'Readers' (i.e. collections of photocopied materials) are used in a number of courses. These will be available (at cost price) during the first weeks of the semester.

In the course descriptions you will see that certain texts are specified as required for certain courses. Copies of required texts are normally available at the Librairie Forum (Cité universitaire, av. Clos Brochet 10, 2000 Neuchâtel. Tel. 032 724 57 72).

Many discounted second-hand texts, especially for literature, are also available at Used Ink (Faubourg de l'Hôpital 31, 2000 Neuchâtel. Tel 076 588 2091) 

In addition to these required textbooks, students of English will need to work with reference books throughout their studies. We recommend the following, all available in the English library.

Literature reference works

The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Vols 1 & 2) is required in the second- and third-year BA program as well as for the MA.

The Norton Anthology of American Literature, shorter edition (1 vol.) is required in the American literature lectures and for the Branche Complémentaire in American Literature.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms Baldick, C. (OUP 1991) is recommended

The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Encyclopedia-style entries on major authors and works of British literature.

The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Encyclopedia-style entries on major authors and works of American literature.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Invaluable for its treatment of prosody, verse forms, and the history of poetic movements.

The International Bibliography of the Modern Language Association. Continuously updated at the rate of 45,000 entries per year, the MLA is the most comprehensive bibliography of contemporary criticism and scholarship on literature and linguistics in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. For advanced research, available online. Consult a member of the English Department or library staff for access codes.

Editions and adaptations of Shakespeare. The principal editions of Shakespeare's plays and poems, covering four centuries of publishing history. Available on CD-ROM in the Salle des Usuels, Bibliothèque de la Faculté des Lettres.

Linguistics reference works

Fromkin, V., R. Rodman and N. Hyams (2006). An Introduction to Language, Heinle, 8th edition.

Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Keith Brown (ed.). 2nd ed. Elsevier, 2006.

The Handbook of Linguistics, Mark Aronoff and Janie Rees-Miller (eds.). Blackwell, 2001.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, David Crystal. Cambridge University Press, 1995.

The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Tom McArthur. Oxford University Press, 1992.

A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, David Crystal. Blackwell, 3rd Edition 1991.

Language reference works

There are many language references works in the library, but, if you have not already done so, you should seriously consider investing straightaway in a comprehensive monolingual learner's dictionary and a usage manual and/or grammar. We recommend the following: 

DICTIONARIES
The Oxford English Dictionary. Completed in 1928, the OED remains the most authoritative dictionary of the English language; it is invaluable especially for its notes on the origins and history of English words. See also The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.

The New Oxford Dictionary of English - comprehensive one-volume dictionary intended for native speakers of English

The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the Collins-COBUILD English Dictionary, the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced learners are all reliable and easy to use for advanced learners of English.

The Oxford Advanced Learner's Encyclopedic Dictionary - as the name suggests, this is the OALD with encyclopedic entries.

The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations (2nd edn 1997) Benson, M., Benson, E., and Ilson, R. (Benjamins) - very useful for university students developing a feeling for which words habitually go together in English.

Oxford Collocations Dictionary - similar to the BBI, with fewer headwords but much greater detail.

GRAMMAR AND USAGE
Practical English Usage (Oxford University Press, 2nd edn 1995) Swan, M. - strongly recommended for first-year language courses: a comprehensive A-Z of frequent problems in grammar and usage.

English Grammar in Use (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edn 1997) Murphy, R. - upper-intermediate grammar reference and practice, particularly useful if you need to revise fundamental grammar.

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (CGEL) (Longman, 1985) Quirk, R. et al. - the most comprehensive grammar of modern English. Its detailed discussion often clarifies points only briefly explained in the derived SGE.

A Student's Grammar of the English Language (SGE) (Longman, 1990) - used in the 2nd-year course "Exploring English Grammar": an advanced-level abridgement of CGEL.

A Communicative Grammar of English Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. (Longman, 2nd edn 1994)- also based on CGEL and rather easier to use than SGE, but follows the parent work less closely (and so is a less useful introduction to CGEL).