"IT WAS NOT AT ALL USUAL IN THOSE DAYS FOR TWO SCHOOLHOUSE BOYS TO HAVE A FIGHT": TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS, HANDSOMELY BOUND

(HUGHES, Thomas) (HUGHES, Arthur, illustrator). Tom Brown's School Days, by an Old Boy. London: Macmillan, 1889. Octavo, early 20th-century full brown polished calf gilt, raised bands, green and purple morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $650.

Later illustrated edition of the classic British schoolboy novel, with numerous full-page and in-text wood-engravings by Arthur Hughes and Sidney Hall, handsomely bound in full calf-gilt by Bayntun.

"In 1856 [Thomas] Hughes began to write a story with the idea of thus explaining to his eldest son, Maurice, then about eight, about school life. Tom Brown's School Days was published on 24 April 1857, and by the standards of the time was a best-seller, having sold 28,000 copies by the end of 1862 and gone through 53 editions by 1892. Nor did the fact of its being about an English public school prevent it from circulating widely in America and Europe well into the 20th century… It was published anonymously, but Hughes was soon known to be its author; whatever his later achievements, it was always his claim to fame… Vivid scenes of the trouncing of bullies, and the glories of the cricket and football fields, enliven the narrative, which also has much emphasis on boxing, for Hughes believed passionately in the healthiness and manliness of a fair fight" (ODNB). "In 1859 [illustrator Arthur] Hughes had met the fantasy writer George MacDonald, an immediate friendship leading to the illustration of a great deal of MacDonald's work, beginning with Dealings with the Fairies… This was followed by perhaps his best-known work in this field, the 43 designs for the first illustrated edition of Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's School Days, published in 1869" (ODNB). First published in 1857; the first appearance with Hughes' illustrations came in 1869.

Fine condition, a handsome volume.