The Varmint

What It's About

Dink Stover arrives at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey full of cheek and bravado, and is quickly mocked for his looks and his past. Over the following school years he tries to turn his mischievous energy into something that will earn him real respect from his classmates. Along the way he deals with bullies, cliques, rivals such as Doc MacNooder, and the heavy pressure of school sport and popularity. It is told in a brisk, humorous style, and its episodes follow Dink's changing standing in the school.

Key Concepts

The novel is about belonging and reputation, and the pull between conformity and independence in a closed boys' community. It also looks at the school's unwritten rules, from hazing to the status of athletes. Some readers find the heavy football focus and the moral tone of the later chapters preachy, but the book was hugely popular with American schoolboys for generations. It is often compared with Kipling's Stalky & Co.

About the Author

Owen Johnson (1878–1952) was an American novelist born in New York City, the son of the poet and editor Robert Underwood Johnson. He attended Lawrenceville and Yale, and drew on his own school days for his fiction. He also worked as a war correspondent during the First World War.