Frank Fairlegh

A boy sent to a private tutor's falls in with a set of gentlemen sportsmen, and works his way through duels, debts, a horsewhipping and a villain who follows him for fifteen years. Frank Smedley wrote it as a serial and Cruikshank's plates made it famous; it stands with "Tom Brown" as the school-and-after novel of its generation. The hunting and the boxing are done by someone who knew, and the villain is genuinely frightening.