Tom Brown's School Days
Tom
Brown's School Days
(sometimes written Tom Brown's Schooldays, also published under the
titles Tom Brown at Rugby, School Days at Rugby, and Tom
Brown's School Days at Rugby)[1][2] is an 1857 novel by Thomas
Hughes. The story is set in the 1830s at Rugby
School, a public school
for boys. Hughes attended Rugby School from 1834 to 1842.
The
novel was originally published as being "by an Old Boy of Rugby", and
much of it is based on the author's experiences. Tom Brown is largely based on
the author's brother George Hughes. George Arthur, another of the book's main
characters, is generally believed to be based on Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. The fictional Tom's life also resembles the author's, in
that the culminating event of his school career was a cricket match.[3] The novel also features Dr
Thomas Arnold (1795–1842), who was the actual headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841.
Tom
Brown's School Days has been the source for several
film and television adaptations. It also influenced the genre of British school
novels, which began in the nineteenth
century, and led to fictional depictions of schools such as Billy
Bunter's Greyfriars
School, Mr
Chips' Brookfield, and St.
Trinian's. A sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford, was published in 1861.
Synopsis
Tom Brown
is energetic, stubborn, kind-hearted and athletic, rather than intellectual. He
follows his feelings and the unwritten rules of the boys.
The
early chapters of the novel deal with his childhood at his home in the Vale of White Horse.
Much of the scene setting in the first chapter is deeply revealing of Victorian Britain's attitudes towards society and class, and contains
a comparison of so-called Saxon and Norman
influences on the country. This part of the book, when young Tom wanders the
valleys freely on his pony, serves as a contrast with the hellish experiences
in his first years at school.
His
first school year is at a local school. His second year starts at a private
school, but due to an epidemic of fever in the area, all the school's boys are
sent home, and Tom is transferred mid-term to Rugby School.
On
his arrival, the eleven-year-old Tom Brown is looked after by a more
experienced classmate, Harry "Scud" East. Tom's nemesis
at Rugby is the bully
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 defeat Flashman with the
help of Diggs, a kind, comical, older boy. In their triumph they become unruly.
In
the second half of the book, Dr Thomas
Arnold (1795–1842), the historical
headmaster of the school at the time, gives Tom the care of George Arthur, a
frail, pious, academically brilliant, gauche, and sensitive new boy. A fight
that Tom gets into to protect Arthur, and Arthur's nearly dying of fever, are
described in detail. Tom and Arthur help each other and the friends develop
into young gentlemen
who say their nightly prayers, do not cheat on homework, and play in a cricket match. An epilogue shows Tom's return to Rugby and its chapel when he hears of
Arnold's death.
Main characters
- Tom Brown, a mid-term newcomer to Rugby School who learns many life lessons there
- Harry "Scud" East, an older boy who looks after Tom
- Dr Thomas Arnold (1795–1842), the headmaster of Rugby School from 1828 to 1841
- Flashman, a bully who targets and torments Tom
- Diggs, a jocular older student who helps Tom
- George Arthur, a frail newcomer whom Tom guides as East had guided him
Major themes
A
main element of the novel is Rugby School, with its traditions, and the reforms
that were instituted there by Dr Arnold (1795–1842), the headmaster of the
school from 1828 to 1841. He is portrayed as the perfect teacher and
counsellor, and as managing everything behind the scenes. In particular, he is
the one who "chums" Arthur with Tom.
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 as an entertainment. As Hughes said:
Several persons, for whose judgment 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.
— Thomas Hughes, Preface to the sixth edition[4]
Impact
Although
there were as many as 90 stories set in British boarding schools published
between Sarah Fielding's
The Governess, or
The Little Female Academy
in 1749 and 1857,[5] Tom Brown's School Days was responsible for bringing
the school story genre to much wider attention. Tom Brown's School Days'
influence on the genre of British school
novels includes the fictional schools of Billy
Bunter's Greyfriars
School, Mr
Chips' Brookfield, and St.
Trinian's. It also directly inspired J.
K. Rowling's Harry
Potter series, set at the fictional
boarding school Hogwarts.
