Novels Set in Universities

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Why are there so few books set in unis? Or are there lots and I just don't know abt them....?

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 7 June 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

it would on the face of it appear to be the ideal setting, as it satisfies the basic literary requirement of unity of place (speshly if its a campus uni).

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 7 June 2003 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Lodge and Bradbury to thread!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 7 June 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

There are a lot of those, just off the top of my head I can think of

One Fat Englishman – K. Amis
the David Lodge books (can only remember Small World)
Possession – A.S. Byatt
Rules of Attraction – Bret Easton Ellis
Secret History – Donna Tartt
C.P. Snow – specifically ‘the Masters’ & ‘the Light & the Dark’ but a lot of that series took place on campus
Jane Smiley had one too, was it ‘Moo’?

― H (Heruy), Saturday, 7 June 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Lucky Jim is another Amis. The End Of The Road and Giles Goat-Boy (though that is an alternate universe university) by John Barth.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 7 June 2003 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I immediately though of Discworld.

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 7 June 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought there were tons of them.

White Noise, at least partially. Dean's December.

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 7 June 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

If I, a novel hater (not really), can immediately come up with two, then there have to be tons of them.

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 7 June 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Also the Golden Compass starts out at Oxford doesn't it?

― Maria (Maria), Saturday, 7 June 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

My unfinsihed novel was partly set in a university.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 7 June 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Love Story!

Also, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me by Richard Farina.

― Arthur (Arthur), Saturday, 7 June 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2.

― adam (adam), Saturday, 7 June 2003 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

This thread has been going for over two hours without anyone mentioning Brideshead revisited, even though its not completely set in a university its associated with oxford very deeply.

― Ed (dali), Saturday, 7 June 2003 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

At Swim-Two-Birds. Only one of the best novels evah.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 7 June 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

The Liar by Stephen Fry

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 7 June 2003 18:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Alison Lurie's Foreign Affairs -- not set in a university but it's about a couple of university professors.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 7 June 2003 18:45 (twenty-two years ago)

The Wonder Boys

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Saturday, 7 June 2003 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I second Lucky Jim. It's so very classic.

― cybele (cybele), Saturday, 7 June 2003 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

David Lodge was mentioned by Martin above - almost all his novels are set in universities and revolve around love and intrigue in universities in the UK, US, Ireland and Europe. Lots of academics read him as the characters are almost academic archetypes - everyone's met someone like them in academia. He's quite funny, not what you'd call a great writer, but a pretty good one. If you like Lucky Jim you might want to check him out.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Saturday, 7 June 2003 22:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Much of Kate Atkinson's "Emotionally Weird" concerns a creative writing course at the University of Dundee.

And then there's Tom Sharpe's "Porterhouse Blue".

Will you allow Howard Jacobson's "Coming From Behind"? Wolverhampton Polytechnic may not have been a university then, but it is now.

However, I doubt that the Tech that Sharpe's "Wilt" taught at ever made it to uni status.

― chris j (chris j), Saturday, 7 June 2003 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Paper Chase/Harvard Law
The Exorcist/In and around Georgetown University
St. Elmo's Fire/Also GU

― Roman (Roman), Saturday, 7 June 2003 23:22 (twenty-two years ago)

**White Noise, at least partially.**

Delillo's End Zone even moreso.

I don't suppose it's uni, but Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

― weatheringdaleson (weatheringdaleson), Sunday, 8 June 2003 01:10 (twenty-two years ago)

- The Big U - Neal Stephenson
- Moo - Jane Smiley
- Straight Man - Richard Russo
- White Noise - Don DeLillo
- Many David Lodge books
- Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
- The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood (partially set at University)
- A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving (not necessarily a University, but a school - actually lots of Irving's books have stuff about University in them - I highly recommend The Water-Method Man)
- Poetic Justice - Amanda Cross
- The Groves of Academe - Mary McCarthy
- Blue Angel: A Novel - Francine Prose
- Pictures from an Institution - Randall Jarrell
- Stoner - John Williams
- Joe College - Tom Perrotta
- Mail - Mameve Medwed
- Publish and Perish: Three Tales of Tenure and Terror - James Hynes
- Rookery Blues: A Novel - Jon Hassler
- The Dean's List - Jon Hassler

I was once thinking of doing my thesis on "collegiate" novels. No more. But I read most of the above.

Oh, and if you do a search at Amazon, on collegiate and stuff, eventually you'll reach a gigantic collection of gay porn stories set at universities. Those I didn't read for my potential thesis. Maybe I should have.
Anyway - The Big U had me laughing out loud - Stephenson's earliest effort, so it's a bit unpolished, but it's hillarious and frighteningly realistic, too. HIGHLY recommended.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Sunday, 8 June 2003 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

_Eating People Is Wrong_ by Malcolm Bradbury
_The Grasshopper King_ by Jordan Ellenberg

― Douglas (Douglas), Sunday, 8 June 2003 04:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Thirding The Big U and also plugging the Stephenson/uncle collaboration The Cobweb by Stephen Bury

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 8 June 2003 07:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Decline and Fall by Evelyn Wauggh starts off in one and is a right royal chuckle, too....

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Sunday, 8 June 2003 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

The best of the Wimsey series: Gaudy Night, set in Oxford.

Fool on the Hill, set in a fantasy Cornell with a Tolkien fraternity house!

― fiona (fiona), Sunday, 8 June 2003 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

pnin by nabokov

― Tad (llamasfur), Sunday, 8 June 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Many of these are my favourite books: Dorothy Sayers, David Lodge, AS Byatt, Margaret Atwood, Kate Atkinson and Lucky Jim (though nothing else with Kingsley Amis). I think some of Iris Murdoch too - it rings a bell but I can't think of the name... and also Margaret Drabble, surely she had a university novel or two... and Barbara Trapido.

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 8 June 2003 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

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