Hard Times (Cambridge Literature)

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Charles Dickens: Hard Times (Cambridge Literature) (Paperback, 1996, Cambridge University Press)

Paperback, 336 pages

English language

Published June 28, 1996 by Cambridge University Press.

ISBN:
978-0-521-56089-4
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3 stars (1 review)

Dickens scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society and its misapplied utilitarian philosophy, Hard Times features schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, one of his most richly dimensional, memorable characters. Filled with the details and wonders of small-town life, it is also a daring novel of ideas and ultimately, a celebration of love, hope, and limitless possibilities of the imagination.

45 editions

Hard going!

3 stars

I've initiated two Christmas reading traditions over the past few years. One is to immerse myself in Deborah Garner's latest Moonglow Cafe Christmas novella. The other is to blog my review of a Charles Dickens novel on Christmas Day, necessitating reading one each December. I never read proper Dickens when I was growing up, instead we had a few children's abbreviated versions of his most famous stories. I've noticed though that many of his characters and storylines are referenced in other novels leaving me somewhat at a disadvantage by not always understanding or even recognising them. Hence the annual Dickens project. I admit I am easily intimidated by the sheer length of his books which is why I only attempt one a year and am gradually working up from A Christmas Carol to David Copperfield. This December I chose Hard Times which actually turned out to be very apt considering …

Subjects

  • Classic fiction
  • English literature: texts
  • Teaching Methods & Materials - Arts & Humanities
  • Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870
  • Fiction
  • Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Literature: Classics
  • Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / Arts & Humanities
  • Classics