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The History Boys

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 2,782 ratings · 129 reviews

"A play of depth as well as dazzle, intensely moving as well as thought-provoking and funny." --The Daily Telegraph

An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form (or senior) boys in a British boys' school are, as such boys will be, in pursuit of sex, sport, and a place at a good university, generally in that order. In all their efforts, they are helped and hindered, enlighte...more

Paperback, 109 pages

Published April 4th 2006 by Faber & Faber (first published June 17th 2004)

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Mar 28, 2013 Manny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: well-i-think-its-funny, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, parody-homage, story-review, pooh-dante

IRWIN: So, what do we think of The History Boys then?

RUDGE: It's a classroom drama, sir. Set in Yorkshire during the early 80s. Features a clash between two different styles of teaching, embodied by the two contrasting teachers, Mr. Hector and Mr. Irwin, who...

IRWIN: Yes, yes, yes, everyone will write that. I am results-focussed, Mr. Hector teaches you the true value of culture. Perfect if you want to get into Bristol. Ideal for Sheffield. Someone else?

SCRIPPS: It's got witty and inventive dialo...more

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Sep 11, 2008 Tom rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: nobody, really.

Recommended to Tom by: a bunch of typically clueless NYC and London drama critics.

Utterly useless play. The occasional "witty" line, but the whole thing felt very self-serving, self-congratulatory, and mechanical. And this pile of self-consciously Teddibly Intellectual Claptrap won the Tony for Best Play over Martin McDonagh's magnificent LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE.

The reviews I've read seem to think the play is a sort of battle of wills between Hector and another teacher for the souls of a group of boys doing an intensive cram session for their college boards. Hector supposedl...more Utterly useless play. The occasional "witty" line, but the whole thing felt very self-serving, self-congratulatory, and mechanical. And this pile of self-consciously Teddibly Intellectual Claptrap won the Tony for Best Play over Martin McDonagh's magnificent LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE.

The reviews I've read seem to think the play is a sort of battle of wills between Hector and another teacher for the souls of a group of boys doing an intensive cram session for their college boards. Hector supposedly represents the joy of learning for its own sake, while the other guy is all about passing the tests by any means necessary, history truth beauty be damned. The titular boys are a pretty mixed bag, but the play eventually sort of focuses on three of them: The Cute One, The Religious One, and The Gay One. The Gay One, of course, is hopelessly and predictably in love with The Cute One. There's even Fat One.

The play's lone female role is shoehorned into the story, mainly so that the women in the audience can have someone to identify with. It gets rather cloying, though, and I was frankly annoyed by her little speech about history being all about men's failures: it felt entirely too much as if Bennett had suddenly decided to pander to the women in the audience to keep them from finding the play a bore. A more interesting female character might have been Hector's wife, but that would have gone into territory that Mr. Bennett isn't going to touch, as it might be something irresolvable with a witty one-liner, and would have shifted the focus away from the Boys.

One of the major plot points is Hector's unfortunate habit of fondling his students. Mr. Bennett and his play bend over backward to present this as a harmless eccentricity, but it just doesn't wash. Sorry, I don't have a problem with someone losing their job for groping students. And I found myself wondering about the simple mechanics of it. We're supposed to believe that the morbidly obese Hector (at least as played by the brilliant but morbidly obese Richard Griffiths) plays with the genitals of students sitting behind him on a motorcycle. In broad daylight. At a public intersection. Every day. And only a woman behind the counter in a thrift shop notices.

And I was not happy with the tragic fates of the gay characters. One dead, one in a wheelchair, one a housebound emotional cripple, while the straight folks all live (more or less, this is Alan Benett's universe after all) happily and wealthily ever after. And people bitched about BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN perpetuating the myth of gayness as misery?

Down, blood pressure, down...(less)

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May 06, 2013 Cecily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays

Bennett at his best: witty, erudite and controversial.

This play is set in the 1980s in a boys’ grammar (selective state) school where a new head is determined to get some of his brighter history pupils into prestigious Oxford and Cambridge colleges via additional lessons by three very different teachers: Hector, Irwin and also Mrs Lintott. Hector has been there for years; Irwin is young and brought in specially to help with Oxbridge exams and interviews; Mrs Lintott is a somewhat motherly figure...more Bennett at his best: witty, erudite and controversial.

