MENU
SHOPS
SEARCH
0
Joinplus before checkout to earn stamps on your order and be eligible for plus rewards.
Basket
Your basket is empty.
-
- Books
Click & Collect
from 2 Hours* Last Christmas
delivery dates Free UK Standard Delivery On all orders over £25 Order in time for Christmas 18th December by 1pm 2nd Class |
20th December by 1pm 1st Class Free Click & Collect From 2 hours after you order*
from 2 Hours* Last Christmas
delivery dates Free UK Standard Delivery On all orders over £25 Order in time for Christmas 18th December by 1pm 2nd Class |
20th December by 1pm 1st Class Free Click & Collect From 2 hours after you order*
Blog
Classroom and Campus Classics: The Best School Stories and University Novels
As pupils and students across the land start to hear the siren call of school and university drawing them back to academia, what better time to reflect upon some of the great school stories and campus novels?
Oftentimes in fiction the educational institution is a hermetically sealed environment, ripe for farce and satire or psychological drama and murder mystery. Students come of age, teachers and lecturers succumb to hubris and inertia, the institution itself threatens to crumble or combust. The class or seminar room is the perfect place to puncture pretension and pomposity, or delve into the darkest recesses of some uniquely gifted and intellectual psyches. In short, educational establishments can be turned to whatever purpose the author wants them to be, and the results are frequently stunning.
In this list we call the register of the finest authors on academic life and the masterpieces they crafted. From Victorian headmasters to twenty-first-century mean girls, from Brutalist red-brick monstrosities to the gilded splendour of Oxbridge; all the novels below sit at the top of the class.
£9.99
Paperback
In stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Rendered in sparkling prose and rich in exqusite metaphor, Dickens’ colourful, freewheeling coming of age epic contains a vitriolic attack on the Victorian school system in its portrayal of the horrendous Dotheboys Hall and its grotesque headmaster Wackford Squeers.
£8.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A devastating portrait of a narcissistic Edinburgh school mistress and the coterie of impressionable girls that she takes under her wing, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie cloaks a deliciously scathing attack on the abuse of power in exquisitely crafted and economical prose.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A hymn to academic duty and the merits of humility, Goodbye Mr Chips recounts the life and career of Mr Chipping, beloved classics teacher in a fictional pre-war boarding school.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A sly, ineffably disturbing psychological thriller rippling with malice and sexual jealousy, Zoe Heller’s Booker shortlisted psychodrama probes the darkest avenues of two schoolteachers’ desires and obsessions.
£8.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
This pioneering Victorian school novel is now best known as the inspiration for George MacDonald Fraser’s wickedly funny Flashman series, but Hughes’ tale of honour and spirit at the iconic Rugby School has left its mark on every fictional pupil from Billy Bunter to Harry Potter.
£10.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A winning union of vernacular text and expressive cartoon, the Molesworth tetralogy remains one of the most acutely observed parodies of school life.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A profound treatise on loneliness and isolation, Bronte’s last novel transplants her heroine Lucy Snowe to a provincial French boarding school and its attendant temptations and conflicts.
£10.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Peeling away the façade of beautiful people and civilised recreation to uncover an unrelenting parade of social rituals and a never-ending popularity contest, Prep is a vibrant account of fitting in and acting out in the harsh world of the American prep school.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Elevating a picaresque farce into a hilarious literary gem, Waugh’s anarchic debut novel is a biting satire on 1920s society that places a disgraced Oxford student in an ill-advised teaching position at an obscure Welsh school.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A campus novel told from the perspective of a Black student, Taylor’s powerful tale embraces themes of grief, desire and alienation in rich, eloquent prose.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Through its wonderfully chaotic and informal protagonist Jim Dixon, Amis’ splenetic satire calls out the amateurish preciousness of the old university establishment in this quintessential British campus novel.
£10.99
Paperback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
An exuberant farce whose absurdity is only matched by its wince-inducing insight into academic narcissism and literary hubris, Wonder Boys is one of the great triumphs of American humour writing, involving dead dogs, Marilyn Monroe and a boa constrictor.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Wonderfully rueful and utterly hilarious, Tom Sharpe’s account of schemes and shenanigans in a venerable Cambridge college manages to skewer both reactionary traditionalists and self-righteous liberals.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Skilfully weaving an enchanting story from the most mundane of narratives, Williams’ cult novel is a minutely detailed examination of an ordinary life and the little victories and obstacles that pepper it.
£9.99
Paperback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The novel that created the cult of the sexually promiscuous university lecturer, The History Man is also a portrait of loveless marriage, a satire on the vacuity of the Swinging Sixties and a diatribe against the dangers of ‘right-on’ liberalism.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Tender-hearted and empathetic, Nabokov’s account of an émigré Russian professor struggling through a tenure at an American university wrings belly laughs from the wistful and melancholy.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Through an irresistible plot that mixes first love, student politics and a thinly disguised version of University Challenge, Nicholls weaves a spryly romantic and humorous novel that catapulted him to fame.
£9.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
The king of the British campus novel takes on US university life in this meticulously crafted culture clash comedy which details the consequences of an Anglo-American lecturer swap, brimming with high farce and whip-smart dialogue.
£8.99
Paperback
5+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
A compelling, character driven thriller set on a breezeblock university campus, The Truants is a very modern coming-of-age tale incorporating issues of belonging and toxic friendships within a fast-moving, wire-taut narrative.
£8.99
Paperback
10+ in stock
Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
From the bestselling author of The Silent Patient comes another sophisticated and hugely original literary thriller revolving around Cambridge classicists and secret societies.
Related articles
Sign In / Register
Not registered? CREATE AN ACCOUNTCREATE A plus ACCOUNT
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
Click & Collect
Reserve online, pay on collection
Thank you for your reservation
Your order is now being processed and we have sent a confirmation email to you at
When will my order be ready to collect?
Following the initial email, you will be contacted by the shop to confirm that your item is available for collection.
Call us on or send us an email at
Unfortunately there has been a problem with your order
Please try again or alternatively you can contact your chosen shop on or send us an email at
Comments
You could add Zadie Smith's "On Beauty". View more
RafNew reply
Please sign in to respond to comments.Nothing by C.P. Snow, e,g “The Masters” or James Hilton, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”, or John Knowles, “A Separate Peace”?
Simon Li.
View more
New reply
Please sign in to respond to comments.