Customer Reviews

Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
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My main disagreement with the above review is that it is obviously written by an adult for adults. I do not believe most young children read a book for the reasons he complains about. I have not read this book in over 50 years but I still remember it well. I can remember lying in bed at night reading this book and dreaming that I was right there along side Toby and sharing his adventure. I will not give away any of the plot but I can also remember a scene where my little boy tears just flowed(in am age where little boys were not supposed to cry). I loved the book then and am now buying it for my grandson!!

Toby Tyler was first published in 'Harper's Young People' as a serial in 1877, and then as a book in 1881. It was an immediate classic and favorite among young boys and girls who dreamed of running off with the circus. It was very popular and sold so well that a few years later Mark Twain wrote his own story of a run-away conscious-stricken orphan who joins the circus: 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' (1884). The central theme of the novel is doing what you know is right versus doing what comes naturally and following your instincts, as shown by the character Mr. Stubbs the monkey. Although written to be a "wholesome" children's novel of what happens to bad boys, most remember it for the romantic story of running off with the circus. Indeed, by the end Toby has become so successful in the circus, his reason for returning home stretches credibility (probably to the secret delight of younger readers who knew what they would have done in Toby's shoes: stayed with the circus!). The novel was influential for at least 3 generations, a young Carl Sandburg thought it his favorite novel and William S. Burroughs mentions it in his memoirs. Disney paid it homage in a 1960 movie adaption. Since then it has become increasingly obscure, but it's close similarities with Huckleberry Finn should give it a wider audience as a comparison novel. The original included 30 pen and ink drawings by W. A. Rogers (1854-1931) which are essential.

Saw the movie when a child, read this as a grandparent and cried... I will read this to my grandchildren. It is a wonderful book.

I purchased this for my nephews (ages 6 - 10) after taking them to the local circus. I was rather disappointed with the small print. If I had been aware of how small the print is in this book I would not have purchased until they were much older. It turned out to be more of a book to be read from than for the boys to read themselves.

Originally published in 1881, this children's classic is now so outdated that it seems likely that there is no readership for it except the few scholars interested in the history of juvenile fiction. Toby Tyler is a small town orphan boy, bored and feeling abused on his Uncle Daniel's farm. When an un-named circus comes to town, Toby happily joins as a "candy butcher," i.e., one who sells refreshments to show patrons within the tent. Although Toby is only about 12, no one questions his running away or joining the circus. He is roundly beaten by his employers, and few question their right to that. Adults simply accept the fact that Toby has a right to leave home and that the circus has the right to hire his services without question. It is hard for a modern reader to get past this.

The circus itself is a vague world, a nameless "mud show" that travels by horse and wagon at night from small town to small town. There were no 3-ring circuses in 1881, traveling by air-conditioned train, a la Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey or Cole Brothers. The novel's atmosphere is never quite real, never gritty enough, never quite exhausting. The characters tend to be all good or all bad, with little known of their backgrounds, details that would make them real humans. Toby himself is just too--well--too nice, too innocent. He is Shirley Temple as a boy on the good ship Lolipop.

Certainly the circus (and the sea and the old west) was a magnet for a great many boys of the era. But like so much of the literature of the bygone era, the reality of the setting is never fully explored.