British boarding school stories (was Coming of age in the WW)

[davewitley]

Shaun wrote:

> if you want to 
> get technical, JKR seems to have drawn on the British Boarding 
> School story tradition - from the late 19th Century onwards, the 
> 'Boarding School Story' has been a staple in British children's 
> literature. It is a *massive* genre of hundreds - probably 
> thousands - of books, which millions of children have read over 
the 
> years - and it has its own rules and conventions and the Harry 
> Potter books follow these pretty well.
> 
> I grew up reading British school stories - so I'm very familiar 
> with those traditions. 

I'd be interested to know which examples of this genre people have 
read, and any comparisons to Hogwarts (perhaps we should take this 
back to the main list?).

I can think of, in approximate order of publication:

"Stalky & Co", by Rudyard Kipling (1899).  Very dark, IMO.  The 
sense of the doomedness and futility of empire which pervades much 
of Kipling's work is an interesting comparison to the gathering 
storms of Voldermort's second rise in Harry Potter.  Although my 
memory is hazy, I think its characters do develop.

"Mike at Wrykin", and "Mike and Psmith", by PG Wodehouse (1909), who 
followed Mike and Psmith into the adult world, culminating in the 
classic Blandings story "Leave it to Psmith".  Here IMO the close 
parallel is the page time devoted to sport, with cricket taking the 
place of Quidditch.  In the first book, Mike is a cricket hero; in 
the second, he hates his new school so much he pretends he doesn't 
play - a slightly different authorial ploy to Umbridge's ban.

The Billy Bunter series, by Frank Richards (mostly between the wars 
and immediately post-war?).  There may not actually have 
been 'hundreds' in this series, but it felt like it.  Despite the 
huge number of books, BB never left the Remove, which I think is the 
third year of a Hogwarts-style boarding school for 11-18 year olds.  
(My day grammar school had a Remove, which was that year for the 
majority of the pupils.)  Mr Quelch, the latin master, had IIRC some 
resemblances to Snape, though not in appearance.

The Jennings series, by Anthony Buckeridge (sixties?).  I wouldn't 
mind trying these again as IIRC they were very funny.  About a dozen 
in all and he didn't get any older (than 11) either.  He was at what 
I think is called 'Prep School', aged about 9 - 13.  It's the sense 
of humour that in my mind marks these as similar to Harry Potter.  
(Wodehouse's sense of humour is absent from the 'Mike' books.)  
Buckeridge also wrote a shorter series about an older boy (I think 
at day school) called Rex Milligan.

I'm not sure to what extent I'd recommend any of the above to HP 
fans as an automatic 'if you like Harry you'll like this', but there 
they are for those who might be interested.

I mentioned the darkness of Kipling's book.  It's worth noting that 
CS Lewis based the milieu of the NICE in "That Hideous Strength", 
IMO a deeply disturbing book, on his experiences at Malvern, which 
he hated.  The experience of boarding school seems generally better 
at second hand.

I'm sure there are others but I can't think of them right now.

Any reminiscences?

David