they were the hard of times, they were the hard of times

Hard Times, 1854, 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 satirists the social and economic conditions of the era. Hard Times is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, a short novel that appeared not in monthly publications like the previous ones, but as a weekly serial in his magazine Household Words, from April 1 to August 12, 1854.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «روزگار سخت»؛ «دوران سخت»؛ «دوران مشقت»؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز پانزدهم ماه ژوئن سال2010میلادی

عنوان: روزگار سخت؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ مترجم: حسین اعرابی؛ تهران، نگاه، سال1364، در446ص؛ چاپ دوم سال1367؛ چاپ سوم سال1368؛ موضوع داستان از نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده19م

عنوان: روزگار سخت؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ مترجم: الهام دانش نژاد؛ تلخیص برای نوجوانان، در71ص در تهران، دبیر، سال1389؛

عنوان: دوران سخت؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ مترجم: سید جلیل شاهرودی لنگرودی؛ تهران، نشر سخن، مجید، سال1394، در416ص؛ شابک978600941263؛

عنوان: روزگار سخت؛ نویسنده: چارلز دیکنز؛ مترجم: عارف دهقان؛ تبریز، آیدین ساو؛ سال1394؛ در76ص؛ شابک9786009533466؛

روزگار سخت؛ یکی از عنوانهای فارسی رمانی از «چارلز دیکنز (زاده سال1812میلادی - درگذشت سال1870میلادی)، نویسنده ی بریتانیا، که نخستین بار در سال1854میلادی منتشر شد؛ حاصل مشاهدات نویسنده، درباره ی وضع صنعت در شهر «منچستر»، و «پریستون‌»، و زندگی کارگران، و روابطشان با کارفرمایان است؛ «تامس گرادگریند»، نمونه ی صاحب صنعت سلطه جو، و اهل شهر «کوکناون»، از مراکز صنعتی، «مردی است کاملاً اهل عمل» که به چیزی جز راستیها، و آمار باور ندارد، و فرزندان خود «لویز» و «تام» جوان را، با سرکوب کردن بی‌رحمانه ی جنبه‌ های ذوقی، و آرمانی سرشتشان، تربیت می‌کند؛ «لویز» را به همسری کارخانه‌ داری خسیس، و حقه‌ باز، به نام «جوسایا باندربی» می‌دهد؛ که سی سال از دخترش بزرگتر است، و خلق و خویی بس خشن دارد، و از آن قماش آدمهایی است، که تمدن صنعتی آنها را به وجود می‌آورد؛ «لویز» تا اندازه‌ ای، از آن جهت به این زناشویی تن در می‌دهد، که تربیتی که پدرش به او داده، او را پرخاشجو، و خونسرد، بار آورده است، و تا اندازه‌ ای هم، به این باور که می‌خواهد به برادریکه تنها کسی است که «لویز» دوستش میدارد، و کارمند «باندربی» است، یاری کند؛ ...؛ ادبیات مشاجره است؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 08/04/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 05/01/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Oh, how I’ve missed Charles Dickens!

Hard Times is quite different than most other Charles Dickens novels. At around three hundred pages it comes in 1/2 the length (or less) of most of Dickens’ other novels. Readers don’t get the numerous plot lines and laundry list of characters, but it is nonetheless very worthwhile. I loved every minute of reading this.

This novel is sharply written - Dickens was definitely on his game when he wrote this one! I don’t mind exaggeration and dramatization when it is done as cleverly as it was here. An example is the chapter where he used of the imagery of Mrs. Sparsit’s staircase - the literal staircase figuratively used to illustrate the ups and downs of Coketown and of the characters in the story. Dickens’ use of figurative language is second to none - he was just so clever at his craft.

Hard Times is really great and I recommend to fans of Dickens or any fans of Victorian novels.

Fact: We UCLA undergraduates were forced to read this as part of the syllabus for the course WESTERN CIVILIZATION II, along with Marx, Freud, Goethe and Mill. (You see how rigorous my alma mater was/is?) It is the only Dickens I have read from cover to cover, though I have attempted A TALE OF TWO CITIES and GREAT EXPECTATIONS. This liberal defense of the working class is typical of Dickens, and Mill for that matter. Workers shall have their rights granted by the ruling class but not to the point where they take them of their own might. The proletariat must be educated lest it turn into a mob. If you wish to consult an Eminent Person to back me up read George Orwell on Dickens. Which is drier, Dickens' prose or his politics?

Bread and circuses…

In the industrial town of Coketown in the north of England, we meet the Gradgrinds. Mr Gradgrind is a school board Superintendent, a Utilitarian, a lover of facts and an enemy to fancy. Mrs Gradgrind is a woman dull to the point of near-imbecility and, out of laziness and disinterest as much as anything else, supports her husband’s child-rearing methods. Gradgrind’s primary guinea pigs for his Utilitarian experiment are his five children, especially the two eldest, Louisa and Tom. The school that Gradgrind superintends forcefeeds facts into the heads of children, and stifles any individuality or creativity. Into this learning factory comes Sissy Jupe, the child of a circus performer who has begged to be allowed to attend school so that she can be educated. But when Louisa and Tom are caught one day daring to peep into the forbidden circus, Gradgrind blames Sissy’s influence, at the suggestion of his great friend Mr Bounderby, and throws Sissy out of school.

Mr Bounderby is a self-made man who has dragged himself up from beginnings so inauspicious that it’s amazing he survived at all, much less going on to become a rich and powerful business magnate. We know this because Bounderby tells the story to everyone he meets. If he could rise from being abandoned by an uncaring mother, then so could anyone else if only they had his determination – such is his philosophy, justifying his cruel hard-heartedness to his employees and to anyone who has fallen on hard times. Bounderby, well on in middle-age, casts his lecherous eye on young Louisa before she has even left school and, as soon as she can be considered an adult, asks Gradgrind for her hand. Poor Louisa is one of those cold females Dickens excels in – damaged by her upbringing to the point where all passion, all emotion even, is buried so deep inside even she thinks it is dead. So she agrees to marry Bounderby.

These are the main characters whose story we follow through one of Dickens’ shorter and more overtly polemical novels. He has two main themes – the hardships of workers contrasted with the harsh, unfeeling selfishness of the new industrial magnates; and the need for children to be allowed to explore their imagination and have some fun, alongside fact-based learning. Written at roughly the same time as Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, a book he encouraged her to write and which was serialised in his periodical Household Words, both examine the new industrial world of the North and both are arguing for better conditions for workers, but that’s where the comparison ends. Gaskell’s characterisation is more realistic, perhaps, and her story is much bleaker – her characters are chiefly notable for dying (constantly) of poverty or industrial disease, whereas Dickens’ characters go through all his usual things – broken hearts, tragic misunderstandings, amazing coincidences, false accusations and redemption. Gaskell wins the prize for realism, but Dickens wins the more coveted prize for being entertaining!

There is some humour in the schooling of the children, as they repeat back meaningless definitions of nouns they have learned by rote with no depth of understanding. But it’s dark humour – Dickens’ low opinion of education shows up in many of his books, from the deliberate sadism of Wackford Squeers, to here, where Mr Gradgrind has the best of intentions but no understanding at all of childishness and the need for children to grow spiritually and imaginatively even as they absorb facts.

The story of the conditions for workers is darker. Here our humble hero is Stephen Blackpool, an employee in one of Bounderby’s mills. Through his wife, we see the damage that alcohol can do, to all sectors of society, of course, but always more harshly to the poor. Stephen is caught between two forces over which he has no control – the employers and the new unions, beginning their long, unfinished battle for power. While Dickens is very sympathetic to the plight of the workers, whom he shows as decent and honest, he has little time for the union leaders, showing them as self-seeking demagogues, stirring up the men to justify their own existence, and with little true concern for the workers whom they exploit as much as do the employers. While there is little doubt (in most quarters!) that (some) unions have been a force for good overall, helping workers to win better pay and conditions over the century and a half since Dickens was writing, I’m sure we can all think of examples of the kind of demagogic union leader Dickens portrays here. So while I felt the portrayal was unfairly one-sided, it still bore a lot of credibility. And in Stephen we see an early example of how the unions persuade friend to turn against friend, if any man dares to refuse to follow the herd.

