Hard times

for these times

365 pages

English language

Published Nov. 9, 2007 by Penguin.

ISBN:
978-0-14-103172-9
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
183913339

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4 stars (2 reviews)

Coketown is dominated by the figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster and model of Utilitarian success. Feeding both his pupils and family with facts, he bans fancy and wonder from any young minds.

46 editions

Hard going!

3 stars

I've initiated two Christmas reading traditions over the past few years. One is to immerse myself in Deborah Garner's latest Moonglow Cafe Christmas novella. The other is to blog my review of a Charles Dickens novel on Christmas Day, necessitating reading one each December. I never read proper Dickens when I was growing up, instead we had a few children's abbreviated versions of his most famous stories. I've noticed though that many of his characters and storylines are referenced in other novels leaving me somewhat at a disadvantage by not always understanding or even recognising them. Hence the annual Dickens project. I admit I am easily intimidated by the sheer length of his books which is why I only attempt one a year and am gradually working up from A Christmas Carol to David Copperfield. This December I chose Hard Times which actually turned out to be very apt considering …

avatar for maryaed

rated it

4 stars

Subjects

  • Social conditions
  • Industrial revolution
  • Fiction

Places

  • Northern England