This delightful story centers on 10-year-old Tom Playfair who is quite a handful for his well-meaning but soft-hearted aunt. Mr. Playfair, his widowed father, decides to ship his son off to St. Maure's boarding school--an all-boys academy run by Jesuits--to shape him up, as well as to help him make a good preparation for his upcoming First Communion. Tom is less than enthusiastic, but his adventures are just about to begin. Life at St. Maure's will not be dull as the reader will soon find out. Father Francis Finn SJ was an early 20th-century Jesuit priest who wrote delightful children's stories about life in Jesuit boarding schools. Taken from his years of experience teaching Catholic boys, Father Finn writes about various human personalities with warmth and humor that makes for enjoyable reading for all types.
In this book, the new kid certainly livens things up at Henryton boarding academy! Again, Fr. Finn covers a host of Catholic topics and presents a great picture of the All-American boy!
Here we have another exciting work of Catholic fiction by Father Finn. This book begins: "GET down," said a harsh voice. "Oh, I say, pa, I can't see my hand in front of my face. It's as dark as pitch." The youthful objector had good reason for his statements. Seated beside his father in an \ automobile, which coincidently with the going out of the headlight had come to a full stop, he was looking out into darkness unrelieved by moon or midnight star. In the light that had just gone out he had seen the road before them narrowing apparently to a cow-path with huge trees and thick undergro, vth on either side. The occupants of the machine had been speeding for full two Hours, starting from a strange village, the name and the situation of which the boy did not know. He was long accustomed to the darkness of a room; but in the open, far from familiar sights, his ears shocked by the weird shriek of the owl and the cries of unknown birds of the night, it is no wonder that the lad became more than a trifle uneasy. He put his hand, as he ceased speaking, caressingly upon his father's shoulder. With rude and unnatural violence the man caught the boy's arnl and threw it off. "Don't be a baby, Bob. Get out, I say." As he spoke, the man seized the boy by the shoulders and almost threw him out. The boy stumbled as he touched the ground and fell. "Ouch I" he cried, and slowly picked himself up. "Now you needn't pretend you're hurt," cried the elder, harshly, as with stiff awkwardness he alighted from the machine. "I want no more baby acts." "I don't have to pretend, pa; I've got a bruise on my knee, and it hurts like fun.
Tom Playfair; Or Making a Start is a book by a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Francis J. Finn S.J., originally published in 1890, and written for youths ages 9-12. Translated into many languages, it is a constant favourite among children of all countries.Suffering from insomnia, Finn started writing using two of his sleepless hours every night on this story, which tells of the ordinary familiar incidents of Catholic residential school life. Finn hoped to give his readers his ideal of a genuine Catholic American boy.Synopsis and narrative styleThe popularity of Percy Wynn, a story he wrote after Tom Playfair, but published before it, prepared the way for the appearance of this first and most popular novel. Idealism and deft moral teaching hid themselves in the pranks of Tom Playfair and his fellows. Hardly had the book appeared in 1890 than it came out in a German translation. That boys of all nations liked Tom Playfair can be seen from the following: besides several editions in German, a Portuguese version appeared in 1908, an Italian in 1910, a Dutch version in 1912, [2] a Polish in 1913, and a French one in 1925. Its universal appeal, manifested by the volume of sales, ranks it with the Frank Merriwell and Tom Brown books. Tom Playfair was always to remain Finn's favourite character, and became in the eyes of hundreds of thousands the typical American Catholic boy.An unusual letter, which arrived at St. Marys about 1910 attests the universal appeal this book was to have. A young Bavarian boy, anxious to find out if Tom Playfair really lived, addressed a letter in his native tongue to "The Very Distinguished Father President of the Jesuit College, near Pawnee River, U. S. A." The state of Kansas was not mentioned; not even the Kaw river; the "Pawnee" was the name Finn gave in his stories to Bourbonnais creek near the college. Yet the letter arrived in due time....................Father Francis J. Finn, (October 4, 1859 - November 2, 1928)was an American Jesuit priest who wrote a series of 27 popular novels for young people. The books contain fun stories, likeable characters and themes that remain current in today's world. Each story conveys an important moral precept.LifeThe son of Irish immigrant parents, Francis J. Finn was born on October 4, 1859, in St. Louis, Missouri; there he grew up, attending parochial schools. As a boy, Francis was deeply impressed with Cardinal Wiseman's famous novel of the early Christian martyrs, Fabiola. Eleven-year-old Francis was a voracious reader; he read the works of Charles Dickens, devouring Nicholas Nickleby and The Pickwick Papers. From his First Communion at age 12, Francis began to desire to become a Jesuit priest. Fr. Charles Coppens urged Francis to apply himself to his Latin, to improve it by using an all-Latin prayerbook, and to read good Catholic books. Fr. Finn credited his vocation to this advice and to his membership in the Sodality of Our Lady.JesuitHe entered the Society of Jesus in 1879 after graduating from St. Louis University. Francis began his Jesuit novitiate and seminary studies on March 24. As a young Jesuit scholastic, he suffered from repeated bouts of sickness. He would be sent home to recover, would return in robust health, then would come down with another ailment. Normally this would have been seen as a sign that he did not have a vocation, yet his superiors kept him on. Fr. Finn commented, "God often uses instruments most unfit to do His work."In 1881 Finn was assigned as a prefect of St. Mary's boarding school or "college" in St. Mary's College, Kansas (which became the fictional "St. Maure's"). Francis was ordained to the priesthood in 1891, and after some time at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he came to St. Xavier College (now Xavier University) in Cincinnati. Fr. Finn spent many years of his priestly life at St. Xavier's............
Here is another work of juvenile fiction by Father Finn. "Oh! THERE he is again. I wonder whether he is coming to see me' The young miss who thus exclaimed, sprang away from the third floor window, out of which she had been leaning for fully a quarter of an hour, hastened to a small looking-glass, gave a dab to her bobbed hair, slipped into her ears a pair of long earrings, ran a lip-stick over her lips, pinched her cheeks into an added redness, fastened a brooch upon her collar, and, as she dashed down the stairs, powdered her nose-all in less time than it takes me to set it down on paper.
We are happy to offer another work of fiction from a century ago that contains wholesome stories for young people. THE WAGER OF GERALD O'ROURKE THE PICKEREL PRINCE THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST A YOUNG HyPOCRITE OUR WESTERN WAITS THE LEGEND ON THE LOCKET BECAUSE HE LOVED MUCH THE BUTT OF THE SCHOOL FREDDIE'S FISHING ADVENTURE THE CHILDREN OF THE SNOW CHARLIE'S VICTORy A BATCH OF LETTERS A VERY UNPOPULAR Boy My STRANGE FRIEND
In this book, the new kid certainly livens things up at Henryton boarding academy! Again, Fr. Finn covers a host of Catholic topics and presents a great picture of the All-American boy!
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.