A Beginner’s Guide To Dark Academia

you have a place in my heart no one else ever could have 🍃

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Pulp fiction (1994)

dark academia movies + books:

this post is from my personal tbr and to watch lists so i haven’t seen and read everything on this list but most are talked about in the dark academia community, it’ll help you understand the aesthetic better/immerse yourself in it. also some of the movies are absolute rubbish but they’re nice to laugh at so :) enjoy 

movies:

loving vincent (2017)

only lovers left alive (2013)

the dreamers (2003)

mary shelley (2017)

wilde (1997)

wuthering heights (1992)

the beguiled (2017)

picnic at hanging rock (1975)

another country (1984)

the riot club (2014)

the oxford murders (2008)

kill your darlings (2013)

dead poets society (1989)

stoker (2013)

the talented mr. ripley (1999)

little women (2019)

portrait of a lady on fire (2019)

the goldfinch (2019)

maurice (1987)

the picture of dorian gray (do Not watch the 2009 one, it is very cursed)

books:

paradise lost by john milton 

if we were villains by m. l. rio

the secret history by donna tartt

the goldfinch by donna tartt

the little friend by donna tartt 

the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde

the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde by robert louis stevenson 

killing commendatore by haruki murakami

the bell jar by sylvia plath 

ariel by sylvia plath 

the book of disquiet by fernando pessoa 

inferno by dante 

who killed mr. chippendale by mel glenn

and then there were none by agatha christie 

the winter of our discontent by john steinback 

the lake of dead languages by carol goodman

wuthering heights by emily brontë

the master and margarita by mikhail bulgakov 

brideshead revisited by evelyn waugh 

the song of achilles by madeline miller 

circe by madeline miller 

a separate peace by john knowles 

the well of loneliness by radclyffe hall 

maurice by e. m. forster 

among the bohemians by virginia nicholson 

jonathan strange and mr norrell by susanna clarke 

the greek myths by robert graves*

the twelve olympians by charles seltman*

mythos by stephen fry*

heroes by stephen fry*

the count of monte cristo by alexandre dumas 

the magicians trilogy by lev grossman 

ninth house by leigh bardugo 

interview with the vampire by anne rice 

the talented mr. ripley by partricia highsmith 

lords and ladies by sir terry pratchett 

memoirs of hadrian by marguerite yourcenar 

spqr: a history of ancient rome by mary beard*

homosexuality and civilisation by louis crompton*

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski 

the iliad by homer

odyssey by homer

metamorphoses by ovid

the oresteia by aeschylus

*these books are more like research sources

if you want more specific lists like gothic books, mystery books, magic/fantasy related, etc. let me know!

latin phrases worth knowing:

(in case you wanted to know because i fucking love this language) 

ad astra per aspera - to the stars through difficulties 

alis volat propriis - he flies by his own wings 

amantium irae amoris integratio est - the quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love 

ars longa, vita brevis - art is long, life is short 

aut insanity homo, aut versus facit - the fellow is either mad or he is composing verses 

dum spiro spero - while I breathe, I hope 

ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem - with the sword, she seeks peace under liberty 

exigo a me non ut optimus par sim sed ut malis melior - I require myself not to be equal to the best, but to be better than the bad

experiential docet - experience teaches 

helluo librorum - a glutton for books (bookworm) 

in libras libertas - in books, freedom 

littera scripta manet - the written letter lasts 

mens regnum bona possidet - an honest heart is a kingdom in itself 

mirabile dictu - wonderful to say 

nullus est liber tam malus ut non aliqua parte prosit - there is no book so bad that it is not profitable in some part 

omnia iam fient quae posse negabam - everything which I used to say could not happen, will happen now 

poeta nascitur, non fit - the poet is born, not made 

qui dedit benificium taceat; narrat qui accepit - let him who has done a good deed be silent; let him who has received it tell it 

saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit - often, it is not advantageous to know what will be 

sedit qui timuit ne non succederet - he who feared he would not succeed sat still 

si vis pacem, para bellum - if you want peace, prepare for war 

struit insidias lacrimis cum feminia plorat - when a woman weeps, she is setting traps with her tears 

sub rosa - under the rose 

trahimir omnes laudis studio - we are led on by our eagerness for praise

urbem latericium invenit, marmoream reliquit - he found the city a city of bricks; he left it a city of marble 

ut incepit fidelis sic permanet - as loyal as she began, so she remains

— Sophocles, Electra (translated by Anne Carson, with Introduction and Notes by Michael Shaw) (via lunamonchtuna)

i got a bit of reading done, while this little cutie rested. finals are right around the corner, but instead of finding this as an excuse to work yourself to the bone - just breath. and do not forget to take care of yourself, because you deserve it. 

instagram @estudialey

If you want to read a book but have trouble focusing, pretend you're reading it to your favorite character- or your favorite character is reading it to you.

hi :) i love your blog so very much. i can’t sleep and im feeling horrifically anxious and i was wondering if you have any words that i can use to wrap myself around. anything that feels like being held ♡

Callista Buchen, “Taking Care”

Pat Schneider, “The Patience of Ordinary Things”

Kim Hye Rim

“Come, let’s stand by the window and look out / at the light on the field. / Let’s watch how / the clouds cover the the sun and almost nothing / stirs in the grass.”

Danusha Laméris, The Moons of August; “Thinking”

Heather Christle, “Then We Are in Agreement”

Holly Warburton

Ross Gay, from The Book of Delights 

Jenny Slate, Little Weirds

Bernadette Mayer, from The Way to Keep Going in Antarctica

Ben McLaughlin, The Train

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Joy Harjo, from “For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet”

Planetary

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