Dickens becomes a very hard author to read once you move past his childhood-centered works. Suddenly, everything is about morality or politics. I enjoy his writing, but you do need both patience and an ability to change the register in which you're reading his work. "Hard Times" was first published in 1854 - few readers of contemporary or modern literature can truly adjust to the sort of language used in his books.

Dickens is truly timeless, timeless through his themes and approach, as well as through his penmanship. Much like Dostoyevsky, his reign is absolute because he was a pioneer of in-depth, character-focused literature, where human beings are portrayed in so much detail and their minds are split open for the reader to look inside them, that by the end of the book the reader is as much a part of their world as they are.

"Hard Times" is actually the author's shortest book and it is a commentary on utilitarianism (as proposed by Jeremy Bentham), a notion that I'm very familiar with, having studied it as part of my degree. I was pleasantly surprised to find the subtle hints and jokes played on contemporary figures or their theories (such as Adam Smith or Thomas Malthus).

Δεν αρνούμαι πως οι σπουδές μου στοίχισαν φτηνά. Είναι λοιπόν σωστό κύριε, μια και βγήκα από την πιο φτηνή αγορά, να διαθέσω τον εαυτό μου στην πιο ακριβή

Μ’ αρέσουν τα βιβλία που κάθε κεφάλαιο έχει δικό του τίτλο. Μ’ αρέσουν πολύ κι ας έχουν κάτι παιδικό, ίσως και γιατί μου θυμίζουν καλοκαίρια που διάβαζα κρυφά, πολλές ώρες μετά τα μεσάνυχτα. Οι λέξεις Αστήρ, Παπαδημητρίου κόλλησαν στη γλώσσα μου. Και για να μη μακρηγορώ, προφανώς τα κεφάλαια έχουν τίτλους και το κείμενο καθρεφτίζει την ίδια αυτή ελαστικότητα που συναντάγαμε στα ποιοτικά παιδικά μιας εποχής, με τη μεγάλη γραμματοσειρά και τα κοτσωνάτα εξώφυλλα.

Μια κρυφή αίσθηση πως είχε αποτύχει κι είχε γίνει γελοίος – ένας φόβος για το τι θα ‘λεγαν εις βάρος του οι άλλοι που έκαναν την ίδια δουλειά μ’ αυτόν αν το μάθαιναν – τον βασάνιζαν τόσο πολύ, που έφτασε να κρατάει μυστική, σαν κάτι που τον ντρόπιαζε, την καλύτερη πράξη της ζωής του

Ένα απ’ τα πιο ενδιαφέροντα σημεία του βιβλίου, είναι το τέχνασμα της κυρίας Σπάρσιτ. Της ανακοινώνει ο εργοδότης της πως θα παντρευτεί μια νέα γυναίκα και πλέον αντί για οικονόμο στο σπίτι, θα τη μεταφέρει ως οικονόμο στην τράπεζα του. Κι εκείνη του συμπεριφέρεται σαν αυτός να είναι θύμα, που τον συμπονά. Όσο πιο μεγαλόχαρες κι υποχωρητικές οι αντιδράσεις της, τόσο περισσότερο θυματοποιείται ο Μπάουντερμπαντ. Κι αυτό βέβαια είναι που καταργεί τη νεκροποίηση των συναισθημάτων του. Παράλληλα, αισθάνθηκα λύσσα και αηδία στη σκέψη του πατέρα της Λουίζας. Πως μπόρεσε να μην αισθανθεί αναγούλα όταν ο φίλος του που είδε την κόρη του να μεγαλώνει, του είπε πως πάντα την περίμενε να ωριμάσει για να την παντρευτεί. Τη μεγαλύτερη όμως οργή, μου την προξένησε η στάση του αδερφού της. Σκέφτομαι πως το βιβλίο μεταξύ άλλων, πρέπει ν’ αποτέλεσε μεγάλο ερέθισμα για βιβλία σαν το Εμείς, το 1984, το Άνθρωποι και σπίτια και Την τιμή του αδερφού, για διαφορετικούς λόγους.

