They sure do like to make us suffer.
- A Celebration of Gods Love (Helen Steiner Rice Collection).
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- Lesson Plans The Magicians Nephew.
View all 7 comments. Not being a boy nor from England, this one didn't make the same connection with me that Alcott's classic did. I was spurred to read this by the references to it in Flashman , which I read and hugely enjoyed last year. It was interesting to see how Hughes portrayed Flashman, who was much more prominent in this book than I had expected. Sep 21, Indigo Wayworth rated it it was ok Shelves: Not going to lie, I skimmed part 2 once I realized that the author was trying to shove religion and the Military Lie down my throat.
Read for ENGL Dec 27, Wreade rated it it was ok Shelves: This starts well enough, a love letter to old england. Its view of early 's schools being pretty unique.
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The story has a fair bit to say about bullying which i found surprising, when you have in Dickens kids being beaten and starved to death i wouldn't have thought anything as smalltime as bullying would register with the victorians ;. Some of the slang and other word usage can be a little difficult at times. Our protagonist is also a little too tough to completely sympathize with. You expec This starts well enough, a love letter to old england. You expect someone a little weaker for a coming of age tale like this. The narrator can also be a bit of a problem as you always feel his presence and that adds more distance between reader and characters.
But its still not bad and at the half-way point looks like improving. The introduction of a weaker character seems as if its correcting one of the issues i pointed out. However thats when it all starts to fall apart. The book devolves into an insipid mess, actually reminded me of What Katy Did , not the sort of company any book should want to be in ;.
Its also far too sporadic and makes too many time leaps preventing any potential connection to the characters. At its best its ok, but for parts of the second half its far from its best. Listened to some of it on a good Librivox recording. An excellent bildungsroman from the 19th century, following the adventures of young Tom Brown just before and during his schooling at Rugby. Episodic in nature, the novel's charm for me lay in its Victorian mix of nostalgia and laid back moralism- and the subjects they are taught. Most class time seems spent declining Latin verbs, while Tom has such a poor grasp of geography he does not seem to know the location of the United States!
Some critics have claimed that the Harry Potter books borrow An excellent bildungsroman from the 19th century, following the adventures of young Tom Brown just before and during his schooling at Rugby. Those critics must not have actually read Hughes' book, as it has absolutely nothing to do with magic, orphans, or evil wizards. There is a good deal of cricket though! A wonderful novel in its own, very original way. Jul 25, Justin rated it did not like it.
I very very rarely put a book down without finishing it. I love Victorian novels, but I could not get into this one.
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I read about pages and then called it quits. It was too preachy for me. It went into too much detail about how to play various rough games and sports, none of which I am the least bit interested in. I suppose it is a good snapshot of public school life, but there are many other, and better, novels that are capable of accomplishing the same. I did, however, enjoy Hughes' conver I very very rarely put a book down without finishing it. I did, however, enjoy Hughes' conversational narration and informal tone, and how he spoke directly to the reader in the second person.
Jan 09, A. Downloaded this as an ebook from Project Gutenberg. One of those books which is definitely 'of its time'. It was slow to start - about a fifth of it had gone by before Tom actually got to school - and then ponderous and moralistic as it went on. I can see that the description of the game of Rugby would be very interesting for historians of that sport, but the heavy-handedness of the religious and moral messages in the book made it hard to read for me. May 22, M'rella rated it it was ok Shelves: I remember reading this book in 5th grade: What a nice surprise!
However, I also remember being somewhat bored while reading it it was on the summer reading list. Still, quite nice to find it here, I almost forgot about it: Aug 07, Christine rated it liked it Recommends it for: Victorian or children's literature lovers. I wrote a 20 page paper comparing the two and how they portray Catholic schools negatively, and are really novels for adults, rather than children.
Oct 25, Farseer rated it it was amazing Shelves: After reading and The Fifth Form at St. There were a few books in a school setting before that, but this is the one that would create a storytelling tradition and prove that it could be commercially successful, the one that set the conventions of the genre that would be developed by later writers.
