I know that title sounds like I didn’t like this book. But I actually did. It’s more that it really was a book that covered a world that is really outside of my experience. Here we have the 15th book in our 24 in 2024 challenge, Tom Brown’s School Days.
Plot summary
Thomas Hughes sets up the story with a little ‘back in my day’ of the chalk hills in England, before launching the hero if his work (Tom Brown) into his career as a student of the prestigious Rugby school. The book follows young Tom as leaves his family at the tender age of nine years old, and embarks on the next nine years as a student at the school. He gets into scrapes, plays plenty of cricket and (of course) rugby, while also maturing into a young man ready to head out into the world.
A fascinating glimpse into another world
Set in the early 1800s, this book is certainly an older style of writing. It’s quite a slow burn as the author takes a rather self-indulgent detour to talk about the history of his home town, where he has set the family of his hero. Once things get going, it’s still a relaxed pace, as we wend our way through the halls of Rugby and watch Tom and his friends as they get into various schoolboy escapades.
In classic 1800s style, there’s a fair bit of moralising. It isn’t bad, and I’d say all the content was quite wholesome. But it can begin to grate a bit as you read once again of the high virtue of such and such, or the wonderful practices of the ‘back in my day’ Rugby that Hughes is remembering.
That said, it’s still a wonderful insight into this world of public boarding schools. I don’t think this world really exists anymore, even though Rugby continues to exist and, I’m sure, upholds several of its old traditions. But this world of class structure is gone. The idea of such wild independence for boys as young as nine is gone. And I’m not sure what I think about that. Generally, I actually think it’s probably a good thing. But I can see how some elements of this education would have been excellent for forming strong, confident men. I think space for boys to grow up surrounded by strong male role models is sadly lacking today.
The resilience, physical fitness, loyalty and intelligent conversation encouraged in this book certainly seem to be like a strong basis for creating good men. However, as Tom Brown discovers, it isn’t always good men who take the lead in the world, and the microcosm of Rugby is no different. He faces challenges from school bullies and weak teachers, which a weaker lad than he might not resist. But I’ll leave you to read it and draw your own conclusions about boarding school life.