Πρόκειται επί της ουσίας για τον παππού του str8 story. Αν οι άνθρωποι μεγάλωναν με τεχνοκρατικές αντιλήψεις, απ’ την απλούστερη απόφαση, περιθωριοποιώντας τη φαντασία, τον αυθορμητισμό, τα συναισθήματα. Που τελικά όπως αποδεικνύει η σοσιαλιστική επανάσταση ακόμα και όπως πραγματικά κινήθηκε ο κόσμος, που δεν πατάει εντελώς στη λογική, παρότι δοκιμάζεται και πάλι δεν αποφεύχθηκαν οι μεγάλες εξεγέρσεις της ανθρώπινης κρίσης. Γιατί τελικά την πολυτέλεια να είναι τεχνοκράτες σε όλη την ουσία τους, τη διατηρούν οι έχοντες. Οι υπόλοιποι πάντοτε ασπάζονται μόνο τα υποπροϊόντα, τις ευκολίες που δε γεμίζουν τη ζωή και τελικά γι’ αυτό πάντοτε τα Κόκτάουν θα αυτναφλέγονται και θα ξεριζώνουν συθέμελα της Πομπηίες.

Αναμνήσεις του πως έφτασε ν’ αποκτήσει τις μικρές της γνώσεις από τους μαγεμένους εκείνους δρόμους, που αυτή κι εκατομμύρια αθώα πλάσματα είχαν φανταστεί. Του πως όταν πρωτογνώρισε τη λογική, μέσα από το τρυφερό φως της φαντασίας, την είχε δει σαν έναν ευεργετικό θεό που υποκλινόταν σ’ άλλους θεούς, το ίδιο σαν αυτόν μεγάλους, όχι σαν ένα βλοσυρό είδωλο άγριο και παγερό, με τα θύματα του δεμένα χειροπόδαρα και την πελώρια βουβή μορφή του να κοιτάζει με τα τυφλά κι άδεια μάτια του, ένα είδωλο που δε μπορούσε να κινηθεί παρά μονάχα με τη δύναμη τόσο σοφά υπολογισμένων μοχλών

Είναι δύσκολο ανάγνωσμα. Συγκροτημένο, καλοϋπολογισμένο, φαινομενικά χωρίς κανένα σημάδι αυθόρμητης γραμμής. Τα διαλείμματα μου υπήρξαν συχνά και η ανάγνωση του κοπιώδης. Αυτό δεν το κάνει λιγότερο ενδιαφέρον. Έχω ακούσει πως στο συγγραφέα αρέσουν οι μελοδραματικοί τόνοι. Δίνει αυτή ακριβώς την αίσθηση, μόνο που υποψιάζομαι ότι σε ορισμένες, αν όχι σε αρκετές περιπτώσεις εξωτερικεύει εσωτερικές κουβέντες και διεργασίες του ατόμου, βάζοντας κάποιο μάρτυρα στο χώρο για να μπορέσει να το κάνει. Αυτές οι φύσεις που μέσα μας δεν έχουν κανένα μελοδραματισμό, γιατί ο λογικός λόγος βρίσκει αντίλογο στο συναισθηματικό. Δημιουργώντας διαλόγους, ή χρησιμοποιώντας το τέχνασμα του σχετικού παρατηρητή αναδεικνύει την αδυναμία να παραμείνουν μετρημένες ως σκηνές. Χωρίς αυτό να σημαίνει πως δεν κρύβει μέσα του ο συγγραφέας, μια μικρή Κατίνα Παξινού. Αυτό που δεν αποφεύγεται και το βρίσκω επιζήμιο, είναι η αίσθηση που μου δημιουργεί ο Ντίκενς ιστοριών που θυμίζουν παραμυθάκια που ξεκινούν με το μια φορά κι έναν καιρό και καταλήγουν με ηθικά διδαγματάκια που μειώνουν την αξία των πραγματικών αποσταγμάτων του συγγραφέα.

