swap_horiz Stepping Westward Alternatives

1

Pale Fire

Vladimir Nabokov’s *Pale Fire* is a 1962 novel centered around a disastrous academic expedition to a remote American uni...

1960S Postmodern Nabokov Professorial

9.6 Brilliant

2

Stoner

John Williams’ *Stoner* chronicles the life of Edwin “Stoner” Grant, a Midwestern student at Midwestern State Teachers C...

1960S Literary Fiction Tragic Professorial

9.4 Excellent

3

Lucky Jim

Kingsley Amis’s *Lucky Jim* chronicles the chaotic life of James Baldwin, a young lecturer at Bretton Hall College in Yo...

Comedy 1950S Academic Satire UK University

9.2 Excellent

4

Pnin

Vladimir Nabokov’s *Pnin* chronicles the life of Timofey Pnin, a disoriented and melancholic Russian professor teaching...

1950S Tragicomedy Nabokov Professorial

8.9 Great

5

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath's 1963 semi-autobiographical novel follows a young woman's mental breakdown, first published under the pseu...

Coming Of Age 1960S Literary Fiction Us College

8.5 Great

6

Changing Places

1975 novel by David Lodge in which a British and an American professor swap universities for a semester, the first book...

Comedy 1970S Academic Satire UK Us University

8.4 Great

7

Franny and Zooey

J.D. Salinger's 1961 novel, comprising two linked stories first published in The New Yorker, depicts Franny Glass's spir...

1960S Literary Fiction Student Life Us College

8.4 Great

8

Decline and Fall

Evelyn Waugh's 1928 debut novel satirizing English public school and university life through the comic misadventures of...

Satire Comedy 1920S Boarding School

8.3 Great

9

Straight Man

1997 comic novel by Richard Russo about the reluctant acting chair of an English department at a financially struggling...

Comedy 1990S Academic Satire Departmental Politics

8.2 Great

10

Small World

1984 campus novel by David Lodge satirizing the international academic conference circuit, the second Rummidge novel and...

Comedy 1980S Academic Satire David Lodge

8.1 Great

11

Pictures from an Institution

1954 satirical novel by poet Randall Jarrell set at a fictional progressive American women's college, skewering academic...

Comedy 1950S Literary Fiction Academic Satire

8.1 Great

12

Cat and Mouse

Günter Grass's 1961 novella, the second part of his Danzig Trilogy, set in wartime Danzig and centered on a boy whose un...

Coming Of Age 1960S Literary Fiction German School

8.1 Great

13

The Magus

John Fowles's 1966 novel, substantially revised in 1977, in which a young English teacher on a Greek island is drawn int...

Mystery 1960S Literary Fiction Greek Island School

8.0 Great

14

Porterhouse Blue

Tom Sharpe's 1974 satirical novel set at a fictional Cambridge college called Porterhouse lampoons English academic trad...

Comedy 1970S Cambridge Academic Satire

7.9 Good

15

Zuleika Dobson

1911 satirical novel by Max Beerbohm set at Oxford, in which a beautiful conjuror's visit prompts the entire male underg...

Satire Comedy Oxford Edwardian

7.8 Good

16

Leaven of Malice

Robertson Davies's 1954 novel, second in the Salterton trilogy, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and turns on a...

Comedy 1950S Literary Fiction Robertson Davies

7.8 Good

17

Letting Go

Philip Roth's 1962 debut full-length novel set largely at the University of Chicago, charting the moral entanglements of...

Graduate School 1960S Literary Fiction Philip Roth

7.7 Good

18

Tempest-Tost

Robertson Davies's 1951 debut novel, first in the Salterton trilogy, is set in a small Ontario city and revolves around...

Comedy 1950S Literary Fiction Robertson Davies

7.7 Good

19

Moo

1995 satirical novel by Jane Smiley set at fictional Moo University, a Midwestern land-grant institution, skewering acad...

Comedy 1990S Academic Satire Us University

7.5 Good

20

Eating People Is Wrong

1959 debut novel by Malcolm Bradbury set at a provincial English university, following a liberal professor through awkwa...

Comedy 1950S Academic Satire UK University

7.2 Good