Ernest Bracebridge, School Days

A very well-written book--one of Kingston's best. It is about various events and personalities in a Victorian school. The boy after whom the book is named is such a heroic character that one can't help wondering if he is really either Kingston's own son, or maybe the son whom Kingston would have liked to have. In one of the last chapters it so happens that some of the boys pay a visit to another school, which happens to be the one your reviewer was at. It was astonishing to me to read of institutions and customs at that school just exactly as they were in my day, seventy years and more later. According to Wikipedia: "William Henry Giles Kingston (28 February 1814 - 5 August 1880), writer of tales for boys, was born in London, but spent much of his youth in Oporto, where his father was a merchant. His first book, The Circassian Chief, appeared in 1844. His first book for boys, Peter the Whaler, was published in 1851, and had such success that he retired from business and devoted himself entirely to the production of this kind of literature, in which his popularity was deservedly great; and during 30 years he wrote upwards of 130 tales, including The Three Midshipmen (1862), The Three Lieutenants (1874), The Three Commanders (1875), The Three Admirals (1877), Digby Heathcote, etc. He also conducted various papers, including The Colonist, and Colonial Magazine and East India Review. He was also interested in emigration, volunteering, and various philanthropic schemes. For services in negotiating a commercial treaty with Portugal he received a Portuguese knighthood, and for his literary labours a Government pension."