Tuesday, June 16, 2020

A Bibliography for Historical Writers




Joanna Bourne's 
Useful Bibliography for Writing Historical Language
Especially of the English Regency




General Resources:

The Oxford English Dictionary Online. https://www.oed.com/  It’s prohibitively expensive to subscribe to, but my be available through your school or city.

Partridge’s Slang and Unconventional English may be worth buying in hardback. Not online, but it’s inexpensive secondhand.

Etymology Online is a fast and accurate way to look up the origin of many words:  
https://www.etymonline.com/

Les guillotinés for a list of folks killed by the guillotine. Useful for French period names.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French_people_executed_by_guillotine_during_the_French_Revolution

Merriam-Webster Dictionary is fast:  https://www.merriam-webster.com/  https://www.merriam-webster.com/ Many online dictionary sites are good with date of word origin.

Google Advanced Book Search will tell you whether a word or phrase occurs in your period of interest. You see it in place in the book, so it also shows how the word or phrase is used, which is especially handy. https://books.google.com/advanced_book_search

Google Ngram, to see how common a word was. This site compare your target word to all other words avilable in Google books of that year. Books NOT entered into Google will be missed.  Very rare words may be missed. 'S' and 'F' are indistinguishable breore 1800-ish. If a word only pops up once or twice, double check the title page to make certain the published date has been entered correctly.
https://books.google.com/ngrams 

Separated by a Common Language is a fine blog talking about the differences between US and UK usage.
https://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/

Phrase Finder is another blog looking at origin of phrases. Good spot for info on the hard data that shoots down folk etymology.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/no-room-to-swing-a-cat.html
 
Dictionaries, Mostly

Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Giving the Derivation Source, Or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words that Have a Tale to Tell
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer 1905

Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: Revised and Corrected with the Addition of Numerous Slang Phrases Collected from Tried Authorities
Francis Grose, Pierce Egan 1823

A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English: Abridged from the Seven-volume Work, Entitled: Slang and Its Analogues
John Stephen Farmer, William Ernest Henley 1905

There’s also a seven-volume set of this Farmer and Henley on Google Books




Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States
John Russell Bartlett  1860

A Dictionary of the English Language
Samuel Johnson 1755

English Synonyms: With Copious Illustrations and Explanations, Drawn from the Best Writers
George Crabb 1826
 

Regency Period Plays, Songs, Fiction, Letters, and Memoirs

Ursula Le Guin Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction that I mentioned in the talk.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/no-room-to-swing-a-cat.htmlhttps://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/no-room-to-swing-a-cat.html

The surprising adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew, king of the beggars: containing his life--a dictionary of the cant language and many entertaining particulars of that extraordinary man
Robert Goadby  1812

John Bull: Or, The Englishman’s Fireside
George Colman  1803

The Universal Songster  1825

Letters of the Late Lord Lyttleton
William Combe  1807

Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Written During Her Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa; to which are Added Poems by the Same Author. Stereotype Edition, According to the Press of Firmin Didot
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 1800

Tom & Jerry: Life in London, Or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq. and His Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom, in Their Rambles and Sprees Through the Metropolis
Pierce Egan 1821

Boxiana; Or, Sketches of Ancient and Modern Pugilism: From the days of the renowned Broughton and Slack, to the championship of Cribb
Pierce Egan 1830

The New London Spy; Or, a Modern Twenty-four Hours Ramble Through the Great British Metropolis
John Fielding 1794

Ben Brace: The Last of Nelson's Agamemnons
Frederick Chamier 1840

Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone: Written by Himself. Comprising a Complete Journal of His Negotiations to Procure the Aid of the French for the Liberation of Ireland (Volume 2 of 2)
Theobald Wolfe Tone  1827

The Autobiography of Sir Harry Smith
Harry Smith  1787-1860

The Letters of Jane Austen
Jane Austen 

Byron’s Letters and Journals, Volumes 1 and 2
George Gordon Byron

The British Minstrel, and National Melodist: A Collection of the Most Esteemed and Popular English, Scottish, and Irish Songs, Duets, Catches, Chorusses, Glees, and Comic Recitations;
1827

The Vindictive Man: a Comedy, in Five Acts
Thomas Holcroft  1807

The Beggar’s Opera
John Gay  1728

The Clubs of London: With Anecdotes of Their Members, Sketches of Character, and Conversations
Charles Marsh 1828

Gleanings in Europe, Volumes 1 and 2
James Fenimore Cooper 1837

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57060
London Labour and the London Poor, Volumes 1, 2 and 3
Henry Mayhew 1840s

More Mornings at Bow Street: A New Collection of Humorous and Entertaining Reports
John Wight 1827

The New bon ton magazine, or Telescope of the times
1818

The Sportsman's Calendar: Or, Monthly Remembrancer of Field Diversions
John Lawrence  1818

Thoughts upon hare and fox hunting, in a series of letters
Peter Beckford 1797

A Physical View of Man and Woman in a State of Marriage: With Anatomical Engravings, Volumes 1 and 2
 M. de Lignac  (trans. Louis François Luc) 1798

Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolkd
John Gobson Lockhart  1821

Letters of the Late Lord Lyttleton
William Combe  1807

Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, Written During Her Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa; to which are Added Poems by the Same Author. Stereotype Edition, According to the Press of Firmin Didot  1800

The memoirs of Fanny Hill
John Cleland  1749

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling
Henry Fielding 1740

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe  1719

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:57 AM

    Thank you Jo. I'll have a hunt for/read the books listed.
    I hope that you are OK "in these troubling times."
    Kerry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Many of them are useful. Quite a few of them are great reads.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a wonderful list. Thank you for compiling and sharing.

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  4. Some of the refs are only useful to those writing in the Georgian and Regency periods, alas, but folks who've done historical research do sorta accidentally acquire useful bibliographies.

    I put this in a list for a presentation I did for the Beau Monde. Such a good organization.
    https://thebeaumonde.com/main/

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  5. Ooh, this is a really helpful list!

    ReplyDelete