Other editions of book Hard Times

Hard Times - For These Times is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens Published in 1854, the story describes class conflict in Victorian England and serves as a powerful critique of the social injustices that plagued the Industrial Revolution. Charles Dickens (1812 - 9 June 1870) is arguably the greatest novelist England ever produced. His innate comic genius and shrewd depictions of Victorian life - along with his memorable characters - have made him beloved by readers the world over. Please note: This is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.

"Hard Times" is the 1854 novel by Charles Dickens that sought to highlight the social and economic divide that was growing between capitalistic mill owners and workers during the Victorian era of Great Britain. Originally published in serial form in Dickens's own periodical journal "Household Words", "Hard Times" is unique in that it is not set in London, like many of his works, but in the fictitious Victorian town of Coketown. A critical examination of the poor working conditions in many English factory towns of the time as well as the changing nature of the aristocracy and the working-class in the post industrial revolution era is at the heart of Dickens's Classic novel, "Hard Times".

“There is a wisdom of the head, and... there is a wisdom of the heart.” : Charles Dickens, Hard TimesYour ‘Hard Times' by Charles Dickens eBook Report: Unabridged (100% Original content) Illustrated. Working Table of Contents, Font adjustments & Navigation.About ‘Hard Times' by Charles DickensHard Times is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and highlights the social and economic pressures of the times. Superintendent Mr. Gradgrind opens the novel at his school in Coketown stating, "Now, what I want is, Facts" , and interrogates one of his pupils, Sissy, whose father works at a circus. Because her father works with horses, Gradgrind demands the definition of 'horse'. When she is scolded for inability to define a horse factually, her classmate Bitzer gives a zoological profile; and Sissy is censured for suggesting that she would carpet a floor with pictures of flowers.Top 100 Best-Ever Classics Books: US –> http://amzn.to/1K9ZzqCUK –> http://amzn.to/1L3UgOBCanada –> http://amzn.to/1i02L1h

In Dickens's interpretation, the prevalence of utilitarian values in educational institutions, promoted contempt between mill owners and workers, creating young adults whose imaginations had been neglected, due to an over-emphasis on facts at the expense of more imaginative, wished to satirise radical Utilitarians whom he described in a letter to Charles Knight as "see figures and averages, and nothing else." He also wished to campaign for reform of working conditions. Dickens had visited factories in Manchester as early as 1839, and was appalled by the environment in which workers toiled. Drawing upon his own childhood experiences, Dickens resolved to "strike the heaviest blow in my power" for those who laboured in horrific conditions. Critics such as George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Macaulay have mainly focused on Dickens's treatment of trade unions and his post–Industrial Revolution pessimism regarding the divide between capitalist mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era. F. R. Leavis, a great admirer of the book, included it—but not Dickens' work as a whole—as part of his Great Tradition of English novels.