Hard Times

Hard Times. Charles Dickens. Penguin Publishing (first published in 1854). 321 pages. Source: Audio Library

First sentence: Now what I want is facts.  Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.

Plot: The 'terrible mistake' was the contemporary utilitarian philosophy, expounded in Hard Times (1854) as the Philosophy of Fact by the hard-headed disciplinarian Thomas Gradgrind. But the novel, Dickens's shortest, is more than a polemical tract for the times; the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father is one of Dickens's triumphs. When Louisa, trapped in a loveless marriage, falls prey to an idle seducer, the crisis forces her father to reconsider his cherished system. Yet even as the development of the story reflects Dickens's growing pessimism about human nature and society, Hard Times marks his return to the theme which had made his early works so popular: the amusements of the people. Sleary's circus represents Dickens's most considered defence of the necessity of entertainment, and infuses the novel with the good humour which has ensured its appeal to generations of readers.

My thoughts:  This is a hard one for me as are all Dickens novels.  The story that I in my head most followed was that of poor Louisa.  The youngest daughter of Thomas Gradgrind.  She was married off to a man twice her age and went to live in a home where there was no love at all.  Louisa had never had a love interest but when James Harthouse arrives and tries to win her heart she runs back to her father and tells him what an error he made in having her marry the old Mr. Bounderby.  

Mr Bounderby is furious that Louisa left him but he is determined to find the man who has robbed his bank.  The thief all along is Louisa's older brother who has fallen on Hard Times and has taken money consistently from Louisa to cover his debts.

This story was a little hard to follow at first but I soon had it figured out in my head who everyone was.  I'm glad that I have read this one but it's not my favorite Dickens novel.