…ή αν με είχατε τουλάχιστον αφήσει στον εαυτό μου, πόσο καλύτερο, πόσο πιο ευτυχισμένο πλάσμα θα ‘μουνα σήμερα

Η βαρύτητα του έργου είναι μεγάλη. Τοποθετείται ανάμεσα στο προγενέστερο Λισιέν Λεβέν και στο μεταγενέστερο Έγκλημα και τιμωρία. Με το μεγαλύτερο ίσως κομψοτέχνημα που αποδεικνύει στο ρου του βιβλίου ο συγγραφέας, είναι πως η Λογική δεν είναι ενδεικτική ούτε της εξυπνάδας, ούτε της συμπόνιας, ή της κατανόησης. Η Λογική είναι εργαλείο, όσο και το συναίσθημα. Χωρίς την ελευθερία της εσωτερικής διεργασίας που το Πνεύμα συζητά με την Ψυχή δεν διαφέρουν από τηλεκατευθυνόμενο χωρίς μπαταρίες, κανένα απ’ τα δύο. Και μέσα απ’ όλα αυτά αναδύονται οι μεγάλες μορφές του Γκαίτε και του Μπαλζάκ.

Υπάρχουν χειρότερες πράξεις απ’ το φόνο;

Όταν η καλή πρόθεση είναι ο δολοφόνος, η κακή τι είναι;

Όσο παράλογο κι αν θα ήταν, 70 σελίδες πριν το τέλος του μυθιστορήματος παραλογισμών, αδικιών και κακών κρίσεων ήμουν σε τόσο αφύσικη διάθεση που αν ξεπηδούσε από κάπου ο Reaper κι έλεγε που ‘σαι φιλαράκι, θα τους φάω όλους για πάρτη σου, θα χτύπαγα παλαμάκια!

Se um dia, alguém me perguntar porque gosto tanto de ler autores novecentistas, não terei a menor hesitação em responder: o sentido de ordem, de conduta moral (algo que se fosse recuperado hoje em dia, tornaria a nossa sociedade em algo sublime) mas, fundamentalmente, diria, a atualidade das situações, das emoções, das paixões, das respostas às nossas mais variegadas interrogações.

Há muito que Charles Dickens fazia parte da minha lista de escritores obrigatórios, aquela em que elencamos os indispensáveis, cuja leitura sabemos de antemão que só nos irá enriquecer. E, dentro desse objetivo, “Tempos Difíceis” não defraudou, de forma alguma, as expectativas criadas. Andava a namorá-lo há algum tempo e, dentro do pressuposto que admito verdadeiro, que são os livros que nos escolhem, não no momento que julgamos, mas na altura em que são eles a decidir, percebi que tinha chegado a hora de ter sido eleita para usufruir, saborear, deliciar-me com uma narrativa excecional em todas as suas vertentes.

E, simplesmente, fiquei rendida! Não só pelo formidável sentido de humor de Dickens, mas também pelo testemunho e, de certa forma, homenagem que presta à sociedade industrial que, na altura em que o livro foi escrito, mais concretamente, em 1854, se encontrava na sua maior e mais absoluta pujança. E, neste “Tempos Difíceis”, porque, de facto, foram tempos difíceis, pela mão de um extraordinário escritor, sentimos, vivemos, somos também adicionados a uma atmosfera de cinzas e fumos, de prosperidade para uns, de improsperidade (acho que esta palavra não existe mas não me ocorre outra daí a invenção) para a maior parte, comandados pela vontade e economia burguesas que nada mais viam a não ser o lucro, a mais valia nem que isso fosse ou estivesse abaixo dos níveis do, humanamente, comportáveis.

