quality:corruption
Literature

In 1880 Mark Twain humorously detailed his impressions of Heidelberg's student life in A Tramp Abroad. He painted a picture of the university as a school for aristocrats, where students pursued a dandy's lifestyle, and described the great influence the student corporations exerted on the whole of Heidelberg's student life.

In William Somerset Maugham 's 1915 masterpiece novel Of Human Bondage, he described the one-year stay of the protagonist Philip Carey at Heidelberg University, in a largely autobiographical way. Heidelberg also featured in the respective film versions of the novel, released in 1934 (starring Leslie Howard as Philip, and Bette Davis as Mildred), 1946 (with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in the lead roles), and 1964 (with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak in the lead roles).

E. C. Gordon, the hero of Robert Heinlein 's 1964 novel Glory Road, mentions his desire for a degree from Heidelberg and the dueling scars to go with it.

In Bernhard Schlink 's semi-autobiographical 1995 novel The Reader, Heidelberg University is one of the main scenes of Part II. Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, Michael Berg, a law student at the university, re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crimes trial, which he observes as part of a seminar. The university is also featured in the Academy Award -winning 2008 film version The Reader, starring Kate Winslet, David Kross and Ralph Fiennes.