Need some help with a paragraph from Hard Times

[annie1993nw]

I call the mother of Josiah Bounderby of Coketown, without any fear or any favor, what I should call her if she had been the mother of Dick Jones of Wapping. So, with this man. He is....

what is the mother of josiah and the mother of Dick Jones? this is really confusing!

[OrphanPip]

The full paragraph makes it easier to understand:

"'Very well,' said Bounderby. 'I was born in a ditch, and my mother ran away from me. Do I excuse her for it? No. Have I ever excused her for it? Not I. What do I call her for it? I call her probably the very worst woman that ever lived in the world, except my drunken grandmother. There's no family pride about me, there's no imaginative sentimental humbug about me. I call a spade a spade; and I call the mother of Josiah Bounderby of Coketown, without any fear or any favour, what I should call her if she had been the mother of Dick Jones of Wapping. So, with this man. He is a runaway rogue and a vagabond, that's what he is, in English.'"

Josiah is Bounderby's own name. He's saying his mother was the worst woman ever, and that the fact that she's his mother won't stop him from saying so. That is, he says if she were the mother of some other guy, like Dick Jones of Wapping (a deliberately generic name like, John Smith or such) he would speak of her exactly the same way as he speaks of her as his own mother.

[Voivod30]

I don't have much to add to what the poster said above. However; for what it's worth Hard Times (For These Times) is one of my favorite novels of all time. It has been a couple of years since I last read it so I don't remember much but I do recall being completely absorbed. It had a big impact on me at the time. The only other novel I can recall reading that I loved as much is Great Expectations, year Dickens is a master in my opinion.