Campus Novels

Author's Last Name	First Name	Book Title	Comments
Albom	Mitch	Tuesdays with Morrie
Amis	Kingsley	Lucky Jim
Bellow	Saul	The Dean's December
Bowen	Gail		Murder mystery series with a professor in starring role
Bradbury	Malcolm	Stepping Westward
Bradbury	Malcolm	Rates of Exchange
Bradbury	Malcolm	The History of Man
Byatt	A.S.	Possession	Incredible!!
Byatt	A.S.	The Biographer's Tale
Byatt	A.S.	Babel Tower
Carrier	Warren	Death of a Chancelor
Chabon	Michael	Wonder Boys	Movie version stars Michael Douglas & Toby Maguire
Coetzee	J.M.	Disgrace	Life in the post-modem, post-apartheid South African University
Conroy	Pat	The Lords of Discipline
Cross	Amanda	Death in a Tenured Position	Kate Fansler mystery series
Cross	Amanda	In The Last Analysis	Kate Fansler mystery series
Cross	Amanda	An Imperfect Spy	Kate Fansler mystery series
Cross	Amanda	Honest Doubt	Kate Fansler mystery series
Cross	Amanda	A Trap for Fools	Kate Fansler mystery series
Cross	Amanda	Poetic Justice	Kate Fansler mystery series
Cross	Amanda	The Players Come Again	She solves a mystery in the process of conducting research for a literary biography
Davies	Robertson	The Lyre of Orpheus
DeLillo	Don	White Noise
Dobson	Joanne	The Northbury Papers
Dobson	Joanne	The Raven and the Nightingale	third in a series of crime novels about New England
Edwards	Ruth Dudley	Mysteries
Farber	Jerry	Gorman	Essay in the book "The Student As Nigger" (1968)
Fisher	Dorothy	Seasoned Timber	Set in Vermont, it follows the difficulties faced by Clifford Academy headmaster after the academy is willed $1 million with the stipulation that Jews, girls, and locals be sqeezed out
Fitzgerald	F. Scott	This Side of Paradise
Fowles	John	The Ebony Tower
Galbraith	John Kenneth	A Tenured Professor
Godwin	Gail	The Good Husband
Grudin	Robert	Book	Updating of the trope of the poisonous book
Haley	Susan	A Nest of Singing Birds
Hardy	Thomas	Jude the Obscure
Hassler	John	The Dean's List
Hassler	Jon	Rookery Blues
Heilbrun	Carolyn	Writing a Woman's Life	Pen name for Amanda Cross
Heilbrun	Carolyn	Reinventing Womanhood
Heilbrun	Carolyn	Hamlet's Mother and Other Women
Heilbrun	Carolyn	The Education of a Woman
Heilbrun	Carolyn	The Life of Gloria Steinem
Heilbrun	Carolyn	The Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty
Hynes	James	Publish and Perish
Hynes	James	The Lecturer's Tale
Hynes	James	The Lecturer's Tale
Isherwood	Christopher	A Single Man	Gloomy novel of a British prof in sunny California
Jarrell	Randall	Pictures from an Institution: A Comedy
Jones	D.H.	Murder at the MLA	A bitingly satiric whodunit in the wold of poststructuralist literature department politics
Kelly	Nora	My Sister's Keeper
L'Heureux	John	The Handmaid of Desire
Lodge	David	Changing Places	Lodge is hilarious and sophisticated
Lodge	David	Small World
Lodge	David	Nice Work
Lodge	David	The British Museum is Falling Down
Lodge	David	Thinks
Lurie	Alison	Imaginary Friends
Lurie	Alison	The War Between the Tates
McCarthy	Mary	The Groves of Academe
McLeod	Charlotte		Writes a series of mysteries that are set at the fictional Maine Balaclava Agricultural College - with the hero, Peter Shandy, a professor who perfected the rutabaga. Very witty, droll book. Her language is a delight.
Nabokov	Vladimir	Pale Fire	A really wild and great book
Nabokov	Vladimir	Pnin
Oates	Joyce Carol	Unholy Loves
Osborn	John Jay	The Paper Chase
Parker	Robert B.	Godwulf Manuscript	A fun author and, I believe, former English professor in Boston, has a number of Spenser novels, a smart-alecky detective.
Pelletier	Karen	The Northbury Papers
Pelletier	Karen	Quieter Than Sleep
Peterson	Bernard	The Caravaggio Books
Powers	Richard	Galatea 2.2
Prose	Francine	Blue Angel	Controversial (not for the faint-hearted)
Roth	Phillip	The Human Stain
Ruff	Matt	Fool on the Hill: A Novel	Science fiction
Russo	Richard	Straight Man
Sarton	May	The Small Room
Sayers	Dorothy	Gaudy Night
Sharpe	Tom	Porterhouse Blue
Smiley	Jane	MOO
Snow	C.P.	The Masters	About the selection of a faculty member to govern a college in England
Stegner	Wallace	Crossing to Safety	A most incredible read
Steinberg	Janice	Death of a Post Modernist
Tarloff	Erik	The Man Who Wrote the Book
Thompson	Charles	Halfway Down the Stairs
Wilhelm	Kate	The Hamlet Trap
Williams	John	Stoner
Wolff	Geoffrey	The Final Club	Very authentic portrait of Princeton in the late 50s and early 60s before the counter-culture swept even into the Ivy League

Links to other lists

A Bit of Whimsey: Mysteries and Academia

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Last modified: Jun 22, 2005, 11:33 EDT