So as always with Dickens, plenty to think about and plenty that is still sadly relevant today. And of course his writing is always a joy to read. However, this book feels rather under-developed in comparison to his greatest novels. There are moments of humour, but none of the exuberance and wit that usually provide a welcome contrast to his more polemical elements. There’s a distinct shortage of the memorable characters he normally does so well – Bounderby is a great character, as is his awful housekeeper, Mrs Sparsit. But neither Louisa nor Sissy won my heart much though I sympathised with both, and the evil people (even Bounderby) aren’t as beautifully caricatured as, say, a Uriah Heep or a Fagin. The story is more straightforward, without much of the mystery and suspense that his best books contain. Overall, I enjoyed it – of course I did: it’s Dickens! - but I don’t think it comes close to his best. Well worth reading but perhaps not one I would recommend as a first introduction for newcomers to his work.

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Hard times, indeed. But with a little bit of help from the genius of great authors, we manage.

My year in books closes very appropriately, with a masterpiece from Charles Dickens.

I'm not even sure where to start with this book. First of all, Hard Times is one of the shorter, and lesser known of the Dickens novels. At only around four hundred pages, it almost seems like a novella compared to his other tomes of one thousand pages or more. The book has some interesting characters. We have Thomas Gradgrind, the obstinate disciplinarian, who raises his children to use their head and facts in all things and to never "wonder" because that will lead to flights of fancy which can only lead you astray. He is to be taken down a piece at a time, so that his contrition at the end of the novel allows us to forgive him and admire him in his role of one of our lead characters. We have a Mr. Bounderby, a friend of Gradgrind, who also adheres to the Philosophy is Fact principle, but more out of slogans than anything else. A detestable man, he is self-made and self-serving, raising himself to a social status that is hypocritical and not altogether of pure fact. Whereas Thomas Gradgrind believes what he is preaching, Mr. Bounderby uses it only a means to an end or for a statement of self. And we have Stephen Blackpool, Dickens typical representation of the lower classes, sporting integrity and morals, enduring the everyday toil of working poverty, while he is victimized by his fellow workers and employer. The lowly servant brought down by the system. Damn the man.

Then we have some female characters such as Sissy, the young woman Gradgrind takes in when her father abandons her, and Mrs. Sparsit, who is ever wiping the brown from her nose where Bounderby is concerned, or contrarily, calling his portrait a "Noodle", when he's not around. I've mentioned before some criticism about Dicken's novels that I've read dealing with the insipid nature of Dickens female characters. While this is often true, in this novel I found the opposite in our female lead, Louisa, Thomas's beloved daughter. While raised in the same way as her brother, Tom "the Whelp", instead of masking indifference to their families rule and wallowing in self-pity and gambling like Tom does, Louisa's intelligence is displayed in the fact (pun intended), that she realizes from the beginning that something essential is missing from her life. She is drawn to the circus as a child, although severely reprimanded by her father, and recognizes an integrity and warmth in Sissy which she herself doesn't have. She gives into a loveless marriage with Mr. Bounderby, hoping that in some way it might help her brother get out of his careless ways, or at the very least, help pay for them. She shows strength, courage, and amenability when none other exist during times of duress.

There are many more characters as there often are, as lovely and as detailed as these, however, these were some of the main ones. And once again, we see how Dickens' writing serves to develop the ramifications of public issues for individual lives. He shows us that the consequences for individual men and women matter most in a social system. He also reiterates his main theme over and over again in showing us that a simple life, adhering to the Philosophy of Fact, strips us of our sympathy, leaves us empty, and is a basic misconception of human nature. Like I mentioned earlier, Gradgrind is brought to his knees at the end of the novel in realization of what he's done to his children, showing us the irony of his ideas. Louisa is finally brought light in Gradgrind's eyes, when another man, other than her husband proposes a love-filled affair, something her husband could never fathom. She breaks down in despair and runs to her father, finally telling him everything she's really felt all these years, and this is only the beginning of Gradgrind's downfall. Her brother, Tom, falls too, but he has learned nothing but selfishness from his upbringing and tries to find satisfaction in pursuing his own selfish interests to no avail. When he resorts to desperate means to fill the gap, everything falls apart and Gradgrind finally realizes what he's done to his children. Blackpool, our somewhat hero, or at least stable character of the story, is hurrying home from another town to clear his name of something he's been wrongly accused of when he falls into Old Hell Shaft, a big hole. An appropriate allegory, he is destroyed by this big black hole in nature and left by the uncaring industrialists that have plagued him from the beginning.

Besides the underlying themes, I also found this novel suspenseful and highly entertaining. Although Mr. Sleary's lisp was difficult to understand at times (I found myself reading some of his lines out loud, much to my detriment, but to the merriment of my husband), it still was one of my favorite Dicken's novel thus far. Even though Dickens can be sometimes predictable, I still wasn't sure how the tale would end. And I'm in awe of just how many books he's written and how all of them are so different and enjoyable.

While Dickens writing never ceases to transport me into his world, he's also an expert on relaying his ideologies and political and social beliefs through his stories. On top of this, his characters come to life in new and dramatic ways, differently in each and every novel he writes. He's one of my favorite classical authors and this is another brilliant piece of work in a long line of books. I highly recommend it.

Hard Times is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book surveys English society and satirizes the social and economic conditions of the era.

The story is set in the fictitious Victorian industrial Coketown, a generic Northern English mill-town.

It’s his shortest novel and until now I thought that it was my favourite of his works, but I praised the writing more than the story (I favour stories like Bleak House, Oliver Twist & Martin Chuzzlewit).

This was a re-read for me, but first time in English (instead of Portuguese).

The writing, in my humble opinion, is simply terrific and far from being ostentatious, pretentious or even flowery.

The plot is simple and straightforward, void of overly dramatic events, and we were presented with a nice revelation or twist, near the conclusion.

The characters are all very well displayed and constructed, and some are unforgettable.

The sense of humour, although subtle, is also present, as well as the author’s pessimistic view of industrialization and the future.

This is very different from his other books and may not please everyone, but like the first time, I truly enjoyed the storytelling.

PS. Just yesterday I watched the 1994 BBC adaptation for the tv, written and directed by Peter Barnes. It was well done and helped me to add some faces to the characters, but the book is a lot better.

e-book (Kobo): 382 pages (default), 110k words

Paperback (The Modern Library Classics) - introduction by Jane Jacobs: 374 pages (cover to cover)

Audiobook narrated by Sean Murphy: 11h37 minutes (it’s excellent and I only paid $0.65 Canadian from Kobo audiobook)

literature as social critique

Dickens knew well the dark, satanic mills of 19th century England. Besides being great stories, many of his novels slammed the downside of the industrial revolution that had made England the dominant world power of his times. In a way, I would say that this atmosphere and the people created by those times are the main character in HARD TIMES rather than any one of the individuals depicted. Not having read so many of Dickens' novels, I can hardly qualify as an expert, but I would say that this one is not among his best. In unforgettable scenes (surrounded with lush verbiage), he exposes the shallow soullessness of education at the time,, the arrogance of the rich, and the plight of the poor, not forgetting the crude bombast of the labor organizers. Father-daughter relationships rate highly, marital ones much less so. The good remain high-minded, loyal, and self-sacrificing while the bad are exposed for what they are. The vain, philistine Mr. Bounderby, an exploiter with perfect nouveau riche attitudes, (and apt name) is by far the most vivid character, even if you get sick of him right off. The "good guys"---Stephen Blackpool, Rachael, "Sissy" Jupe, Louisa Gradgrind, and ultimately, her father---are not as interesting as the more shady ones. To tell the story, with all its ins and outs, its turns of the screw, would be superfluous. If you ever liked Dickens, you'll probably enjoy this one too, but if you want a real classic, I suggest "Bleak House", "Great Expectations", or "Oliver Twist", much better than the present volume in my opinion. While Dickens never fails to put in his digs at the injustices and pretenses of society, literature still needs a solid story. This one is a bit frail, but worthwhile all the same.

