Higher Learning - Teachers & Schools in Literature

Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh

The decline of the English upper classes comes into focus at Oxford University.

The History Man
Malcolm Bradbury

A funny novel about a radical university tutor who is a self-appointed revolutionary hero.

Matilda
Roald Dahl

Matilda applies her mental powers to rid the school of the evil, child-hating headmistress.

Mr. Pip
Lloyd Jones

An isolated island during a civil war and the teacher whose teaching methods drive a wedge between a girl and her mother.

The Graduate
Charles Webb

The story of college student Benjamin Braddock's affair with Mrs. Robinson.

Tom Brown's School Days
Thomas Hughes

The classic story of public school life set at Rugby, and with the ruthless Flashman.

Porterhouse Blue
Tom Sharpe

The riotous life of the insular academic community of Porterhouse College Cambridge.

Goodbye, Mr Chips
James Hilton

The poignant story of a dedicated, gentle & unassuming schoolteacher.

Wonder Boys
Michael Chabon

An aging novelist with writers block who teaches at small colleges and is on a fast track to total ruin.

The Crazed
Ha Jin

A prominent Chinese university professor suffers a brain injury and a favorite student and future son-in-law becomes his caretaker.

Stover At Yale
Owen Johnson

The quintessential collegiate coming of age novel follows "The Dink" though four years of football and more.

This Side of Paradise
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Amory Blaine, intent on rebelling against Midwestern upbringing, attends Princeton to acquire the patina of Eastern sophistication.

The Group
Mary McCarthy

Eight Vassar graduates meet in New York following commencement to attend a wedding of one of their members and reconvene seven years later at her funeral.

A Separate Peace
John Knowles

Two students' competitive friendship at a New England preparatory school during World War II.

The Secret History
Donna Tartt

An impoverished student at a New England college falls in with an exclusive clique of rich scholars and learns the dreadful secret that keeps them together.

Old School
Tobias Wolff

A New England prep school's mystique is rooted in literature and for some boys this becomes an obsession.

The Second Form at St. Clare's
Enid Blyton

The twins don't like the two characters who are head of their new form and have some delightful ways of dealing with them.

The Class
Erich Segal

Follows five young men who enter Harvard in 1954 and then 25 years later at their graduation reunion.

I Am Charlotte Simmons
Tom Wolfe

A freshman learns that for the uppercrust coeds of Dupont, sex, being cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time.

The Rule of Four
Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

A 15th century manuscript, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, is deciphered by four Princeton students.

Up the Down Stair Case
Bel Kaufman

A story of a committed, idealistic teacher whose clash with school bureaucracy is a timeless lesson for students, teachers and parents.

To Sir, With Love
E.R. Braithwaite

A moving account of Braithwaite's experiences teaching in the East End of London, basis for the film of the same name starring Sydney Poitier

The Water is Wide
Pat Conroy

Account of the author's year-long experience teaching nearly illiterate eighth-graders on Yamacraw Island, just off the South Carolina coast.

The Blackboard Jungle
Evan Hunter

Hunter spent 17 days teaching at a Bronx high school in 1950, which inspired this 1954 novel about education and juvenile delinquents.

Teacher Man
Frank McCourt

A book about how McCourt's thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer.