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    Hard Times
    Hard Times
    Hard Times
    Audiobook10 hours

    Hard Times

    Written by Charles Dickens

    Narrated by Simon Prebble

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Red brick, machinery, and smoke-darkened chimneys. Reason, facts, and statistics. This is the world of Coketown, the depressed mill town that is the setting for one of Charles Dickens's most powerful and unforgettable novels.

    The highest priority for Thomas Gradgrind, head of the Gradgrind model day school, is his version of education-feeding the mind while starving the soul and spirit. Inflexible and unyielding, he places conformity above curiosity and sense over sentiment...only to find himself betrayed by the very standards that govern his own unhappy life.

    Hard Times is Dickens's scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society and its misapplied utilitarian philosophy. And Thomas Gradgrind is one of his most richly dimensional, memorable characters. Filled with the details and wonders of small-town life, Hard Times is also a daring novel of ideas-and ultimately a celebration of love, hope, and the limitless possibilities of the imagination.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJan 12, 2009
    ISBN9781400180363
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth, where his father worked as a clerk. Living in London in 1824, Dickens was sent by his family to work in a blacking-warehouse, and his father was arrested and imprisoned for debt. Fortunes improved and Dickens returned to school, eventually becoming a parliamentary reporter. His first piece of fiction was published by a magazine in December 1832, and by 1836 he had begun his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He focused his career on writing, completing fourteen highly successful novels, as well as penning journalism, shorter fiction and travel books. He died in 1870.

