If you’re currently living through your college experience, or are looking forward to embarking on it imminently, it can be fun and interesting to read about this time in novels or non-fiction. Whilst authorial depictions of college life may vary hugely from your own experience, it’s nice to compare notes and it can help you to imagine the inner lives of the characters you’re reading about. Here, check out three great texts which investigate the college experience.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
This novel traces the lives of several different characters across modern Britain, but its opening chapters are dedicated to exploring Yazz’s experiences of life at an English university. The adventures and times she shares with her squad of close friends are interesting and amusing, and it’s a great insight into the modern British university experience.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
This cult classic follows the lives of a group of pretentious Classics majors at a prestigious US university. Their studies begin to intertwine with their lives, as they engage in Bacchic gatherings and plot to do something terrible together. Whilst it may not mirror the average college experience, this is a great book to read whilst studying.
Possession by A.S. Byatt
This novel is about academics rather than students, but it still captures the atmosphere of a university perfectly. It is witty and stylish as well as being very romantic, and is a great one to read if you want to understand more about Victorian academia (Byatt was herself a literary critic as well as an author).
