Hard Times

by Charles Dickens
List(s):"Carp 500"
"Racine Library List"
Category: "Fiction - General"
Pages:328
Year of Publication:1854
Date Read:05/11/1995
Notes:The contemporary utilitarian philosophy is expounded in Hard Times as the Philosophy of Fact by the hard-headed disciplinarian Thomas Gradgrind. But the novel is more than a polemical tract for the times; the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father is one of Dickens's triumphs. When Louisa, trapped in a loveless marriage, falls prey to an idle seducer, the crisis forces her father to reconsider his cherished system. Yet even as the development of the story reflects Dickens's growing pessimism about human nature and society, it marks his return to the theme which had made his early works so popular: the amusements of the people. Sleary's circus represents Dickens's most considered defence of the necessity of entertainment, and infuses the novel with the good humour which has ensured its appeal to generations of readers.
My Rating: 6

Reviews for Hard Times

Review - Hard Times

Weak, with poorly-developed characters. I got the impression that Dickens didn't enjoy writing it like he did his other books. In Bleak House, Dombey and Sons and Our Mutual Friends, he pointed out the evils of society without sterotyping classes (good and bad people exist in all classes). But in this book, the classes are stereotyped and not realistically.
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