Academic novels present academic characters in academic contexts in order to comment on and criticize the state of academia. Although academic characters can be found in earlier fiction, the genre dates back to 1950s. This subgenre of Anglo-American modern fiction became a popular part of the literary canon with the novels of Mary McCarthy, Kingsley Amis and David Lodge. American writer Saul Bellow also presents memorable academic characters in his novels. In this study, I will look at Saul Bellow’s novels Herzog (1964), Dean’s December (1982), and his latest novel Ravelstein (2000) as academic novels focusing on how Bellow presented his criticism of academia in his construction of these academic characters.