After reading Little Dorrit in 2018, I wanted to read more Dickens. I remember when I went through a stage as a younger reader and read all the major works of Thomas Hardy - now that was a depressing exercise! I decided to concentrate on some of the final books written by Dickens and chose as my next book Hard Times, one I did not really know anything about. I read an online version, via Project Gutenberg - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/786/786-h/786-h.htm.
Hard Times – For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. Hard Times is unusual in several ways. It is by far the shortest of Dickens' novels. Also, unlike all but one of his other novels, Hard Times has neither a preface nor illustrations. Moreover, it is his only novel not to have scenes set in London. Instead the story is set in the fictitious Victorian industrial Coketown, a generic Northern English mill-town, in some ways similar to Manchester, though smaller. Coketown may be partially based on 19th century Preston.
The novel was published as a serial in Dickens's weekly publication Household Words. Sales were highly responsive and encouraging for Dickens who remarked that he was "Three parts mad, and the fourth delirious, with perpetual rushing at Hard Times". The novel was serialised, in twenty weekly parts, between 1 April and 12 August 1854. It sold well, and a complete volume was published in August, totalling 110,000 words.
A quick blurb summary
"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas Gradgrind, a "fanatic of the demonstrable fact," who raises his children, Tom and Louisa, in a stifling and arid atmosphere of grim practicality.
Without a moral compass to guide them, the children sink into lives of desperation and despair, played out against the grim background of Coketown, a wretched community shadowed by an industrial behemoth. Louisa falls into a loveless marriage with Josiah Bouderby, a vulgar banker, while the unscrupulous Tom, totally lacking in principle, becomes a thief who frames an innocent man for his crime. Witnessing the degradation and downfall of his children, Gradgrind realizes that his own misguided principles have ruined their lives.
The first paragraph in the book sets the theme
‘Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’
Interestingly, early in the book, the heroine would seem to be Sissy but she soon gives way to Louisa, who takes over as perhaps the central character. Like all Dickens' books, there are many players in the story which unfolds in quite unexpected ways. The characters are wonderfully drawn, as you would expect from Dickens. They are in many cases completely over the top - take for instance Josiah Bounderby. Mrs Sparsit and Bitzer.
It has been made into both ITV (1977) and BBC (1994) productions, both excellent. I don't ever remember seeing either of them so shall have to revisit (or visit).
The end pages are wonderful, looking into the future to see what becomes of each of the main characters. It is intimately done for the "dear reader", as is the way with Dickens and makes for a poignant end to the book.
His prose is wonderful. Take this snippet from the end
Did he see any faint reflection of his own image making a vain-glorious will, whereby five-and-twenty Humbugs, past five-and-fifty years of age, each taking upon himself the name, Josiah Bounderby of Coketown, should for ever dine in Bounderby Hall, for ever lodge in Bounderby buildings, for ever attend a Bounderby chapel, for ever go to sleep under a Bounderby chaplain, for ever be supported out of a Bounderby estate, and for ever nauseate all healthy stomachs, with a vast amount of Bounderby balderdash and bluster?
A wonderful, if depressing read. A heavy moody book, with little of joy.
Will we ever see another Dickens - alas, I fear not.
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