Looking for Class: Days and Nights at Oxford and Cambridge

by Bruce Feiler

Book Overview

An irresistible, entertaining peek into the privileged realm of Wordsworth and Wodehouse, Chelsea Clinton and Hugh Grant, Looking for Class offers a hilarious account of one man's year at Oxford and Cambridge -- the garden parties and formal balls, the high-minded debates and drinking Olympics. From rowing in an exclusive regatta to learning lessons in love from a Rhodes Scholar, Bruce Feiler's enlightening, eye-popping adventure will forever change...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006052703X
• ISBN13: 9780060527037
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Oxbridge unraveled and a great novel to boot!

Feiler has developed a great combination with his insightful investigative journalism in novel form. From the perspective of both an Oxford and Harvard alumnus, this book paints captivativating dichotomies between academic life on either side of the pond (Feiler being a Yalie). In essence, he distills the frank truth that Oxbridge still lords over British intellectual and cultural life, and that its students define themselves as the heirs or failures to this 800 year plus tradition in a way that no longer holds for American schools. An excellent read for any future Oxbridge student, or for elite American graduates who are looking to see what it is like on the inside of Britain's ultimate proving grounds.

Feiler: A Safe Bet

Bruce Feiler has proven that he is a fine writer. This is my second selection of his bibliography. Not only does he introduce the reader to an interesting destination, he competently contrasts the place and its people to his own culture. The resulting information has more depth and clarity than a mere travel piece. "Looking For Class" reads like a novel, with interesting characters and situations, while illuminating the educational systems of two of the world's most prestigious institutions. For anyone considering college in the near future, any reader who has interest in understanding culture and higher education across the pond, or just an armchair traveller this is a great read.

Looking for class, finding an education

This is an imminently readable, well-written and informative book. Bruce Feiler did a wonderful job of describing his experience at Cambridge in 1990-1991, sometimes in incredibly lucid detail. You won't learn much about what he actually learned pursuing his master's of philosophy in international relations, but you will learn volumes about British upperclass society (through the eyes of an American), their social interactions, and most importantly, about how higher education shapes people's lives indirectly. An excellent book.

Exposing "The Game" in grand style

This gem of book begins, in Feiler's self deprecating style as he finds himself somewhat increduously accepted for his Master's at Cambridge (certainly not because he doubts his own abilities but more because of the imposing wall between Oxbridge and the rest of us). Feiler journals his year with a selective and at times detached air. Snapshots and glimpses of Cambridge float by as he makes his way towards his degree. Yet, this is no mismatched mosaic, but rather an expressionistic view of a year well spent in "the game." Academia is, of course, a construct built much for its own purposes and the two institutions of Cambridge and Oxford represent the grandest of these constructs. Feiler seems to know this starting out, and nevertheless, he dives into life at Cambridge with all the eagerness of a ten year old embarking on a day at the Magic Kingdom. Throughout his year of study he is frequently caught up in the juxtoposition of very high ideals and very low life; very fine minds with very little common sense. All is not what the romantics might imagine along the banks of the Cam. But Feiler is no anti-intellectual detractor aiming for a cheap expose. So, while the layers are peeled back in what is at times a very private journal, revealing both the ironic and the farcical, he never loses respect for, and never insults the tradition that is Cambridge. In the end, it is a very humane and forgiving look at what is at once both a place of lofty thoughts and grimy academia. It is in essence a lovingly realistic journal of one man's ride through what remains for most us, intellectual Oz.

Excellent!

super