Eric, or Little by Little is an 1858 novel by Frederic W. Farrar. It follows Eric Williams, a boy attending Roslyn School. He makes friends and achieves success both socially and academically, but also encounters bullies, bad influences, and the temptation to abandon his morals for popularity.
Eric, or Little by Little contains examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The story is set in the late 1840s, judging by the date on Russell's tombstone.
- Aloof Big Brother: When Eric's younger brother Vernon arrives at Roslyn, Eric is embarrassed to be seen with him and acts cold and distant. Without Eric's guidance, Vernon befriends Brigson, the worst bully and troublemaker of the lower forms.
- Anxiety Dreams: When Eric is being blackmailed, he has nightmares that Brigson and Billy are demanding five pounds from him on pain of death while pigeons swarm him. In the dream, Eric asks Wildney and Mr Rose for help, but they turn from him, while a chorus of voices cries 'Williams, you are a thief!'
- Bedsheet Ladder: Eric uses two tied-together sheets to climb out his bedroom window when he runs away to escape the shame of being an accused thief.
- Blackmail: Eric and his friends secretly buy wine and brandy from a petty criminal named Billy. After Eric decides to stop his rule-breaking, Billy tells him that he knows Eric and his friends stole some of Mr Gordon's pigeons months ago, and threatens to report it if Eric doesn't give him five pounds. Eric knows he'll be expelled if Dr Rowlands finds out he stole the pigeons, but he can't think of a way to scrape together five pounds. He steals the money from the cricket-fund box, then has an attack of conscience and puts it back, but he doesn't have time to take the key out of the lock. Days later, Billy breaks in, sees the key in the lock, and steals all the money in the box, over six pounds. Eric is blamed for the theft.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Eric spends his first few years at or near the top of his form. But as he gets older and more rebellious, he stops caring about schoolwork, and his marks get worse. Some of his schoolmasters tell him that he's wasting his potential, but he doesn't listen until he's almost expelled for drunkenness, which scares him into straightening out.
- The Bully: When Eric starts school, a boy named Barker becomes jealous of his intelligence and expresses his frustrations by harassing Eric and picking fights with him. Barker's previous favourite target was Owen, who eventually told the headmaster, Dr Rowlands, about Barker's behaviour. Dr Rowlands gave Barker a public caning, which stopped the bullying at the expense of Owen's standing with all the other boys.
- The Cabin Boy: Eric runs away and becomes a cabin boy aboard the Stormy Petrel, a ship going to and from Corunna. Eric suffers from severe seasickness and does such a poor job at his work that the skipper calls him 'perfectly useless'.
- First-Name Basis: Eric and his best friend Edwin Russell agree to call each other by their first names.
- Frame-Up: Barker steals Eric's ink and wafers. He uses the ink to write a note that says 'Gordon is a surly devil', carefully mimicking Eric's handwriting. Then he sticks the note to the board using the wafers. He hopes Eric will be flogged for it. Instead, Dr Rowlands decides to have a trial. An older boy named Gibson prosecutes, and Russell defends Eric. Russell uncovers several pieces of evidence that Eric was framed. When Owen testifies that he found the paper Barker wrote on while learning to copy Eric's handwriting, Barker breaks down and confesses. Barker is forced to run a gauntlet in which dozens of boys beat him with knotted handkerchiefs. The next morning he is flogged and expelled.
- Inelegant Blubbering: A group of boys, led by Brigson, pelts Mr Rose with breadcrusts. Mr Rose canes Brigson, who cries like a baby and rolls around on the floor yelling 'The devil—the devil—the devil!' The other boys are so disgusted by Brigson's show of cowardice that he goes from the most popular boy in the lower forms to being scorned by everyone.
- Knee-capping: During the Stormy Petrel's return voyage, a sailor overhears Eric winding his expensive watch, which was a gift from his mother and is the only item he kept with him from Roslyn. The next day the sailor tries to buy the watch from Eric, and when he refuses, the sailor tells the skipper. The skipper demands the watch as pay for Eric's feed, and when Eric refuses, the skipper kicks him on the knee, putting it out.
- Long Last Look: As Eric is running away, he stops at the end of the playground to look back at Roslyn and think about all his good and bad memories of the school. Then he sees the light in Mr Rose's window move and starts running for fear of being spotted.
- Morality Chain: Russell is highly moral and totally uninterested in the popularity that tempts Eric. His influence causes Eric to behave a lot better than he would otherwise; for example, Eric gives up smoking because Russell doesn't like it. After Russell's death, Eric is on his best behaviour for months, but eventually succumbs to temptation and becomes more lazy and disobedient than ever.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Duncan and Wildney invite Eric to sneak out to the pub with them to buy beer. Eric says it isn't worth it. Wildney says, 'I believe you think I'm afraid, and what's more, I believe you're afraid.' Furious that a younger boy would accuse him of cowardice, Eric agrees to go to the pub with them.
- Nostalgic Narrator: The last chapter reveals that the narrator is one of Eric's schoolmates, although it isn't clear which one, since the rest of the book is in the third person. He decided to write a biography of his dead friend in order to honour his memory and warn other boys away from his fate.
- Papa Wolf: Eric stays with his parents, who have hired a house near Roslyn, during his first two terms. During Eric's first term, his father happens to be walking by the playground while Barker beats Eric and Russell. Eric's father beats Barker with a riding-whip, threatens to beat him even worse if he ever hurts Eric again, and excoriates the other boys for not standing up to Barker.
- Redemption Equals Death: As Eric lies in the hold after being whipped, he feels God's presence and repents of all his sins. Unfortunately, his cruel treatment aboard the Stormy Petrel has destroyed his health. By the time Eric escapes the ship and travels back to Fairholm, he is dying. He lives long enough for his friends to visit him for the last time before he expires.
- Self-Abuse: An infamous passage rails against the evils of "Kibroth-Hattaavah", which seems to be an Unusual Euphemism for masturbation.May every schoolboy who reads this page be warned by the waving of their wasted hands, from that burning marle of passion, where they found nothing but shame and ruin, polluted affections, and an early grave.
- A Taste of the Lash: After Eric is kneecapped, he becomes unable to do any work at all. When the skipper orders him to furl a sail, Eric tries to climb the rigging but can't. The skipper orders him tied to the rigging by his hands and whips him on the back with a rope until one of the sailors warns that continuing the beating will kill him.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Eric becomes friends with Upton, an older boy who introduces him to smoking and encourages him to slack off in school and break the rules. When Eric is older, he befriends the younger boy Wildney, and they both encourage each other in rule-breaking.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: In the last chapter, two Roslyn alumni get together to talk about the fates of their former schoolmates. Montagu has succeeded to his father's estate and plans to run for Parliament; Owen is a fellow and assistant tutor; Duncan, Upton, and Wildney have all joined the army; Graham is a lawyer; and Brigson became a policeman after being disowned by his family.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Eric is twelve at the beginning of the book. Part I takes place over his first year in school, and is followed by a Time Skip of another year. He should be fourteen at the beginning of Part II. Instead, he's said to be sixteen.