This play is set in the 1980s in a boys’ grammar (selective state) school where a new head is determined to get some of his brighter history pupils into prestigious Oxford and Cambridge colleges via additional lessons by three very different teachers: Hector, Irwin and also Mrs Lintott. Hector has been there for years; Irwin is young and brought in specially to help with Oxbridge exams and interviews; Mrs Lintott is a somewhat motherly figure who wants to remind them that women exist.

The boys are taught to think quickly and originally, to play the system and to find new ways to be themselves. It conveys the power of inspirational and unconventional education to break social barriers, whilst fully acknowledging the continuing power of them. The importance of social mobility is a hot topic in the current political climate; the role of grammar schools to help achieve it is much more controversial.

But are they being taught style over substance – or both? Hector is passionate about imparting knowledge to make them rounded individuals (regardless of targets or quantifiable results), while Irwin teaches techniques and finding a quirky angle to make them stand out. When Irwin asks the boys about the different teaching methods, he’s told “It’s just the knowledge... the pursuit of it for its own sake... not useful... like your [Irwin’s:] lessons”. Irwin tells them “truth is no more an issue in an examination than thirst at a wine-tasting or fashion at a striptease.” and “Flee the crowd... Be perverse... history nowadays is not a matter of conviction. It’s a performance. It’s entertainment.”

Parts are laugh-out-loud funny (Rudge defining history as “just one fucking thing after another”), whilst other parts are sad or troubling, most obviously the difficult question of whether slight inappropriate sexual behaviour by a teacher to a nearly adult pupil is as evil as current paedo paranoia would have us believe. The boys are resigned and slightly mocking of this eccentricity. When Hector has to stop giving them lifts on his bike, Dakin and Scripps joke, “No more genital massage as one speeds along leafy suburban roads... he dropped you at the corner, your honour still intact... Are we scarred for life, do you think? We must hope so. Perhaps it will turn me into Proust.” So what should the penalty be?

A wonderful quote that I failed to note down, but then picked up from Ana's excellent review of Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four" (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...): “The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.”

Note that the play, especially the ending, is slightly different from the film.
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Jan 18, 2008 Tung rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play in 2006, along with a host of other Tonys, this play focuses on eight students at a London school preparing for the British national entrance exams for Cambridge and Oxford (and other secondary schools), and two of their teachers: Hector is their English/General Studies teacher who inspires the boys to memorize and recite classic literature for the sake of pure knowledge rather than for the purpose of prepping for any one test; Irwin is their newly-hired Hi...more

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Feb 08, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama, favorites, read-and-reread

The award-winning play by Alan Bennett is a great read. More devoted to the influence of words (the "dictionary" boy role of Posner) and music than the later screenplay, the play emphasizes the differing perspectives on education of the two lead teachers (Hector and Irwin). Without the need to "open up" demanded by film Bennett focuses on the schoolroom and uses subtle effects to effect his dramatic purpose. One aspect of the play that stands out is the multiple narrators throughout the drama. H...more The award-winning play by Alan Bennett is a great read. More devoted to the influence of words (the "dictionary" boy role of Posner) and music than the later screenplay, the play emphasizes the differing perspectives on education of the two lead teachers (Hector and Irwin). Without the need to "open up" demanded by film Bennett focuses on the schoolroom and uses subtle effects to effect his dramatic purpose. One aspect of the play that stands out is the multiple narrators throughout the drama. He is at his epigrammatic best and the performances in New York showed this as noted by the Advocate review. Bennett is successful in creating a delightful dramatic and comedic portrayal of ideas, all while evoking the spirit of bright young scholars at a key turning point in their lives. With reference to and in the spirit of Shakespeare he is successful in creating a delightful dramatic and comedic portrayal of ideas, all while evoking the spirit of bright young scholars at a key turning point in their lives.The battle between educational styles, the approaches to teaching of each of the teachers, stood out for me. The foundation is Mrs. Lintott's straightforward approach to teaching history which has produced "well taught" boys, but that is not enough. The headmaster, in his "wisdom" adds into the mix a young teacher just up from Oxford to give the students an "edge". It is his, Mr. Irwin's, method that is the one of paradox and turning the historical facts upside-down, with little regard for the "truth" of the situation that will go to battle with the methods of Hector, the "general studies" teacher who is enlisting the boys into a conspiracy against the world and the "education" they are supposedly receiving.

Mrs. Lintott: They're all clever. I saw to that.
Hector: You give them an education. I give them the wherewithal to resist it.
-
Scripps: But it's all true.
Irwin: What has that got to do with it? What has that got to do with anything?

