I have just started reading this, and so far I don't know what to make of it. I was surprised becaused it is written in a different style to the only other Dickens books that I have read, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. So far it seems to be an attack on science and reductionism. Gradgrind has heavy, square features and he lives in a house with the same number of windows on one side as the other. I wonder whether this is going to be some science v arts controversy.