Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature This link opens in a new window"The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature includes 500 entries on literature- from the Abbey Theatre to Israel Zangwill- and covers covers the history of literature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the major literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Latin). It includes accounts of individual authors (e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and histories of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions.