'Hard Times' (1854) by Charles Dickens
Hard Times: For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book surveys English society and satirises the social and economic conditions of the era.
Hard Times is unusual in several ways. It is by far the shortest of Dickens's novels, barely a quarter of the length of those written immediately before and after it. Also, unlike all but one of his other novels, Hard Times has neither a preface nor illustrations. Moreover, it is his only novel not to have scenes set in London. Instead the story is set in the fictitious Victorian industrial Coketown, a generic Northern English mill-town, in some ways similar to Manchester, though smaller. Coketown may be partially based on 19th-century Preston.
One of Dickens's reasons for writing Hard Times was that sales of his weekly periodical Household Words were low, and it was hoped the novel's publication in instalments would boost circulation – as indeed proved to be the case. Since publication it has received a mixed response from critics. Critics such as George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Macaulay have mainly focused on Dickens's treatment of trade unions and his post-Industrial Revolution pessimism regarding the divide between capitalist mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era. F. R. Leavis, a great admirer of the book, included it – but not Dickens's work as a whole – as part of his Great Tradition of English novels.
-
1:33:07
The Late Kick with Josh Pate
10 hours agoLate Kick Live Ep 540: CFB 2024 Chaos | SEC Intel | Deion vs CBS | Record Predict: Bama & Miami
35.4K8 -
1:58:21
Nerdrotic
9 hours agoMegafloods and The Moon | Forbidden Frontier #069
71.7K24 -
2:50:37
vivafrei
16 hours agoEp. 223: Rumble SUES for "Illegal Boycott"; CopyCat Kamala! Walz Stolen Valor & MOR! Viva & Barnes
174K311 -
LIVE
Vigilant News Network
12 hours agoThe Most Vaxxed Country on Earth Now Faces a Population Crisis - Media Blackout
2,813 watching -
13:21
TENET Media
10 hours agoCori Bush OUSTED | Matt Christiansen
66.5K25 -
2:45:02
BIGBLUECITY
11 hours agoMINECRAFT'S GREATEST COMEBACK!!! 🔥🔥🔥
99.1K1 -
30:40
Stephen Gardner
12 hours ago🚨Kamala BUSTED using RACISM to SECURE VOTES! I'm SPEECHLESS!!
112K177 -
2:38:09
The Quartering
15 hours agoBiden Admits He Was PUSHED Out, Harley Abandons America & A Plan To Help Trump!
153K215 -
13:02
America Uncovered
1 day agoThe END of Google?
84.6K87 -
9:40
justintech
2 days ago $2.04 earnedThe New KING of Gaming Monitors! - LG Ultra Gear 32" 4K OLED
125K19