One fine summer evening Flashman had been regaling himself on gin-punch, at Brownsover and, having exceeded his usual limits, started home uproarious. About halfway through the book, Flashman is abruptly expelled and the reader doesn’t see him again: It’s a remarkably moral book: the sympathetic Tom and his schoolfriend’s nemesis is the bully Flashman, who roasts Tom over a fire and throws boys around in a strange game of blanket tossing. No wonder that dayschool boys through the years have read the book with a sigh. pigeon pie and hot kidneys at 7:30) he is regaled with fearsome Rugby legends by the local John: watches two boys run a mile in 4 minutes 56 seconds arrives at noon goes on a tour with East gets some new togs takes part part in that vast rugger match (50 to 60 boys to a side – can it be?) is noticed by the giant head boy Brooke has tea of toasted sausages does his solo turn in the evening’s singing gets his first impact of Doctor Arnold taking prayers and ends up being tossed in a blanket. Was there ever such a first day at school as Tom’s? After riding by coach through the frozen night (coffee and hard biscuit at three am.
What makes the book live is that the whole thing is seen throughout from a boy’s view, and the boy who sees it relishes it all. Hughes intended the book to be a treatise against bullying but also a celebration of school life. The novel is set at Rugby boarding school , which Hughes had attended, and he wrote the book for his young son who was about to attend. Hughes was a lawyer, judge, social reformer and Liberal MP.
The character Flashman first appeared in the 1857 novel Tom Brown’s School Dayswritten by Thomas Hughes. The following article is taken from a talk I gave for Waterstones Lunchtime Classics series:
0 kommentar(er)