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    Reviews for Hard Times

    3.5/5

    83 ratings69 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Hard Times by Charles Dickens is one of the many Victorian Era classics that I have never gotten around to reading. But thanks to an audio version new on the shelf of my library branch, it made it to the top of my TBR pile. In equal parts good old fashioned storytelling and outdated social criticism, Hard Times is the tale of the Gradgrind family and their struggle to reconcile the rational, fact-based side of life with the emotional and imaginative side. Thomas Gradgrind, Sr. is proud of his “system” of raising children – his own and those in the school he runs – to know and depend only on facts, with no “wondering” or amusement. The ultimate failure of his system leads to the final showdown and resolution of the story.Dickens packed the book (first published in installments in 1854) full of his usual over-the-top characters. These really came to life in the audio version. Along with some Victorian moralizing, he mixed in plenty of humor and even a little intrigue and adventure. None of the characters are particularly likeable, perhaps especially to a modern reader with less sympathy for the outmoded social constraints under which the characters labor, but they all get their just deserts -- for good or ill -- in the end. Despite its age, Hard Times remains thoroughly entertaining.
    • 3/5
      Dear me, two Dickens novels in as many weeks - I must be getting old! His stories are still a little too simplistic for my liking - the good are rewarded, the 'wicked' punished - but I do love his narrative style and wry humour. For Victorian social commentary, particularly about the industrial north, Dickens' friend Mrs Gaskell has the edge, but I can still appreciate this moralistic tale about the sacrifice of humanity as the cost of progress. Mr Bounderby is my favourite character, inventing a heroic struggle to raise himself out of the gutter where most people would 'improve' their social heritage for effect: 'I passed the day in a ditch and the night in a pigsty. That's the way I spent my tenth birthday. Not that a ditch was new to me, for I was born in a ditch.' He reminds me of the Monty Python 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch - 'I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, and work twenty nine hours a day down t'mill ..' - and his exaggerations are made all the funnier because he is making it all up!The story is one of Dickens' standard social metaphors, about the family of Mr Gradgrind, presumably a member of the Statistical Society, who raises his children on 'facts alone', and denies them any imagination or amusement; Gradgrind of course representing the industrial north ('Coketown' is based on Preston, Lancashire) and his children the working classes. Bounderby, the 'self-made man' more or less buys Gradgrind's disillusioned daughter, Louisa, as his wife, and she agrees, to benefit her wayward brother, but her heart rebels when she thinks she might have fallen in love with the cynical Jem Harthouse. There's also Old Stephen Blackpool, replete with thick Lancastrian accent, who falls prey to both the greed of the masters and the strength of the unions, and Sissy Jupe, the freespirited circus girl, who is adopted by Gradgrind and helps to become a better man. Characters are where Dickens really triumphs, and I wasn't disappointed here.Not quite the industrial novel I was expecting, but an amusing read!
    • 4/5
      Hard Times by Charles Dickens explores and exposes the working conditions in the factories of Northern England in the 1850’s. Dickens was obviously a forward thinker and many of his novels point out conditions that needed improving, in Hard Times he turns his attention on the ambitious businessmen, the educators, the gentry and the would-be gentry who take advantage and exploit the workers. First and foremost, Hard Times appears to be a critique of the politics and economics of the day. Contrary to the Temperance Leagues and Sabbatarians, he believed that hard-working people deserved recreational pursuits to relieve the tedium and stress of their workaday lives. It is also apparent that he felt that children need to be encouraged to use their imagination, that fairy tales and make believe are important to their development. This is the shortest of his novels and is set in the fictitious industrial town of Coketown where the factories belch smoke all day and soot covers the landscape. The subject matter is as dark as the setting, as we read of abuse, suppression and betrayal. This is not a book to read for it’s happy ending, being much darker than David Copperfield or Oliver Twist. The characters on these pages do not get a chance to turn their lives around. I read Hard Times in installment form just as it was originally published in 1854 and although it is a socially conscious, agenda-drive book, there is also a good story here about the citizens of Coketown, many with the wonderfully descriptive names that Dickens bestows upon his characters. Being a shorter book kept the focus on moving the story along and, rather than pages of description or long winded asides, the prose was stylish and clever. As a fan of Dickens, I enjoyed both the fine writing and the sharp social criticism that one comes to expect of this author.
    • 4/5
      The most depressing thing about Charles Dickens' Hard Times is how little has changed about the attitude of the rich for the working class even though it's getting closer to two centuries since it was first published.Some of the revelations were no surprise, but that didn't matter. My favorite parts were when Thomas Gradgrind, Senior, discovered the results his teaching of nothing but facts have had on two of his pupils.There are plenty of reasons to become outraged on characters' behalf and several characters well worth detesting.Mr. Tull's narration was good.
    • 4/5
      This novel is peculiarly short for Dickens, sandwiched sequentially between the bulky Bleak House and longer Little Dorrit. It doesn't make for faster pacing. The introduction to my edition bemoans how slow it is through the first two thirds, blaming that for its dull reception upon publication. Perhaps Dickens knew he had a less popular work on his hands and decided to cut his losses with a shorter work. Or perhaps he sensed how much dark was being reflected as his marriage was in the throes of collapse and he needed a quicker escape from it.The social message targets here are primarily education and the industrial age, paired nicely since Dickens paints them both as tarnished by unrelenting repetition and regimen, drained of colour. He doesn't draw a direct line between them, but it isn't hard to imagine Gradgrind's system as the perfect factory for churning out mindless drones and aspiring businessmen as grist for the more literal version. The tone feels more didactic than his other novels to this point, filled with portents and warnings. Dickens dispenses with any budding romance in the wings, and the typically happy fates he dispenses to his characters are drawn thin and pale. Mr. Sleary stands as the lone representative of Dickens' lighter novels, but his presence is minimal. His slurred speech feels symbolic, as if Dickens holds him retained behind a frosted glass. There's some maturity in this novel, a staying of sentimentality that could be read as a more serious literary effort. It can also be read, ironically, as Dickens giving in to some of the Gradgrind school himself, at the cost of his more joyful indulgences.
    • 4/5
      Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, oh, Father, What have you done with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here?

      My friend Levi Stahl once noted how reading Henry James utilized the higher gears of his brain. I have always relished that sentiment, though I fear Henry James is above my pay grade. It is a different kettle with Dickens, my maudlin thoughts drift to Cassavetes on Capra, a reworking of my already repurposed grace. Get behind me, social realism.

