Hard Times (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Great

Hard Times is probably Dickens' most underrated novel. It is a good protest against conditions and attitudes during the Victorian period however its main focus is not on the working class, although it seems to be with the first chapters. It is a book everyone interested in Victorian literature - and British literature in general - should read. It has an unbelievable writing style.

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Brilliant

Absolutely Wonderful! This book is so fascinating and remarkable! I thought it extremely educational and interesting at the same time. I would read it again and I am not one to read books more than once! Bravo Dickens!

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Dull

I felt it would be unfair to give this book only one star, since it is a classic. But, considering how painful it was to get through with the endless narration, incomprehensible accents of certain people, and run-on sentences, I've decided to shy away from the opinions of literary scholars and voice my own opinion. And the fact that it was terribly boring leaves me with no guilt in giving Hard Times a poor rating.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Dickens

I love all of Dickens's novels, and while this falls a bit short when compared to Great Expectations or David Copperfield, it is well worth reading. Character development leaves a bit to be desired in that, in order to explore his ideas about human development and politics, some of his characters are a bit caricaturish. Nonetheless, this is a great book.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great book

This is a great book. I am a big fan of Charles Dickens, and I would recommend any of his books.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Thank you for spoiling everything!

Thank you to the nimrod who, in a very self-aggrandizing sort of way, just gave away the entire PLOT to Hard Times. First of all, I've already read the book so your forsoothly monologue didn't tell me anything I didn't already know (and I have written a few papers on the book) and second of all, who's actually going to want to go out and buy the book now? THINK next time before you post! Okay? If people want the Cliffs Notes version, they can purchase it at Barnes & Noble!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Hey. It's Dickens. Of course it's good.

Not Dickens' best. Lots of loose ends, especially in modern editions. Also not quite the harangue on England's unjust social conditions it's often said to be. Nonetheless, Dickens is a great story teller and this fits that mold. Plus it's short by his standards.

Review

Charles Dickens presents one of his more simplistic novels here but it is a worthwhile read about society commentary and satire nonetheless.

Screwed up text

all the free dickens books have screwed up text. please fix them.
I down loaded hard times, and got screwed up text from domby and son.

Hardtimes

I highly recommend this book as I would all Dickens books. The true intention of the book is there in all the amazing characters that Dickens invents and the predicaments that are their's due to life circumstances and their own actions. Dickens always comes up with appropriate names for some of his characters as in McChoakamchild as a teachers name. I found that to be very amusing and too true in some instances of my own life. As for the accents and so called run on sentences well, practice the accents outloud till you get them. Any education, and that's what I consider reading books of another time period as, is worth the practice and little bit of work to obtain such enjoyment.

Interesting

This book is about a man who, in an effort to save his children and others from the mistake of being guided (misguided) by emotion, taste and other intangibles, has a school to educate people to focus on the tangible- the factual- and to be guided by reason.

There are several story lines, and many compelling characters. I believe, the premise of the book is that one can make errors in judgement as well and easily by applying to reason as to emotion.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

That Dickens

I read this for a college class years ago. Thought I remembered liking it - not sure why now. Although I am a Dickens' fan, this book moves all over the place and doesn't follow through on its original premise of an education consisting only of facts/

A novel worthy of our utmost approbation.

When she was half-a-dozen years younger, Louisa had been overheard to begin a conversation with her brother one day, by saying, ¿Tom, I wonder¿¿upon which Mr. Gradgrind, who was the person overhearing, stepped forth into the light, and said, ¿Louisa, never wonder!¿ 'pg. 52' It is known, to the force of a single pound weight, what the engine will do. But, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice, or the reverse, at any single moment in the soul of one of these its quiet servants, with the composed faces and the regulated actions. There is no mystery in it. There is an unfathomable mystery in the meanest of them, forever¿ supposing we were to reserve our arithmetic for material objects, and to govern these awful unknown quantities by other means! 'pg. 71' The above excerpts perfectly exemplify the two most prominent themes in Hard Times: the importance of imagination and compassion. In the very first page, we are introduced to Mr. Gradgrind¿s morbid philosophy, which seeks to teach children nothing but facts, to live one¿s life based on reason and exact calculations, and to abstain from anything that approaches Fancy. Mr. Gradgrind¿s name implies his theory, for he veritably grinds the imagination out of his children, turning them into morose machine-like vessels full of facts. It seems Gradgrind can put anything into a tabular statement or answer any question, whether it would be wiser to answer with one¿s heart or not, mathematically. Consequently, his children are taught to do the same. Neither knowing how to navigate life with their heart, they both fall into terrible situations. They cannot feel. They are deadened, lifeless textbooks. However, Louisa¿s soul is under much more constraint than is Tom¿s. She often daydreams and is aware of what her father¿s philosophy destroyed in her infancy. She is compassionate despite her upbringing and cares much for her brother. But the attention and consideration she gives her brother is unrequited. The Gradgrind household is regulated by facts. Coketown is regulated by facts. The workers, called ¿Hands¿, are as apathetic and gloomy as the incessant trails of smoke that emanate from the factory chimneys. Their imaginations have also been stifled. The Coketown magnates are only concerned with monetary gains, and so measure all things with their avarice. The Hands are nearly indistinguishable from the machinery. They are machinery! Each passage pertaining to Coketown adequately and beautifully illustrates how suffocating this industrialized town is, where the inhabitants are only to work and who have no creative outlet or moment of respite. Hard Times states that we cannot govern people with numbers alone. They cannot be regulated by Gradgrind¿s facts, nor are the lower class lazy, ungrateful scum as the self-made man Bounderby would have us believe. People need imaginative stimuli to escape the dreary, monotonous reality of everyday life and their ¿owners¿ need be as concerned about their workers¿ well-being as they are their profits. Yes, Dickens¿ plotting is exact and his characters are exaggerated, but that¿s what I love about his novels. Yes, the villains receive their comeuppance in the end and the heroes and heroines shine as brightly as halos, but this is also something I love about Dickens. I would also like to bring attention to another aspect of Hard Times, and all other Dickens novels, and that is the language. I love the language in this book. It took me twice as long to read this book as it should have and that¿s because I couldn¿t persuade myself to move on from certain passages. I actually read every chapter twice and some paragraphs I cannot count the number of times I read. I loved this book. If you have the faintest interest in classical literature, you¿ll love this book. I could do nothing after reading this book but sig