The series' first novel Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone has many
direct parallels in structure and theme to Tom Brown's School Days.[6]
The
book contains an account of a game of rugby
football, the variant of football played at
Rugby School (with many differences from the modern forms). The book's
popularity helped to spread the popularity of this sport beyond the school.
In
Japan, Tom Brown's School Days was probably the most popular textbook of
English-language origin for high-school students during the Meiji
period (1868–1912).[7] In 1899, an abridged version of the book (omitting chapter
9 of part 1, and chapters 5 and 7 of part 2) was published in Japanese
translation. A subsequent, two-part, Japanese translation by Tsurumatsu Okamoto
and Tomomasa Murayama appeared in 1903 and 1904, which, in addition to the
previous omissions, also omitted the scene at the cricket match, due to the
translators' stated ignorance of the game of cricket.[7] In the preface to this version, the translators praised the
British education system, citing the example of the friendship between Tom and
Dr Arnold as an example of how to raise a great nation. Another partial
translation, consisting only of part 1 of the book, was released in 1912 by
schoolteacher Nagao Tachibana. A fourth translation, also abridged, by Sada
Tokinoya arrived in 1925. Finally, a complete translation was released in 1947
that eventually ran to ten separate editions.[7]
Dramatic adaptations
Brown's School Days has had several screen adaptations, including:
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (1916 film) (silent)
- Tom Brown's School Days (1940 film)
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951 film)
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971 TV miniseries)
- Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005 TV film)
In
the 1940 U.S. film, the role of Dr Thomas Arnold as a reform-minded educator
was given greater prominence than in the novel.[8] In it, Arnold was portrayed by Cedric
Hardwicke, Tom Brown was played by Jimmy
Lydon, and Freddie Bartholomew
played East. In the 1951 British film, Robert
Newton portrayed Thomas Arnold, and John Howard Davies
portrayed Tom Brown.
The
1971 five-part television miniseries was by the BBC, and starred Anthony Murphy
as Tom Brown and Iain Cuthbertson
as Dr. Arnold. It was later shown on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre in the U.S., and both the programme and Murphy's lead
performance won Emmy Awards.
A
musical
version with music by Chris Andrews and book and lyrics by Jack and Joan
Maitland was presented at the Cambridge
Theatre in London's West
End in 1971. The production starred Keith
Chegwin, Roy
Dotrice, Simon
Le Bon, and Tony
Sympson.
References in other works
- Terry Pratchett confirmed that the section of his 1989 novel Pyramids set at the Assassin's Guild School is a parody of Tom Brown's School Days.[9]
Flashman
The
character of Flashman was adapted by the British writer George MacDonald Fraser as the adult narrator and hero (or anti-hero) of his popular series of "Flashman" historical
novels called The Flashman Papers. In one of them, Flashman in the Great Game, the character whom Fraser named Harry Flashman reads Tom
Brown's School Days, which refers to his youth, and its popularity causes
him some social troubles. Fraser's Flashman novels also include some other
characters from Tom Brown's School Days, for example George Speedicut
and Tom Brown 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 prisoners
of war during the Crimean
War, and again in Flashman in the Great Game, at the Siege
of Cawnpore during the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
See also
References
· School Days
at Rugby. Fields, Osgood, & Co. 1870. Retrieved 6 December 2012.
· · Hughes, Thomas. "Preface
to the sixth edition, Tom Brown's School Days, by Thomas Hughes". Retrieved 18 August 2012.
· · Steege, David K.
"Harry Potter, Tom Brown, and the British School Story". The Ivory
Tower and Harry Potter: Perspectives on a Literary Phenomenon: 141–156.
· · Abe, Iko. "Muscular
Christianity in Japan: The Growth of a Hybrid". The International Journal of the History of Sport.
Volume 23, Issue 5, 2006. pp. 714–738. Reprinted in: Macaloon, John J. (ed). Muscular
Christianity and the Colonial and Post-Colonial World. Routledge, 2013. pp. 16–17.
· · "Tom
Brown's School Days; Adventures at Rugby". Variety.
1 January 1940. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
9.
· Breebaart, Leo; Kew, Mike. "The Annotated
Pratchett File v9.0 – Pyramids".
Retrieved 11 February 2011.
External links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Brown%27s_Schooldays
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