Hughes would not write another school novel. He had said what he wanted to say on the subject. The book was written for his son Maurice, to prepare him for his life at Rugby School and to encourage him to grow up to be a good man. Tragically, Maurice died in a drowning accident shortly afterwards and did not have the opportunity to go to Rugby. The story his father wrote for him, however, entertained and inspired countless children. So let's see how kind the passage of time has been to this story.
The target audience is the same, boys, but while Reed's book is light entertainment, Hughes' intention is more unapologetically moralizing. He wants to tell a story that will entertain boys and catch their imaginations, but also guide them on their mental and spiritual development, and pay tribute to his beloved school and his old master, Dr. Thomas Arnold, whom he clearly worshiped. Arnold was the headmaster of Rugby School from to , where he introduced a number of reforms that were very influential in British public schools.
So, while Reed simply told a story, and let readers draw their own conclusions about the characters and their actions, Hughes frequently addresses the reader in second person, to comment on the story and give advice. It's quite preachy by modern standards. On the other hand, if you are going to be preachy, you might as well do it in this pleasant, colloquial manner.
When he addresses the reader, Hughes' style is informal and gentle, like an uncle addressing a beloved nephew. The book is well-written, and the style makes the preachiness more palatable than it might otherwise be. Moralizers are often priggish, but there's nothing like that here. In the words of the American writer W. It is not often that in later years one finds any book as good as one remembers it from one's youth; but it has been my interesting experience to find the story of Tom Brown's School Days even better than I once thought it, say, fifty years ago; not only better, but more charming, more kindly, manlier, truer, realler.
So far as I have been able to note there is not a moment of snobbishness in it, or meanness of whatever sort. Of course it is of its period, the period which people call Middle Victorian The author openly preaches and praises himself for preaching; he does not hesitate to slip into the drama and deliver a sermon; he talks the story out with many self-interruptions and excursions; he knows nothing of the modern method of letting it walk along on its own legs, but is always putting his hands under its arms and helping it, or his arm across its shoulder and caressing it.
In all this, which I think wrong, he is probably doing quite right for the boys who formed and will always form the greatest number of his readers; boys like to have things fully explained and commentated, whether they are grown up or not. In much else, in what I will not say are not the great matters, he is altogether right.
By precept and by example he teaches boys to be good, that is, to be true, honest, clean-minded and clean-mouthed, kind and thoughtful. He forgives them the follies of their youth, but makes them see that they are follies. Unlike earlier moralizers, Hughes tells a story that boys would want to read, a story about red-blooded boys who get into fights, get bullied and rebel against their bullies, who misbehave and shirk their schoolwork, but who are fundamentally good-hearted.
Looking back at the kind of books that were available for boys to read in I can imagine how delighted they must have been with this story, where the heroes are boys like them. In short, the reader will find already here the ingredients of a good public school novel. We have the plucky young protagonist, good at sports and not so good a scholar, loyal, generous, but willing to break the rules in his boyish escapades.
We have the school, which becomes his second home and family. We have the coming of age story that resonates with the reader, because being sent to a boarding school, away from your family, at such a young age is scary and forces you to grow up and integrate in a different kind of society, with its own rules and rituals, and it makes for an appealing tale. Bizarrely, the book starts with a slow chapter dedicated to describing the little town where the Browns live, and eulogizing the British countryside.
You could safely skip this first chapter if you don't feel up to it.
Tom Brown's Schooldays
However, the narration, preachy as it is, has a certain earnest charm. Perhaps it helped that I was listening to the excellent LibriVox audiobook that is distributed for free. It's read by a volunteer, but the quality is exceptional and I loved it. Listening to the audiobook, your attention can drift slightly away during these bucolic descriptions, and only get the tone of it, which is what truly matters. Then we witness Tom's first years and what kind of boy he is. It takes a while to actually get to Rugby, but these first chapters gives us a picture of our main character, and as such are not unimportant.