Mas deixando as abstrações, “Tempos Difíceis” tem a capacidade de nos envolver numa trama que tem um pouco de tudo: romance, mistério, crime, mas de uma forma leve pois não nos deixamos enganar pelos perpetradores de má consciência. Mas a grande lição que me ocorre retirar desta excelente história reside no facto que por mais que pensemos que a razão está acima da emoção, da imaginação e da criatividade, tão características da condição humana, ela própria nunca vencerá os ditames do coração e da alma.

Foi o primeiro livro que li de Charles Dickens mas tenho a certeza de que não será o único!

9th book of 2023.

3.5. I always imagined this to be a slog of a read, mostly because people call it Hard Times to read. I didn't find it any harder than any other Dickens book, which is to say, I found it fairly readable, if not, at times, a little verbose. Dickens's realism just doesn't connect with me in the same way. I found A Tale of Two Cities, like this, enjoyable enough but ultimately a little dry and predictable. I prefer novels like Great Expectations and David Copperfield that are flamboyant and have a wide range of interesting characters. I think Hard Times addresses some strong issues and portrait Dickens's time well, but I just prefer his other novels. I was especially interested in the beginning with the introduction of Sissy Jupe, hoping her to be the orphan-cum-hero of the story, but she is mostly forgotten until the end. I found Stephen a compelling character and his situation with his wife ahead of its time in some respects. Tom was another memorable and sad character. I think there's a lot of desperation in this book, which sometimes makes it a depressing read: drunkards, liars, thieves and gamblers make up this sooty, short, and bleak novel by old Charles.

"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 is the principle on which I bring up my own
children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these
children. Stick to Facts, sir!"


The second Dickens novel I fell in love with (after Great Expectations) is closer to my heart for it concerns the working class. Dickens was the man that wrote of the common people and their plights; he was the one that exposed their trials and tribulations to the world. He was the one that made us remember them.

this is the first time i read „hard times“ - and i am impressed, as usual, by dickens inexhaustable capacity to create memorable characters and to give us exquisitely carved scenes between them, with extremely satisfying, subtle dialogue and meta-communication. the scene in which mr. bounderby is trying to tell mrs. sparsit of his intention to marry louisa gradgrind, for instance, and her unexpected reaction to it - are among the best i‘ve read.
the novel explores the consequences of Industrialization and sole belief in Facts - above Nature and belief in Imagination and Compassion - and shows how both industrialization and facts, as sole belief, will make people unhappy. All of this is vividly and exquisitely carried out, the scenes have strong cinematic qualities and are both amusing and highly interesting. a wonderful read.

Over the years I have read a few Dickens novels and stories including OLIVER TWIST, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, and A CHRISTMAS CAROL. But I always seem to put off reading his more ponderous works because of the length of them. I have had HARD TIMES sitting on my shelves for several years and finally got around to reading it. It is one of Dickens slighter works but I did enjoy it.

It is filled with some memorable characters as only Dickens can portray them. These include Mr. Gradgrind who runs a school according to strict principles: "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." When his pupils are asked whether you should paper a room with representations of horses, the answer is of course no because you would never see horses walking up walls—you don't have a fact. Gradgrind uses these principles not only on his pupils but also his children, Tom and Louisa. Then there is the industrialist, Mr. Bounderby, who brags of his humble beginnings and that he was able to pull himself out of the gutter. One of Bounderby's employees is Stephen Blackpool, a weaver in a loveless marriage who loses his job and is framed for a robbery committed by Gradgrind's son, Tom. Tom is referred to throughout the novel as the Whelp. Louisa agrees to a loveless marriage to Bounderby at the encouragement of Tom who sees the marriage as a way into favor with Bounderby. At the end, Louisa's misery along with Tom's deceit leads Gradgrind to see the error of his ways and he turns more compassionate.

