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3.33 AVERAGE
3.33 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mandatory read as school homework during the summer holidays. I've never done too well with these, and wouldn't have picked a Dickens novel for myself if it had been my choice - not quite my taste.
me aburrooooo yo necesito algo más, si te quieres centrar en descripciones pues ok, miles de libros que me encantan no tratan precisamente de acción y me siguen gustando, pero no te pases el libro sin que pase nada de relevancia dando vueltas a lo mismo y sin meter nada que me haga interesarme ni un mínimo
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
will probably enjoy this more once i study it properly but whilst funny (shout out to the teacher mr McChokumchild), the satire is maybe a little too heavy-handed, and the plot is simple at best, flat at worst
Индустриализация и ее последствия не есть тема книги, они в самых общих чертах описываются, и никого значения для сюжета не имеют. Скорее это трактат, критикующий утилитаристскую философию, которая, впрочем, тоже условно и карикатурно обрисована. Довольно средний Диккенс; что особенно удивительно, книга написана сразу после "Холодного дома", куда более интересного.
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The shortest Dickens
Hard Times is a novel that is, as the French would put it, à part. It's about three times shorter than the average Dickens novel, there is less filler, the plot is more contained. It is so different, in fact, that it doesn't even get the traditional preface from Charley D.
The book's characters are also a bit different from Dickens' other creations - and I have a couple of things to say about that. Dickens' novels have no shortage of morally reprehensible people of all shapes and sizes, but they were always caricatures, exaggerated characters who have a lot in common with people you can meet in real life but are a bit too out there to seem real. Bad people in Hard Times are realistically terrible - especially Tom Gradgrind(an irresponsible moocher who feels entitled to everything and exploits his sister's love and pity towards him) and Josiah Bounderby (a skeevy old man who marries a young girl he's been ogling since she was a child and who constantly lies about how hard his childhood was) . Gradgrind Sr. is basically one of those people who love "destroying the libs with facts and logic", and even a fairly positive character like Stephen Blackpool has an utterly chilling scene when he does nothing to stop his hated wife from drinking poison . I believe these characters in their terribleness and I really appreciate that, even though I think that Dickens is at his best when he does grotesque.
There aren't a lot of good people in Hard Times. The best we get is Sissy Jupe and she is a borderline manic pixie dream girl (I know this term is overused, but seriously, she exists solely to make the Gradgrinds believe in the power of love and imagination, the subplot with her missing father went absolutely nowhere). The other good people in this novel are Stephen and Rachel, an almost Dostoevskian couple who never get their happy ending.
I'm starting to notice several patterns in Dickens' works: he doesn't have a lot of faith in the education system - most of the schools in his novels are truly terrifying places; he also is not a fan of any radical social change - we saw that most clearly in Barnaby Rudge and this idea returns in this novel with the character of Slackbridge. Marriage is also something that he's skeptical about and that most evident in Hard Times, where every marriage is a trap (perhaps, he's so pessimistic about it in this novel because his own marriage was failing at the time).
All in all, it's not one of his best, but it is something new and special. And for that I am thankful.
Hard Times is a novel that is, as the French would put it, à part. It's about three times shorter than the average Dickens novel, there is less filler, the plot is more contained. It is so different, in fact, that it doesn't even get the traditional preface from Charley D.
The book's characters are also a bit different from Dickens' other creations - and I have a couple of things to say about that. Dickens' novels have no shortage of morally reprehensible people of all shapes and sizes, but they were always caricatures, exaggerated characters who have a lot in common with people you can meet in real life but are a bit too out there to seem real. Bad people in Hard Times are realistically terrible - especially Tom Gradgrind
There aren't a lot of good people in Hard Times. The best we get is Sissy Jupe and she is a borderline manic pixie dream girl (I know this term is overused, but seriously, she exists solely to make the Gradgrinds believe in the power of love and imagination, the subplot with her missing father went absolutely nowhere). The other good people in this novel are Stephen and Rachel, an almost Dostoevskian couple who never get their happy ending.
I'm starting to notice several patterns in Dickens' works: he doesn't have a lot of faith in the education system - most of the schools in his novels are truly terrifying places; he also is not a fan of any radical social change - we saw that most clearly in Barnaby Rudge and this idea returns in this novel with the character of Slackbridge. Marriage is also something that he's skeptical about and that most evident in Hard Times, where every marriage is a trap (perhaps, he's so pessimistic about it in this novel because his own marriage was failing at the time).
All in all, it's not one of his best, but it is something new and special. And for that I am thankful.
This story is somewhat different from Charles Dickens' other stories. It is set in an imaginary city (Coketown) and is a dark and sad story of people's daily struggles in an industrial era. Where beauty and love is replaced by smoke and grime. There are the usual Dickens' characters, with their ironic names, such as Gradgrind, M'Choakumchild and Bounderby...The ending is neither happy nor sad and it is practically a Dickensian ending "reap what you sow".
There is a paragraph in the conversation between Mr. Gradgrind and his daughter Louisa the second time they talk in his study, which touched me deeply.
Louisa to her father: 'How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death? Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, O father, what have you done, with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here!'
There is a paragraph in the conversation between Mr. Gradgrind and his daughter Louisa the second time they talk in his study, which touched me deeply.
Louisa to her father: 'How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death? Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, O father, what have you done, with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here!'
Me encantó el giro final y definitivamente no lo esperaba. Ciertamente seguimos viviendo en Tiempos difíciles.