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A Dog with a Bad Name By: Talbot Baines Reed (1852-1893) |
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By Talbot Baines Reed
The story opens in a rather run down school. There is an unfortunate
incident in which a boy is almost killed, and a boy of the name of
Jeffreys, not a very popular chap, is held to have been responsible. Thus the dog acquires a bad name. Throughout the next few years of
Jeffreys' life this incident is brought up against him. He is brought
lower and lower, till eventually he finds somewhere to live in the
utmost poverty, amongst the very poor. Here by a twist of fortune he
ends up looking after some abandoned children. There is a fire, and he
rescues somebody, but it is only when he gets that person back to his
room that he realises it is the very person whom he had almost killed
all those years before. This book is very well written. I have been wondering whether it is a
book for teenagers, or a book for adults, and have come to the
conclusion that it's for teenagers, but only the really bright ones, as
there is so much food for thought in it. NH.
A DOG WITH A BAD NAME BY TALBOT BAINES REED CHAPTER ONE. DRY ROT. Bolsover College was in a bad temper. It often was; for as a rule it
had little else to do; and what it had, was usually a less congenial
occupation. Bolsover, in fact, was a school which sadly needed two trifling reforms
before it could be expected to do much good in the world. One was, that
all its masters should be dismissed; the other was, that all its boys
should be expelled. When these little changes had been effected there
was every chance of turning the place into a creditable school; but not
much chance otherwise. For Bolsover College was afflicted with dry rot. The mischief had begun
not last term or the term before. Years ago it had begun to eat into
the place, and every year it grew more incurable. Occasional efforts
had been made to patch things up. A boy had been now and then expelled.
A master had now and then "resigned." An old rule had now and then
been enforced. A new rule was now and then instituted. But you can't
patch up a dry rot, and Bolsover crumbled more and more the oftener it
was touched. Years ago it had dropped out of the race with the other public schools.
Its name had disappeared from the pass list of the University and Civil
Service candidates. Scarcely a human being knew the name of its head
master; and no assistant master was ever known to make Bolsover a
stepping stone to pedagogic promotion. The athletic world knew nothing
of a Bolsover Eleven or Fifteen; and, worse still, no Bolsover boy was
ever found who was proud either of his school or of himself. Somebody asks, why, if the place was in such a bad way, did parents
continue to send their boys there, when they had all the public schools
in England to choose from? To that the answer is very simple. Bolsover
was cheap horribly cheap! "A high class public school education," to quote the words of the
prospectus, "with generous board and lodging, in a beautiful midland
county, in a noble building with every modern advantage; gymnasium,
cricket field, and a full staff of professors and masters," for
something under forty pounds a year, was a chance not to be snuffed at
by an economical parent or guardian. And when to these attractions was
promised "a strict attention to morals, and a supervision of wardrobes
by an experienced matron," even the hearts of mothers went out towards
the place. After all, argues many an easy going parent, a public school education
is a public school education, whether dear Benjamin gets it at Eton, or
Shrewsbury, or Bolsover. We cannot afford Eton or Shrewsbury, but we
will make a pinch and send him to Bolsover, which sounds almost as good
and may even be better. So to Bolsover dear Benjamin goes, and becomes a public school boy. In
that "noble building" he does pretty much as he likes, and eats very
much what he can... Continue reading book >>
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Genres for this book |
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Fiction |
Teen/Young adult |
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