Hard Times (Vintage Dickens)

Hard Times (Vintage Dickens)

by Charles Dickens (Author)

Synopsis

'Facts alone are wanted in life': the children at Mr Gradgrind's school are sternly ordered to stifle their imaginations and pay attention only to cold, hard reality. They live in a smoky, troubled industrial town so entertainment is hard to come by and resentments run deep. The effects of Gradgrind's teaching on his own children, Tom and Louisa, are particularly profound and leave them ill-equipped to deal with the unpredictable desires of the human heart. Luckily for them they have a friend in Sissy Jupe, the child of a circus clown, who retains her warm-hearted, compassionate nature despite the pressures around her.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 304
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Vintage Classics
Published: 05 Feb 2009

ISBN 10: 0099518929
ISBN 13: 9780099518921
Book Overview: 'It is proof of Dickens' genius (or maybe just the unchanging nature of Britain) that you can read Hard Times as if it were all happening now' Guardian

Media Reviews
A masterpiece...a completely serious work of art -- F.R.Leavis
The greatest of Dickens' work...should be studied with close and earnest care -- John Ruskin
Big and earnest, though circus folk and bank robbery add colour to its canvas of industrialists and loveless marriages * Sunday Times *
Author Bio
Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Landport in Portsmouth. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office who often ended up in financial trouble. When Dickens was twelve years' old he was sent to work in a shoe polish factory because his father had been imprisoned for debt.In 1833 he began to publish short stories and essays in newspapers and magazines. The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success, was published in 1836, the same year that he married Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers was still running. Many other novels followed and Dickens became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He also set up and edited the journals Household Words (1850-9) and All the Year Round (1859-70). Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870 leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.