Canon, Criticism and Interpretation, to your research needs. Not every book on Chaucer or any major author will be found under each subjeading
The secret to subject headings is that most of the book catalogs you search will use the same subject headings for the author.
Once you have determined exactly what you need, you will be able to search in the Golisano Library Catalog, WorldCat, Library of Congress, as well most other college and university libraries.
Electronic information on site
Go to Twayne's Author Series database under reference page search for articles for an e-book collection on Geoffrey Chaucer
The Twayne's Author Series features the key references Twayne's has published on authors. It is a "first" search site for any research on authors.
Web information
No scholar of Chaucer should miss the web information on Luminarium.org. a site which emphasizes medieval history and literature
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