List of books about Oxford

Title page from The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green by Cuthbert Bede.

Title page from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Below is a list of books about Oxford or written in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. The city of Oxford has generated and inspired much literature. Many authors have lived in Oxford, especially associated with the University. It has also been a setting used in many books.

Overview[]

The Oxford University Press (and Clarendon Press) is the university's own publishing house. It is world-renowned for its dictionaries as well as other books, largely academic in nature. It also publishes the Oxford World's Classics series. Other publishing companies based in the city include David Fickling Books,^[1] notable as the first bi-continental publisher of children's books.^[2]

Leading 20th-century authors at Oxford University include C. S. Lewis (works including The Chronicles of Narnia series of seven books) and J. R. R. Tolkien (works including Middle-earth books).

Inspector Morse is a detective book series based in Oxford, by Colin Dexter. It has spawned a successful television series. Other book series associated with Oxford include A Staircase in Surrey, a five-novel series, written between 1974 and 1978 by J. I. M. Stewart, and by Veronica Stallwood. His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust are trilogies of fantasy novels started by Philip Pullman in 1995 and 2017 respectively.

Timeline[]

Before 1900

Reginald Dalton (John Gibson Lockhart, 1823)

Loss and Gain (John Henry Newman, 1848)

The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green (Cuthbert M. Bede, in three parts: 1850s)

(John Gibbs, 1861)
Tom Brown at Oxford (Thomas Hughes, 1861)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865)

Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll, 1871)
Cripps the Carrier (Richard Doddridge Blackmore, 1876) – author of Lorna Doone

Robert Elsmere (Mrs Humphry Ward, 1888)
Three Men in a Boat (Jerome K. Jerome, 1889) – a journey on the River Thames from Kingston to Oxford

(Sarah Tytler, 1890)
Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895) – Oxford is called "Christminster"

1900-1949

(Evelyn Everett-Green, 1900)
The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908) – Grahame is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, beside his son, for whom the book was written

Zuleika Dobson (Max Beerbohm, 1911)
Sinister Street (Compton Mackenzie, 1913–14)

(Joseph Wells, 1920) – Warden of Wadham College, Oxford
Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh, 1928)
The Oxford Murders ('Adam Broome' (Godfrey James), 1929)
(E. Tangye Lean, 1932)

Testament of Youth (Vera Brittain, 1933)
Death on the Cherwell (Mavis Doriel Hay, 1935)
Gaudy Night (Dorothy L. Sayers, 1935)
(Michael Innes, 1936)
The Hobbit (J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937) – written at 20 Northmoor Road, North Oxford
An Oxford University Chest (John Betjeman, 1938)
(Elizabeth Goudge, 1938)

Michaelmas Term at St Bride's (Philip Larkin, 1943)
The Case of the Gilded Fly (Edmund Crispin, 1944)
The Silent Traveller in Oxford (Chiang Yee, 1944)
Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh, 1945)
Folly Bridge: A Romantic Tale (David Leslie Murray, 1945)
The Notion Club Papers (J. R. R. Tolkien, written 1945–46, published 1992) – written in Oxford and set there
Jill (Philip Larkin, 1946)
The Moving Toyshop (Edmund Crispin, 1946)

1950-89

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis, 1950) – first book in The Chronicles of Narnia series
The Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien, three volumes: 1954–55; also film series) — mostly written at 20 Northmoor Road
(Robert Robinson, 1956)

Summoned by Bells (John Betjeman, 1960) – verse autobiography
Dame's Delight (Margaret Forster, 1964)
Accident (Nicholas Mosley), 1965
(A. S. Byatt, 1967)

Last Boat to Folly Bridge (Eric C. Hiscock, 1970)
The House in Norham Gardens (Penelope Lively, 1974) – set in Norham Gardens, North Oxford
A Staircase in Surrey (J. I. M. Stewart, 1974–78) – a five-novel series
Last Bus to Woodstock (Colin Dexter, 1977) – first book in the Inspector Morse series