How did Tom Brown’s School Days help establish the school-story genre?

Published in 1857, Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days is widely credited with establishing the school-story genre in English fiction. The novel helped define this genre by chronicling the life of a student at Rugby School, a famous public school, and capturing the experiences of boyish high spirits, academic challenges, and athletic pursuits.123

The book’s immense popularity—reaching nearly 50 editions by 1890—popularized the ideology of Muscular Christianity, which promoted athletics as a means to instill Christian ethical values, masculinity, and physical discipline. By presenting an enduring image of elite British school life, the novel became a model for the "manly open-air school novel" and proved that such stories were highly capable of being popularized in children’s magazines. Through its focus on the development of character within the school environment, it provided a foundational template for future literature centered on the struggles and growth of youth in educational settings.3241