Good read

The back of the book says that Thomas Gradgrind is one of Dicken's most vivid characters. I'd have to disagree and wouldn't even call him the most vivid character of the book. It was a little slow at times but picks up at the end.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

HARD TIMES

Hard Times by Charles Dickens is a timeless novel, that¿s every message rings true to today. Dickens portrays through the characters in the Gradgrind family the importance of being free to create one¿s own person through imagination. At the commencement of the novel Dickens illustrates a cold, strict, sparse classroom as Mr. Gradgrind explains the importance of only Facts in ones life. This serious and anxious tone is carried throughout the novel, as the Gradgrinds mature and the way of life in Coketown is questioned. Then, the character of Bounderby is introduced as a very narcissistic man who has ¿risen¿ form the depths of society to become very successful and a family friend of the Gradgrinds, who has set his eye on the eldest daughter Louisa. However, due to her father¿s incessant pressure she tries to rebel, as anyone would, but isn¿t successful and marries Bounderby. Meanwhile, a student at the school where Gradgrind teaches his ¿philosophy¿ is abandoned by her circus performing father, who wants her to have a good education and life. She, Sissy Jupe, is then taken under the wing of Gradgrind and becomes part of the family, who later proves to be the change they need to fix their broken family. As the story unfolds these main characters encounter many conflicts as the result of this flawed ¿Facts only¿ philosophy. Through logic the reader can deduce that the message pertains to the nurturing of ones imagination. This is the reason why students read Hard Times in school, students can relate to the feeling of being stifled by facts, yet it¿s imperative for them to know that the final product of being content with ones-self is the most important.

shall another book ever be conceived to exceed hard times' intoxicating lulaby?

being longwinded is what makes dickens great, but even he has outdone himself once more with this novel. throughout the novel dickens writes without much thought onto how much he is giving away, and later on tries to 'suprise' the reader by confirming those 'hints' on the characters. there are many childrens books that just say see jane run, run jane run, and ettcettra that still have a greater flow than that which may be called hard times... 'they were the best of times, for they were the worst of times' there are countless similarities when comparing this statement to the monotonous ordeal of reading hard times. the only way i have found to stay awake while reading it was to have a pitcher of tea next to me at all times. i would recomend 'the life of Dr. Bejimin Franklin as writen by himself' 'Across the nightinggale floor', and the rest of the 'tales of the otori' series they have alot more action and drop you into the action from the begining

Ok

I read this book in two weeks as a school assignment this year in eigth grade. It was ok, but I believe Charles Dicken's other novels captured my attention much more than this.

Relative

Dicken's Hard Times is one of the easiest books that I have ever read; I myself suffered the depression of the factories for years before becoming a writer. Although some of his characters are a little larger than life, most of the soul stealing torture in the factory is also large to the point of mystical. I do not reccomend this to anyone who has never enjoyed true defeat. As with any great writing, Hard Times is as true as life.

Its Good ,Really Good

Personally I find the book curiously interesting.Charles Dickens did a great job and I understand it completly.

A book for Hard Times

If you read this book you will be glad that you were not part of the time then. Although there were lots of changes, still there was much control in what people could or could not do in their lives and work was limited to class, and education was also. Thie era was good to read about, but I just would not want to live in the way that most people lived then. The book was three books in one. The first was on 'Sowing* It was shown how the seeds were sown here. The the next one was *Reaping* which showed the outcome of actions that had come before, and then the third was *Garnering*, where all the pieces came together that were left, and put in order. I enjoyed the progression of the books in one. Was bored sometimes, because I did not see that there was a strong enough plot.