      Hard Times is an interesting collection of set pieces collected in a smelting town with a set of characters which honestly can be seen in Turgenev. The novel doesn't afford an arc much as a series of consequences. It is here where the other (evil) Scott Walker from Wisconsin finds his nocturnal emission: organized labor chokes the life out of people. It couldn't be inhaling coal dust or toiling every day bereft of Vitamin C, no, it is collective bargaining and an improper educational system. I should note that the Governor isn't a character in this novel. Only his peculiar sentiment.

      Siblings are raised in a Spartan pedagogic environment, one which worships facts and retention as opposed to creativity. The daughter then marries a self made Scott Pruitt, while the wayward son fancies gambling and living above his station. There is no mention of an ostrich jacket. There is an honest worker. He can't abide by the union and, before Bob's your uncle, he is fingered for a robbery. Life can only aspire to transcend self-interest. It remains but an aspiration.
    • 3/5
      Hard Times - Charles Dickens ***Dickens has always been one of those authors that I have to force myself to pick up, but usually once I make a committed effort I really do enjoy his books. I know it is going to be hard work, but usually the reward when I finish the novel justifies the means. Over the years I have read half a dozen or so of his works, and pretty much found them to my liking. Hard Times is one of his lesser known novels and one that I was totally unfamiliar with so I had no idea what to expect.So what is it about? Set in the fictional area of Coketown (allegedly based on Preston) we follow the lives of the inhabitants. The poor working and their tribulations, and the rich who have strong ideals on how the rest of society should act. All are trapped within the industrial revolution, but obviously some fare from it better than others. As usual with Dickens we see things from both sides of the spectrum. The wealthy side being Mr Gradgrind and Mr Bounder, a pair of gentlemen that only deal with facts and not emotions and believed these virtues should be instilled on the rest of society. The impoverished side encompasses Stephen Blackpool, a hard working man that has fallen upon hard times and cannot see a way out unless he is treated as an equal with those more fortunate. Throw into the mix a few dodgy dealings by Tom Gradgrind (Mr Gradgrind’s eldest son) and you have the outline of the book. Although even after sitting down and reading the damn thing I still struggled to describe it. What did I like? I suppose the descriptions of the town and working conditions were pretty spot on and gave a vivid impression of the times. I also liked some of the characters, Dickens always has a way of making them stand out with their own personalities so that you can almost feel what they are thinking.What didn’t I like? Most if it if I am truthfully honest. The story dragged on and on and on, I never really felt as if it was going anywhere in particular. Some of the parts were almost forgotten about (such as the married life of Mr Bounderby & Louisa) and the reader is just left wondering especially as these events were such an integral part of the early plotlines. I can read most things and battle through, but the literary device of writing peoples speech in dialect is one of my peeves, it makes it even worse in Hard Times as one of the characters, Mr Sleary, also speaks with a lisp. I found myself having to reread whole chapters just to try and decipher what was being said, whilst other people’s speech reflects a sort of dodgy Northern accent, some people may find it adds to the authenticity I just find it bloody annoying. In reality I think this book was written as a way of Dickens getting something off his chest. It could almost be described as one long rant from beginning to end, and there is nothing wrong with that, but at least make it interesting. At times it really did just bore me to tears and I was tempted to just Google the ending and save myself some time, but I did stick it out even though the 300 pages seemed more like a few thousand. Not one of his books I will ever revisit or recommend.A fair 3 stars, I couldn’t give it more for obvious reasons, and to be fair I don’t think Dickens could ever deserve less, even if the book wasn’t to my own personal taste.
    • 2/5
      I loved many of Dickens' other works - "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities" are excellent - but "Hard Times" is an awful read. I found it to be pretentious. It is currently sitting on my self with a book mark about three-quarters of the way through it. I won't finish it.
    • 4/5
      This started off being very funny and quite promising, but seemed to lose its way rather. Although often thought of as a critique of the harshness of capitalism during the industrial revolution, this aspect forms more of a backdrop rather than imbuing the whole course of events as is the case with, for example, Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Gradgrind, the ultimate right-brained individual who learns the value of emotional responses alongside purely rational ones, and the deferential and tragic labourer Stephen Blackpool, are the most interesting characters.
    • 4/5
      Thomas Gradgrind brings up his children with the motto of "Facts! Facts! Facts! Nothing but facts!" As a result, Gradgrind's daughter ends up in a loveless marriage to a much older and disgusting man and his son turns out to be a dissipated fop. The narrative is easily going, and I teared many a times while reading although my minor gripe is that it's too didactic and heavy-handed. Ok, Dickens, we get it already, Facts are important but so are emotions. Stop badgering us already.
    • 4/5
      The story begins with Thomas Gradgrind, an educator raising his children on “facts, facts, facts,” to the exclusion of creativity and imagination. The book follows his children as they grow and enter the world, and all the diverse individuals who feel the touch of his philosophy: those who embrace it and those who chafe at the bit. It is clear that Dickens condemns this point of view, although not Mr. Gradgrind himself, who exhibits the three-dimensional complexity of Dickens’ best characters. The book is part melodrama, part satire, and especially an indictment of the worst aspects of 19th century England’s industrial practices and social mores. The sense of moral outrage is powerful, and inspirational in the reading. But what rises above it all is his characters – still living and breathing more than 150 years after they were created.
    • 4/5
      Aw, guys, don't pick on Dickens. (And you BEST not be dickin on Pickens.) This is a great-hearted novel, that reminds us just to be kind to one another first of all, and fight the injustice we can see. And sure, Dickens is a bleeding-heart liberal, and sure, it's unforgivable the way he represents the union movement, via Slackbridge, as venal and exploitative. But the accomplishments of the unions in the 19th and 20th centuries (I miss solidarity), much as they wouldn't have come about without that good strong ethic of martial socialism, also wouldn't have come about if they hadn't endeavoured in a world made ready for them by debatechangers like Boz. You need both sides. And sure, yes, there's also the argument that that kind of liberalism undermines the potential for real change; but tell that to all the people who suffered a little bit less after the Poor Laws were repealed. You need both sides.

