Hard TimesWritten deliberately to increase the circulation of Dickens's weekly magazine, "Household Words, Hard Times" was a huge and instantaneous success upon publication in 1854. Yet this novel is not the cheerful celebration of Victorian life one might have expected from the beloved author of "The Pickwick Papers" and "The Old Curiosity Shop," Compressed, stark, allegorical, it is a bitter expose of capitalist exploitation during the industrial revolution-and a fierce denunciation of the philosophy of materialism, which threatens the human imagination in all times and places. With a typically unforgettable cast of characters-including the heartless fact-worshipper Mr. Gradgrind, the warmly endearing Sissy Jupe, and the eternally noble Stephen Blackpool-"Hard Times" carries a uniquely powerful message and remains one of the most widely read of Dickens's major novels. |
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Common terms and phrases
agen answered asked banging band Bentley's Miscellany better Bitzer Boldheart Bounderby of Coketown Bounderby's called coom cried curtsey daughter Dickens door E. W. B. Childers eminently practical everything eyes face fact Fareway father fire G. K. CHESTERTON gentleman George Silverman girl gone hair hand hard head hear heard Hoghton Towers honour hope horse James Harthouse Josiah Bounderby Julius Cæsar Jupe Kidderminster kissed knew lady looked M'Choakumchild ma'am manner marriage married Meltham Merrylegs mind Miss Louisa morning mother muddle never night nine oils old Bounderby old woman Orange poor Rachael returned round seemed seen Sissy sister Sleary Sleary's Slinkton Sparsit Stephen Blackpool Stone Lodge stood stopped streets tell thee thing Thomas Gradgrind thou thought Thquire took town turned voice walked whelp window wonder word young
Popular passages
Page 6 - You must use,' said the gentleman, 'for all these purposes, combinations and modifications (in primary colours) of mathematical figures which are susceptible of proof and demonstration. This is the new discovery. This is fact. This is taste.
Page 258 - It was a fundamental principle of the Gradgrind philosophy that everything was to be paid for. Nobody was ever on any account to give anybody anything, or render anybody help without purchase. Gratitude was to be abolished, and the virtues springing from it were not to be. Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter. And if we didn't get to Heaven that way, it was not a politico-economical place, and we had no business there. "I don't deny," added...
Page 1 - ... for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders, — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was, — all helped the emphasis. " In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir ; nothing but Facts!
Page 2 - THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over.
Page 98 - 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 undone, when it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much smoke.
Page 80 - As the shining stars were to the heavy candle in the window, so was Rachael, in the rugged fancy of this man, to the common experiences of his life.
Page 19 - It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage.
Page 12 - A big, loud man, with a stare, and a metallic laugh. A man made out of a coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him. A man with a great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples, and such a strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open, and lift his eyebrows up. A man with a pervading appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start.
Page 20 - The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail, the town-hall might have been either, or both, or anything else, for anything that appeared to the contrary in the graces of their construction. Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town; fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the immaterial. The M'Choakumchild school was all fact, and the school of design was all fact, and the relations between master and man were all fact, and everything was fact between...