How do I cite a critical essay published in the same volume as a literary text--for example, an essay in a Norton Critical Edition?

How do I cite a critical essay published in the same volume as a literary text–for example, an essay in a Norton Critical Edition?

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.

To cite a critical essay published in the same volume as a literary work, follow the MLA format template. List the author of the essay, followed by the title. Then list the name of the volume from which you accessed the essay, followed by the the volume’s publication details. In the optional-element slot at the end of the entry, you may provide original publication details if the volume supplies them, but the information is not required:

Stone, Harry. “Fairy Tales and Ogres: Dickens’ Imagination and David Copperfield.” David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens, edited by Jerome H. Buckley, Norton Critical Edition, W. W. Norton, 1990, pp. 826-31. Originally published in Criticism, vol. 6, 1964, pp. 324-30.

If the work you are citing is an excerpt, follow our guidelines on citing excerpts from anthologies.