      And like how we forgive Atticus Finch for not challenging Jim Crow, a current reading can easily enough put its hand over its heart and salute the good in Dickens for making a stand, without buying in completely--certainly we'll ignore his "let them eat Christianity" for the poor at every opportunity, his failure to really challenge class privilege--we'll read against him, and recognize with a righteous anger the way that class influences the fates, respectively, of Harthouse, Tom Gradgrind, and Stephen Blackpool. And acknowledge the truth of the representation.

      My sister says that university students pick on Dickens because of that thing where you hate what you are--and what do they do but talk about the oppressed from a position of privilege? Dickens is of course guilty as charged on that score, Marx himself also gave him credit for making caring respectable for the self-interested middle classes. And Hard Times was his major salvo.

      He fought the injustice he could see. Better champagne socialism than no socialism at all.

    • 3/5
      “There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” Having read and enjoyed several of Dickens's other works I felt that it was about time that I read this one and to be brutally frank was rather disappointed with it, it was certainly not up to his usually high standards. It felt rushed and reading of Dickens's history it apparently was as he had intended to take a year off from writing but money problems gave him little alternative but to carry on.Now I really enjoyed the opening with Thomas Gradgrind wishing to teach the children of his school and family 'Facts' and nothing but 'Facts' and the taking in of the circus girl Sissy Jupe but unfortunately these two characters were pretty well sidelined until the end of the story and instead we had the meek, lifeless daughter Louisa and her windbag, braggart, factory owning husband Bounderby. The villain of the piece Tom Gridgrind and his victim ,factory worker Stephen Blackpool were interesting but only thinly portrayed.Now it could be argued that due to its brevity that it is a good introduction to Dickens's other works but I feel that this would just be lazy. It lacked the comedic quality of some of his other works and even if it was seen as a statement on Victorian society and in particular its education I personally feels that it falls short there as well due to a lack of real plot depth.Overall an OK read but not one of the author's best.
    • 3/5
      A short, readable Dickens that includes Dickens' usual inimitable indictment of modern education and domestic abuse.
    • 4/5
      I was assigned Hard Times in high school, and actually remembered it as one of the few works by Dickens I had enjoyed. Rereading it, I did still enjoy it on the whole, but I still found in it so many of the qualities that put me off in Dickens--although often they're closely associated with qualities I do like.What I do like is the humor. Dickens can be witty and sharp, and this satire of utilitarianism comes off in bright primary colors, and his distaste for the Industrial Revolution and Industrialists and members of Unions alike in sooty black. Yet in terms of this picture of the Industrial North of England I couldn't help contrasting it in my mind--unfavorably--to Gaskell's North and South. There are ways in which I do find Dickens the superior writer. He had the humor I remember lacking from Gaskell and goodness, Dickens can turn a memorable phrase. But Gaskell's is a much more nuanced portrait of the Industrial Revolution. She shows its dark side--she can't be accused, unlike Dickens' character Bounderby, of trying to claim the smoky, grimy air is good for your health! Or that factory work is "light" and "pleasant." But Gaskell also shows the dynamism of the new forces at work that empowered workers compared to what had come before or to the more agricultural, class-bound South. Dickens' industrialist Bounderby is no more than a caricature--Gaskell's industrialist Thornton is a rounded figure, with virtues and flaws and a point of view that doesn't represent a straw man. On the other side of the class divide, Gaskell's workingman Nicholas Higgins to me represents a much stronger figure than either Slackbridge or the sentimentalized Blackwell in Hard Times. And I hate how Dickens