Ready to get deep into the dark academia vibes? I’ve been compiling this list for a while and wanted to create the ultimate dark academia book list. If you’re wanting to learn more about what Dark Academia is you can check out this post here. But it’s basically and aesthetic and genre that revolves around the pursuit of knowledge and learning. It ropes in the classical world, arts, philosophy, sciences along with a little death and morality. It’s a darker, warmer, academic vibe.
So if you’re into that kind of stuff and you happen to be a reader this is the book list for you. But I also want to keep this as a living document of sorts because obviously I can’t know every single dark academic book there is out there so leave a comment below of anything you think I missed and I’ll be updating this post with your suggestions. Enjoy!
Oh but if you’re more of a video kind of person check out my YouTube video here for the dark academia book list:
+ Classics +
- Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Inferno By Dante
- Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
- And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie
- Macbeth By Shakespeare
- Hamlet By Shakespeare
- Shakespeare Tragedies
- Edgar Allen Poe (The Tall Tale Heart, Annabelle Lee and The Raven)
- Dracula By Bram Stoker
- Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy
- Murder on The Orient Express By Agatha Christie
- Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte
+ Philosophy +
- Plato
- Aristotle
- The Republic By Plato
- The Daily Stoic By Ryan Holiday
- Meditations By Marcus Aurelius
+ Mythology +
- Metamorphoses By Ovid
- Mythology By Edith Hamilton
- The Iliad By Homer
- The Odyssey By Homer
- Medea By Euripides
- Circe By Madeline Miller
- The Song of Achilles By Madeline Miller
+ Modern Novels +
- The Name of the Rose By Umberto Eco
- Bunny By Mona Awad
- A Series of Unfortunate Events By Lemony Snicket
- Harry Potter
- If We Were Villains By M.L. Rio
- A Secret History By Donna Tartt
- Ninth House By Leigh Bardugo
- Cathrine House By Elizabeth Thomas
- Vicious By V.E. Schwab
- A Discover of Witches By Deborah Harkness
I like your list, especially the classics section. Some DA lists just seem to lump in every classic under the sun. But to my mind, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott and LM Montgomery are light or even romantic academia, not dark academia. Sad things happening does not equal dark, not the way Frankenstein, Dracula or the Brontes’ work are.
I so agree! So glad you liked the list 🖤