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Citing Literary Works - MLA 9

Works Cited (Novels)

Novel in Print (a book you can hold in your hands)

(1) Author. Orange, Tommy.
(2) Title of Source. There There: A Novel.
(3) Title of Container,
(4) Other contributors,
(5) Version,
(6) Number,
(7) Publisher, Knopf,
(8) Publication date, 2018.
(9) Location.

Putting it all together:

Orange, Tommy. There There: A Novel. Knopf, 2018.


Novel as eBook

(1) Author. Orange, Tommy.
(2) Title of Source. There There: A Novel.
(3) Title of Container,
(4) Other contributors,
(5) Version, E-book,
(6) Number,
(7) Publisher, Knopf,
(8) Publication date, 2018.
(9) Location. EBSCO eBook Collection.

Putting it all together:

Orange, Tommy. There There: A Novel. E-book, Knopf, 2018. EBSCO eBook Collection.

*  If the ebook was from a website, list the URL as the location.


Novel Excerpt in a Collection (like your textbook)

(1) Author. Orange, Tommy.
(2) "Title of Source." "Excerpt from There There: A Novel."
(3) Title of Container, Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers,
(4) Other contributors, edited by John Schilb and John Clifford,
(5) Version, 7th ed.,
(6) Number,
(7) Publisher, Bedford/St. Martin's,
(8) Publication date, 2020,
(9) Location. pp. 497-508.

Putting it all together:

Orange, Tommy. "Excerpt from There There: A Novel." Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers, edited by John Schilb and John Clifford, 7th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2020, pp. 497-508.


Novel or Book with an Editor

(1) Author. Wollstonecraft, Mary.
(2) Title of Source. A Vindication of the Rights of Women.
(3) Title of Container,
(4) Other contributors, Edited by Janis Tomlinson,
(5) Version,
(6) Number,
(7) Publisher, W. W, Norton,
(8) Publication date, 2020.
(9) Location.

Putting it all together:

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Edited by Janis Tomlinson, W. W, Norton, 2020.


Translated Novel

(1) Author. Saadawi, Ahmed.
(2) Title of Source. Frankenstein in Baghdad.
(3) Title of Container,
(4) Other contributors, Translated by Jonathan Wright,
(5) Version,
(6) Number,
(7) Publisher, Penguin Books,
(8) Publication date, 2018.
(9) Location.

Putting it all together:

Saadawi, Ahmed. Frankenstein in Baghdad. Translated by Jonathan Wright, Penguin Books, 2018.

* This example uses the most common approach to translators.  For more detail on handling translators, see this guide's homepage.

In-Text (Novels)

Novels and short stories are easy to cite in-text, because authors and page numbers are almost always given.  Most in-text citations for novels and short stories will look like this (Baldwin 27).

There are two ways to format quotes:

Brief Quotes Block Quotes
Length of Your Quote
  • 4 or fewer lines
  • 5 or more lines
How to Use Run brief quotes into the body of your paper and use in-text citations.

Use block quotes only when absolutely necessary, and be sure to provide extensive analysis if you do.

Write a sentence to introduce the block quote, and end the sentence with a colon instead of a period.

Indent 1/2" on the left margin.

Add an in-text citation at the end of the block quote, after the final punctuation.

Original

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was; but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.

Brief Quote

As the narrator rides "on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country", he feels an increase sense of foreboding, and when he reaches his destination, the first glimpse of the "melancholy House of Usher" fills him with "a sense of insufferable gloom" (Poe 9).

Block Quote

The Fall of the House of Usher opens with dark foreshadowing:

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was; but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. (Poe 9)