"Tom Brown's Schooldays" by Thomas Hughes (1822 - 1896) was originally published in 1857, and clearly inspired other school novels for many years to come. One can see the impact it had on Wodehouse's school stories, as well as "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", and others as well. Add to that, the use of the character Flashman (the school bully in the first part of the book) by George MacDonald Fraser for his series of stories, and you begin to see just how much influence this book has had over the years. The novel centers on Tom Brown; from his childhood, through his attendance at Rugby, a public school and a bit beyond. The novel is divided into two books, the first deals with Tom's early life and days in school and he is headed down the wrong path at the end. The second book is where things turn around and Tom starts to find his way down the right path.

Book one is an odd mix, with the early chapters dealing with Tom's life before attending school. For me this was the most difficult part of the story to read, as it is the worst written part of the book, added to which I was adjusting to Thomas Hughes writing style, but these chapters help define Tom's character and so they are important to the story. It is in this period where Tom first attends a private school, but when a fever hits the school the students are sent home, and as a result, Tom is sent to Rugby. Chapter four covers Tom's journey to Rugby, including his building excitement of attending a public school.

Tom arrives and finds himself in very good circumstances; he is in School-house, the best of the houses; he is taken on as friend by East, who is the nephew of the friend of his family, and they become close friends. The house is led by Brooke, an older student who is admired by nearly everyone, and whose natural leadership abilities have united School-house like no other, and he keeps the bullying in check. Lastly, Tom arrives on the day that the School-house takes on all the others in football, and though not allowed a big part, Tom has one key play which catches the eye of Brooke.

Things change though, when Brooke moves on as do the other older boys who followed Brooke's example of behavior, and so the house loses its united spirit, and the bullies start to create havoc. Chief among the bullies is Flashman, who has a sadistic streak, but is actually a coward, like many bullies. Unfortunately, he decides to pick on Tom and East. Eventually Tom and East stand together and defeat Flashman, but even after that Flashman manages to keep Tom and East as outcasts due to his rumor spreading. Their being outcasts results in Tom and East pretty much doing what they please, and deciding that rules don't apply to them as they only can count on each other. This leads to a stern talking to by the headmaster, known as the Doctor just before the holiday, as he sees the two of them heading down the wrong path, and this is where book one ends.

Book two picks up with Tom and East's return from the holidays. In the break, it has been decided to try to separate the two for their own good, and the method is in the form of George Arthur, a boy whose father has passed away. Tom reflects quickly on what this means to his plans, but quickly sets those aside and takes on this new responsibility. Tom takes care of George, but in fact George teaches Tom far more. The second book develops the strength of this relationship, including Tom's continuing friendship with East, and the inclusion of Martin into their group of friends. Martin is known as "Madman" for his unusual behavior, involving a love a nature, which he passes on to George.

The other key events in book two include a fight between Tom and Williams, a boy from another house. The fight takes place because Tom defends George against a threat made by Williams. The narrator uses the fight to teach a lesson about fighting, but the chapter is a bit out-of-place for the most part. There is also a illness which nearly takes George Arthur's life, and which inspires Tom to be a better student, and he takes East along with him on that road. Tom says goodbye to Rugby with a cricket match. Sporting matches became a fixture for Wodehouse's school novels at the start of his career, and this is undoubtedly one source of inspiration for him. The closing chapter deals with a few years later, when Tom is at Oxford and learns of the death of his old Master and his return to Rugby to pay his respects, and reflect back on all he learned there.

The reader takes a long journey with this novel, both in terms of the story told, as well as the impression one has of the book itself. One starts with the difficulty of trying to deal with the poorly written early chapters, to enjoying the free-spirit adventures of Tom and East at Rugby, and then on into experiencing the growth of responsibility and maturity as they develop in Tom and his friends. Overall, it is a great experience, and though flawed, it is not too surprising that this novel survives on reading lists, as well as influences so many other works.

Why this book is supposed to be a 'classic' is beyond me. The writer is so full of himself, and instead of sticking to the story (which is bad enough in itself), he keeps giving his opinion of things.
definitely would tell people to stay away from this book, and any other Thomas Hughes has written (if he has).

