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Authors: 267, Books: 3,607, Poems & Short Stories: 4,435, Forum Members: 71,154, Forum Posts:
1,238,602, Quizzes: 344
Advanced Search
We have two search functions here at The Literature Network. Both functions will only search within one
author at a time, to search through all the works of all the authors on this site at once, please see the
bottom of this page for the full site search.
Phrase Search
Our phrase search scans our database for the exact phrase you enter. If you have the word
order, spelling, or punctuation even the slightest bit wrong this search will miss what you
are looking for. When searching for an exact quote or passage using this search we recommend
you focus on a short key phrase from within the middle of that quote where you are sure of
the punctuation. For instance if you were searching for "It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times." you should just enter "best of times" in this box.
Boolean Search
Boolean searches are what you commonly encounter on major Internet search engines. These types of searches do not
search for the exact phrase you enter unless you encase it in quotes, rather it analyzes the keywords in your
search and looks for matches where those words exist in close proximity. Results are then returned in order
based on match score. The boolean search is best used if you merely remember a few key words from a quote or
passage. Use a + before a word if you require it in every result returned. Use a - infront of a
word if you do not want it in any result returned. With a boolean search you should avoid noise words (anything
less than 3 characters really). Our boolean search is limited to a maximum of 10 results from longer works such
as books or plays, and 10 results from shorter works such as poems or essays, for a maximum of 20 total works
returned per search. If you cannot find your result within this 20 item result set, please revise your search
terms.