Hard Times
Hard Times by Charles Dickens, published by Penguin in July 2008, is a reissue of a classic work that critiques Victorian industrial society. Set in the fictional mill town of Coketown, the novel presents a stark portrayal of life dominated by brick, machinery, and smoke-darkened chimneys. Central to the narrative is Thomas Gradgrind, a schoolmaster who prioritizes facts and statistics in education, ultimately leading to the emotional and spiritual impoverishment of his family and community.
Readers will encounter a range of memorable characters and scenes that illustrate the consequences of Gradgrind’s rigid philosophy. The novel explores themes of conformity, curiosity, and the impact of industrialization on personal lives. Hard Times serves as both a historical reflection and a coming-of-age story, emphasizing the importance of love, hope, and imagination amidst the harsh realities of life. This edition spans 336 pages and is presented in English.
Official synopsis Publisher
Dickens’s scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society.
Coketown, the depressed mill town that is the setting for one of Charles Dickens’s most powerful and unforgettable novels, is all brick, machinery, and smoke-darkened chimneys. Its emblematic citizen, the schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, lives to impose his version of education: facts and statistics that feed the mind while starving the soul and spirit. Inflexible and unyielding, he places conformity above curiosity and logic over sentiment, only to see his philosophy warp and destroy the lives of his own family.
Filled with memorable characters and scenes, Hard Times is a daring novel of ideas—and, ultimately, a celebration of love, hope, and imagination.
With an Introduction by Frederick Busch
and an Afterword by Jane Smiley
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