William W. Hunt
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
Hard Times is the first of Dickens' novels I have been unable to enjoy. To me it makes its point almost immediately, and becomes a tiresome rant. Mr. Gradgrind's obsession with facts only, and his punishment of children who wonder about anything, are worth no more than a short story, not a novel.<br> I'm eighty six years old, and have too little reading time left to waste any on such an outdated tirade.