Tom finally gets to Rugby School and in his very first day is shown the school, makes a friend Harry East and is made to take part in a game of Rugby football: The description of game is bewildering and quite interesting for sport historians. All the boys play at the same time, more than two hundred, including little ones and strapping young men, in two very large teams that do not even have the same number of players each the School-house boys are outnumbered.
The whole thing is like a lightly-regulated riot. Obviously, in both teams the big young men of the sixth form dominate, but little Tom has his modest moment of glory, when he helps prevent a goal that would have defeated the School-house and is praised by Brooke, the captain of his house: And now the last minutes are come, and the School gather for their last rush, every boy of the hundred and twenty who has a run left in him. Reckless of the defence of their own goal, on they come across the level big-side ground, the ball well down amongst them, straight for our goal, like the column of the Old Guard up the slope at Waterloo.
All former charges have been child's play to this. Warner and Hedge have met them, but still on they come. The bull-dogs rush in for the last time; they are hurled over or carried back, striving hand, foot, and eyelids. Old Brooke comes sweeping round the skirts of the play, and turning short round, picks out the very heart of the scrummage, and plunges in. It wavers for a moment; he has the ball. The ball rolls slowly in behind the School-house goal, not three yards in front of a dozen of the biggest School players-up.
There stands the School-house praepostor, safest of goal-keepers, and Tom Brown by his side, who has learned his trade by this time. Now is your time, Tom. The blood of all the Browns is up, and the two rush in together, and throw themselves on the ball, under the very feet of the advancing column—the praepostor on his hands and knees, arching his back, and Tom all along on his face. Over them topple the leaders of the rush, shooting over the back of the praepostor, but falling flat on Tom, and knocking all the wind out of his small carcass.
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Tom Brown's Schooldays (TV Movie ) - IMDb
Edit Cast Cast overview, first billed only: Squire Brown Alex Pettyfer Tom Brown Stephen Fry Thomas Arnold Jemma Redgrave Mary Arnold Harry Michell Edit Details Official Sites: Edit Did You Know? In pre-WWI England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, and his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial. A gang of con artists disguise themselves as clerics in order to pull off a job, but soon find that even pretending to be religious people is having an effect on them.
When Dan, a tough street kid, comes to the school, he wins Jo's heart despite his hard edge, and she Austin Shannon, after showing cowardice in sports and unable to adjust to student life, decides he is a misfit at military school and runs away. He meets newsboy Joe Novak and they become In , young David Balfour's life is threatened by his greedy uncle Ebenezer who wishes to become heir to the considerable Balfour estate. A family setting out for a new life across the sea is shipwrecked on a deserted island.
The family members collaborate to create a home for themselves in the jungle environment. Thomas Arnold is hired to be the new headmaster at Rugby, whose students have acquired a reputation for being wild, disruptive, and dishonest. He institutes strict disciplinary policies, and expels numerous boys as a result. Many of the teachers, trustees, and parents turn against him.
Squire Brown, his most vocal supporter, decides to send his own son Tom to Rugby as a demonstration of confidence. Tom soon learns that the school is plagued by bullies, and he is frequently targeted by them. He and the other boys are hindered, though, by an unwritten understanding that none of them will ever report the misdeeds of another to the authorities. Written by Snow Leopard. Since this was made, there have been some other very good movie versions of the story, but this adaptation of "Tom Brown's School Days" is still worth seeing.
It has a good cast and good atmosphere, with effective story-telling by Robert Stevenson.
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Cedric Hardwicke is well cast as the stern headmaster Arnold, and the three most important young characters also work well. The boarding school setting is also done effectively, and it works both in creating the right atmosphere and as a period setting. There are times when it pulls you right into the world of the young characters, a world in which they are their own masters in many ways. Their boyish loyalties, threats, fears, rivalries, and misunderstandings all come across believably. On a broader level, it also succeeds in establishing the tension between the adult's i.
Some of the more recent versions have probably done an even better job of communicating the themes while also making the story entertaining, but this one does a solid job as well, and it deserves also to be remembered.