Tom Brown's School Days
Cover of 1999 re-issue by Oxford World's Classics | |
| Author | Thomas Hughes |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | School |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
Publication date | 1857 |
| Publication place | England |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Followed by | Tom Brown at Oxford |
Tom Brown's Schooldays, first published in 1857, is a novel by Thomas Hughes, set at Rugby School, a public school for boys, in the 1830's. Hughes had attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842.
The novel was originally published as being 'by an Old Boy of Rugby', and it is immediately apparent that much of it is based on the author's experiences. In fact, Tom Brown is based on the author's brother, George Hughes, and George Arthur is based on Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.
Tom Brown was tremendously influential on the genre of British school novels, which began in the 19th century, and is one of the few still in print. A sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford was published in 1861 but is not as well known.
Plot summary
Template:Spoiler Tom Brown is energetic, stubborn, kind-hearted, athletic more than intellectual. He acts according to his feelings and the unwritten rules of the boys around him more than adults' rules.
The early chapters of the novel deal with his childhood at his home in the Vale of the White Horse (including a nostalgic picture of a village feast). Much of the scene setting in the first chapter is deeply revealing of Victorian England's attitudes towards society and class.
His first school year was at a local school. His second year started at a private school, but due to an epidemic of fever in the area, all the school's boys were sent home, and Tom was transferred mid-term to Rugby School, where he started acquaintance with people who lived at the school and in its environs.
On his arrival, the eleven-year-old Tom Brown is looked after by a more experienced classmate, East. Soon after, Tom and East become the targets of a bully named Flashman. The intensity of the bullying increases, and, after refusing to hand over a sweepstake ticket for the favourite in a horse race, Tom is deliberately burned in front of a fire. Tom and East eventually defeat Flashman with the help of a kind (though comical) older boy. In their triumph they become unruly.
In the second half of the book, Dr. Thomas Arnold (the historical headmaster of the school at the time) gives Tom the care of a new boy named George Arthur, frail, pious, academically brilliant, gauche, and sensitive. A fight that Tom gets into to protect Arthur, and Arthur's nearly dying of fever, are described in loving detail. Tom and Arthur help each other and their friends develop into young gentlemen who say their nightly prayers, don't cheat on homework, and are on the cricket team.
An epilogue shows Tom's return to Rugby and its chapel when he hears of Dr. Arnold's death.
Characters in Tom Brown's Schooldays
- Tom Brown
- Harry "Scud" East
- Dr. Arnold
- Flashman
- Diggs
- George Arthur
- Martin
Major Themes
A main element of the novel is Rugby with its traditions and with the reforms instituted by Dr. Arnold. Arnold is seldom on stage, but is shown as the perfect teacher and counselor and as managing everything behind the scenes. In particular, he is the one who "chums" Arthur with Tom. This helps them both become men.
The central theme of the novel is the development of boys. The symmetrical way in which Tom and Arthur supply each other's deficiencies shows that Hughes believed in the importance of physical development, boldness, fighting spirit, and sociability (Tom's contribution) as well as Christian morality and idealism (Arthur's).
The novel is essentially didactic, and was not primarily written by its author as an entertainment. As Hughes said:
- Several persons, for whose judgement I have the highest respect, while saying very kind things about this book, have added, that the great fault of it is 'too much preaching'; but they hope I shall amend in this matter should I ever write again. Now this I most distinctly decline to do. Why, my whole object in writing at all was to get the chance of preaching! When a man comes to my time of life and has his bread to make, and very little time to spare, is it likely that he will spend almost the whole of his yearly vacation in writing a story just to amuse people? I think not. At any rate, I wouldn't do so myself.
References from other works
- The character of Flashman was adopted by the British writer George MacDonald Fraser as the narrator and hero (or anti-hero) of his popular series of "Flashman" historical novels. In the Flashman novel Flashman in the Great Game, the main character reads Tom Brown's Schooldays (achieving a remarkable degree of abstraction as Flashman, a fictional character, is portrayed reading a real book about himself). The novel's real popularity causes the fictional Flashman some fictional social troubles. The Flashman novels also include some other characters from the novel, for example: George Speedicut and Tom Brown himself (in the book Flashman's Lady). Flashman also encounters the character of "Scud" East twice, first in Flashman at the Charge, when both he and East are PoW's during the Crimean War, and again in Flashman in the Great Game at the Siege of Cawnpore during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. East is killed during the massacre at the end and dies in Flashman's presence. However a reading of Tom Brown in Oxford reveals that "Scud" East survived India (after suffering two bullet wounds, a broken arm and a gash in his side) and emigrates to New Zealand (See chapters XXI "The Intercepted Letter-Bag" and XLVIII "The Wedding-Day").
- Tomkinson's Schooldays, the pilot episode for the TV series Ripping Yarns, is a parody of the novel.
References to actual geography
The geography of Rugby has changed greatly since the period in which the book was set. The town has expanded enormously, industrialising in the late nineteenth century. For example, most of the pools along the River Avon that the boys used for swimming were obliterated when the BTH factory was built.
In the book, Tom's first year at the school mentions no transport to Rugby except stagecoach, but the end part of Tom's last year mentions "the train". Therefore the Midland Railway was built along the Avon valley past Rugby while he was at the school. But none of his adventures around the river Avon mention the railway or its working, or the large rowdy noisy navvy-camp which would have been in the area while the railway was being built.
County boundaries have been changed so that most of the Vale of White Horse is now in Oxfordshire, not Berkshire as the author says several times.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Tom Brown's Schooldays was adapted for film in 1916 (British), 1940 (U.S.), and 1951 (British). It has also been adapted for television, as a mini-series by the BBC in 1972 and as a single two-hour programme by ITV in 2005.
Changes to the story in movie versions
Some of the movie versions change the story in important ways. Here are listed some differences for the 2005 ITV version mentioned below ("Movie 2") and an older version ("Movie 1").
| Event | Book | Movie 1 | Movie 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The fight with Flashman | Unorganized fight as described above. The "two against one" imbalance is compensated for by Flashman being two years older and bigger. | Formal boxing-ring match, one against one. Tom wins. | Unorganized fight, one against one. Flashman wins. |
| How Tom starts at Rugby School | Transferred in mid-term because of the epidemic. | Transferred in mid-term because of the epidemic. | At start of term. |
| Why Flashman is expelled | He got very drunk in Brownsover and had to be helped back to school. | After the fight. | He got the school matron's daughter pregnant. And the fight. |
| Result of Arthur's illness | Survived. | (Not known) | Died. |
The start of "Movie 2" includes real historical events which are not in the book: Dr. Arnold closing down the school hunt; Dr. Arnold complaining that before his time, there were no masters in the school overnight to keep the boys in order.
External links
- Tom Brown's Schooldays at Project Gutenberg
- Tom Brown's Schooldays with illustrations, from Bibliomania
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (1916) at IMDb
- Tom Brown's School Days (1940) at IMDb
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) at IMDb
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971) at IMDb
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005) at IMDb