On April 30, 1803, James Monroe secured an agreement from the French government, then led by Napoleon, to allow purchase of a large section of what we now know as the United States of America. The Louisiana Purchase famously doubled … Continue reading
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About 19th Century Masterfile
19th Century Masterfile unlocks materials which are found in full text on the Web, in microform or within your library's physical collection.
19th Century Masterfile contains detailed cumulative index content from over 70 core sources, making quality primary research easier. It serves as the researcher's "due diligence" resource for studies of Anglo-American literature published before 1930 - from periodicals, newspapers, books, patents, image archives, government documents and more.
By casting the widest net, researchers can begin important research with confidence.
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Pride and Prejudice: A Novel for All Generations
“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.”
“You must learn some of my philosophy. Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen’s novels are widely regarded as timeless today, yet they actually first entered the scene during a phase of publishing which had no place for them. Pride and Prejudice, initially called First Impressions, was sent by a then 22-year old Austen to the publisher Thomas Cadell and promptly rejected without ever being read.
Epic poetry and gothic novels were the mainstay of popular literature at the time and a story about a strong-willed heroine surrounded by a society concerned with property, marriage, manners and the like didn’t pack the punch that stories with the striking imagery of the gothic genre provoked. Continue reading →
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The Sadly Sinkable William Stead
How would you have responded to being on the Titanic as it sank? William Stead, journalist, editor, pacifist, and compiler of indexes (like Stead’s Index to Periodicals, included in 19th Century Masterfile), responded to the famous catastrophe by quietly reading … Continue reading