Tempos difíceis é um livro que me impressionou muito.

 Imagine uma cidade horrível, toda cheia de poluição ,escura , com fábricas trabalhando a todo vapor, soltando fumaças pretas por suas chaminés. Assim é a fictícia  coketown, cidade onde se passa a narrativa desse livro que , apesar de não ser o mais conhecido nem tão grande como outros de Dickens, é um livro poderosíssimo.

 Nesse ambiente horrível vivem famílias e pessoas pobres e  trabalhadoras, criadas na simplicidade, mas a maioria delas, pessoas bondosas e amorosas, criadas num ambiente de amor e sentimento que se tornaram grandes homens pelo caráter, aqui podemos incluir , Raquel , Sissy, e Stephen Blackpool.

Outras pessoas, criadas em uma situação econômica muito melhor, mas criadas para não terem sentimentos,( o lema do Senhor Gradgrind diretor da escola local), para se aterem só aos fatos, fatos e fatos, (aqui me vem à mente a crítica de C.S. Lewis no livro a abolição do homem), se tornam criaturas frias e sem sentimentos, despreparadas para enfrentar relacionamentos e o mundo em si, como Louisa e Tom ,que foram criados nesse sistema de educação.

 É assim que o livro se desenvolve, é essa luta entre a educação baseada só em fatos, contra uma educação baseada na simplicidade, mas com a adição de sentimentos essenciais à vida.

Livro maravilhoso, poderoso, gostei demais.

Dickens usa o coração e o  humor para desenvolver uma história cheia de críticas a exploração industrial, à pobreza, a educação baseada somente em fatos que levou  a destruição de personagens desse livro. O livro não é óbvio, temos viradas espetaculares na história a cada capítulo que nos prende até o final.


Anotações e rabiscos de leitura, pode conter spoiler

Gradgrind destruiu seus filhos com essa educação baseada em fatos, a pobre Louisa tinha até um coração bom mas a sua falta de sentimento a fez se casar com o rico  banqueiro Josiah Bounderby trinta anos mais velha do que ela.

Raquel e Sissy são as minhas personagens favoritas. Doces e amorosas, me apaixonei.

A história se passa  no ano de 1940 , Dickens a escreveu em 1954.

Umas das cenas mais emocionantes foi a conversa que Louisa teve com seu pai mostrando a ele como seu método de educação  a tinha destruído e também a seu irmão que se tornou um ladrão:“Eu estava cansada, pai. Tenho me sentido cansada há muito tempo”, disse Louisa.

“Cansada? De quê?”, perguntou o atônito pai.

“Não sei – acho que de tudo.”

Hard Times opens with the usual Dickens comic brio and sabre-toothed satire. Mr Gradgrind’s pursuit of Facts, Facts, Facts deadens his daughter Louisa’s sense of Fancy and humour, until she relents to a marriage to Mr. Bounderby—surely the progenitor of this Monty Python sketch. As the novel moves into its second half, the melodramatic and laboured Steven Blackpool narrative distracts from the more poignant story of circus orphan Sissy and the Gradgrinds. Steven’s phonetic Lancastrian dialect is unnecessarily distracting and the social commentary becomes somewhat tedious upon the arrival of the saucy politician. Too much time is devoted to Mrs Sparsit, a bland fallen lady at the mercy of Bounderby, not enough to Sissy. Let’s not forget the phonetically rendered Lisp of Mr. Sleary, or the hysterical (in the wrong way) fate of Stephen. Apart from these complaints Hard Times is fine: the story isn’t dreary, only the individual elements and plotting seemed a little subpar.

Any other freaks out there who laugh like a child as they read Dickens? I find his humor outstanding and his stamina for writing equal to that of Alexandre Dumas (both were socially conscious and generous men as well). I don't love this book as well as Great Expectations, and it has a bit of an awkward start, but I have finally found my pace with Mr. Dickens. I regret that a high school teacher made us read A Tale of Two Cities far too early to appreciate him, and, sadly, turned me away from his work for years. I am so happy to have the maturity now to appreciate his humor, his characters and his concern for humanity.