dark academia book recommendations, part 2
book recommendations to read like a dark academia character
Welcome back for part 2 of my dark academia book recommendation series!
Last Friday I gave you some of my favourite recommendations for dark academia books. But this time I thought it would be fun to recommend some classic books and poetry so you can start reading like a dark academia character.
Not all of these books are inherently ‘dark academia’ themselves, but they all fit into the dark academia aesthetic. I also feel like they’re a gateway into classic books and not too difficult or intimidating for beginners. But I do want to make a note that you shouldn’t just read any of these books because they’re going to make you appear a particular way (i.e. more intelligent). You should read them because the stories and characters interest you.
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The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.
“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.
“Remember my friend, that knowledge is stronger than memory, and we should not trust the weaker.”
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula purchase a London house, he makes horrifying discoveries in his client's castle. Soon afterwards, disturbing incidents unfold in England: an unmanned ship is wrecked; strange puncture marks appear on a young woman's neck; and a lunatic asylum inmate raves about the imminent arrival of his 'Master'. In the ensuing battle of wits between the sinister Count and a determined group of adversaries, Bram Stoker created a masterpiece of the horror genre, probing into questions of identity, sanity and the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.
“Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.”
The epic tale of Odysseus and his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War forms one of the earliest and greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural and supernatural threats – ship-wrecks, battles, monsters and the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon – Odysseus must test his bravery and native cunning to reach his homeland and overcome the obstacles that, even there, await him.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. Only Sonya, a downtrodden sex worker, can offer the chance of redemption.
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe by Edgar Allen Poe
“And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"— here I opened wide the door; —
Darkness there, and nothing more.”
Edgar Allan Poe was one of the earliest pioneers of the short story and perfected the tale of psychological horror. The entirety of Poe's body of imaginative work encompasses detective tales, satires, fables, fantasies, science fiction, verse dramas and some of the most evocative poetry in the English language. This leatherbound omnibus collects all of Poe's fiction and poetry in a single volume, including "The Fall of the House of Usher", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and the full-length novel "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket".
The Complete Poems by John Keats
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”
Despite his tragically short life, John Keats, a self-confessed "rebel Angel," endures for many as a personification of the Romantic age. While contemporary critics mocked him as a "Cockney poet" and an uneducated lower-class "apothecary" who aspired to poetry, subsequent generations began to see and appreciate both the rich and impassioned sensuousness and the love of beauty and liberty that pervade his work.
From Endymion and Hyperion to 'The Eve of St Agnes', 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' and the Odes, this collection, which presents Keats's oeuvre in chronological order, displays his rapid poetic growth, the development of his philosophical and spiritual beliefs and the voluptuous, silken nature of his verse.
A Room Of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.
And that’s all from me with dark academia book recommendations! I hope you’ve enjoyed this mini book recommendation series and you’ve found some interesting books to add to your reading list.
I plan on putting together many more recommendation lists in the future (across many genres), so keep your eye out for them!
Until next time,
- Madeline
Another great list, many still on my to read list!
I have The Picture of Dorian Grey on my TBR. I’ve been told is one of the best and is still relevant today! Great recommendations!