So this is my list of Campus Novels -- those I have read or want to read. Suggestions for additions to this list are always welcome.
I followed David Lodge's distinction between "Campus Novels" primarily featuring college professors and other faculty, and "Varsity Novels" primarily featuring students. The later don't appeal to me much. There may be a few on here that could cross over, but I think they all fall on the professor side of the line.
Those I have read are in red, with links to reviews if I wrote one. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue. If you have reviewed any of these books, and would like me to link to your review, please leave a comment with a link either here or on my review post and I will add it.
Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
Jake's Thing by Kingsley Amis
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis (reviewed here)
Death of an Old Goat by Robert Barnard
End of the Road by John Barth
The Dean's December by Saul Bellow
More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
Herzog by Saul Bellow
Ravelstein by Saul Bellow
The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake
Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury
The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
Possession by A. S. Byatt
The Professor's House by Willa Cather
Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Falconer by John Cheever
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
The Archivist by Martha Cooley
Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin (and rest of his Gervase Fen series)
Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie
In the Last Analysis by Amanda Cross (and the rest of her Kate Fansler series)
The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies (reviewed here)
What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies
The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Death is Now My Neighbour by Colin Dexter (from his Inspector Morse series)
The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn by Colin Dexter (from his Inspector Morse series)
The English School of Murder by Ruth Dudley Edwards
The Trick of It by Michael Frayn
Death at the President's Lodging by Michael Innes
The Weight of the Evidence by Michael Innes
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (reviewed here)
Redback by Howard Jacobson
Pictures from an Institution by Randall Jarrell
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman (reviewed here)
The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge
Thinks by David Lodge
Deaf Sentence by David Lodge (reviewed here)
Changing Places by David Lodge (reviewed here)
Small World by David Lodge
Nice Work by David Lodge
The War Between the Tates by Alison Lurie
A New Life by Bernard Malamud
All Souls by Javier Marias
An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman
The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy (reviewed here)
Irish Tenure by Ralph McInerny (and the rest of his Notre Dame mystery series)
The Search Committee by Ralph McInerny
Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain by Jeffrey Moore
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
The Lost Journals of Sylvia Plath by Kimberly Knutsen
Blue Angel by Francine Prose
Japanese by Spring by Ishmael Reed
Letting Go by Philip Roth
The Professor of Desire by Philip Roth
The Breast by Philip Roth
The Dying Animal by Philip Roth
The Human Stain by Philip Roth (reviewed here)
That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
Straight Man by Richard Russo
The Small Room by May Sarton
Gaudy night by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher
Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe
Moo by Jane Smiley
On Beauty by Zadie Smith (reviewed here)
The Masters by C.P. Snow
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
Memories of the Ford Administration by John Updike
Stoner by John Williams
The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (reviewed here)
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson
NOTES
Updated on January 6, 2019.
If you have suggestions for additions to this list, please leave a comment!
I didn't get to start college until I was in my 30s and got my B.A. the day after my 42nd birthday. I loved every minute of college - could have been a professional student. Yet I haven't read much fiction set in college or involving faculty. Guess I should consciously do that.
ReplyDeleteI've read 19 of these! I love books with an academic slant too.
ReplyDeleteOthers to consider:
The Weight of the Evidence by Michael Innes
The Search Committee by Ralph McInery
Holy Disorders (and rest of Gervase Fen series) by Edmund Crispin
Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake
Death of an Old Goat by Robert Barnard
The English School of Murder by Ruth Dudley Edwards
Dreaming of the Bones by Deborah Crombie
the Carolus Deene series by Leo Bruce
Barbara: I would have appreciated college so much more in my 30s!
ReplyDeleteBev: You're a peach! I hoped you would add some vintage mysteries to this list. I am going to look them up now.
Gaudy Night is so excellent! I'm glad you had it on your list. I liked Lucky Jim too, but haven't read any others by Amis.
ReplyDeleteDid you like the Gervase Fen series? I read the first one and was not at all impressed, vowed I'd never read another. I wonder now if it was just that one, and maybe I should give him another try?
I am also a HUGE Nabokov fan, but those are two of the few I've yet to read. The only other one on your list that I've read is Persuasion; since I enjoy campus novels, too, I'm bookmarking this list!
I loved college the first go round, in my teens, but found I loved it even more in my mid twenties. I did another round in my mid-late thirties and liked it even better (though I was the annoying Hermoine Granger, straight A, always with hand raised and over-done homework type of student then, to everyone's annoyance LOL).
I
edit: I read too quickly; now that I see your color coding system, I retract my question about the Fen books. LOL
ReplyDeleteI love books set in academia too although the two I have read most recently actually take place in a prep school, not college - Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld and The Year of the Gadfly by Jennifer Miller.
ReplyDeleteI am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe is set on a college campus and very good.
Great idea for a list!