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Pathfinders:	Finding Literary Criticism about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Updated:	08/27/04

Circulating books by and about Mary Shelley are located under Call Number PR 5397 and PR 5398
Individual Titles are listed in the Online Catalog
For books by her, use her name as an Author search
For books about her, use her name as a Subject search
A useful Subject Heading is: Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797–1851. Frankenstein.

These include full text articles from journals:

JSTOR (Search in Language and Literature journals)
EBSCO databases listed under “Academic Libraries:” Academic Search Premier, MLA Bibliography, etc.
FirstSearch databases: Wilsonselect Plus, ArticleFirst.
Galenet (search by Author)

In EBSCO, avoid references that are only to movies, or merely mentioning Frankenstein as a figure of speech.
Use the NOT command. Put ”Frankenstein” in the first box, with a connector of NOT and the word ”Film” in the second box, another connector of NOT and the word “Movies” in the third box.

Entries about Frankenstein include the following:

British Writers, Scribners, 1980 – 9999. Ref PR 85 .B688 The major entries on Frankenstein are in Volume III (pages 329 – 331) and in Supplement III (pages 356 – 363).
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Gale Research, 1978 – 9999. Ref PS 21 .D5 1978 The major entries on Mary Shelley are in
Volume 110: British Romantic Prose Writers, 1789 – 1832, second series (pages 209-220),
Volume 116: British Romantic Novelists, 1789 – 1832 (pages 311 – 325),
Volume 159: British Short-Fiction Writers, 1800 – 1880 (pages 285-293), and
Volume 178: British Fantasy and Science-Fiction Writers Before World War I (pages 222 - 228).
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Gale Research, 1985 – 9999. Ref PN 761.N56. Volume 59 devotes the entire “Mary Shelley” entry to Frankenstein (pages 138 – 251).
Critical Survey of Long Fiction, second revised edition, Salem Press, 2000. Ref PN 3451.C75 2000. Volume 6, pages 2888-2889, and Volume 8, pages 4183-4184.
Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Salem Press, 1979. Ref PN 3448 .S45 S88 . Volume 2, pages 832 – 839.
Masterplots, revised second edition, Salem Press, 1996. Ref PN 44 .M33 1996. Volume 4, pages 2420 – 2423.
Other sources may also include entries about Frankenstein – L.B.