With all of this battle of educational styles there is the undercurrent of eroticism, both due to the nature of education itself, as Hector points out, and due to the psychological tensions among Dakin and his two admirers, Posner and Irwin. This combination, which explodes at times to produce riveting moments of theater, is what makes this play great. That and the magnificent literary style of Bennett.

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Jun 19, 2007 Skip rated it 3 of 5 stars

Great play. I've only read it. I'd love to see a stage production.
Imagine, an education that actually gives people an experience and challenges them...
But it definitely had some classic lines such as this scene when Hector and Mrs. Lintott are discussing H. fondling he boys' balls.
Mrs. Lintott: A grope is a grope. It's not the annunciation.
(That's hilarious.)

Or the scene when Hector and Posner are reading Thomas Hardy.
Hector: The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a...more

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Jan 25, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: drama

The screenplay by Alan Bennett based on his award-winning play. This is a mesmerizing meditation on the meaning of education, history and life. Set in a boys' school in northern England in the early 1980's Bennet creates characters that share wonderfully witty dialogue as they attempt to learn about life, love and themselves; all whilst studiously preparing for the entrance exams and interviews for admittance to Oxford & Cambridge. The screenplay stands on its own and is a wonderful compleme...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Will Gillham rated it 5 of 5 stars

How a writer can cram so much wit, intelligence, and culture into one play astounds me.

Reading this during my A-Levels (whilst studying History) it completely reflects upon the absurdity, pressure, and confusion one feels at the turning point in your life: "If they like me and they want to take me because I'm dull and ordinary ... I may not know much about Jean-Paul Sartre, but I've got a handicap of four."

This is a play that can spark debates and conversations as lively as those found in the te...more

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May 20, 2012 El rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, sunday-reading-plan, thespian-stuff

Some plays just are better when seen performed on the stage. Sometimes just reading a play loses something in the... well, translation. I have a feeling The History Boys is one of those. I'll bet on stage it's pretty interesting. I hear there's a movie from a few years ago that probably is worth watching. (This is all not to be confused with The Emperor's Club, the 2002 movie with Kevin Kline. I can't explain why but I seriously thought it might be based on this play. It was not. Silly rabbit! W...more Some plays just are better when seen performed on the stage. Sometimes just reading a play loses something in the... well, translation. I have a feeling The History Boys is one of those. I'll bet on stage it's pretty interesting. I hear there's a movie from a few years ago that probably is worth watching. (This is all not to be confused with The Emperor's Club, the 2002 movie with Kevin Kline. I can't explain why but I seriously thought it might be based on this play. It was not. Silly rabbit! Whatever, these boarding school/prep school titles all run together after a while.)

This play is about a handful of smart British boys in a boarding school who do what boys do - talk about sex and stuff. Then there are three teachers, all of whom have completely different teaching styles, but it really comes down to who has the "better" teaching style, Hector or Irwin. I don't even know what the purpose was of Lintott at all, other than she was the token female in the entire play.

Don't get me wrong, I think education is pretty spanking important, I encourage everyone to give it a try. That being said, I'm a mediocre student myself because, whatever, man, I want to learn what I want to learn, and tests and exams don't make me a smarter person, and I am a horrible test-taker anyway. What do grades really show you anyway? Not much, not in the long run, yet so much depends on those grades. The things I've learned on my own through my own reading outside of school has surpassed most of what I've learned while I was in school. And, well, that's pretty much the debate here in this play.

There's certainly more to it than just that (other stuff that we've all experienced by reading/watching other stories about boarding schools/prep schools), but it felt like there wasn't much to it. Again, I think that has more to do with the sitting-and-reading aspect, and I'd likely feel differently if I watched an actual performance. But then, I'm a visual person anyway.

I gave this an extra star just for including a part from this.(less)

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Jan 11, 2012 Kestrell rated it 3 of 5 stars

This play explores the question of what is the ultimate goal of an education?Is it to allow an individual to reason, develop his own ideas and identity, and to express himself? Or is it to learn how to be political, a salesman, who can create himself as a brand and sell it to as many people as possible, no matter how little unique content there might be? Perhaps that last is more harsh than what the playwright inteneded, but I found this play to be lacking the sense of gentle, wry compassion whi...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Chelsea rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama, coming-of-age, gay-lesbian-fiction, absolute-favorite

The History Boys, a play by Alan Bennett, is an absolutely wonderful play, and was made it to quite a movie, as well (which I’ll talk about a bit more later). The play focuses on a group of boys whom are all trying to get in to Cambridge and Oxford with the help of three core faculty members: their female history teacher, they’re gay male “general studies” teacher, and a new teacher – Irwin – a young man wh is responsible for teaching the boys how to be original enough to actually get in to Oxfo...more The History Boys, a play by Alan Bennett, is an absolutely wonderful play, and was made it to quite a movie, as well (which I’ll talk about a bit more later). The play focuses on a group of boys whom are all trying to get in to Cambridge and Oxford with the help of three core faculty members: their female history teacher, they’re gay male “general studies” teacher, and a new teacher – Irwin – a young man wh is responsible for teaching the boys how to be original enough to actually get in to Oxford and Cambridge.

