Nineteenth Century Collections Online:
Search the full text of rare and difficult-to-find European literary works found in the Corvey Collection
Nineteenth Century Collections Online: European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790–1840 includes the full-text of more than 9,500 English, French and German titles. The collection is sourced from the remarkable library of Victor Amadeus, whose Castle Corvey collection was one of the most spectacular discoveries of the late 1970s. The Corvey Collection comprises one of the most important collections of Romantic era writing in existence anywhere -- including fiction, short prose, dramatic works, poetry, and more -- with a focus on especially difficult-to-find works by lesser-known, historically neglected writers.
The Corvey library was built during the last half of the 19th century by Victor and his wife Elise, both bibliophiles with varied interests. The collection thus contains everything from novels and short stories to belles lettres and more populist works, and includes many exceedingly rare works not available in any other collection from the period. These invaluable, sometimes previously unknown works are of particular interest to scholars and researchers.
European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790–1840 includes:
- Novels and Gothic Novels
- Short Stories
- Belles-Lettres
- Short Prose Forms
- Dramatic Works
- Poetry
- Anthologies
- And more
Nineteenth Century Collections Online is the most ambitious scholarly digitization and publication program ever undertaken, providing full-text, fully searchable content from a wide range of primary sources. Selected with the guidance of an international team of expert advisors, these primary sources are invaluable for a wide range of academic disciplines and areas of study, providing never before possible research opportunities for one of the most studied historical periods.
As a resource for romantic literature and historical studies, the Corvey Collection is unmatched. It provides a wealth of fully searchable content with digital research tools that enable scholars to uncover new relationships among authors and works. The inclusion of texts from previously neglected writers further provides scholars with a treasure trove of new research avenues to explore. With the Nineteenth Century Collections Online: European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790–1840, scholars can research a range of topics, including Romantic literary genres; mutual influences of British, French and German Romanticism; literary culture; women writers of the period; the canon; Romantic aesthetics; and many others.
European Literature, the Corvey Collection, 1790–1840 is available on Gale's cutting-edge research platform. This state-of-the-art platform was developed using our flexible Agile approach, incorporating user testing and feedback throughout the process to ensure that we are providing the features that scholars require -- such as detailed subject indexing and metadata, textual analysis tools, personalized user accounts, and more -- for research in the digital age.
Content for this archive was sourced from Castle Corvey in Germany through the result of a partnership with Belser Wissenchaftlicher Dienst.
FEATURED TESTIMONIAL
“The Corvey Collection’s vast archive of materials documents the nature and scope of literary publication in England and on the Continent during the Romantic period and the early years of the Victorian era. The collection’s strength in the 1820s and 1830s offers splendid resources for study of this insufficiently examined transitional period in British and Continental literature and public culture. It collects in a single archive a range of uncommon, scarce, and even unique materials for the sort of systematic comparative study that will enable students and scholars to continue to interrogate important questions of canonicity, peridoicity, and aesthetics that have emerged in recent years in the study of British Romantic and early Victorian literary culture.”
- Stephen C. Behrendt, University Professor and George Holmes Distinguished Professor of English, University of Nebraska – Lincoln
Additional Details
subjects covered
- British Studies
- European Studies
- East European & Russian Studies
- Western European Studies
- Gender & Women's Studies
- Literature
- World Literature
Support Materials
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Platform Features & Tools
Term Frequency
Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, places, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.
Topic Finder
By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.
Cross-Search Capability
Search across the content of complementary primary source products, including books, in one united, intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.
Reviews & Testimonials
“The ranges of sources of all this material boggled my mind. Yes, some of it is from mainstream publications, but so much of it was from rare, hard-to-find sources that I gained an appreciation for the time and effort it's taken to assemble these vast digitized collections.”
“The scope of this digitization project makes it a significant research resource for both scholars and undergraduates. There are several benefits to this scope: the sheer size of the collections; the geographic range including comparative materials from various cultures; and the variety of types of documents including a significant amount of unpublished material . . . . The new platform tools developed for NCCO are impressive and should be useful to scholars as well as students. These include the browse features for 'Exploring Collections,' the search within results features, text analysis tools, and sophisticated image viewing tools.”
“With its outstanding content and effective search devices, this is an excellent research tool for all library users interested in the subject areas it encompasses. SUMMING UP: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.”
“The wealth of rare, hard-to-find works available in NCCO will be of great interest to researchers in a variety of disciplines, while the unique 'Topic Finder' feature will delight users. For academic and larger public libraries.”
![Machin, Frank. The Yorkshire miners: a history by Frank Machin. Vol. 1. Barnsley: National Union of MineWorkers (Yorkshire Area), [1958].](/binaries/content/gallery/gale-us-en/banners/primary-sources/nineteenth-century-collections-online/gps_ncco_british_politics_banner.jpg)
![Carroll, Lewis, and Mabel Lucie Attwell. Alice in Wonderland: by Lewis Carroll; Pictured by Mabel Lucie Attwell. London; Paris; Berlin; New York; Montreal: Raphael Tuck & Sons, Ltd., [1910?].](/binaries/content/gallery/gale-us-en/banners/primary-sources/nineteenth-century-collections-online/gps_ncco_childrens_literature_academic_banner.jpg)
