Jump to content

Warwickshire - Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes


Recommended Posts

WARWICKSHIRE
 
Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes
 
Synopsis:
Thomas Hughes’ novel about the mischievous but kind-hearted schoolboy Tom Brown inspired other school novels, including Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter stories and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. The novel begins at Tom’s childhood home in the Vale of the White Horse, where he spends his days out in the fields with his pony. This early idyllic setting it set up as a contrast to the stresses that Tom undergoes later at Rugby boarding school when he encounters the bully Flashman. Tom is helped through his struggles by his friends Harry ‘Scud’ East and the frail but brilliant George Arthur, whom Tom protects, and who ultimately helps Tom develop into a young gentleman ready for Oxford university.
 
 
Other Warwickshire books:
Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

I'm getting to the stage in the challenge, where the remaining books I have downloaded are the free classics, including Tom Brown's School Days, and are books that I am a bit concerned about reading as I would never choose to read them normally as I would assume they would be too "old fashioned" and probably rather wordy.  It doesn't help in that I don't think the page numbering is done very well on some of them, and they are described as being between 200 and 300 pages and then when you see the book in the classic section of the bookshop you realise it's probably at least double that.  I know that shouldn't affect my reading, but I do struggle with long books unless they can grip my attention early on and have a fantastic plot to keep me turning the pages to find out what happens next.

 

All of that is a long introduction to build up to the fact that I struggled with this book.  The first half is incredibly wordy, with little dialogue and so much description, which although introduces us to Tom and builds his character, it really doesn't drive the story on much.  I found sitting down to read the book became a chore at the beginning, and as we've all said for some books in this challenge, if it hadn't been on the English Counties list, we would have given up.

 

As the action moves to Rugby school, it does pick up the pace a bit, as there are more characters who Tom interacts with and the school story became more readable for me.  It's only really the final section that I really enjoyed though.  It's difficult to say too much without spoilers, so I'll just say that from the moment that George Arthur is introduced, I definitely started to want to go back to read more.

 

I know there is a follow on book called Tom Brown at Oxford, and although I enjoyed the ending of the first book, it won't be enough to encourage me to read it, I'm afraid.  It also introduced the character Flashman (a school bully of the worst kind) who was taken up in the twentieth century by George MacDonald Fraser who wrote a very successful series of books based on the character.  Looking at the synopsis of the first book, it seems as though Flashman is an anti-hero of the books, so it's interesting to see the influence of Tom Brown's School Days but again, not sure that I'd be interested in reading these off shoots either.

 

I hate it when books just end up being a tick in the box to complete the list, and Tom Brown's School Days just manages to raise itself above this level for me with the final third, so it's a positive note to finish on, even if not a roaring success with me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...