I Am Charlotte Simmons

Feb 26, 2026 12:42 AM

Author:Tom Wolfe

A scandalous exploration of elite undergraduate life from the author of The Bonfire of the Vanities

Dupont University: the Olympian halls of learning housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition... or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from Sparta, North Carolina, who has come here on a full scholarship. But Charlotte soon learns that for the upper-crust coeds of Dupont, sex, status, and kegs trump academic achievement every time.

As Charlotte encounters Dupont's elite, she gains a new, revelatory sense of her own power, that of her difference and of her very innocence. But little does she realise that she will act as a catalyst in all of their lives.

‘A firecracker of a novel... A pyrotechnic delight just as dazzling as The Bonfire of the Vanities’ - Sunday Express

Reviews

A firecracker of a novel... A pyrotechnic delight just as dazzling as The Bonfire of the Vanities

—— Sunday Express

Brilliant... Not just a rollicking comedy of campus misbehaviour but a blistering indictment of contemporary standards

—— Mail on Sunday

Exaggerates and deflates the pretensions of America's future ruling class in hilarious style

—— The Economist

These are Wolfe's most memorable characters and this is his best book yet

—— David Isaacson , Word Magazine

Exuberant, lovingly crafted grotesquery

—— Daily Telegraph

Murakami's most addictive fix to date

—— Independent

Engrossing and wildly inventive

—— Times Literary Supplement

Laden with philosophical overtones and enchanting wit

—— Observer

Murakami's exquisitely simple prose and deft evocation of the surreal are captivating and sublime

—— Sunday Times

The mysteries are never tainted by explanation, merely beautifully described, delivering a hypnotic read

—— Times Higher Education Supplement

'For sheer love of a thumping narrative, the novel delivers gloriously-Inventive, alluring' David Mitchell

—— Guardian

'Murakami's most addictive fix to date'

—— Independent

'Engrossing and wildly inventive'

—— Times Literary Supplement

Top marks. Fantastic

—— Heat

Lovely

—— Daily Telegraph

Moving and intelligent

—— Independent

Magnetic, unpretentious and bursting with one-liners

—— Cosmopolitan

Fans of chick-lit will understand when I say that this is a book you simply disappear into

—— Sunday Telegraph

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