Tom Brown's Schooldays

First published in 1857 Thomas Hughes'' novel Tom Brown''s Schooldays has remained popular well into modern times. Hughes was a Rugby alumnus and dedicated the novel to the widow of his old headmaster Dr. Thomas Arnold. While the story has entertained generations of mostly young readers and inspired an entire genre of British boarding school novels perhaps the character best known to modern readers is the bully Flashman. An important though ultimately minor character in the first part of Tom Brown''s Schooldays he would later be appropriated as the protagonist of a highly popular series of novels by British author George MacDonald Fraser.Hughes'' novel takes Tom Brown from childhood as the son of the local squire to his early days at a private boarding school (terminated by an epidemic at the school) and then right through his years at Rugby a real school that is today best known to those outside Britain for the modified form of soccer that originated there and bears the school''s name. Rugby (the game) and cricket both figure prominently in the story. The final chapter which takes place in 1842 is mostly a tribute to Arnold who had died in that year.Our edition has been carefully edited and formatted for the Kindle reading device and includes a linked table of contents along with a number of new notes to clarify some references that have become obscure with the passing years.