Book collections

Most of the books at the library are reference only. This ensures that all items are available to library users unless actively being used by another reader on the premises.

There is a small long loan collection for books that support the MA courses run by the Shakespeare Institute. All University of Birmingham students and staff can borrow books from the long loan collection.​

The University of Birmingham online catalogue, FindIt@Bham, can be used to search the library’s book collection. See Searching the library for more information about the online catalogues available.​

We also provide:​

  • e-books​
  • Online journals​
  • Periodicals​
  • Theses and dissertations​
  • Newspaper cuttings dating from 1902 to 2022

New arrivals 

Newly arrived books and DVDs at the Shakespeare Institute Library are listed below. We will update the list regularly when new books arrive and have been processed.​

February

  • Appelbaum, Robert. The Renaissance discovery of violence, from Boccaccio to Shakespeare. Anthem Press, 2021.
    PN 721
  • Berger, Arthur Asa. Shakespeare's The comedy of errors: a psycho-semiotic analysis. Anthem Press, 2022.
    PR 2804
  • Blaine, Marlin E., Lena Cowen Orlin, Robert Bearman, Alan H. Nelson. Book culture in Shakespeare's Stratford: The Quiney connections. Arden Shakespeare, 2025.
    PR 2912.Q8
  • Boal, Augusto. Games for actors and non-actors. 3rd edition. Routledge, 2022.
    PN 2071.I5
  • Cavell, Richard. Mediatic Shakespeare: the dynamics of orality, script, and print in the plays and poems. University of Toronto Press, 2025.
    PR 2976
  • Chevrier-Bosseau, Adeline. Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare: queer legacies and queer world-making. Routledge, 2026.
    PR 2973.D5
  • Cohn, Ruby. Glancing at dramatists' dialogue: from Shakespeare to Suzan-Lori Parks. Edited by Daniela Caselli and Hannah Simpson. Methuen, 2025.
    PR 635.D5
  • Ducis, Jean-François. Hamlet: an eighteenth-century French adaptation. Edited by Joseph Harris. MHRA, 2024.
    PR 2878.H3
  • Engendering the stage in the age of Shakespeare and beyond. Edited by Peter Cockett and Melinda Gough. University of Toronto Press, 2025.
    PN 2590.G3
  • Finger, Valentina. Mirrors in Shakespeare and early modern English drama: power, gender and the magic of the theatre. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 3069.M57
  • Fuller, David. Shakespeare and ballet: gender, sexuality, race and politics on stage. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 2880.A1
  • Games and game playing in European art and literature, 16th-17th centuries. Edited by Robin O'Bryan. Routledge, 2025.
    PN56.G28
  • Hawkins, Rowena. Festival Shakespeares: networking performance across Europe. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 3109.E2
  • Hopkins, Lisa. Bare ruined choirs: sacred spaces in four early modern plays. Anthem Press, 2025.
    PR 658.R43
  • Logomotives: words that change the world, 1400-1700. Edited by Marjorie Rubright and Stephen Spiess. Edinburgh University Press, 2025.
    P 321
  • Macbeth in modern European culture. Edited by Juan F. Cerdá and Paul Prescott. The Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 2823
  • Nationalism and royal women in early modern England: the queen's gambit. Edited by Elizabeth Hodgson and Sarah Crover. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 428.Q8
  • Orgel, Stephen. The texts of Shakespeare: the transformation of popular theatre to printed book. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 3071
  • Revenge is mad hard: Fat Ham and the question of cultureal reclamation. Edited by Valerie Clayman Pye and Danielle Rosvally. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.
    PR 2807
  • Rycroft, Eleanor and Greg Walker. Predramatic theatre: the radicalism of early British performance. Palgrave Macmillan, 2026.
    PR 641
  • Shakespeare, presentism, and the legacy of Hugh Grady. Edited by Evelyn Gajowski. Palgrave Macmillan, 2026.
    PR 2976
  • Shakespeare, race and anglophone popular culture. Edited by Vanessa I. Corredera and L. Monique Pittman. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 2880.A1
  • The Shakespearean international yearbook: mixed race studies. Routledge, 2026.
    per
  • Singh, Jyotsna G. and Daniel Vitkus. A contextual guide to Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra: history, myth, gender. Edinburgh University Press, 2026.
    PR 2802
  • Skuse, Alanna. Hurt feelings: wounding oneself in early modern literature. Palgrave Macmillan, 2026.
    PR 428.B6
  • Stern, Tiffany. Ballad business: selling early modern theatre. Cambridge University Press, 2026.
    PR976
  • Streitberger, W.R. Shakespeare's censor: Edmund Tilney's intelligence manual. Routledge, 2026.
    PN2044.E6
  • Turri, Maria Grazia and Bridget Escolme. Laughter, power and the unconscious: researching emotional responses in a contemporary audience specatating early modern comedy at Shakespeare's Globe. Routledge, 2025.
    PN 2193.A8
  • Willems, Michèle. Classicizing Shakespeare: Jean-François Ducis and the first European adaptations. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 2881
  • Yearling, Rebecca. Shakespeare's violence and the early modern spectator. Arden Shakespeare, 2026.
    PR 3069.V6
  • Yip, Roweena. Gender in Asian Shakespeare: towards intercultural feminism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.
    PR 3109.A7
  • Vine, Angus. Early modern merchants and their books. Oxford University Press, 2025.
    Z 988
  • Vine, Angus. In defiance of time: antiquarian writing in early modern England. Oxford University Press, 2010.
    PR 418.H5