The play’s main male lead, Dakin, is a cocky student who is used to getting what he wants. He’s an intelligent boy, who uses his intelligence to manipulate those around him. Its fantastic! I’m in love with him. So much so that there is a serious need for me to re-do my list of most desirable male fictional leads. The best part of the play, however, is what it has to say about the study of history in and of itself. The play, through Irwin, advocates for taking history and spinning it on its head. See Stalin as an evil human being? Irwin tells the boys to find something – ANYTHING – good to say about Stalin and make the case that maybe he wasn’t so evil after all. Writing an essay on the Church at the eve of the Reformation? Mention the 14 foreskins of Christ to really make a bang. Part of it speaks to the general hipocracy and the lengths students will go to in order to make sure that their essays stand out above the rest. As a student, I recognize this method and know that, in all honesty, there is quite a bit of truth to how effective it is. On the other hand, its an admonission to look at the other side of the story – the side of history that perhaps the loser would have told, or the side that no one gives much thought to in the cultural lexicon. As a lover of history (particularly the untold history) I found this aspect of the play to be quite intriguing as well.

One of the other things I loved about the book had to do with the relationship between Hector (the gay “general studies” professor) and the boys. Hector takes the boys home from school on his motorcycle (a different boy daily) and, on the way home, reaches behind him and begins to fondle the boys. At first, as a reader, I was really, really surprised at this. However, to both Hector and the boys, this isn’t something worth paying attention to. It is merely something that happens – a course of action chosen by their eccentric teacher that all the boys must deal with. A personality quirk. Later, when Dakin begins to hit on Irwin, the question of the line between teacher and student, a line which has already been blurred, is erased almost entirely. And, while I am adamantly against inappropriate student-teacher relations, it adds a dimension to the play that really make it an even more worthwhile read.

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May 06, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Cheryl by: Cait

Shelves: e-book, plays, literature, literary, british

A wonderful, witty play. A group of eight teenage boys are in their final year of school, preparing to take scholarship examinations for university. Oxford or Cambridge admission is the big prize. Their teachers have different ideas about the role of education which seem competitive but are complementary.

The boys and teachers verbally joust and show off throughout the play as they struggle to find what they think will be the best way to succeed at the exams. Should they learn to be showmen of h...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Neil Schleifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays

A wonderful, but flawed, look at the nature of education -- a subject that is STILL being debated in classrooms and school districts around the country and around the world. Douglas Hector, a British teacher looks at his working-class boys and sees the possibility that the things they learn will have practical meaning to them at some point in their lives. Even if they just remember the words of a poet they'd read in his class when they encounter unexpected beauty in the world years later when th...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Saïdeh Pakravan rated it 5 of 5 stars

In our pompous, self-important times, this lovely Alan Bennett book (also a lovely film by Nicholas Hytner (check out my review for screencomment here http://screencomment.com/2007/08/a-ge... a totally un-pc look at a posh boys' public school (which, as you know, means private) in the UK. A delight from start to finish. The first sentence from this review (sorry for quoting myself) sets the tone:
"Surely, Hector (Richard Griffiths) must be the sweetest old teacher ever to have groped the genitals...more

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Feb 27, 2008 Kari rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is the worst thing I have read in a long time. It deal with so many issues that still relevant in the school system, but it seems that the writer just wrote in certain thing for audience gratification. I would never recommend this book to anyone.

