Hard Times

by Charles Dickens

Overview

This story of class conflict in Victorian England serves as a powerful critique of the social injustices that plagued the Industrial Revolution.

THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information
• A chronology of the author's life and work
• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
• An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader's own interpretations
• Detailed explanatory notes
• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416523734
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	01/01/2007
Series:	Enriched Classics
Edition description:	Enriched Classic
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	4.19(w) x 6.75(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1821-1870) used his fiction to criticize the injustices of his time, especially the brutal treatment of the poor. He is also the author of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. He was born in Portsmouth, England.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington

Read an Excerpt

I

The One Thing Needful

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!"

The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a schoolroom, and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster's sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was — all helped the emphasis.

"In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!"

The speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown person present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Acknowledgements
A Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
Charles Dickens: A Brief Chronology

HARD TIMES: FOR THESE TIMES

Appendices: Contemporary Documents

Appendix A: The Composition of the Novel

1. Household Words Partners’ Agreement
2. Announcements in Household Words
3. Dickens’s Working Memoranda
4. Mentions in Dickens’s Letters

Appendix B: Contemporary Reviews of the Novel

1. Athanaeum (12 August 1854)
2. Examiner (9 September 1854)
3. Gentleman’s Magazine (September 1854)
4. British Quarterly Review (October 1854)
5. Rambler (October 1854)
6. South London Athanaeum and Institution Magazine (October 1854)
7. Westminster Review (October 1854)
8. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (April 1855)

Appendix C: On Industrialization: Commentary

1. Thomas Carlyle
1. “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review (June 1829)
2. Chartism (1839)
3. Past and Present (1843)
2. Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures (1836)
3. P. Gaskell, Artisans and Machinery (1836)
4. J.S. Mill
1. “Bentham,” London and Westminster Review (August 1838)
2. Principles of Political Economy(1848)
5. Arthur Helps, The Claims of Labour (1844)
6. Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1845)
7. Charles Dickens, “On Strike,” Household Words (11 February 1854)
8. Henry Morley, “Ground in the Mill,” Household Words (22 April 1854)
9. Harriet Martineau, The Factory Controversy: A Warning Against Meddling Legislation (1855)
10. W.B. Hodgson, “On the Importance of the Study of Economic Science as a Branch of Education for all Classes,” Lectures in Education Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (1855)
11. John Ruskin, “Unto This Last,” Cornhill Magazine (August 1860)

Appendix D: On Industrialization: Fiction

1. Harriet Martineau, A Manchester Strike (Illustrations of Political Economy No. 7) (1832)
2. Frances Trollope, Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong (1840)
3. “Charlotte Elizabeth,” Helen Fleetwood (1841)
4. Elizabeth Stone, William Langshawe, the Cotton Lord (1842)
5. Benjamin Disraeli
1. Coningsby (1844) (i)
2. Coningsby (1844) (ii)
3. Sybil (1845)
6. Elizabeth Gaskell
1. Mary Barton (1848) (i)
2. Mary Barton (1848) (ii)
3. North and South (1855)
7. Charlotte Bronte, Shirley (1849)
8. Charles Kingsley
1. Yeast (1850)
2. Alton Locke (1850)
9. Fanny Mayne, Jane Rutherford, or The Miners’ Strike (1854)

Explanatory Notes

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Charles Dickens offers Simon Prebble every opportunity to show off his talent." —-AudioFile

Reading Group Guide

This reading group guide for An Atlas of Impossible Longing includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

INTRODUCTION

In this reimagining of Charles Dickens’s classic, Great Expectations, Pip is an orphaned young werewolf living with his ill-tempered sister and her gentle husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. One fateful night, visiting his parents’ grave under the full moon, Pip encounters a frightening stranger—another werewolf and a convict no less. Too afraid to do anything other than obey the stranger’s instruction, Pip helps this convict and sets in motion of chain of events that will forever change the course of his life. Pip is sent to reside with Miss Havisham, a vampire who was sired and left on her wedding day by the one she loved. She has adopted Estella and raised her as a vampire slayer, to seek revenge on the supernatural creatures that she blames for her ruin. Pip, in awe of Estella’s beauty, falls instantly in love with her despite the fact that she has been trained to hate all “Scapegraces.” When an anonymous benefactor sends Pip to London to become a gentleman, he believes it is his chance to win Estella’s hand. The question that lies ahead is whether Pip will be able to overcome his wolfish ways and turn his once grave expectations for himself into great ones.

TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. In Pip’s world, the term “Scapegraces” is used to define “those of a supernatural sort” (p. 11). What do you think this term implies about the way that creatures like werewolves and vampires were viewed in this society?

