Tom Brown at Oxford
1861
What makes this book matter: It captures a vanished world, the dreaming spires of Oxford in an era when a young man could still be defined by the cut of his coat and the breadth of his shoulders. Thomas Hughes continues the story of Tom Brown, now eighteen and arriving at the fictional St Ambrose's College, where the ancient rhythms of university life unfold against deeper currents of class and character. The novel pulses with physical vitality: rowing on the river, cricket on the lawn, the rough humor of shared rooms and late-night debates. But beneath the adventure lies a quieter exploration of what it means to grow up, to navigate social barriers, and to discover what kind of man one will become. Tom encounters the wealthy gentleman-commoners and the struggling scholars, the tutors who inspire and those who merely endure. His journey through Oxford is both a celebration of friendship and an honest reckoning with the rigid hierarchies of Victorian England. For readers who loved the warmth and spirit of Tom Brown's School Days, this sequel offers a richer, more complex portrait of a young man finding his place in the world.
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“You are no longer a boy, and one of the first duties which a man owes to his friends and to society is to live within his income.””
— Thomas Hughes
“Blessed is the man who has the gift of making friends; for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of oneself, and seeing and appreciating whatever is noble and living in another man.””
— Thomas Hughes
“For some days after his return home”
— Thomas Hughes
“Anyone who takes a decided line in certain matters, is sure to lead all the rest.””
— Thomas Hughes
“While one was an undergraduate, one could feel virtuous and indignant at the vices of Oxford, at least at those which one did not indulge in, particularly at the flunkeyism and money-worship which are our most prevalent and disgraceful sins. But when one is a fellow it is quite another affair. They become a sore burthen then, enough to break one's heart.””
— Thomas Hughes
“After a sharp inward struggle, he concluded to stay and see it out. He should despise himself, more than he cared to face, if he gave in now.””
— Thomas Hughes
“The faces of your young people in general are not interesting”
— Thomas Hughes
“The least of the muscular Christians has hold of the old chivalrous and Christian belief, that a man's body is given him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, the advancement of all righteous causes, and the subduing of the earth which God has given to the children of men. He does not hold that mere strength or activity are in themselves worthy of any respect or worship, or that one man is a bit better than another because he can knock him down, or carry a bigger sack of potatoes than he.””
— Thomas Hughes
“This work of making trade righteous, of Christianizing trade, looks like the very hardest the Gospel has ever had to take in hand”
— Thomas Hughes
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Hughes, Thomas. Tom Brown at Oxford. Lex, lex-books.com/book/tom-brown-at-oxford-7c79c52c-9677-4ad0-89bf-014fbf662c13.Hughes, T. (1861). Tom Brown at Oxford. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/tom-brown-at-oxford-7c79c52c-9677-4ad0-89bf-014fbf662c13Hughes, Thomas. Tom Brown at Oxford. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/tom-brown-at-oxford-7c79c52c-9677-4ad0-89bf-014fbf662c13.
