In case you missed it, it was World Book Week last week. In conjunction, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to compile a list of books set in the world’s best universities for a little escapism.
Universities like Oxford and Cambridge—with their neoclassical, Gothic architecture—are dream study destinations for the ton, but the reality is, not everyone has access to such expensiveinstitutions. Not everyone wants to spend their days living like Richard Papen from Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History” either, and that’s more than okay. We saw how that turned out for him.
(Spoiler alert: murder.)
However, we understand the temptation to get swept away by the romance of university life, experiencing freedom for the first time. Everything just feels a little better when it’s set in a place that looks like a painting, doesn’t it?
So, to save you time, we’ve got a few books set in the world’s best universities to satisfy that craving.
The books set in the world’s best universities don’t necessarily have to fall within the dark academia genre. Source: Thomas Kelley on Unsplash
Warning: don’t get toocarried away now
“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt is considered a masterpiece for its criticism of academic elitism and superficiality, yet today it is being used as an accessory to the “dark academia” aesthetic to appear intellectually superior.
A little ironic, isn’t it?
As you start to peruse this list of books set in the world’s best universities, you must remember one thing: the academia portrayed in the media is often mere fantasy. Do not let “The Secret History” fool you into suddenly taking an ancient Greek course if it’s going to sink your grades.
A few hours of escapism is perfectly fine. Do notget disillusioned.
Let’s go back to Tartt’s 1992 novel, for example. The whole idea behind the story is that Papen longs for the picturesque, especially given his working-class background, and that longing is what leads to moral corruption.
This cult-ish, exclusive group of ancient Greek students is meant to represent everything wrong with academia—something only white, upper-class men had access to back then—yet, it has become the subject of the Internet’s desires. The “leader” of the group, Henry Winters, is arguably the most desired.
Of course, fictional characters don’t have to be good for you to find them attractive, but you cannot override Winters’s lack of humanity with lust.
It’s okay to enjoy the look of dark academia; the candle-lit libraries, turtlenecks, poetry books, and fountain pens. It’s even okay to find Henry Winters hot! It simply shouldn’t come at the cost of media literacy, or the acknowledgement that the genre is Eurocentric and lacks diversity.
For a deep dive into dark academia, watch The Book Leo’s video essay on the history and mainstream adoption of the aesthetic here.
5 multi-genre books set in the world’s best universities
1. “Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo
Set in Yale University.
Goodreads rating (Book #1): 4 stars
Perhaps, due to a certain fantasy saga set in a school for witch craft and wizardry, we often presume old universities will have magic flying out of there walls — unfortunately, this remains pure fiction.
In “Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo, there is in fact a magical secret society called at Yale University called “Lethe House.” The debut novel of the same author who delivered the “Shadow and Bone” and “Six of Crows” series, the book follows Alex Turner as she is recruited to monitor the activities of Yale’s occult secret societies.
2. “Katabasis” by R. F. Kuang
Set in University of Cambridge.
Goodreads rating: 3.74 stars
Think of books set in the world’s best universities, and R. F. Kuang’s name is often top of the list.
Ever contemplated what heaven and hell looks like? Well, if you’ve ever felt like hell was sitting in the library for 10 hours, grinding out one assignment, then you might just find yourself loving “Katabasis.”
Kuang herself is doing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, having graduated with master’s degrees from Cambridge and Oxford. In a way, “Katabasis,” which follows Alice Law as she journeys to hell to secure a recommendation from her professor, makes total sense. After all, the greatest hell is often what you know.
— best of normal people (@acnormalpeople) March 13, 2026
3. “Normal People” by Salley Rooney
Set in Trinity College Dublin.
Goodreads rating: 3.81 stars
If you can’t stand the miscommunication trope, you will despise Marianne and Connell from “Normal People.” Perhaps, that’s what makes it uncomfortable, at times—their pitfalls are, in fact, normal.
Rooney’s second novel is a coming-of-age story following two “almost” lovers through four years, from high school to university. At Trinity College Dublin, Connell studies English, and Marianne, history. It is a pretty heavy book, so check out the trigger warnings before reading.
4. “My Oxford Year” by Julia Whelan
Set in the University of Oxford.
Goodreads rating: 3.86
If you grew up loving sappy tear-jerkers like “The Notebook” or “Me Before You,” then we’ve got another doozy. That is, if you can look past the fact that it’s a (master’s) student and a (young) professor.
Needless to say, the book is set at the University of Oxford and follows Ella Durran as she journeys through a master’s in English Literature on the Rhodes Scholarship. Her lifelong dream literally gets splashed on by Jamie Davenport, who, of course, winds up her professor.
5. “Bunny” by Mona Awad
Set in the fictional Warren University, inspired by Brown University.
Goodreads rating (Book #1): 3.45
Sometimes, a girl just needs some haunting, cult-ish tales to escape from the mundane. Better yet if they’re books set in the world’s best universities. Mona Awad delivers that in her book “Bunny,” a wildhorror tale described as “The Secret History” meets “Heathers.”
The book is set at a fictional university, but Awad—who pursued a master’s at Brown University—states that she drew inspiration from her alma mater. She told the Brown Daily Herald that its “creepy” and “gorgeous” city location felt like the perfect horror setting.