2. On page 12, Pip wonders, “Was it a crime to merely be different?” While being a werewolf is simply a condition inherited at birth, vampires prey on the living to increase their population, and yet are “considered civilized and welcome to mix in society.” Is one creature more monstrous than the other? Do both werewolves and vampires have the capacity for good and evil?

3. After being invited to Miss Havisham’s and then later learning of his anonymous benefactor, Pip often feels ashamed of his roots, and of Joe’s commonness even more so than his own Scapegrace status. Yet Joe never seems to exhibit any embarrassment over Pip’s wolfishness. What does this say about each of their characters? What influences the focus of Pip’s shame?

4. When Mrs. Joe dies (the first time), Pip finds what he knows to be evidence of Magwitch’s crime, but he still does not accuse him. Why do you think Pip believes that Magwitch is innocent of this crime when the main piece of evidence points directly to him?

5. Throughout most of the story, Estella is cold-hearted and shows no affection for Pip despite his unwavering love for her. Why should he love someone who could possibly end up killing him in her crusade against Scapegraces? What makes him fall in love with her in the first place? Why do you think Pip continues to pursue someone who will never return his feelings?

6. Pip and Herbert have a very special friendship. Do you think this brotherly love grew out of the wolfish need to be part of a pack? Or something more human?

7. While Miss Havisham is herself a vampire, she has trained Estella in the ways of vampire slaying. Pip wonders “if Miss Havisham weren’t really wishing to be staked by Estella one day in raising her to such an art” (p. 235). Do you agree? Do you think Miss Havisham’s eventual outcome either supports or refutes this opinion? Why does Estella never stake her, if indeed her mission is to kill vampires?

8. Pip is horrified when he finds out the Magwitch has been his anonymous benefactor all along. Why do you think this revelation is so abhorrent to Pip, when he seems so willing to not only protect Magwitch and keep him safe, but to also protect his feelings by not revealing his disappointment?

9. On page 284, Pip explains to Miss Havisham that there are certain Scapegraces who “showed more humanity than the humans.” Discuss which of the Scapegraces behave with the utmost humanity, and which of the human characters exhibit what could be categorized as monstrous behavior?

10. How does the discovery of Estella’s parentage change things for Pip? Does it change your opinion of her?

11. Why is it so easy for Joe and Biddy to forgive Pip after he had neglected them for so many years? Should Joe have been angry that Pip spent so much time visiting Magwitch after he was captured, when he never kept up his visits to Joe like he had promised?

12. Though Estella is able to eventually see the goodness in werewolves, she never changes her opinion of vampires. Why do you think she can pardon and accept most Scapegraces and still seek vengeance against vampires?

ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB

1. Grave Expectations is a reimagining of Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations. Have you read Great Expectations before? If so, how did the supernatural version compare to the classic? What remained the same in this new version of the story? What changed? If not, choose Great Expectations for your next book club pick.

2. Grave Expectations is a literary mash-up—where a fictional classic is retold in present day or with mythical substitutions. Examples include Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or the movie Clueless, which was essentially Jane Austen’s Emma set in Beverly Hills during the 1990s. Try creating a literary mash-up of your own with your book club. Pick a favorite classic and retell the story as though it took place in the present day or with some supernatural characters. The more imaginative, the better!

3. Legends of werewolves and vampires have been carried down through the centuries. How does their depiction in this work compare with your preconceived notions of such supernatural creatures?

Editorial Reviews

"This is a work indispensable for a discussion of the reflection of the process of industrialization in European Realism as well as the question of education. A superb social commentary on the times."—Sven H. Rossel, University of Washington

"Nicely printed, but inexpensive, clear edition—what I'm looking for."—Dr. Dolores Luhr, La Salle University

From the Publisher

A wonderful introduction to the pleasures of Victorian novels and Dickens’ powerful story.”

Booklist

The power of [Dickens] is so amazing, that the reader at once becomes his captive, and must follow him whithersoever he leads.”

William Makepeace Thackeray

The narrator’s British accent goes well with Dickens’ overly dramatic and lush prose.”

AudioFile

A bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and communities in mid-nineteenth-century England.”

Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

"This beautifully produced edition combines a freshly written, informative introduction with helpful and well-judged notes. Particularly welcome is the wealth of documentary material and examples carefully chosen from other contemporary fiction, enabling readers to place Hard Times within its full Victorian context. This is an excellent edition—clear, authoritative and stimulating."

Kate Flint University of Oxford

"Graham Law's edition of Hard Times is the most useful edition for teaching Dickens that I have seen. Its text is authoritative, and the range of contextual documents included gives readers an opportunity to situate the work in the discussions of industrialization and labor as they took place in nineteenth-century England."

Barry V. Qualls Rutgers University