TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS

Lively and mischievous, idle and brave, Tom Brown is both the typical boyof his time and the perennial hero celebrated by authors as diverse asHenry Fielding (in "Tom Jones") and Alec Waugh (in "The Loom of Youth").The book describes Tom's time at Rugby School from his first footballmatch, through his troubled adolescence when he is savagely bullied by theunspeakable Flashman, to his departure for a wider world as a confidentyoung man. This classic tale of a boy's schooldays under the benevolenteye of the renowned Dr Arnold still retains the appeal for which it wasacclaimed on its first publication in 1857. In its less well-known sequel,"Tom Brown at Oxford", we follow our hero to St Ambrose's College, and, insharing his undergraduate experiences, gain a vivid impression ofuniversity life in the mid nineteenth century.