Literary Critique (Links)

[burntpunk]

I'm entering the world of literary critique; I'm scared.
I've read several significant novels in the past few days. I have scribbed notes about them. Picked out what defined these significant novels.
But I wanna find the best critique for secondary interpretations, at the moment, I use sparknotes.com or it's contemporaries.
Anyone have any links to websites with strong literary critique, y'know proper essays and that, bear in mind, I'm not subscribing to anything either.

[NickAdams]

What do you mean by critique? Are you interested in schools of criticism or essays like those found in Norton editions?
Sparknotes is more of a glossary.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yeah, you're not going to find much online without having a log-in to the likes of jstor or Literature online, your best bet by far is to head off to a decent library. However, you could try Google Scholar, though I have hardly used that myself so I'm not sure how good it really is, I doubt it is very good, but you might find one or two things on there.

[Il Penseroso]

Google Scholar links you to a lot of journal stuff that is not accessible without paying exorbitant fees, although you can occasionally preview books to a limited degree. I agree with Neely that your best bet would be at a library. I don't really know how well most public libraries keep up with journal publications (either in print or online), so, if I was in your position I'd find out what your local library offers.

I don't believe sparknotes.com offers real "criticism" as it is mostly defined by scholars (beyond high school).

[burntpunk]

valid point guys, sparknotes isn't criticism, but it's valuable as a starting point, nevertheless.
i'm looking for strong essays, or whatever is effective in maximising my interpretations on the novel;
are these norton guides advanced?

[LitNetIsGreat]

valid point guys, sparknotes isn't criticism, but it's valuable as a starting point, nevertheless.
i'm looking for strong essays, or whatever is effective in maximising my interpretations on the novel;
are these norton guides advanced?

Yes, the Norton anthologies of literature and criticism are very extensive and I would put them certainly at graduate level and beyond. The downside with them is that as they offer such a wide selection of material from primary theoretical sources, they have to be mostly extracts of such material. This means that there is often not enough for a full study, but too much for the general read and consequently I only ever use mine as a sort of reference or to recap a theorist or whatever, and they are certainly not the best place to go for general criticism at A-Level/first year degree level.

By far the best bet is to just do some general digging around and come across whatever is written on the particular author/book you have read. For example if you have just read Jane Eyre, type that into a library critical search and see what you can find. I've often come across the casebook series, which in the past I have found quite useful, but then again it is a case of what you find to be useful to your particular essay question or interest.

You could also try Peter Barry's Beginning Theory which is excellent, and I would say essential, first year reading.