What is the best dark academia novel of all time?

Candlelit libraries, secret societies and brilliant students flirting with ruin, from Gothic classics to modern bestsellers. Cast your vote!

1. 1
   The Secret History

   Donna Tartt's 1992 novel of a clique of classics students at a Vermont college whose bond ends in murder.
2. 2
   Babel

   R.F. Kuang's 2022 alternate-history novel about translators at Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation.
3. 3
   The Atlas Six

   Olivie Blake's 2020 novel of six gifted magicians competing for a place in a secret society.
4. 4
   Ninth House

   Leigh Bardugo's 2019 dark fantasy about Yale's secret societies and the occult.
5. 5
   A Deadly Education

   Naomi Novik's 2020 novel set in a deadly magical school with no teachers.
6. 6
   Piranesi

   Susanna Clarke's 2020 mystery set in an endless house of statues and tides.
7. 7
   If We Were Villains

   M.L. Rio's 2017 novel of Shakespearean actors at an elite conservatory and a fatal secret.
8. 8
   Bunny

   Mona Awad's 2019 surreal horror-comedy about an MFA student drawn into a cult-like clique.
9. 9
   The Picture of Dorian Gray

   Oscar Wilde's 1890 Gothic novel of a beautiful young man and his corrupted portrait.
10. 10
    Brideshead Revisited

    Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel of Oxford friendship, privilege and faith.
11. 11
    The Magicians

    Lev Grossman's 2009 novel of a student at a secret magical college in New York.
12. 12
    A Separate Peace

    John Knowles's 1959 novel of friendship and rivalry at a New England boarding school.
13. 13
    Vita Nostra

    Marina and Sergey Dyachenko's eerie novel of a girl forced into a strange institute.
14. 14
    The Likeness

    Tana French's 2008 mystery of a detective going undercover in a close-knit graduate house.

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