Reading 1001 discussion

3.75 Stars


Probably my least favorite of Dickens to date, but still good nonetheless. Dickens takes a satirical view of the industrial revolution and education reform in this novel, two relevant issues of his time.

The setting of the novel is a fictionalized Lancashire mill town named Coketown. It is a bleak and polluted town full of disease and despair, a product of the Industrial Revolution. The story begins with the Gradgrind family. Mr. Gradgrind embraces Utilitarianism and starts a school that focuses on hard facts and leaves no room for childhood dreams, emotions, or imagination. His children are also brought up in this harsh atmosphere. The Gradgrinds take in one of the girl students, Sissy, who has just been abandoned by her father, a clown in the traveling circus. She is very different from his own children in that she is lighthearted and full of dreams. Mr. Gradgrind quickly attempts to snuff this. She and Gradgrind's eldest daughter, Louisa, become friends and the children eventually grow into adults. (view spoiler)[The Gradgrind children's personalities are highly influenced by their upbringing. The emotionless Louisa is eventually married off at age 20 to one of her father's loathsome 50 year old friends, Bounderby. She goes along with this arrangement since she has no idea of what happiness looks like. Louisa finally becomes aware that something is missing in her life and appeals to her father. He eventually sees the errors of his ways. (hide spoiler)]

The book is heavy in symbolism. Gradgrind and his family represent the effect of industrialization on society. Bounderby represents the oppression and exploitation of the workers in an industrial society. Sissy represents the fun and fancifulness missing from a Utilitarian world.

Overall, a good book, but not up to par with most of Dickens work, in my opinion. I started listening to an audio version initially, but was bored to tears and had to stop halfway and start all over again with the book version, which was much more accessible for me.

Read 2012; Hard Times is Charles Dickens shortest work at 277 pages and is unlike his other novels because it is set in a fictional city called Coketown, an industrial city with its pollution and social disparities. The book features trade unions and the divide between capitalism and labor. The book is structured as three parts, Sowing, Reaping and Garnering based on the Bible verse, “as a man sows, so shall he reap” and on The Book Of Ruth who garners what is left in the field after the reaping is done. The characters are Professor Gradgrind who worships “facts” and raises his daughter and son only on facts and no love or pleasure. He places his son Tom in service with Mr. Bounderby, a braggart and lier. He also marries his daughter to this older man. Mr Gradgrind takes in a child of the circus, Sissy Jupe to try to educate her after her father leaves without notice. And finally Stephen Blackpool, a noble man, shunned by his own class, poorly treated by Bounderby and finally accused of a crime he didn’t commit. The book is an indictment of utilitarian philosophy. This is a fast read for a Dickens book. I enjoyed the story and the characters were fun.