How do I cite an essay from one volume of a multivolume work when the volume is identified by a date range?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

You can cite an essay from one volume of a multivolume work when the volume is identified by a date range in any one of the ways shown in our previous post on citing essays in multivolume works

Let’s say you want to cite The Essays of Virginia Woolf, volume 5, which is identified by the date range 1929–1932. Consider the volume title The Essays of Virginia Woolf, 1929–1932.

Method 1

Cite the volume independently from the multivolume work: 

Woolf, Virginia. “How Should One Read a Book?” The Essays of Virginia Woolf, 1929–1932, edited by Stuart N. Clarke, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2009, pp. 572–93. 

Method 2

Include the multivolume work as a second container:

Woolf, Virginia. “How Should One Read a Book?” The Essays of Virginia Woolf, 1929–1932, edited by Stuart N. Clarke, pp. 572–93. The Essays of Virginia Woolf, vol. 5, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2009.

Method 3

Treat facts about the multivolume work as optional information: 

Woolf, Virginia. “How Should One Read a Book?” The Essays of Virginia Woolf, 1929–1932, edited by Stuart N. Clarke, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2009, pp. 572–93. Vol. 5 of The Essays of Virginia Woolf.