Good news, fellow explorers in literature, art, media, and culture: it’s almost time for the fall semester of the MA English Literature program to begin! We’re less than three weeks away from the semester-start on Wednesday 9/2. And we’re less than a week away from when Blackboard shells become visible to students on 8/19. Note that anything you see in Blackboard prior to 9/2 should be considered a work-in-progress and subject to change. But it’s not too early to secure the books for your courses. Mercy’s bookstore is Barnes & Noble, online here. For the search fields at the bookstore select Fall 2026, then ENGL for the department, then any of 507, 523, or 541, then DLA for the section. Below I’m going to copy in the book order info for those who want to secure these editions elsewhere. Note that your professors might have additional materials/readings that they’ll suggest or include in the course, so what you see here might not spell everything you’ll actually encounter during the semester. Assume that your professors want you to secure these specific editions unless they indicate otherwise in their syllabus or Blackboard course shell.

ENGL 507 Narrative Strategies in the Novel

• Calvino, Italo. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler. ISBN 9780156439619.
• Diaz, Junot. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. ISBN 9781594483295
• Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude. ISBN 9780061120091.
• Haddon, Mark. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. ISBN 9781400032716.
• Hernan, Diaz. Trust. Penguin, ISBN. ISBN 9780593420317.
• Morrison, Toni. Beloved. ISBN 9781784876432.
• Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. ISBN 9780486282114.
• Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. ISBN 9780156628709.

ENGL 523 Reason to Imagination

• Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. New York: Mass Market, 2006. ISBN: 0765356155. 
• Blanning, Tim. The Romantic Revolution: A History. New York: Modern Library Chronicles, 2010.ISBN: 9780812980141.
• Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method and Related Writings, trans. Desmond Clarke, New York: Penguin Classics, 2000. ISBN: 978-0140446999.
• Hoffmann, E. T. A. Tales of Hoffmann, trans. R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Penguin, 1982. ISBN: 9780140443929. 
• Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Dover, 1994. ISBN: 0486282112. 
• Thomas, Keith. Religion and the Decline of Magic. 2 ed. New York: Penguin, 2012. ISBN: 0140137440. 

ENGL 541 Search for Identity in American Lit

Note that you don’t have to secure these specific editions, any editions will do and most of the material we’ll be encountering in the Norton anthology is public-domain and so available for free in various forms. But reading online material can be a shoddy experience, and the books listed below are quality publications, so although these specific books aren’t exactly “required” I highly recommend securing them. Norton is weeks away from launching an 11th edition of the anthology but since it isn’t out as of the moment, we’re sticking with the 10th.

• Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Third Norton Critical Edition, WW Norton, 2017. ISBN: 978-0393617313.
• Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. Amistad 75th Anniversary edition, 2006. ISBN: 978-0061120060.
• Levine, Robert, et al., editors. The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 10th Edition (Two-Volume Set). W.W. Norton, 2022. ISBN: 978-0393884449