Thomas Hughes (1822-1896) wrote his first book, the textbook novel “The Schooldays of Tom Brown,” in 1857. The novel was partly autobiographical in nature and became the first work in English literature that described the everyday life of an ordinary English school. The release of the novel, written in a lively, exciting manner, was a resounding success (by 1890, about fifty reprints had been published in England alone).

Translation and notes by Yulia Glek, 2006. The text of the novel is translated according to the edition Hughes T. Tom Brown's Schooldays. Penguin Books, 1994.