represents the speech of the working class, though he's hardly alone in that in his era or ours. But it was a trial trying to make out Blackwell's speech: "I ha' hed what's been spok'n o' me, and tis' lickly that I shan't mend it." It's not as if educated speakers of English don't drop sounds. How would you pronounce "thought?" But it's not as if Dickens resorts to that kind of phonetic spelling above for upper class characters. Those caricatures, over-the-top characterizations and the hectoring polemics extend even to one of Dickens' most notable characteristics--the use of character names as tags for one-sided qualities--even if I do have to smile at names such as "Gradgrind" or "Bounderby" or "Harthouse."If my rating doesn't fall below a three (and I didn't hesitate to give A Tale of Two Cities lower) it's because, reading Blackwell's dialogue aside, this is so very readable. So much of this book is very, very quotable. I also found Louisa Bounderby an interesting character. She's a much less pallid character than I usually see in Dicken's women characters--including the others within this book not out and out caricatures like Mrs Sparsit. Louisa's a kind of anti-Emma Bovary. If Flaubert's title heroine was a female Don Quixote, driven to destruction by too much fanciful reading, then Louisa is the other side of the spectrum--one made emotionally arid by strangling all imagination and playfulness out of her from an early age to suit her father's utilitarian principles. And at least in this novel I can't accuse Dickens of being verbose--this one is less than 300 pages. Worth reading, despite my reservations.
    • 3/5
      I didn’t like this tale of education gone wrong. Dickens’ essential humor is missing; the caricatures fall rather flat, exceptfor Mrs. Sparsit. There’s no situational humor at all.Dickens is much more heavy-handed than usual in his moralizing, and the characters are one-dimensional cut-outs. Typically I love Dickens, but not this time. I can’t recommend this one.
    • 3/5
      The entrance of kind, caring, and imaginative little Sissy into the fact dominated Gradgrind family surprisingly does little to change the older children, Tom and Louisa. Tom becomes more of a selfish and self-indulgent hypocrite, while Louisaoddly stays distant from the carefree and creative life that Sissy could open for them.Louisa remains so flat in this "eminently practical" existence that she comes across as a depressive.She must have been strikingly beautiful for the handsome, intelligent, willful, rake and villain James Harthouse to be attracted to her even as a passing conquest.The plot evolves so boringly slowly that Harthouse emerges as the only halfway exciting and intriguing characteronce good man Stephen Blackpool has left Coketown. Their names could be reversed since the hero is a sturdy house of heart and the other boasts of a pool of darkness where his heart felt morals should be.Other characters are simply too good to be true or just plain old Dicksonian caricatures.Worse still is that translations are needed for Stephen's noble dialect and Stearly's lisp -they are both like reading paragraphs of baby talk.Only a few memorable quotes among all the admirable descriptions of smoke and fumes: "What does he come here cheeking us for, then?"
    • 4/5
      One of Dickens' lesser known works, Hard Times for These Times is similar to his other works in that it touches upon societal problems of the day, such as poverty. I read this about five years ago and while I recall enjoying it, I am fuzzy on the details. I think it is well worth a re-read though and since I am recommending it to myself again, I would definitely recommend to others!
    • 3/5
      The opening chapter is to die for.
    • 3/5
      Appreciate the strong criticism of reason, rationalism, and industrio-capitalism, but the tale itself lacks subtlety even by Dickens' standards. Surprisingly, it feels too short, as I barely even figured out who the main protagonists were before the climax and denouement came along. A much more developed (and IMO, consequently more scathing) criticism of modern society and living conditions can be found in Bleak House. It's 800 or so pages, but well-used. Maybe Dickens is an author who is simply at his best when writing ridiculously long novels. This isn't one of them.

