Hard Times
In the soot-stained city of Coketown, where facts are sacred and imagination is a crime, lives are measured in productivity and hearts are left to wither. Hard Times tells the story of those caught in the iron grip of industry and ideology—children molded into machines, love reduced to calculation, and wonder smothered by cold logic. Yet even in this world of grinding gears and grim utilitarianism, a question lingers: can the soul survive where only numbers matter? With biting wit and deep compassion, this is a tale of rebellion not in battle, but in the quiet persistence of feeling, curiosity, and hope.
- Originally Published: August 12, 1854
- Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1985
- Genre: Novel
- Pages: 328
- Book Type: Hardcopy
- ISBN: 978-0140430424
- Access: Members
Description
‘It is proof of Dickens’ genius (or maybe just the unchanging nature of Britain) that you can read Hard Times as if it were all happening now’ Guardian
‘Facts alone are wanted in life’
The children at Mr Gradgrind’s school are sternly ordered to stifle their imaginations and pay attention only to cold, hard reality. They live in a smoky, troubled industrial town so entertainment is hard to come by and resentments run deep. The effects of Gradgrind’s teaching on his own children, Tom and Louisa, are particularly profound and leave them ill-equipped to deal with the unpredictable desires of the human heart. Luckily for them they have a friend in Sissy Jupe, the child of a circus clown, who retains her warm-hearted, compassionate nature despite the pressures around her.
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