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Tom Brown's Schooldays

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Tom Brown's Schooldays

By: Thomas Hughes
Narrated by: Hugh Bonneville
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Summary

The story of young Tom Brown's seemingly hideous years spent at rugby school and his spirited and astonishingly stalwart response to the institutionalised bullying prevalent at the 'Great' British public schools became exactly the campaigning tool its author hoped it would.

The regimes at these schools had been largely unchallenged, with the assumption being that the education and training received were the best. The revelations in Hughes' book of the beatings and the burnings uncovered a system which had been all but hidden.

Hughes had been a schoolboy at rugby school in the 1830s when the school was run by the educational reformer Dr. Thomas Arnold. Dr. Arnold's idealism transferred itself wholesale to the young Hughes, and the good doctor appears towards the end of Tom Brown's Schooldays as the young master, bearing the light of possible redemption.

Public Domain (P)2008 Silksoundbooks Limited Classics Sports Rugby
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I loved this piece. Enjoyable and remarkable. I loved the narrator, Hugh Bonneville. He's one of the best.

Worth a listen.

Enjoyable

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I could not imagine how much I would enjoy this book, had seen the films before - but so much in the films was glossed over, changed or missed out.
By far the original book is my favourite rendition of this tale.

Unexpectedly brilliant

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Very much a story of privilege with perhaps interest for those enjoying rugby and cricket. Never felt engrossed or encouraged to imagine being there in the story. Rather left with a feeling of being preached at to encourage the spirit of being ‘boys together’ necessary for being in the trenches. Certainly a heavy hint of propaganda.
Only my thoughts of course but did not rate it as a classic.

Narration central to its worth.

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Don't often bother writing reviews these days but this was worth it. Sometimes I listen to classics just because they are classics but they can be a bit dry. This was truly brilliant and enjoyable all the way through. The narration was really skilfull on what must not have been an easy assignment. 100% recommend.

An actually enjoyable classic

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A fantastic book, masterfully read. A story that we all recognise, written with great depth and insight.
I loved it.

Excellent

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