      I just remembered what Dickens' criticism of modern industrialization and capitalism reminded me of: Lady Chatterly's Lover. To be sure, Dickens came first, so he should receive credit for his treatment in Hard Times. But D.H. Lawrence, in his description of the slowly disappearing countryside, the vacant estates left by forever shifting aristocrats, and the volatile class struggles, handles the theme much more powerfully, though not as humorously.
    • 4/5
      A very sentimental and very didactic novel Dickens wrote to expose the evils of industrial revolution and the difficult situation of the factory workers, as well as to satirize utilitarianism- men as machines idea. My feeling was that it was uneven: there were some great, satirical portrayals of male characters there, but much weaker and mostly idealistic female ones. The same can be said about the plot development: some great twists interspersed with really weak moments. So, hardly a masterpiece I would say, but on the whole, an enjoyable read (listen) with great moments to a good performance.
    • 4/5
      Not one of Dickens's better known novels but seething with his customary descriptive powers, and even more social comment than usual.The novel is set in Coketown, a fictional city in the North of England renowned for its mills and factories. The novel opens with headmaster Thomas Gradgrind introducing prospective new clients to his school with a speech reminiscent of current Minister of State for Schools Nick Gibb, and stressing the importance of facts over sentiment or imagination. Even his own children are subjected to an education in which curiosity is suppressed and learning facts by rote is the only permissible approach.Gradgrind's closest companion is the odious Josiah Bounderby, a self-made man who is never happier than when extolling the poverty of his childhood and traducing the mother who abandoned him in a ditch when merely an infant. He revels in the poverty of his upbringing and the absence of his own education, and champion's Gradgrind's factual crusade. He also dotes in the most gruesome manner over Louisa, eldest daughter of Gradgrind, and subsequently, following discussions with Mr Gradgrind that more closely resembled a business negotiation than a lover's suit, marries her. Her brother, also called Thomas, comes to work for Bounderby, taking on a role in the bank, though he succumbs to a dangerous addiction to gambling and drinking.Bounderby is owner of a bank and a mill in Coketown, and his employees are almost shackled, dependent upon the pittance he pays them. However, while most of the workers seem anonymous, one of them is Stephen Blackpool, who loves Rachael, but is married to an unnamed and itinerant alcoholic woman Blackpool refuses to join a trade union, and as a consequence he is sent to Coventry by his colleagues. However, rather than being supported by Bounderby he finds himself given notice to quit. Pledging always to stay true to Rachael he makes his arrangements to leave.And then someone robs the bank ...Like all of his more famous novels there is a heavy dose of almost cliched sentiment about this novel, but Dickens does bring his incisive social commentary into play. He attacks every aspect of the workers' thraldom - the paucity of their wages, the conditions in which they have to work, the rampant pollution of the mills, the desperate poverty of available accommodation. Yet despite all this, it is not just a political diatribe but remains enjoyable.
    • 2/5
      Seems unfinished. It's got great moments that all seem to be scattered across the author's floor.
    • 4/5
      Dickens' novel Hard Times presents some of the themes common to Dickens. There is a young child, Sissy Jupe, whose father abandons her. And we have yet another example of mal-education with the system of Thomas Gradgrind, "facts, facts, facts". Dickens creates interest with deft touches like the scene of Gradgrind's children, Louisa and Thomas, finding their imaginations stirred (perhaps for the first time) at the sight of a Circus. This does not last for long -- not in the family of Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, who runs it just as sternly and irrationally rational as his school. Stir in some colorful supporting characters and we have the start of a rather interesting story. I find the novel to be surprisingly