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May 08, 2013 Micha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century, books-what-i-liked, for-laughs, magister-artium, play-on, queer-readings

So I'd seen the film a dozen times but already knew the chief differences between play and film (the downer ending of the play, in particular), so I was spared some degree of devastation at the two being different. The ending confuses me, really, because till this point I'd sort of conflated Bennett and Posner which might've been wrong of me to do, but Posner's fate, while it has a very British pessimistic realism to it, is not what I should hope Bennett feels his own fate is. It is a bit Hollyw...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Dr. Tim added it

I have an affection for the writings of Alan Bennett. Having seen this play on Broadway and others of his in the West End of London, I am working my way through his extensive back catalogue. Though a little whimsical at times, his eccentric style of writing should not detract from his outstanding ability to weave tales and create curious characters. Having grown up in the North of England and gone on to University, I can entirely associate with characters such as Hector, Irwin and Litott and how...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Shannon Charnock rated it 4 of 5 stars

I first saw the film adaptation, which is one of my favourite movies. I read this and was surprised that the ending was a bit different (SPOILER WARNING: in the epilogue-y bit, it is revealed that none of the boys dies, unlike the film, but the ending felt much darker and was less optimistic than the film). I am very curious to know what prompted the storyline changes between play and film. Obviously some things must be changed because they cannot be translated from page to screen, but the story...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Earl Dizon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, audio-books

The History Boys by Alan Bennett. This was an audio book full cast dramatization of a play I watched but in its theatrical version. The storyline is very similar to "The Dead Poets Society"- another movie I enjoyed. Both had eccentric teachers who taught the students more than what was in the lesson books. The scenes that didn't make it to the movie were kind of hard to visualize at first as there was no narration or reading of stage directions, only of dialogue and occasional movement sounds. R...more

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Oct 07, 2009 Mghulett rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read this play at least twelve times. Same with the movie. It's a play about a group of high school boys that are in the Oxford/Cambridge group (they have the highest grades and are eligible for these two colleges.) Through out their senior year they must cram in not only facts about history, culture, and literature but they are given a new teacher who teaches them how to spice up their essays. There are many twists in the story but i'm not going to reveal them... I think that EVERYONE shou...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Bennett's depiction of eight young students as they go through the rigours of the Oxbridge application process is possibly my favourite piece of drama. This witty, thought provoking, academic and sometimes risqué tour de force presents the strife and stresses of youth with uncanny ease and clarity. Having enjoyed the famous adaptation starring Dominic Cooper and James Corden I felt compelled to read the original script. And, this afternoon in library, so engrossed was I that I read it in one sit...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Ariya J. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-stars, coming-of-age, finish-in-one-row, homosexual-related, i-watched-the-movie, criticism, play

I miss my boys! I give 4 stars for god's sake nostalgia. I watched The History Boys before Dead Poet Society therefore it seems to be very first the window opening my eyes in to the western education.

'Criticism' shelf is for the main theme I appreciate about its plot, nonetheless it doesn't show directly the contents the book(and movie) like this always stands for, like, the value of education and how are we supposed to be the self-improved or try to make a live-living not depending on 'what ar...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Lynsey Davidson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The reason I chose to read this book is because I have been a huge fan of the movie that I wondered whether reading it on paper would have another effect on me. The thing is, I have seen the film so many times that I literally know it word for word, scene by scene so when it came to reading the book I was not overwhelmed by surprise at all. I pretty much skipped a few lines because I knew what was to come.

The one thing I love about the play/film is the characters. Each are individual and have th...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Megan rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: read-in-2011, donated

Honestly, this has to be one of the worst plays I have ever read. Apparently according to multiple reviews this is Bennett's best play ever. That worries me slightly.

There are so many problems with The History Boys, where should I start?

There are twelve characters (all main) in this play. None of them have defined characters. The cast could have been cut down over 50%. There are eight boys: Posner, Dakin, Scripps, Rudge, Lockwood, Akthar, Timms and Crother. Only three of these boys are really...more Honestly, this has to be one of the worst plays I have ever read. Apparently according to multiple reviews this is Bennett's best play ever. That worries me slightly.

There are so many problems with The History Boys, where should I start?

There are twelve characters (all main) in this play. None of them have defined characters. The cast could have been cut down over 50%. There are eight boys: Posner, Dakin, Scripps, Rudge, Lockwood, Akthar, Timms and Crother. Only three of these boys are really given a chance, Posner, Dakin and Scripps. The rest honestly are blob of uniformity. Rudge lies in the middle he has some character but is not given the privilege of Posner, Dakin and Scripps to be more defined. There really just needed to be Posner, Dakin, Scripps and Rudge, and have Rudge be the one you question if he needs to be there.

There's four adults in the play, three teachers and one headmaster (who by the way is just called 'Headmaster'). The play is supposed to be about the power struggle of two of these teachers, the 'eccentric' English teacher, Hector and the new by-the-book history teacher, Irwin. Who is the third teacher then? It's the only female in the entire cast, Dorothy Lintott, who is also a history teacher. Dorothy's only purpose for the play is to be a buffer zone between Irwin and Hector. That is it. Yay! That's our female character everyone! Wow, what a waste.