The story is told against the backdrop of Coketown, a fictional northern industrial town. The novel does somewhat convey the dehumanizing nature of factory work but doesn't dwell too much on these issues or the labor movement of the time. I did enjoy this novel—it was poignant but also filled with humor. I of course have seen and enjoyed many movie and TV versions of Dickens' other novels including DAVID COPPERFIELD, BLEAK HOUSE, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, and GREAT EXPECTATIONS. I have several of these other works on my shelves and I really hope to read them at some point.

" أوقات عصيبة " جميلة بلا شك بس حسيت ف لحظة ان مش ده اسلوب ديكنز او ممكن تكون مكتوبة ف اول عهده
انا معتبراها قصة مش رواية وملاحظة ان ناس كتير درسوها ف المدرسة إلا انا معرفش ليه ؟!
اللى استفزنى من القصة اولا اسمها اللى مش شايفة ليه علاقة اوى بمضمونها .. وكمان النهاية العجيبة ان كل واحد وحش ف الاول بقى كويس ف الاخر فجأة كده مع ان اللى اعرفه ان من شب ع شئ شاب عليه وبالتالى صعب ان الانسان يغير طباعه ف يوم وليلة فحسيت انى قدام فيلم مصرى قديم وهابط كمان !
كمان من عيوب القصة تهميش دور " سيسى " ف اغلب المضمون والتركيز ع لويزا وحياتها
القصة كئيبة فعلا بس كنت متوقعة انها تكون احلى من كده فاكتفيت ب3 نجوم فقط

I decided to read ‘Hard Times’ after Ali Smith said at a book festival event that it was one of the inspirations for Spring. She praised it as a novel that understands the pernicious effects of industrialisation, as indeed it does. I haven’t read much else by Dickens (only A Tale of Two Cities and Nicholas Nickleby) so was interested to find out if he treated social issues in a similar fashion to French authors of the same era: Zola, Balzac, Hugo, et al. I found ‘Hard Times’ more coy regarding sex, perhaps not surprisingly, although the difficulty of divorce is a powerful theme. I think Dickens captures the ethos of industrialisation better than 19th century French novels I’ve read, however Zola in particular is far superior at conveying the appalling toll taken by poverty. Nonetheless, ‘Hard Times’ was more subtle and interesting than I really expected. The female characters had important and varied roles to play and the tone was often amusingly sardonic:

The bank had foreclosed a mortgage effected on the property thus pleasantly situated, by one of the Coketown magnates, who, in his determination to make a shorter cut than usual to an enormous fortune, overspeculated himself by about two hundred thousand pounds. These accidents did sometimes happen in the best regulated families in Coketown, but the bankrupts had no connexion whatever with the improvident classes.

Dickens certainly captures hypocrisy and double standards beautifully. The pace was rather odd, though. ‘Hard Times’ flits between protagonists, shifting to another when you’ve just got used to the first. The sprawling ensemble is nonetheless held together by some very effective dramatic scenes, each involving a dilemma or revelation. I found Mrs. Sparsit the most interesting character, although she is not remotely likeable. Her manipulations and attempts to destroy Louisa are perhaps the most compelling part of the narrative, far more intricate than the crude and careless behaviour of Harthouse and Louisa’s brother. Yet she’s also a comedic character in her intense snobbery, subtle bitchiness, and use of Noodle as an insult:

"You found Miss Gradgrind - I really cannot call her Mrs Bounderby; it’s very absurd of me - as youthful as I described her?” asked Mrs Sparsit, sweetly.
“You drew her portrait perfectly,” said Mr Harthouse. “Presented her dead image.”
“Very engaging, Sir,” said Mrs Sparsit, causing her mittens slowly to revolve over one another.
“Highly so.”
“It used to be considered,” said Mrs Sparsit, “that Miss Gradgrind was wanting in animation, but I confess she appears to me considerably and strikingly improved in that respect.”