readable. There is something to be said for Dickens' economy of words, paragraphs and chapters as compared with most of his earlier (and later) novels. Unfortunately the economy is achieved at the expense of fun, the wonderfully wild and jovial, bumbling blunderbusses and curious characters that made much of Dickens so much fun are not present (sad!). That having been said it is a fine sentimental story -- ironic in its' aggressive stance against sentiment. The character of Louisa, in particular, seems to be one of Dickens' favorite types: the young woman beset by fate sharing her plight with the likes of Esther Summerson. She comes up short as does this novel in most aspects, when compared with the rest of Dickens' oeuvre.
    • 3/5
      When I saw this audiobook from the library I thought, "Ugh. Not this one." I have some vague recollection of reading Hard Times once -- or trying -- but remember nothing except the bitter aftertaste. Did I give up after the first few pages? Did I skim it for a test and then forget it? Are parts of it written in a dialect that is hard to read with your eyeballs? When I started listening to it in the car, it was awfully slow and dry; but the reader was so good I kept listening. By the end, I was riveted. Was Dickens meant to be read aloud? The narrator Frederick Davidson did a tremendous job with the comic character Mrs. Sparsit; but he also added realism to scenes that might have seemed overly dramatic on the page, such as Louisa's breakdown. My favorite scene to hear was the night Rachel watched over Stephen and his wife, and his tearful promise to her the next day. This audiobook was a great introduction to Dickens and makes me want to hear more.As a side note, I found some similarities between the themes of this story and Mansfield Park. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with making facts part of education; the problem is facts without principle or purpose or thoughtfulness or analysis. Mr. Gradgrind's refusal to teach morality and his regrets over the consequences reminded me of Sir Thomas, the father in Mansfield Park: "Sir Thomas, poor Sir Thomas, a parent, and conscious of errors in his own conduct as a parent, was the longest to suffer. He felt that he ought not to have allowed the marriage; that his daughter's sentiments had been sufficiently known to him to render him culpable in authorising it; that in so doing he had sacrificed the right to the expedient . . . These were reflections that required some time to soften . . . the anguish arising from the conviction of his own errors in the education of his daughters was never to be entirely done away . . . [He] clearly saw that he had but increased the evil by teaching them to repress their spirits in his presence so as to make their real disposition unknown to him . . . Here had been grievous mismanagement; but, bad as it was, he gradually grew to feel that it had not been the most direful mistake in his plan of education. Something must have been wanting within, or time would have worn away much of its ill effect. He feared that principle, active principle, had been wanting . . . Bitterly did he deplore a deficiency which now he could scarcely comprehend to have been possible. Wretchedly did he feel, that with all the cost and care of an anxious and expensive education, he had brought up his daughters without their understanding their first duties, or his being acquainted with their character and temper."Other similarities between the two stories are the theme of an ineffectual mother, providing no balance to the father's system of education; the vain, rich playboy who chases women without considering the consequences (Henry Crawford, Jem Harthouse); the poor girl taken into the family who becomes the heart of the family (Fanny, Sissy); and the father's increasing love and value for that girl who has grown up under his protection, but free from the influence of his system of education. In some ways, the father is the driving force of both stories: the consequences of his mistakes drive the narrative; his acceptance of those mistakes provide the conclusion. Of course, Louisa and Maria are very different characters, but they have both married men they can't stand -- so where does Louisa's sense of honor derive, when Maria's is absent? Either it was just innate, or her father's love and constant