Thomas Hughes

Thomas Hughes ( born October 20, 1822 in Uffington, Oxfordshire ( Berkshire ) earlier, † March 22, 1896 in Brighton ) was an English writer, in social reform engaged politician and lawyer, known for its classic youth book Tom Brown's Schooldays years ( Tom Brown's School Days ) by 1857.

Life

Hughes was the second son of John Hughes, editor of the Boscobel Tracts ( 1830), and went from February 1834 in Rugby to school, then headed by the influential British educators of the 19th century, Thomas Arnold ( 1795-1842 ), a fellow student of his father Oriel College, Oxford. Thomas Hughes was doing at the school produced mainly in cricket, where he brought it up to a game at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London. In 1842 he went to Oriel at Oxford, where he graduated in 1845. In 1848 he was admitted to the bar at the bar. In 1869 he became Queen's Counsel in 1870 and " Bencher " (both honorary title in the British legal system ). In July 1882 he became a judge at the Regional Court in Chester ( County Court judgeship ).

From 1865 to 1868, he was the Liberal Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party for Lambeth and 1868-1874 for Frome. As a committed social reformer ( he supported the Chartists ) he joined in 1848 the movement of Christian Socialists by Frederick Denison Maurice ( 1805-1872 ) at ( the Kingdom of Christ from 1838 had already made a deep impression on him as a student ) and was some of the founding involved earlier unions. In January 1854, he was ( had lost his professorship because of his views in Cambridge ) with Maurice one of the founders of the Workers' School ( Working Men 's College ) at Great Ormond Street in London's Bloomsbury, where he also held regularly, as well as Charles Kingsley Lectures and whose director he was from 1872 to 1883. In 1880 he founded the town of Rugby in the USA in Tennessee, which was intended as a utopian experiment for the second-born sons serving English circles, but had little success.

Hughes married 1848 Frances Ford, with whom he settled in 1853 at Wimbledon. There he wrote his most famous book Tom Brown's School Days (German Tom Brown's Schooldays years), which was released in April 1857. 1861 yet was followed by a sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford.

Tom Brown's Schooldays years

The book Tom Brown's School Days is based on his experiences in rugby and opens with the nostalgic subscribed rural world in the valley of the White Horse at Uffington. Tom Brown ( modeled after Hughes ' ​​brother George ) is a kind-hearted, strong-willed, rather than to sports at teaching interested students. Immediately upon his entry into rugby he became friends with Harry " Scud " East and both have to defend themselves against the snares of an older, rowdy student named Flashman ( the later the novelist George MacDonald Fraser for his satirical Flashman Papers borrowed ). After they were successful in Tom Brown receives in the second part of the book than now even advanced students from the headmaster Thomas Arnold entrusted to the patronage of a new student George Arthur, who is indeed an excellent student, but also sensitive, poor health and a little awkward. Tom Brown defends him against teasing another student, befriends him and takes care of him when he fell seriously ill. Both commit to Christian values ​​and play together in cricket team. The book ends with the return of the adult Tom Brown to Rugby, where he hears of the death of the headmaster Thomas Arnold.

The first German translation of Ernst Wagner appeared in 1867 under the title of Tom Brown's school years. From an old rugby boys. To demonstrate the current state of education in the upper classes of England in the Perthes Verlag Gotha.

The novel was repeatedly filmed, among other things, in 1940 by Robert Stevenson with Jimmy Lydon as Tom Brown and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Thomas Arnold, 1951 by Gordon Parry with John Howard Davies as Tom Brown and Robert Newton as Arnold and in 2005 as a BBC television film under the directed by Dave Moore with Alex Pettyfer as Tom Brown and Stephen Fry as Arnold.

Hughes himself had his greatest success book 1861, the lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford follow.

Works

Fiction

• Tom Brown's School Days (1857; German Tom Brown's school years from an old rugby boys To demonstrate the current state of education in the upper classes of England, Gotha 1867, .. Later editions under the title of Tom Brown's Schooldays years From an old boys. )
• The Scouring of The White Horse (1859 ) (referring to the large prehistoric floor drawing of a white horse near Uffington )

Non-fiction

• Religio Laici (1861 )
• A Layman 's Faith (1868 )
• Life of Alfred the Great (1870 )
• Memoir of a Brother ( 1873) (his brother George )
• The Manliness of Christ ( 1879)
• Rugby Tennessee ( 1881)
• Memoir of David Macmillan (1882 )
• Gone to Texas ( 1884)
• Notes for Boys (1885 )
• James Fraser Second Bishop of Manchester (1887 )
• David Livingstone ( 1889)
• Vacation Rambles ( 1895)
• Early Memories for the Children ( 1899)