A varsity novel is a novel whose main action is set in and around the

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

of a university and focuses on students rather than faculty. Examples include Evelyn Waugh's ''

Brideshead Revisited ''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles ...

'', Donna Tartt's ''

The Secret History ''The Secret History'' is the first novel by the American author Donna Tartt, published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 1992. Set in New England, the campus novel tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at Hampden Colle ...

'',

Tom Sharpe Thomas Ridley Sharpe (30 March 1928 – 6 June 2013) was an English satirical novelist, best known for his '' Wilt'' series, as well as ''Porterhouse Blue'' and ''Blott on the Landscape,'' all three of which were adapted for television. Life ...

's '' Porterhouse Blue'' and Stephen Fry's '' The Liar'' and '' Making History''. Novels that focus on faculty rather than students are often considered to belong to a distinct genre, termed

campus novel A campus novel, also known as an academic novel, is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university. The genre in its current form dates back to the early 1950s. ''The Groves of Academe'' by Mary McCarthy, published in 19 ...

Aida Edemariam Aida Edemariam is an Ethiopian-Canadian journalist based in the UK, who has worked in New York, Toronto and London. She was formerly deputy review and books editor of the Canadian ''National Post'', and is now a senior feature writer and editor a ...

, analyzing David Lodge's novels, identifies that varsity novels " reset at Oxbridge, and usually among students." For his part, Lodge considers that the varsity novel was called as such " fore World War II... elatingthe exploits of young men at Oxbridge, of which Max Beerbohm’s '' Zuleika Dobson'' was a classic instance, and the first section of Evelyn Waugh's ''Brideshead Revisited'' was perhaps the

swan-song The swan song ( grc, κύκνειον ᾆσμα; la, carmen cygni) is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful so ...

." However, '' The National's'' Malcolm Forbes, asserts "that...all modern varsity novels, have an antecedent in ''Brideshead Revisited''." Furthermore, Forbes considers, that the " e prime example...is Donna Tartt's masterful debut ''

'' (1992), a critical and commercial success that inevitably spawned several imitators, the most notable being Marisha Pessl's '' Special Topics in Calamity Physics.''" Forbes considers that Benjamin Wood, in his

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

''The Bellwether Revivals'', "does for

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...

what Evelyn Waugh does for Oxford." Another debut novel that falls under this genre is N. D. Williams' Ikael Torass. An early representative of the varsity novel is Edward Bradley's ''

The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green ''The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green'' is a novel by Cuthbert Bede, a pen name of Edward Bradley (writer), Edward Bradley (1827–1889). It covers the exploits of Verdant Green, a first-year student at Oxford University. Green is an undergrad ...

,'' while a later example is Tom Wolfe's '' I Am Charlotte Simmons.'' For his part, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, states that by the publication of Kingsley Amis' '' Lucky Jim'' (1954), a campus novel, asserts that "the varsity novel was well established in England, often marked by lushly sentimental reminiscence of gilded undergraduate life, as in '' Sinister Street'' by

Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of t ...

or Waugh's ''Brideshead Revisited''." Frederic Raphael's ''The Glittering Prizes'' is a varsity novelization from the television series of the same name. Philip Tew's ''The Gift of Death'', a novel he turned in for his thesis, "reworks the tradition of oththe campus or varsity novel, detailing lives tied to the rhythms of the academy." A noted female writer was " Alan St. Aubyn, a pseudonym for Mrs. Frances Marshall, howrote women’s “varsity novels”." Though Rikki Ducornet's ''Brightfellow'' has been called "perhaps her most accessible book," it is also considered "the oddest of varsity novels."

References

Education in popular culture Literary genres {{lit-genre-stub