What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Books where the main setting is an old school, ex. Oxford
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A Separate Peace by John Knowles - very atmospheric, in part because of its emphasis on its "old school" settingMalory Towers series by Enid Blyton and Chalet School series by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer - both were written in early/mid 20th century, so they're pretty antiquated, but they're good examples of the classic School Story genre in British children's literature
Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
Miss Timmins' School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy
There's a duplicate thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... Maybe the mods can merge them?
the first book of Deborah Harkness's trilogy takes place in Oxford. Witches, vampires, academia, autumn, etc.
The Books of Fell series by M.E. Kerr. (The first book is Fell). And The Liar Society by Lisa Roecker if you don't mind YA.
Lobstergirl wrote: "Closed duplicate thread here:https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."
Thank you, that was an accident on my part
Mod
Lucky Jim
Pictures from an Institution
Pnin
The Groves of Academe
Love and Friendship
Stoner
White Noise
This Side of Paradise
Changing Places
The Group
Herzog
The Dante Club
The Rule of Four
To Serve Them All My Days
The Longest Journey
Ravelstein
The Dean's December
For the Sake of Elena
King of the Badgers
The Bachelor of Arts
Decline and Fall
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
Letting Go
Hangsaman
The Folded Leaf
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Place to Come To
More Die of Heartbreak
Hocus Pocus
Any Human Heart
Superior Women
The Riddle of the Third Mile
The Furies
The Years
The Charioteer
A Compass Error
Daniel Martin
"Shadowland" by Peter Straub. Actually, half of it takes place in a 1960s boys' academy, the second half takes place in a mansion. As for NSFW content, it does have some Stephen King-esque levels of violence, and also a really awkward not-quite sex scene with a couple of teenagers.
Oh, well, my suggestions from the closed thread were:A Separate Peace
A Wizard of Earthsea
Daddy-Long-Legs
Gaudy Night (about 1/4 clean romance and 3/4 mystery)
Mike At Wryken and Mike and Psmith
The Paper Chase definitely had a romance aspect; I can't remember whether there was explicit sex.
I'm not sure whether you'd consider The Art of Fielding to be NSFW. The Rules of Attraction is definitely NSFW.
Daughters of Jerusalem and Every Contact Leaves a Trace are both set at Oxford University.On Beauty is set at a fictional US college.
The Robber Bride has a main character who is an academic and has some chapters about campus politics etc. It's not the main plot though.
The Name of the Wind there is a huge chunk of this book and the next in the series set at a Wizarding University and it is AMAZING. Fair warning that the final book is not yet written.That Hideous Strength This is the final in a three book sci-fi/fantasy series written by C.S Lewis. The main character is a Cambridge professor, and the final book takes place almost entirely at a College. However, while excellent it is a SUPER weird series. The first book is a very enjoyable/charming space fantasy, the second is a heavy-handed allegory/philosophy, and the final book is dystopian.
The Enchanted Isle The main character is the principle at a prestigious girl's school. This is a light romance but probably more towards chic lit. About half the book takes place at the school.
Miss Pym DisposesJane Eyre
Boy: Tales of Childhood
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
Boy reads like fiction. Surprised by Joy has some ghastly stories about boarding school life.
Lyra's Oxford (His Dark Materials #3.5) by Philip Pullman
Part of a wonderful series starting with Golden Compass based on Oxford "in different dimension"
My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan
Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Inspector Morse by Colin Dexter
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
An Education
The Moving Toyshop (Gervase Fen #3) by Edmund CrispinA classic wonderful retro mystery book
If you enjoy mystery/thriller types, try Black Chalk by Christopher Yates. It's set at Oxford. It does have sex and drugs, drinking etc, but I don't recall it being extremely graphic. I thought it was an entertaining read.Also, you might try Rubbernecker by Belinda Bauer. It's set at Cardiff University in Wales with med students and interns and their anatomy classes. It's graphic in some parts, but it has a dark humor in the descriptions. It's a mystery/thriller too.
If you are interested in books revolving around academic characters, I recommend Possession by AS Byatt. It's mostly set outside of college. The gist is about literary scholars uncovering a mystery and competing with one another. It's lovely and funny and steeped in an old-school literature references. It does have college and grad school flashbacks. It involves love affairs for sure, but it is not a romance novel.
Rosa wrote: "Black ChalkRubbernecker
Possession
for the links."
Thank you Rosa. I'm new to this and wasn't sure how to link them!
MauriceThe Club
Carry On
Wilberforce
Ninth House
The Sparsholt Affair
A Question of Holmes
The Oxford Inheritance
The Anatomy of Ghosts
The Last Enchantments
The Bellwether Revivals
Party Girls Die in Pearls
JillFollies
The It Girl
The Maidens
Oxford Blood
Wittgenstein Jr
Sleuth on Skates
The Reading Party
House of Windows
The Warden's Niece
A Masculine Ending
Looking for the King
Where the Rivers Meet
All the Perverse Angels
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
The Theban Mysteries (other topics)Cat Among the Pigeons (other topics)
The Maidens (other topics)
Oxford Blood (other topics)
Follies (other topics)
More...
Books: Harry Potter (duh)
Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones
The Man In the Picture by Susan Hill
The Cornish Trilogy by Robertson Davies
Movies: (I know some of these are also books, but I haven’t read them)
Dead Poets Society
Harry Potter again
A Beautiful Mind
The Theory of Everything
Tolkien
The Imitation Game
Never Let Me Go
I know this is one of the archetypes of “dark academia” literature but I’m looking a lot wider than that. From what I know, dark academia tends to focus on psychological/thriller/ murder mystery type stuff which is fine but I want recommendations from a wider variety of genres. Thank you!