Surprised by Oxford took me—well, by surprise. An artful memoir or biography is a rare find; seldom have I completed one with that regretful pleasure one feels upon concluding a captivating novel. Weber, perhaps not astonishingly for a professor of literature, employs all the novelist’s devices. But Surprised by Oxford goes beyond engaging narrative, elegant story arc, deliberate pacing, romantic suspense, and real-world complications. It exhales that same whiff of ethereal eternality imparted most often (for me) by the masters of literary fantasy.