The genre — characterized by Gothic intrigue and a liberal arts aesthetic — grew out of Donna Tartt's cult favorite campus novel, "The Secret History." Here's where to start.
Dark academia exploded like a firework from a single book: Donna Tartt's 1992 debut "The Secret History," a classic campus novel with the murky atmosphere of the Gothic tradition. When it became clear that a follow-up would not be swiftly forthcoming, a whole array of books — plus a thriving digital subculture (R.I.P. peak Tumblr) — appeared in Tartt's wake, striving to recapture the magic of reading "The Secret History" for the first time.
Dark academia is neatly summed up in the first chapter of its founding text, when the protagonist identifies his fatal flaw as "a morbid longing for the picturesque." Put those three elements — morbidness, longing, the picturesque — in a jar, shake 'em and dump the contents into a school setting: That's dark academia. Characters in chunky cardigans contemplating murder in cold, musty archives. Intimidating cliques of hot people in secret societies. Queer longing sublimated into Latin translation (and vice versa). Here, across genres and age ranges, are some of Tartt's worthiest successors...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/books/dark-academia-books.html?smid=em-share
Dark academia exploded like a firework from a single book: Donna Tartt's 1992 debut "The Secret History," a classic campus novel with the murky atmosphere of the Gothic tradition. When it became clear that a follow-up would not be swiftly forthcoming, a whole array of books — plus a thriving digital subculture (R.I.P. peak Tumblr) — appeared in Tartt's wake, striving to recapture the magic of reading "The Secret History" for the first time.
Dark academia is neatly summed up in the first chapter of its founding text, when the protagonist identifies his fatal flaw as "a morbid longing for the picturesque." Put those three elements — morbidness, longing, the picturesque — in a jar, shake 'em and dump the contents into a school setting: That's dark academia. Characters in chunky cardigans contemplating murder in cold, musty archives. Intimidating cliques of hot people in secret societies. Queer longing sublimated into Latin translation (and vice versa). Here, across genres and age ranges, are some of Tartt's worthiest successors...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/books/dark-academia-books.html?smid=em-share
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