You might have noticed that I put the word eccentric is quotations before. The English teacher Hector happens to be a *drum roll* pedophile. He molests seven of the eight boys repeatedly. If this wasn't 'fantastic' enough Bennett decided to write Hector's molestation of his students as 'no big deal'. All of the boys rather like being fondled by Hector and the one who doesn't get molested envies his classmates. And instead of immediately firing Hector for molesting almost all of his students, the Headmaster just 'punishes' him by having him share his classes with the new history teacher, Irwin. And apparently, the new history teacher also has a taste for young boys as well since there is some sexual tension between him and Dakin and they even agree to go on a date. I mean, really? REALLY? I am the only one who sees how sick, wrong, immoral, flawed all of this is? It's ridiculous. And by the way (spoilers ahead) everyone mourns Hector at the end when he is killed. Apparently everyone forgot in a matter of pages that he was a sick pervert. I was pleased when he died. Hector is not a character whose death I cry over. He deserved to die. It was the one thing Bennett did right about this play.

Do I really have more to rant about? Why yes, yes I do. But honestly...? Do you really need me to keep going on and on about this one? I think you get the point by now.

Who do I recommend this to? No one.

I have to say one thing. The script for this is horrible. But maybe if I saw this live or even saw the movie version I might find it tolerable or even like it. Who knows?

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Aug 06, 2011 Angélique rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays

3 1/2 Stars. I can't recall what made me interested in this play a few years ago, nor can I explain exactly what I have gained from it now that I've read it...but there is definitely something touching and soul-trembling about this play. It connects with something beyond cognition and verbalization so that one encounters the play on two levels--one concerned with the reality which the play represents and the other concerned with the emotional current which gently prods reality forward--much as t...more

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Jan 21, 2008 Rick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

Funny, barbed play about English secondary education at a humdrum public school that aspires to get some of its top students into Oxford or Cambridge. Two characters, the prissy and brilliant General Studies professor (Hector) and the provocative but shallow and conflicted tutor (Irwin) who is brought in to prep the boys for their entrance exams, battle for what they imgaine is the minds and souls of the boys. (To Bennett's credit the boys aren't nearly as sure what the fuss is about in terms of...more

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Sep 24, 2007 Núria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007, 5-favoritos, mios, teatro, siglo-xxi, literatura-en-ingles

'The History Boys' es una obra ambientada en el Sheffield de principios de los años 80 y los protagonistas son un grupo de adolescentes que se tienen que preparar para hacer un examen para poder entrar en Oxford o Cambridge. Es verdad que estos jovencitos parten de unas personalidades arquetípicas, pero consiguen ser únicos y reales gracias a los diálogos (frescos, rapidísimos y vivos). Es una obra sobre crecer, enamorarse, dejar atrás la adolescencia, intentar construir tu personalidad... Es un...more

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Jul 13, 2007 stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

because i am an intellectual snob, and because i am a sucker for british accents, and because i LOVE history, and because i went to an all-girls school that decidedly wanted to get everyone into the ivies, i must admit i'm a little bit of a biased reader.

(basic plot of the play: everyone is trying to get into oxford, and are therefore studying for their major exams in history. sex plays a large role - or, really, rather, lust.)

however, i also must admit i found some of the characters annoying,...more

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Feb 06, 2008 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays

Absolutely amazing. I loved the movie despite its flaws and the original play is just 1000X better. These are the boys I wanted to know in high school. They're pretentious (of course) but have enough intelligence and wit to back it up. I just have so much love and empathy for Scripps with his constant journal-writing and not just doing. I love his insights into the Dakin/Irwin fiasco. Scripps is the perfect commentator on his friend's various activities, while letting us know that he's too scare...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Pete daPixie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dramatics, fiction, 20thc-english

First published and premiered in 2004, Alan Bennett's play 'The History Boys' inherits much from the authors own experiences of his school days in Leeds and Oxbridge. The character of Posner in this play portrays many features of the sixteen year old Bennett.
A short read, with a play barely more than one hundred pages, I can never say that a cold script reading compares anything like a stage performance. Even so, Alan Bennett's effeminacy and his delicate parochial phraseology never fails to mak...more

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About Alan Bennett

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as...more

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Quotes from The History Boys

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours” — 2,030 people liked it

“How do I define history? It's just one fucking thing after another"
- Rudge” — 59 people liked it

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The History Boys

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