The shortest of Dickens's novels, Hard Times is also his most pointed and impassioned satire of social injustice.
The shortest of Charles Dickens's novels, Hard Times is also his most pointed and impassioned satire of social injustice.
Set in Coketown, a fictional industrial town in the north of England, Hard Times was born of its author's indignation at the soul-crushing conditions of the industrial age, and yet it vibrantly transcends the stock situations and polemical weaknesses typical of social protest fiction of the time. The indelible characters-Mr. Gradgrind, whose utilitarian educational philosophy emotionally cripples his own children; the hypocritical factory owner Josiah Bounderby; Stephen Blackpool, an honest worker wrongly accused of a crime; and Sissy Jupe, a circus performer whose father abandons her to what he hopes is a better life-all come alive in classic Dickensian fashion, and contribute to a satiric vision of society tempered equally by righteous anger and compassionate humanity.
By:
Charles Dickens Introduction by:
Phil Collins Imprint: Vintage Country of Publication: United States Dimensions:
Height: 202mm,
Width: 133mm,
Spine: 17mm
Weight: 238g ISBN:9780307947208 ISBN 10: 0307947203 Series:Vintage Classics Publication Date:01 March 2012 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
