Tom Brown's School Days

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View books by Thomas Hughes.

Almost incomprehensible to 21st century kids - Rated
1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Almost incomprehensible to 21st century children, 9 Nov 2000


I was raised abroad as a child (I'm now nearly 50) and read it along with all my parents books. I found it old-fashioned then and not many of my contemporaries knew it.

My father had it because he & the other boys in the family went to Rugby. The ghastly piety is particularly difficult as modern tastes in social behaviour and indeed religion have changed so much.

The best reason for wading through it (skipping the first chapter) is so as to enjoy George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels afterwards.

Excellent! - Rated
I read Tom Brown's School Days after being told that all other school stories stem from this one. It's fantastic, informative and very entertaining.

Don't be put off, until Tom actually gets to school it's rather dull (about the first four chapters). But when he gets there, everything 'comes to life.' It's enormous fun and at times moving (such as when one of the boys dies or when East becomes a Christian). It's really marvellous. The sequel (Tom Brown at Oxford) is OK, but a bit long winded, and I certainly could never agree with Tom's choice of marriage partner).