So I keep a running list of Campus Novels. These are books I have read or want to read. If you have suggestions for additions to this list, please send them my way.
I'm not so keen on novels featuring students compared to the adults on campus. I read a distinction once (I think made by David Lodge) between "Campus Novels" that focus on college professors and other faculty, and "Varsity Novels" that focus on student life. The later don't appeal to me much. There may be a few on my list that could cross over, but most 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. Any favorites? If you have ideas for additions, please leave a comment.
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
If you have suggestions for additions to this list, please leave a comment!
Thanks for this list. I'd add Jill by Philip Larkin.
ReplyDeleteI just read and reviewed A Single Man and loved it! And this list was perfectly timed for me, I'm just about to embark on my last semester of my Masters program, so I should really get to reading campus novels while they're still "relatable" (or not). I definitely want to get to The Secret History soon!
ReplyDeleteThat’s annimpressive list! I’ve only read Gaudy Night, which I loved, and would really like to re-read & Miss Pym has been on my radar for a long time. It’s the only Tey book I haven’t read yet.
ReplyDeleteA different slant but sort of related (for me) are books set in medical institutions. I recently read A Mind to Murder & Shroud for a Nightingale by P.D. james - I know you’re a PD James fan so I’d imagine you’ve read them. 🙂