Tom Brown's Schooldays

An influential school-based novel set at Rugby, a public school for boys, in the nineteenth century. It tells how the boys are taught to be virtuous, honest and steadfast, even in the face of bullying and possibly unfair punishments. It is a book that passes the test of time, despite the risible Victorian stiff-upper-lip ideology, and as a bonus it introduces the famous villain Harry Flashman, the character who would later be reincarnated by George MacDonald Fraser for his popular series of Flashman novels.