Sissy is given less attention than the early chapters would indicate, although her friendship with Rachael is lovely. She bridges the class divide between owners and workers, which seems gigantic whenever Mr. Bounderby interacts with Stephen Blackpool. Actually, my main critique is that Stephen Blackpool’s speech should not have been written phonetically, as this made it very tiresome to read. No-one else’s contained such an annoying profusion of apostrophes, although he often talked with people who surely had the same accent (such as Rachael). On the other hand, the depiction of Coketown, the archetype of a squalid Victorian industrial town, is brilliant. Industry’s refrain of complaint about regulation has not changed in more than 150 years:

A dense formless jumble, with sheets of cross light in it, that showed nothing but masses of darkness:- Coketown in the distance was suggestive of itself, though not a brick of it could be seen.
The wonder was, it was there at all. It had been ruined so often, that it was amazing how it had borne so many shocks. Surely there never was such fragile china-ware as that of which the millers of Coketown were made. Handle them never so lightly, and they fell to pieces with such ease that you might suspect them of being flawed before. They were ruined, when they were required to send labouring children to school; they were ruined when inspectors were appointed to look into their works; they were ruined, when such inspectors considered it doubtful whether they were quite justified in chopping people up with their machinery; they were utterly ruined when it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much smoke.

Although on balance I prefer the generally greater passion of 19th century French fiction, I am inclined to read further Dickens novels. Compared to A Tale of Two Cities and Nicholas Nickleby, ‘Hard Times’ has a less cohesive narrative, but a more subtle and intriguing combination of characters and themes. There is a great deal of insight to be found, as well as high drama and amusement. The callous obliviousness of the rich remains, sadly, very relevant to the present day. I can see why Ali Smith would draw a link between Gradgrind’s delusional obsession with facts and the current tendency for automation to conceal bias. Dickens makes it clear that while Gradgrind is sincere, industrialists and politicians merely pay lip service to facts and statistics in order to serve their greedy interests. The analogy with the 21st century surveillance capitalism is imperfect, but it’s definitely there.

إذا فسد التعليم، فسد كل شئ
بعيداً عن أعمال التشويق و الأثارة التي أشتهر بها الكثير من كتاب عصره، يقدم لنا تشارلز ديكنز رواية هادئة تنتقد الكثير من سلبيات المجتمع و تفضح آثارها
الأب جرادجريند يمثل الثورة الصناعية التى غزت اوربا وقتها بكل ما تحمله من أهمال للمشاعر وتقديس للمادة وحدها فيعلم أبناءه على مبدا العقل البحت متناسيا القلب والعواطف الإنسانية ،مما أوقعهم في مشاكل اجتماعية بعد ذلك
الرواية تحاول نقد الكثير من الظواهر الأجتماعية التى عاصرها تشارلز ديكنز، بداية من التعليم الذى يركز على تقديس قيمة العقل وحده دون أى جهد لتعزيز و تطوير القيم الجمالية و الأنسانية و العاطفية ، مروراً بمجتمع صناعي بحت تحكمه المادة و قوانينها القاسية، و نهاية بحضارة زائفة لا تري فى الأنسان سوى ترس فى آلة ضخمة و باتالي تهمل تماماً كافة أحتياجاته و مشاعره الأنسانية

A literary response to the changes taking place in Britain in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and the restructuring of the old order, in more ways than one, caused thereof, Hard Times, one of Dickens’ not so popular novels, is a powerful testament to the threat industrialisation and its various manifestations posed to human beings who were no longer human, without emotions and imaginations, almost mechanical themselves. This mechanisation, enjoined with a philosophy (not that they would call it a philosophy) of rational self-interest, and a belief of the characteristics of human nature being equivalent to and limited to ‘facts’, is evident in the actions of Mr. Gradgrind, and the Bully of Humility, Mr. Bounderby, who also reduce the already oppressed workers to mere tools, ‘hands’, as if they were not complex human beings.

