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Tom Brown’s School Days
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illustration of Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days
illustration of Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days Illustration by Hugh Thomson for the 1918 edition of Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days.

Tom Brown’s School Days

novel by Hughes
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Article History

Tom Brown’s School Days, novel by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857. Tom Brown is an early, well-drawn character in what was to become a familiar genre in English fiction: a chronicle of life at an English boys’ boarding school.

In the novel, Tom, a student at Rugby School in the time of Thomas Arnold’s headmastership, is harassed by the school bully, Flashman, but overcomes his trials. During his school career, Tom does very well academically and on the playing fields.

Hughes wrote a sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861), which was not as well received as its predecessor. Robert Stevenson directed a 1940 film adaptation of Tom Brown’s School Days.

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.