This was listed as the founding novel of the “dark academia” genre so it’s been on my list for a while. The writing is gorgeous, the kind of lush gothic creepiness that I associate with du Maurier; the content is also delightfully nerdy, full of references to literature and the classics. The narrator comes from a lower-class background, which allows him to view his high society classmates through a critical lens, even as he idolizes them and aspires to join their ranks. Meanwhile said classmates, who have no obvious grasp of how things work in the real world, drag the narrator into their obsession with the ancient Greeks, as well as their complicated interpersonal dynamics. The characters are a little too odd and unlikeable to be truly sympathetic, but the beautiful writing and the tense plot will carry you through.
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