University of Oxford in Popular Culture - in Literature

In Literature

Literary works include:

  • Gaudy Night, a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers (who was herself a graduate of Somerville).
  • Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.
  • A Staircase in Surrey, a quintet of novels by J. I. M. Stewart.
  • A series of whodunnits by Veronica Stallwood, including Oxford Blue, Oxford Exit, etc.
  • The His Dark Materials trilogy of Philip Pullman (alternative reality)
  • The Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter is set in Oxford and frequently refers to the University (although most of the college names are fictional).
  • An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
  • Where the Rivers Meet, a trilogy of novels by John Wain
  • Loss and Gain, by John Henry Newman
  • Tom Brown at Oxford, by Thomas Hughes
  • Zuleika Dobson, by Max Beerbohm
  • Jill, by Philip Larkin
  • Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and the short story Fire Watch, by Connie Willis
  • Accident, by Nicholas Mosley; the novel served as the basis for the film of the same name, which is mentioned below
  • The Soulbane Stratagem, by Norman Jetmundsen; set at Magdalen College in Oxford

Fictional universities based on Oxford include Terry Pratchett's Unseen University and "Christminster" in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.

For a list of fictional colleges of the University of Oxford, see List of fictional Oxford colleges.

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