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"Hard Times" by Charles Dickens
Paperback
Published August 19, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 21, 2023
also had to read for college boring
December 13, 2023
mein least-favorite charles dickens.
November 20, 2025
I really wanted to love this. It's very heavy handed, calling it a novel is not really accurate. It has an ok story... once it starts. Not for me
January 27, 2026
Une œuvre littéraire profonde qui révèle comment vivent les gens et combien leur vie est difficile.
January 9, 2014
Seen from a distance, Coketown is shrouded in smoky haze. It’s a dirty, industrial town full of factories, and populated by the men, women, and children whose lives are being changed forever by the Industrial Revolution.
Among the residents is Thomas Gradgrind, a no-nonsense fellow full of facts and figures. He always carries a ruler, a pair of scales, and a multiplication table in his pocket; and he is making it his mission in life to teach facts, not only to his children, but to all the students of Coketown.
There are five young Gradgrinds—among them Louisa and Thomas-- who have been lectured to from their youngest years. And there are shells and minerals; but there is no poetry, song , or play in the Gradgrind household.
There is Josiah Bounderby. He’s a rich oaf with a boisterous laugh. He owns the bank and the factories where the people of Coketown are employed. He’s a self-made man, having risen up from a childhood in which he claims his mother deserted him, and in which he didn’t have a shoe to his foot. As a bachelor, he is very interested in young Louisa.
Among the many factory hands is Stephen Blackpool, who has known a peck of trouble in his life. He is a good power-loom operator and a man of great integrity. And old Bounderby has it in for him.
Sissy Jupe is girl number twenty in one of Coketown’s schools, where men like Thomas Gradgrind see to it that only facts are taught. She knows that she loves flowers, and she prefers fancy to fact. And since her father has deserted her, Gradgrind has taken Sissy in, to properly raise and educate her.
This lesser known work of Dickens is an attack on the then prevalent philosophy of Utilitarianism, which allowed individuals such as Blackpool to live in dreary, foul places and to toil, shackled to machines, for low wages and in woeful conditions.
Which characters will rise to the top at the end? The whimsical Sissy or the nose-to-the-grindstone Grandgrind? The good-hearted Blackpool or the churlish Bounderby? You can probably guess the answer.
I wouldn't put Hard Times up at the top of my favorite Dickens’ reads. There were some chapters that were a little difficult to follow, some characters that didn't quite work for me. But like most of his novels, there are a few characters that just stand out. And there are plenty of wonderful lines the way only Dickens can write them. I do recommend it.
Among the residents is Thomas Gradgrind, a no-nonsense fellow full of facts and figures. He always carries a ruler, a pair of scales, and a multiplication table in his pocket; and he is making it his mission in life to teach facts, not only to his children, but to all the students of Coketown.
There are five young Gradgrinds—among them Louisa and Thomas-- who have been lectured to from their youngest years. And there are shells and minerals; but there is no poetry, song , or play in the Gradgrind household.
There is Josiah Bounderby. He’s a rich oaf with a boisterous laugh. He owns the bank and the factories where the people of Coketown are employed. He’s a self-made man, having risen up from a childhood in which he claims his mother deserted him, and in which he didn’t have a shoe to his foot. As a bachelor, he is very interested in young Louisa.
Among the many factory hands is Stephen Blackpool, who has known a peck of trouble in his life. He is a good power-loom operator and a man of great integrity. And old Bounderby has it in for him.
Sissy Jupe is girl number twenty in one of Coketown’s schools, where men like Thomas Gradgrind see to it that only facts are taught. She knows that she loves flowers, and she prefers fancy to fact. And since her father has deserted her, Gradgrind has taken Sissy in, to properly raise and educate her.
This lesser known work of Dickens is an attack on the then prevalent philosophy of Utilitarianism, which allowed individuals such as Blackpool to live in dreary, foul places and to toil, shackled to machines, for low wages and in woeful conditions.
Which characters will rise to the top at the end? The whimsical Sissy or the nose-to-the-grindstone Grandgrind? The good-hearted Blackpool or the churlish Bounderby? You can probably guess the answer.
I wouldn't put Hard Times up at the top of my favorite Dickens’ reads. There were some chapters that were a little difficult to follow, some characters that didn't quite work for me. But like most of his novels, there are a few characters that just stand out. And there are plenty of wonderful lines the way only Dickens can write them. I do recommend it.
March 23, 2015
If you're a Dickens fan, you'll enjoy this. Though it's one of his lesser-known novels, Dickens once again takes aim at a father. Here he is so intent on filling his children's heads with facts, that he belittles and warps their natural feelings of sentiment.
March 26, 2014
I did like it, but it took forever for it to be interesting.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews