Tom Brown’s Schooldays

　　Tom Brown's Schooldays is one of the classics of English children's literature and one of the earliest books written specifically for boys. The novel's steady popularity has given it an influence well beyond the upper middle-class world that it describes. Thomas Hughes, a dedicated political liberal and active social reformer, infused his story of a pre-Victorian boy's progress through Rugby School with the humane moral principles of his own mentor, Thomas Arnold. The book is more than an account of how 'the commonest type of English boy' fares at an influential public school, for it also develops arguments about the nature of good government, moral education, and the integrity of the individual. Its story is central to understanding many leading aspects of Victorian life, and its earnestness, freshness, and relaxed tolerance keep it vividly alive.