Anna Bogen is based at the Department of English and Comparative Literature, McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, University of Cincinnati. Her main research interests centre on Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Media Studies, Religion, New Media, Cultural History and Cultural Theory.

'impressively bridges conventional periodization and categorization to reveal a body of fiction that wrestles with the dominating discourses of liberal education and intellectual maturity found in men's university fiction ... a very welcome addition.' Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies 'Warning: this book may seriously add to your reading list ... The range of material that Anna Bogen explores opens up the possibilities of further work on this genre by historians of higher education.' Women's History Review 'the first of its kind, a much-needed recovery and reassessment of women's university fiction ... the book mines a rich seam of neglected women's writing.' Times Literary Supplement

• Chapter 1 Introduction: Dreaming Spires; Chapter 1a From Public Scandal to Minority Pleasure: The Form, Content and Readership of the University Bildungsroman; Chapter 2 ‘The Praise of Uselessness’: Liberal Education; Chapter 3 ‘Gentlewomen, Scholars and Saints’: Religion; Chapter 4 ‘Home without an Aspidistra’: The Home, the College and the Local; Chapter 5 The Divided Self and the Communal Cause: War, Politics and the Self; Chapter 6 ‘Delightfully Self-Assured, Delightfully Self-Conscious’: The Undergraduate Literary Scene; Chapter 7 ‘Eros in Academe’: Sexuality and the Body; conclusion Conclusion;