The overarching theme may be the critique of the dreary condition of the public, but Dicken’s concerns in Hard Times have more to do with the family and through the juxtaposition of the private and the public, he aims to portray a damaging and limiting upbringing and its consequences in the adult life. But, in quite a pleasant turn, there is no romanticising of marriage or a Victorian emphasis on sex-roles, although, as is usual in a Dickens novel, there does exist the notion that feminine compassion is what can counteract the mechanising effects of such an upbringing (as Louisa finally brings her father to see the faults of his way) or even the effects of industrialisation in general (as Rachael becomes the source of Stephen’s fortitude), and restore social harmony.

The different worlds of the novel are bound together in a tight plot, as, again, is usual in a Dickens novel, and though their coming together time and again is important to the overall plot, so is their individual existence, as they become symbolical of different strands of the Victorian society that Dickens takes up. The truth of Mr. Bounderby’s childhood, for instance – the fiction of which is supposed to support the theory of social mobility – is a motif used by Dickens to emphasize the falsity of the Victorian assumption that the poor couldn’t rise up because they didn’t work hard enough to overcome the many obstacles in their path. Dickens suggests that perhaps poverty cannot be overcome through determination alone. Another individual strand is Stephen Blackpool’s estrangement from his fellow workmen, which doubly victimizes him, suggests, in my opinion, that that is the kind of life the poor, those with no power, are doomed to. Sissy Jupe’s (actual) matter-of-fact attitude despite her original home in the circus and her ‘wrong’ answers about statistics in school which are actually closer to truth than facts could ever be, drive home the absurdity of a world of facts and figures.

Despite the omniscient narrator’s moral tone that shapes our interpretation of the novel, the novel itself is in no way didactic. No, Dickens doesn’t stoop to that. In fact, the narrator’s tone is more mocking and ironic than moral. And the novel is probably better for that. Louisa doesn’t get a happy life, Stephen dies, Tom Gradgrind dies, only Mr. Gradgrind changes his ways, things aren’t miraculously set right. Within human life, for Dickens, is inherent the uncertainty of change and the certainty of individuality. What makes Hard Times as good as it is, is this realistic acknowledgement of the fact that an individual alone (or even more than one) may not, in the end, be able to reform the society, and he may, even on seeing the truth, not want to. Humans are, after all, not governed by facts and statistics.

I was afraid I’d be disappointed by this novel, and while I caught on halfway that I wouldn’t be, it was only while I was writing this review that I realised how much I actually liked it. It is certainly not my favourite Dickens (that will probably always be a tie between Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities) but it is not half bad – quite brilliant in some ways, in fact – and certainly deserving of 4 stars at least.

Within Dickens’s oeuvre, this is rather an odd work. Not only is this book the shortest of his novels, but it is the only one that takes place without setting foot in London. Most importantly, this novel is perhaps the most explicitly political of Dickens’s works. The satire in Hard Times takes precedence over the story and the characters. One’s opinion of the book will thus largely depend on one’s opinion of Dickens’s social criticism.
tt
As a sendup of heartless technocracy this book can hardly be surpassed. Dickens is wonderful in ridiculing the pseudo-scientific worldview of these captains of industry and giants of commerce, revealing their philosophy to be little more than narrow-minded selfishness. This book is extremely frustrating, however, as Dickens stops right there—with an individual, moralistic critique. It is as if he believes the world could be set right if the wealthy just had a richer imagination, a deeper emotional life, and hearts more accessible to pity.
tt
Dickens, for example, puts the novel’s striking workers at the same moral level as their penny-pinching bosses, since they too are motivated by selfish gain. Both of them, in other words, are only self-interest materialists, blind to the finer things in life. It is very difficult for me to sympathize with this view, however, as it ignores the vast disparity in the ultimate aims of the two parties—dignified work and a decent life, as opposed to wealth and power. In the place of economic justice, then, Dickens offers us one of his selfless heroines (well, two really), who teach us how to overcome the world through altruism. But I’ll take the workers over Sissy Jupe any day.