List of fictional Oxford colleges

Not to be confused with Oxbridge colleges.

Fictional colleges are perennially popular in modern novels, allowing the author much greater license when describing the more intimate activities of an Oxford college. Such institutions are often home to eccentrics or miscreants, murderers or snobs, and though wistfully romantic in their cloistered courts, host fictional events that could prove libellous were identifiable institutions used.

Below is a list of some of the fictional colleges of the University of Oxford.

His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels feature a number of fictional Oxford colleges:

Inspector Morse

The Inspector Morse series of book by Colin Dexter is predominantly set within Oxford and environs, including the University. Consequently many fictional colleges are named. The derived television series, Inspector Morse, Lewis and Endeavour, continues the idea:

Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy's novel Jude the Obscure features a number of fictional 'Christminster' colleges, a thinly fictionalized version of Oxford:

Loss and Gain

Loss and Gain, by Blessed John Henry Newman tells the story of the conversion of Charles Reding, an Oxford student, to Catholicism. In the novel, Newman creates the following colleges:

Other works

See also

References

  1. ↑ St Hilda's College History, st-hildas.ox.ac.uk