University of Oxford

The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.

Oxford in literature and other media

Oxford University is the setting for numerous works of fiction. Quickly becoming part of the cultural imagination, Oxford was mentioned in fiction as early as 1400 when Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales referred to a 'Clerk of Oxenford': 'For him was levere have at his beddes heed/ Twenty bookes, clad in blak or reed,/ of Aristotle and his philosophie/ Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay sautrie'. As of 1989, more than 533 Oxford-based novels had been identified, and the number continues to rise. Literary works include:

Related Topics:
Chaucer - Canterbury Tales

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• Gaudy Night, a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy L. Sayers (who was herself a graduate of Somerville).
• Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.
• A Staircase in Surrey, a quintet of novels by J. I. M. Stewart.
• A series of whodunnits by Veronica Stallwood, including Oxford Blue, Oxford Exit, etc.
• The His Dark Materials trilogy of Philip Pullman (alternative reality)
• The Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter is set in Oxford and frequently refers to the University (although most of the college names are fictional).
• An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
• Where the Rivers Meet, a trilogy of novels by John Wain
• Tom Brown at Oxford, by Thomas Hughes
• Zuleika Dobson, by Max Beerbohm
• Jill, by Philip Larkin

Fictional universities based on Oxford include Terry Pratchett's Unseen University and "Christminster" in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.

Related Topics:
Terry Pratchett's - Unseen University - Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure

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For a list of fictional colleges of Oxford University, see fictional Oxford colleges.

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Many poets have also been inspired by the University:

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• The Oxford Sausage was an anthology published in 1764 and edited by Thomas Warton. The Glamour of Oxford (1911) is a collection of verse and prose edited by William Knight, and another anthology - Seccombe and Scott's In Praise of Oxford (1912) - spans two volumes. More recent compilations include Oxford and Oxfordshire in Verse (1983) and Oxford in Verse (1999) (see 'Further Reading').
• 'Duns Scotus' Oxford' is one of Gerard Manley Hopkins' better-known poems.

Films set in the University include:

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• A Yank at Oxford (1938), starring Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh
• A Chump at Oxford (1940) starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
• Accident (movie) (1967), film about an Oxford don, co-written by Harold Pinter
• May Morning (1970), a critique of social mores in early 1970's Oxford
• Incense for the Damned (1972), starring Peter Cushing, Patrick Macnee and Edward Woodward (based on the novel Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven)
• Brideshead Revisited (1981), based on Waugh's novel; a mini-series enormously popular in Britain and America, the film has sometimes been seen as drawing unwanted attention to Oxford's stereotypical reputation as a playground of the upper classes. It stars Jeremy Irons, and most college shots are of Christ Church and Hertford.
• Oxford Blues (1984), starring Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy and Amanda Pays
• American Friends (1991), starring Michael Palin
• Shadowlands (1993), starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, about the life of CS Lewis
• The Madness of King George (1994), with Nigel Hawthorne
• Tom & Viv (1994), a film which explores the troubled relationship between T.S. Eliot (played by Willem Defoe) and his mentally ill wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood (Miranda Richardson)
• True Blue (1996), about the mutiny at the time of the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race of 1987
• Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), a James Bond sequel starring Pierce Brosnan (Bond returns to Oxford to brush up on his Danish.)
• The Saint (1997), film starring Val Kilmer
• Wilde (1997), film about the outlandish playwright starring Stephen Fry, Jude Law and Vanessa Redgrave
• The Red Violin (1998), the violin arrives in Oxford after being given to an English lord
• Iris (2001), starring Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet, about the life of Iris Murdoch

This list does not include movies wherein university buildings appeared as a backdrop but were not depicted as Oxford University, such as the Harry Potter movies and the earlier Young Sherlock Holmes.

Related Topics:
Harry Potter - Young Sherlock Holmes

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