🏫10 Dark Academia Books With That New England Aesthetic

Now let's get back to the dark academia books that were referenced in Gilmore Girls.

First is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

This is a five-star read for me, and it's also a very popular pick in our book club.

It does remain one of my all-time favorite classic books.

I picked it up during a summer when I was in law school, and I could not put it down.

It follows a young Smith student in the 1950s who gets a prestigious internship at a New York City magazine, but there she finds herself struggling with depression and feeling trapped.

It's a very heavy novel with themes like finding one's identity and the pressures of both academic and social expectations.

It's also a very feminist novel because, without spoiling anything for you, things get dark in how Esther is treated.

And what I mean is medically.

She's actually one of my favorite literary characters and the reason is because she has a voice that is all her own.

It's quirky in the way that Lorelai's voice is.

It's on Gilmore Girls several times, and that doesn't really surprise me because they love to feature famous female authors.

First, in season one, episode 17, after Dean and Rory break up, Lorelai tells Rory to stay home and read this classic instead of going to the Chilton party.

Then in season two, episode five, Nick and Nora sit in Nancy.

This is Jess's first episode.

You'll see the book on Rory's bookshelf.

And then when Richard visits her in Stars Hollow, season two, episode 12, it's in her drawer.

Oddly enough, later at the Stars Hollow book sale, which is season two, episode 15, Lost and Found, she buys it.

I always thought this was a little bit of a blooper because she does buy books that she presumably owned.

I think that the showrunners were really just moving books that they already had to the book sale instead of buying new books.

And they probably didn't think people like me were going to track all of them.

Okay, then in season four, episode 11, In the Clamor and the Clanger, this is one of my most underrated Christmas episodes of Gilmore Girls.

Rory asks Lorelai if she read this book.

Personally, I think Rory would already know that she did.

Next up is Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.