Tom Brown's Schooldays (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Thomas Hughes (Author), Andrew Sanders (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics

One of the classics of English children's literature, and one of the earliest books written specifically for boys, this novel's steady popularity has given it an influence well beyond the upper middle-class world that it describes. It tells a story central to an understanding of Victorian life, but its freshness helps to distinguish it from the narrow schoolboy adventures that it later inspired. The book includes an introduction and notes by Andrew Sanders.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Hughes (1822-1896) was an English lawyer and author.

Product Details

• Paperback: 466 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192835351
• ISBN-13: 978-0192835352
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #676,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rare jewel, November 25, 2000

By 

Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tom Brown's Schooldays (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

This book is about the life and coming of age of a young wealthy English boy, who goes to school at Rugby. Throughout the novel, we are witnesses to the growing up of Tom and his friends. Tom is not a model boy, but rough, virile and self-confident, as is his friend East, a smart and audacious guy. The story is funny and entertaining, and is also illustrative about life in the English boarding schools (for affluent people) in the XIX century. It is also a bildungsroman, that is, the story of the education and maturation of a young person. Although the story contains carefully hidden, and sometimes easily identifiable, morals, it is not a long lecture. It is easy to read and understand, and I consider it highly recommendable.

26 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favorite books, April 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Tom Brown's Schooldays (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

This is one of my favorite books. Hughes,the author, developes a wonderful atmosphere in this story, you feel as if you are in this 19th century English boarding school with Tom. You taste, smell, and hear the experiences in this book. It is educational about what life was like at that time in England for a boy like Tom. But it is the plot that endears this classic to me. Tom is a rough and tumble lad who cares little about character and education. This book is about a young carefree boy who matures into a young man who has a deep faith in Jesus Christ. I recommend this book to anyone.

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tracing a boy, February 5, 2006

By 

Subhankar Mondal (Bangalore,India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tom Brown's Schooldays (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

On seeing the title "Tom Brown's Schooldays" printed on the cover of the book, you're invariably led to the conclusion that it is yet another tale of a schoolboy, yet another story of a mischievous brat, yet another trailer of a prankster. To a considerable extent, the prognosis prove correct but for a major portion, the realm of the book must remain a surprise.


Thomas Hughes has revealed the picture of school life at Rugby, a place where he himself was educated under Dr. Arnold until his subsequent dparture to Oxford, through the portrait of Tom Brown. The novel delves on Tom's schooldays as much as it revolves around the customs at Rugby. "Tom Brown's Schooldays" traces the saga of an ordinary young boy who typically finds immense pleasure in making chaos, in fun and in joyous boisterity. In Tom we get a vivid illustration of a child's psychology. For Tom is the representative of all English schoolchild who learns the world and learns to accept the harsh myriad forces of it. The character then is a simple blend of raw youth and intens inquisitiveness.


And delightful reading it is as the smooth, genial language makes the novel resound like a river running evenly between its banks. The compact, precise language has a high overtone throughout the book which appeals to our heart of hearts and we're so sjhamelessly dragged back to those days when we too were school chldren. "Tom Brown's Schooldays" brings out the child in our bosom, brings it out in broad daylight and makes us tap our feet in bittersweet flashback and sigh in a pang of nostalgia.


Yet Tom Brown's story isn't a mere happy-go-lucky memory:it goes much beyond, depicts the gradual maturation of an untrained soul into a more sublime spirit. From the beginning we get a glimpse of Tom's ability to realise the without when his"first thoughts as he tumbled out of bed at the summons of Boots"are those quiet, dignified words of his father at his departure for Rugby. Tom is a typical boy enthralled by heroic tales of danger, one who has been accompanied in his very early childhood by his abettors Noah and Benjamin and nurse Charity.


Tom is indeed the eponymous protagonist of the novel but whether he's the hero of it or whether that station is held by someone else is a matter to ruminate. As Tom explores his own life, four characters criss-cross his path who can be accredited with the appellation 'hero'. His boyish fancy would eke out Pater Brooke, the head of the victorious football team on the first day of Tom at the School-house whse stirring post-match speech is a marvellous pice of rhetoric. The major claimer to herohood is of course Harry East, Tom's partner in all mischiefs, pranks and rebellions. Indeed it is on East's firm solidarity that Tom manages to rise against the brute bully Flashman. It would be East once more who would embolden Tom to figh against Slogger Williams. Such staunch, reckless and unconditioned friendship is rare indeed but rarer still is the sustainence of such a relationship hrough thick and thin and through joviality and seriosness. Tom is manufactured into a brooding character by the darker and srious aspect of their friendship in the chapter dealing with dilemmas and deliverancs. East's sudden revealation of his own seriosness muses both Tom and the reader. Tom by this time has already transfigured himself into a sort of leader:a master at cricket and football who can never endure oppression.


But the person who makes the most collosal impact on Tom Brown is Arthur who comes from Devonshire and is placed under the care of Tom. That is how the tid turns, how the sun finally evades the gry clouds, how the flower blooms into life. As a visibly irritated and jittery Tom gradually comes to terms with his new responsibility, he undergoes a radical metamorphosis. He becomes a much more solemn boy and his discusson about death when Arthur is on his death-bed is a classic depiction of two friends travelling beyond the tragectory of the earthly. To some degre the reader deciphers that the influence that Arthur has on Tom resonates with the mpact that Agnes has on David in Charles Dicken's "David Copperfield".


Tom Brown's transmutation from a dreamy-eyed boy to a 19-year-old English gentleman on the verge of departure from Rugby is accomplished when he realises the greatness of the Doctor who underlines his own influence in moulding Tom. Tom,"a strapping figure, near six feet high, with ruddy, tanned face and whiskers, curly brwn hair, and a laughing, dancing eye" is full of "allusion and by-play" as like the novel.


The lack of coherence in East's nature is revealed largely by his obscure exeunt from the drama and this is the inappropiation of unity of ime. Yet despite this flaw in the plot, "Tom Brown Schoolday's" is highly entertaining as well as engaging. A careful reader is able to discern in Tom Brown's nature and follies the traits of some other great literature scoolboys such as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Dickens's Oliver Twist. The description of the rugby match at the School-house and that of the boys' rooms are exquisite and could never have been the work of an uninformed and untrained pen. The inticate diction and powerful effect of the poignant words describing the sorrow of Tom at his old Doctor's passing away are brilliant.


The tracing of a young buoyant heart through White Horse Hill and "eight long years" at a School-housse in Rugby to the ultimatum of a comprehensive person isn't that easy to compile in a single volume. But that Thomas Hughes has accomplished just that, we should all be grateful to him.


SUBHANKAR MONDAL, UG STUDENT, BANGALORE, INDIA