Dark Academia Aesthetic - Tumblr Posts
Dresden at night
"So, if a city has a personality, maybe it also has a soul. Maybe it dreams."
~ Neil Gaiman, Worlds' End (The Sandman, 8)
My favourite dark mystery / horror movies
The secret window (2004)
This Stephen King adaptation starring a brilliant Johnny Depp is a hugely underrated psychological thriller. You will be glued to your seat an constantly question what is true and what's not.
Identity (2003)
If you like unexpected twists and turns, this is the one for you: the film follows ten strangers in an isolated hotel, who are temporarily cut off from the rest of the world, and are mysteriously killed off one by one
Life (2017)
A crew of the International space station is looking for evidence of life on mars. What they don't know is, that they are about to discover something that will threaten their lives and the whole human existence.
10 cloverfield lane (2016)
After surviving an accident, Michelle wakes up to find herself in an underground bunker. A man who lives there tells her that a massive chemical attack has left the air unbreathable, and their only hope of survival is to remain inside. Over time Michelle seems to question what is true and what's not.
Sunshine (2007)
This one has to be one of the most underrated science fiction movies ever. The soundtrack and cinematography are breathtakingly gorgeous: Taking place in the year 2057, the story follows a group of astronauts on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun.
Room 1408 (2007)
A highly underrated adaptation of Stephen King's works starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson: Ignoring the warnings of the hotel manager , a succesfull writer learns the meaning of real terror when he spends the night in a reputedly haunted room
Crimson peak (2015)
A great ghostly tale by the master of horror himself, Guillermo del Toro. Starring Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikoswka this story is a great take on classic gothic Fiction. The set-design is phenomenal!
Booklist for all the Dark Academics:
[Dark Academia book recs of all the different kinds I could think of. It's a long journey. Buckle up.]
The Classic Dark Academic :
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Anything by the Brontë sisters
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (this book birthed Dark Academia)
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe
Bram Stokers Dracula
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
Maurice by EM Forster
Madam Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Good Man is Hard to Find
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Macbeth by Shakespeare
Othello by Shakespeare
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Poetry-lover Academic:
Poetry of Baudelaire
Odes of Keats (ALL OF THEM ARE A MUST READ)
Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe (especially The Raven)
Shelley's Alastor, Prometheus Unbound, Masque of Anarchy
Kubla Khan by Coleridge
T.S Elliott's Wasteland
all Emily Dickinson poetry but especially 'I felt a funeral in my brain', 'Because I could not stop for death' (read them a thousand times already)
Pablo Neruda's Nothing but Death
Langston Hughes
Tennyson's Lotos eater (underrated gem)
Sylvia Plath poems but special mentions to Lady Lazarus and the Bell jar
Paradise Lost by Milton (if you want to include something about the Devil in your list)
Poems by Sappho
The Contemporary Dark Academic:
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (the origin of Dark Academia)
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Ace of Spades by Amanda Foody (could recommend it a hundred times)
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
If We Were Villains by ML Rio
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Girls are all so nice here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
The Likeness by Tana French
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
One of us is lying by Karen Mcmanus
Bunny by Mona Awad
The Plot by Jean Hanff
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Conversion by Katherine Howe
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
Love is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A Quaint and Curious Volume
We, the Drowned by Carsten Jensen
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Lying Games by Ruth Ware
Black Chalk by Christopher J Yates
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
The Furies by Fernanda Eberstadt
The Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
Bad Habits by Charleigh Rose
Good Girls Lie by JT Ellison
Queer Dark Academic:
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (yes, yes, yes it's the gay shit)
Notes on a Scandal (What was she thinking?) by Zoë Heller
Hex by Rebecca Dinerstein Knight
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu (lesbian vampire, hell yeah!)
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Maurice by EM Forster
Christabel by Coleridge
Poems by Sappho
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth
They Never Learn by Layne Fargo
Ace of Spades by Amanda Foody
The Dark Romantic Academic:
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M Danforth
The Lessons by Naomi Alderman
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Likeness by Tana French
The Temple House by Rachel Donohue
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Mythological Dark Academic:
(pardon me for my cluelessness)
I have not really read much about mythology but if Norse mythology is the area of your interest, Neil Gaiman is the God of it. (aka not only Good Omens and American Gods, but also the book 'Norse Mythology')
The Furies by Fernanda Eberstadt
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Circe by Madeline Miller
[Remember: Some of these books have dark academia as their major aspect but most of them have dark academia as their minor aspect, and many of them have been put into the list because I got a dark academia kind of vibe from them. This list is entirely created out of my own reading researches, friendly recommendations, and book recs from reddit, pinterest and the internet in general. If I have gone wrong somewhere or if you want me to add something new, feel free to drop an ask.]
Classical Composer's and their last words
Mozart: "The taste of death is upon my lips...I feel something, that is not of this earth"
Bach: "Don't cry for me, for I go where music is born"
Beethoven: "Pity, pity, too late!"
Mahler: "Mozart! Mozart!"
Chopin: "Now is my final agony. No more." (while listening to Mozart's Requiem)
Bartok: "The sad thing is that I leave with so much to say"
Berg: "But I have so little time"
"He was like those bronze statues in public parks that, despite one lucky knee rubbed raw by schoolchildren, discolor beautifully until they match the trees"
~ "Less" by Andrew Sean Greer
Coffee, peace, cats, art and more 🧡
~all images from Pinterest~
I made myself a new lil profile header for twit and tumblr :)c
Normalise hand written letters again
Winter appreciation post <3
Oh to own a library with all the thousands of books I've ever wanted to read...
"With flowers in mind, nothing inside the world seems so cruel after all."
Help needed for a novel concept.
I have been toying with the idea of writing a novel, mainly for my own enjoyment and feeling of accomplishment, but I am quite worried it'll turn out too similar to TSH ... I would like to tackle themes of obsession with image and social prestige, but I've seen many works of fiction you can tell were influenced a bit too much by Tartt's work.. if anyone has any tips to help prevent this affect, that'll be appreciated.
As a communist, leisure is something I find especially sacred. No matter what area a person finds fascinating, I believe that person should have the right to indulge in it (given it is harmless). The pure idea of a world in which an inspiring historian has to sit at a desk and click on buttons to survive sickens me, let alone the reality of it. As long as you can, especially if you are young enough -
Read that Wikipedia article.
Analyse those films.
Learn that instrument.
There is a reason all my post end with
Stay yourself, Stay curious.
I love you people going into "useless" fields I love you classics majors I love you cultural studies majors I love you comparative literature majors I love you film studies majors I love you near eastern religions majors I love you Greek, Latin, and Hebrew majors I love you ethnic studies I love you people going into any and all small field that isn't considered lucrative in our rotting capitalist society please never stop keeping the sacred flame of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and understanding humanity and not merely for the sake of money alive
Niche but Irina from "three sisters" by Anton Chekhov???
✨️
Dark Academia lifestyle aesthetic masterlist
Some lifestyle tips that ranges from the aesthetic of Dark Academia to pure self care.
THE GUIDE: what to wear, decor, makeup/hair, food, books, music
ANOTHER GUIDE: fashion, decor, lifestyle
Dark Academia tips
Dark Academia girl: a concept
Keep reading