attention, though often misplaced, still supported some sort of moral grounding that Maria never possessed, or that Mrs. Norris strangled in the cradle.Mrs. Norris has no alter ego in Hard Times, at least not in the children's upbringing; however Mrs. Sparsit certainly exerted an similarly evil influence. Bounderby was happy with Louisa until Mrs. Sparsit persuaded him he should not be; for someone who expressed so much shock at Stephen Blackpool's desire to divorce his wife, her hypocrisy in actively undermining the marriage is appalling. But, her hypocrisy is not out of character, when you consider that in neither case was she motivated by morality, but rather by a desire to exert influence and express contempt.
    • 4/5
      This was my first Dickens' novel, admittedly my choice as it is considerably shorter than any of his other major works. There were sections I found very entertaining- his reputation for conveying humor and biting social commentary is well earned. That said, I didn't find the actual story line particularly compelling and would have preferred more emphasis on fewer characters. All in all, an enjoyable but not outstanding book.
    • 4/5
      Reading this back to back with Pickwick Papers this work is darker and more cynical. But still an excellent book, by turns comic, thoughtful and timely, another great novel by Mr. Dickens. Also a masterful performance by the reader, Anton Lesser.
    • 4/5
      From Hardy's Victorian England of gentle walks amongst the furze on the heath to Dicken's Victorian England of dark, polluted skies above smoky industrial northern towns. Ah, Dickens loves a bit of dreariness! Hard Times is a right hook in the face of class snobbery and prejudice. It opens with a couple of pompous middle-aged men delighting in pontificating on the merits of facts in the total absence of feelings, fancies or fun. Their lives are governed by arrogant decisions and judgments made on their skewed version of facts, with their assessments of people's characters clouded entirely by their class prejudice around the honesty and capability of those less fortunate than themselves. Ruling their families and homes with a cold and efficient lack of sentimentality, Dickens ultimately teaches these old fools a harsh lesson in what's actually important in life (although sadly one is too far gone with his own sense of self-worth and importance to ever change).Although quite bleak in places, and in true Victorian style faintly ridiculous at times (pass me the smelling salts - again), I loved the ultimate message of this book. Dickens is very clever at engineering an exposition of the truth that real wealth lies in goodness and happiness, and rounds off the novel nicely with the very people who were most looked down on at the beginning of the book being the characters who ultimately are proven to have the truest riches.This is only my second Dickens novel, and I didn't love it just as much as Great Expectations, but once I got into the swing of it I still enjoyed it.4 stars - some particularly unlikeable characters, but a great jaunt all the same.
    • 3/5
      Although there was a lot that I really liked about this book, I didn't find it quite as compelling as some of Dickens' other novels (such as 'A Tale of Two Cities'). Partly this is due to the fact that I had some trouble deciphering the way Dickens wrote the English north country accent of several of the characters, which made this novel slightly less accessible than others of his that I have read. On the plus side, Dickens' view of life in a Northern manufacturing town and his characters are (as usual) extremely well-written. In particular, it was satisfying to me that Gradgrind and Bounderby, great figures of pomposity, each got their comeuppance. Gradgrind becomes reformed and turns out to be not so terrible as misguided. Bounderby is humiliated by the revelation that he had been lying about his humble origins.
    • 4/5
      Not one of Dickens' best, though Dickens is still one of the best writers of the 19th century, even when he was writing as a hack. It was made more interesting a read in this day and age of Tea Partiers and puritanical Evangelicals who hate the thought of paying taxes for the public good, it reminded me that these things are cyclical. A quick read, though, so if you've got it in front of you, give it a shot.