Hard Times

Critics

• Hard Times

  One of the few Dickens novels that isn't set in London, this savage, satirical attack on the ruthlessness and hypocrisy of Victorian industrialists takes place in Coketown, aka Blackburn, Bolton or any other Lancastrian mill town. Of course I'd prefe ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Do it at once!

  If you look at the story itself it is far too simple for Dickens' standards. That is to say, we are not going to find the greatest plot of his novels here, rather one of the tamest. But, as it is usual with Dickens', the real gold lies with the set of characters.

  Mr. Bounderby behaves up to th ... (continue)

  If you look at the story itself it is far too simple for Dickens' standards. That is to say, we are not going to find the greatest plot of his novels here, rather one of the tamest. But, as it is usual with Dickens', the real gold lies with the set of characters.

  Mr. Bounderby behaves up to the high standards of his jocular colleagues such as Uncle Pumblechook(Great Expectations) and Mr. Bumble(Oliver Twist), and it is, according to my own taste, the best of all the jolly company one finds in Hard Times. His recurrent boastfulness provoked much laughter in me, and I ended up favouring him among all the others.

  The Born lady, commonly known as Mrs Sparsit, also deserves her part of acknowledgement here, for she's such a fine lady one can hardly miss an occasion to pay his respects to such a high-breeding character.

  As a sidenote on the ending, I didn't quite like it, for as was in his other early works(Oliver Twist), bad characters get busted and good ones are rewarded(although not so much in this novel, the moralizing ending is still there). At least he gets honest and concludes with:
  
  These things were to be.
  Dear reader! It rests with you and me, whether, in our two fields
  of action, similar things shall be or not. Let them be! We shall
  sit with lighter bosoms on the hearth, to see the ashes of our
  fires turn gray and cold.
  
  As to say, let's have a nice happy ending so you sleep better and I get more readers.

  suggested.

  ---
  
  'Do it at once,' said Bounderby, 'has always been my motto from a
  child. When I thought I would run away from my egg-box and my
  grandmother, I did it at once. Do you the same. Do this at once!'

  'Are you walking?' asked his friend. 'I have the father's address.
  Perhaps you would not mind walking to town with me?'

  'Not the least in the world,' said Mr. Bounderby, 'as long as you
  do it at once!'

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  daniele said on Aug 31, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 

  Light in even the darkest places!

  Not having read this for many years I was struck by the freshness of the characters in the very sad environment of Coketown. The dirt and grime of this industrial town, the overwhelming depression that oozes out of the factory walls. Yet in the midst of all this depression and sadness we find such h ... (continue)

  Not having read this for many years I was struck by the freshness of the characters in the very sad environment of Coketown. The dirt and grime of this industrial town, the overwhelming depression that oozes out of the factory walls. Yet in the midst of all this depression and sadness we find such heart-warming characters as Sissy Jupe and the performers at Sleary's Circus. In total contrast to this happy band we find such characters as Gradgrind and Bounderby. Though happiness is not part of their trade they are so superbly drawn by Dickens that they cause us to smile in response to their antics and view of life. Though they are exaggerated somewhat we all, surely, have met people in our lives who have exhibited some of their characteristics.

  Much shorter than Dickens' major novels it is, nevertheless, a delightful read and reveals that even in the bleakest and darkest of times there are to be found happy, kind and caring people who cheer our hearts and make life worth living!

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  GraJon said on Nov 26, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• Introduction/critical comment(s):

  This text of Hard Times is the first to be established by a comparative study of all the surviving versions of Dickens' novel...Among the background readings, this Critical Edition offers all of Dickens' available correspondence about the novel. The three great controversies of the Victorian era wi ... (continue)

  This text of Hard Times is the first to be established by a comparative study of all the surviving versions of Dickens' novel...Among the background readings, this Critical Edition offers all of Dickens' available correspondence about the novel. The three great controversies of the Victorian era with which the novel is concerned – industrialism, education, and utilitarianism – are vividly documented in contemporary background selections and review.

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  Your Sources said on Aug 23, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Dickens is not one of my favourite writers but I like Hard times and I find it really close to our times of crisis"Hard Times these times!".

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  AnnaLuce said on Jan 13, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  now,what I whant is, Facts! teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. facts alone are wanted to life. plant nothing else, and root out everything else. you can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts!

  luoisa, never wonder!
  herein the spring of the mechaical art and mistery ... (continue)

  now,what I whant is, Facts! teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. facts alone are wanted to life. plant nothing else, and root out everything else. you can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts!

  luoisa, never wonder!
  herein the spring of the mechaical art and mistery of educating the reason without stopping to the cultivation of the sentiments and affections. newer wonder. by means of addictions, subtraction, multiplication, and division, settle everything somehow, and newer wonder.

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  wolken said on Apr 14, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Mass Market Paperback
• ISBN-10: 0140623523
• ISBN-13: 9780140623529
• Publisher: Penguin Popular Classics
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Library Binding, School & Library Binding, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, Livres Français, Libros en Español, Libri Italiani

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