One way to classify much English-language fiction is by setting or background theme, and one of these is the coming-of-age novel, about the human process of growing up. A sub-genre in Britain focuses on the protagonist's educational experiences and the transformative effect they have on his (or her) development -- most often in the context of a private or boarding school (which in Britain are called "public schools"). Thomas Hughes more or less invented this species of story a century and a half ago and it's been with up ever since (though it peaked in the early 20th century with Angela Brazil's books), through STALKY & CO., MR. CHIIPS, THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, and right up to Harry Potter's adventures at Hogwarts. It's a less common theme in American fiction, but we do have THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, THE RECTOR OF JUSTIN, A SEPARATE PEACE, and PREP. And school life is also prominent in Japanese manga. The main point in this sort of novel is that the school itself, with its traditions and almost foreign, non-home milieu, becomes a character in itself. The emphasis in the plot and among the characters most often is on personal honor and loyalty and the inculcation of other moral values, resistance to bullying, developing friendships, challenging and learning to deal with the adult world (and fitting oneself into a profoundly conservative society). Because most such schools are single-sex, there's usually an unrealistic absence of sexual activity, but it's there subliminally. And it all started right here, with Tom Brown, son of the squire in a village in the Vale of the White Horse, who (by internal evidence) goes off to Rugby in 1833 at the age of eleven. Of course, this is precisely the period during which the author was himself a pupil at Rugby and the character of Tom is heavily, almost wistfully, autobiographical. (Literary critics also have attempted ever since to identify the real individuals behind such characters as Harry East and George Arthur.) While most "new boys" probably would flounder about at first and suffer from homesickness, Tom acquires a friend and mentor almost before he enters the school gates for the first time. He's determined to do his best and to make his parents proud of him, but he soon slips from the straight-and-narrow, becoming a dare-taker and making adventurous night-time excursions in violation of the headmaster's rules. Eventually, of course, his better nature wins out and his natural leadership asserts itself, though he'll never be a scholar. The master, who is referred to only as "The Doctor" (up until the final chapter, when Tom returns from Oxford on learning of the master's death) is Dr. Thomas Arnold, whose during his tenure at Rugby almost singlehandedly revolutionized the world of the British public school. For modern readers, the class-ridden world in which Tom and his companions operate is extremely alien. Even when the townspeople catch the boys from the school engaging in some outlaw activity, a couple of shillings generally smoothes things over. The boys are "gentlemen," after all, and the locals know their place. One has to wonder, too, what exactly Rugby is teaching its pupils, since lessons seem to consist entirely of memorizing, translating, and "construing" some many lines of the Latin and Greek classics every day. (This ability appears to be the only real requirement for progression to university, too.) It is said of young Martin, a talented and self-taught natural scientist, that he should never have come to Rugby but be "trained" elsewhere. Actually, Tom and the others are mostly being taught how to be gentlemen, which means they don't really have to know how to do anything except to command the lower orders. And play cricket, of course. East, for instance, becomes an army officer in India, for which his years at the school appear to have entirely prepared him. To properly appreciate the story, the 21st-century reader must become a time traveler, willing to forget the modern world exists, or a social archaeologist. The interesting thing is, there are still plenty of gentlemen on the 19th century model, the products of Britain's public schools, who still are attempting to run the country -- and that includes nearly all the prime ministers of the past century. Hughes writes a lively, self-deprecating prose, filled with quiet humor -- not at all like Thackeray or Dickens, for instance -- and observing Tom Brown's progress through adolescence is a fascinating experience.

This is a fake book edition, like someone photocopied, or on a cheap home pinter printed pages at 50% reduction of size in microscopic size 6 font, with some pages on angles, and half the pages white with huge borders, and with smallest type ever seen in a book, with no real publishing info, on cheapo paper with a cover photo as if it were a thumbnail from the internet at low resolution and stretched to wrong proportions, with no page numbers and no table of contents and missing this book's illustrations. TOTAL JUNK WORTHLESS. I'M SHOCKED AMAZON IS THE SELLER OF THIS FRAUD POSING AS A REAL EDITION OF THIS CLASSIC BOOK.

This was great fun, not as much fun as a Flashman novel but still an interesting book. It's a little preachy, trying to reform English "public" schools and like many nineteenth century books uses five words where one would have done but it was fun to see where Flashman got his education.

It's a classic -- what else can be said? I read this years ago for school and also watched the English series, then decided to read it again. What's interesting, is that I came away with a very different impression than the first reading and the series. It was a lot darker than I remember and elements of good vs bad were more defined. No longer a story of innocence, but one of a larger purpose.