This chapter acknowledges that between 1880 and 1914, few English women undertook higher education. It then tells the story of those few women and the years of periodical press debate about them, especially those who entered Oxford and Cambridge. It also describes the novelists who saw that public interest and explored the large and powerful vision of the Oxbridge woman, more familiarly termed, “the Girton Girl.” After telling those stories, this chapter acknowledges that, while popular in its time, this era of Girton Girl fiction has not fared well in literary scholarship that typically deems it traditional, even conservative. This discussion leads to a preview of the book’s argument: that such dismissal has been hasty. Rather, this book illustrates that numerous examples of Girton Girl fiction used this controversial and rapidly evolving character to press the boundaries of Victorian realism and inch toward visions of what Modernist fiction could be.