Young Barbarians

At Muirtown Seminary, the boys are in revolt. Peter McGuffie, 'Speug' to his companions, is the irrepressible heart of a gang of young barbarians whose greatest ambition is to defy the masters and own the playground. Maclaren captures the exquisite democracy of boyhood: the codes of loyalty, the wars against prefects, the trembling moments of first friendship, and the particular justice that children mete out among themselves. These are not gentle children but fierce, complicated creatures navigating a world of their own making, where a broken promise matters more than any lesson in Greek. Written with affection that borders on rueful, this is a portrait of youth as it truly is, gloriously uncivilized, desperately earnest, and fleeting. For readers who remember the gravity of childhood battles and the people who made them matter.