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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Some parts were incredibly slow going, some downright difficult to get through, like Stephen Blackpool's bits (I hate it when heavy accents are reflected in spelling), and at the middle I kind of lost heart a little. But the final chapters where surprisingly interesting and engaging, and in a way puts the rest of the book in a different light too, as you realise the buildup was necessary. Definitely not one of my favourite books, but it didn't completely discourage me from reading more Dickens either, so all in all.... 3.5/5
dark
slow-paced
Typical Dickens -- some social commentary, great caricature characters, intertwined events not revealed until the end; all the greatness (even the usual trait-names).
Unlike some of his other books, though, there is no absolute main character. No-nonsense Barnaby marries Gradgrind's daughter Louisa, who agrees to the loveless marriage to help her brother Tom pay his gambling debts. An abandoned child, a mysterious old woman, a nosy "upperclass" servant, slurring carnies, a bankrobbery, romance and intrigue...hilarity and seriousness all rolled together.
Unlike some of his other books, though, there is no absolute main character. No-nonsense Barnaby marries Gradgrind's daughter Louisa, who agrees to the loveless marriage to help her brother Tom pay his gambling debts. An abandoned child, a mysterious old woman, a nosy "upperclass" servant, slurring carnies, a bankrobbery, romance and intrigue...hilarity and seriousness all rolled together.
This might very well be one of Dicken's novels I enjoyed the most. :D The characters are colourful, the underlying morals and social commentary well articulated (it's Dickens after all), but the brevity of the tale is what impressed me. No side tales or lengthy descriptions here, which is such a relief. There's tragedy, cruelty, poverty, but the people working on with perseverance lift the tale somewhat.
“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 philosophy has unexpected effects on the Gradgrind family and reflect the mindset of the industrial towns, especially that of the factory owners who desired to do away with charity, human condition, or anything resembling care for the working poor. The closing words are therefore so appropriate: “Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.” Every person deserves to be treated humanely and not like an animal or an extension of machinery.
Especially the treatment of women as chattel is put on the spot - I shuddered just like Louisa at the proprietary eye of Bounderby who has decided to one day marry the then 15 year old girl while he was almost 50. They married when she was 20 because Louisa though she had no other alternative when her father presented the suit in such 'logical' terms, not taking her feelings into account. Louisa's words "What does it matter?" are repeated throughout the book to a chilling effect. I really sympathised with her - a father fixed on facts, a mother constantly fading away with her disposition, and the girl with no friends to shield her. Her brother, the person she loved the most, hinted that her marriage would help him since he worked for Bounderby at the bank. Of course, he only wanted to have her to fall back on for money. He hated the man but he was happy to marry his sister to him. Despicable.
“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 philosophy has unexpected effects on the Gradgrind family and reflect the mindset of the industrial towns, especially that of the factory owners who desired to do away with charity, human condition, or anything resembling care for the working poor. The closing words are therefore so appropriate: “Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.” Every person deserves to be treated humanely and not like an animal or an extension of machinery.
Especially the treatment of women as chattel is put on the spot - I shuddered just like Louisa at the proprietary eye of Bounderby who has decided to one day marry the then 15 year old girl while he was almost 50. They married when she was 20 because Louisa though she had no other alternative when her father presented the suit in such 'logical' terms, not taking her feelings into account. Louisa's words "What does it matter?" are repeated throughout the book to a chilling effect. I really sympathised with her - a father fixed on facts, a mother constantly fading away with her disposition, and the girl with no friends to shield her. Her brother, the person she loved the most, hinted that her marriage would help him since he worked for Bounderby at the bank. Of course, he only wanted to have her to fall back on for money. He hated the man but he was happy to marry his sister to him. Despicable.
dark
funny
reflective
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Originally published on my blog here in July 2000.
Generally considered Dickens' weakest novel, and certainly consistently his least known, Hard Times is a campaigning work about the conditions experienced by workers in northern English industrial towns. The reason that it is unsatisfactory is not, in fact, hard to see: Dickens did not become involved in his subject in the way that he did in his other novels attacking abuses (such as [b:David Copperfield|58696|David Copperfield|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309281852s/58696.jpg|4711940], [b:Nicholas Nickleby|325085|Nicholas Nickleby|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327984215s/325085.jpg|4993095] and [b:Little Dorrit|31250|Little Dorrit|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311647629s/31250.jpg|80851]). The remedy for the abuses of the rich mill owners was not obvious, and Dickens viewed one potential remedy (organisation of the workers) with deep distrust. So Dickens' campaign here had no definite aim, and so the best that he could suggest was an appeal to the individual philanthropy of the mill owners.
The distance of author from subject has its most obvious repercussions in the characters in the novel, normally one of Dickens' strong points. His plots are usually melodramatic, and characters tend not to develop, but even the small parts are vividly drawn. The most interesting person in the book is Mr Gradgrind, but he is the personification of a secondary target of the novel, the idea that education should just be about "hard facts", the bloodless classification of objects into categories which are meaningless and useless to the average child ("Horse. Graminivorous quadruped..."). Everyone else, particularly the working class, is colourless.
The best pasts of Hard Times are the descriptions of the fictional Coketown in which it is set. These remind the reader that Dickens started out as a journalist. In the end, though, I was quite grateful that Hard Times is one of Dickens' shortest completed novels.
Generally considered Dickens' weakest novel, and certainly consistently his least known, Hard Times is a campaigning work about the conditions experienced by workers in northern English industrial towns. The reason that it is unsatisfactory is not, in fact, hard to see: Dickens did not become involved in his subject in the way that he did in his other novels attacking abuses (such as [b:David Copperfield|58696|David Copperfield|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309281852s/58696.jpg|4711940], [b:Nicholas Nickleby|325085|Nicholas Nickleby|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327984215s/325085.jpg|4993095] and [b:Little Dorrit|31250|Little Dorrit|Charles Dickens|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311647629s/31250.jpg|80851]). The remedy for the abuses of the rich mill owners was not obvious, and Dickens viewed one potential remedy (organisation of the workers) with deep distrust. So Dickens' campaign here had no definite aim, and so the best that he could suggest was an appeal to the individual philanthropy of the mill owners.
The distance of author from subject has its most obvious repercussions in the characters in the novel, normally one of Dickens' strong points. His plots are usually melodramatic, and characters tend not to develop, but even the small parts are vividly drawn. The most interesting person in the book is Mr Gradgrind, but he is the personification of a secondary target of the novel, the idea that education should just be about "hard facts", the bloodless classification of objects into categories which are meaningless and useless to the average child ("Horse. Graminivorous quadruped..."). Everyone else, particularly the working class, is colourless.
The best pasts of Hard Times are the descriptions of the fictional Coketown in which it is set. These remind the reader that Dickens started out as a journalist. In the end, though, I was quite grateful that Hard Times is one of Dickens' shortest completed novels.
