My thoughts on Hard Times

I just finished Hard Times last week. I thought it was an interesting lesson on using not only facts, figures and calculations, but to allow your heart also to guide you.

It's funny how Bounderby is so caught up in being forthright and factual (just like his friend Gradgrind) and yet his whole much repeated story of his upbringing is a lie. Louisa is the victim crushed under the boulder of anti-facyism taught her by her father......
This is a problem we can all have from time to time. We may try to analyze our situation based on nothing but what do the facts present to us, and never go with our dreams. It seems the book is all about being free to dream and wish and have fantacies of what will be.

I also loved Coketown. That city had as much character as any of the actual human characters in the town. It was a grim, grimy, no pleasure/all industry town. At one point you can feel the heat and dreariness of it when Dickens said that the whole town seemed to be frying in oil. And the snaking upwards of the smoke of the factories, the cookie cutter buildings with the red brick, the black door, the green shutters and white steps just gave this dead end town and unappealing yet unignorable character.

Not on my top 5 of Dickens' books, but an excellent biting attack on a misdirected fact only guided worldview.

Hard Times is my favourite of Dickens books, to me it is also the greatest example of his humour.

The other part of the novel which you didnt mention is his scathing attack on the running of trade unions.

The best part about coketown for me is that it could be one of any number of large industrial cities in northern England, Scotland or Wales (not so much southern england - they're a little soft down there;) )

While Hard Times is usually considered to be a fierce attack on the Utilitarian philosophy prevalent in Dickens time, the novel continues to have lasting appeal. Partly because the ideas popularized by Utilitarianism are still with us today, and partly because Dickens is an excellent writer, the story still remains a classic by most people standard. As AARONDISNEY pointed out, the description of Coketown is very poignant, and the characters--both sleazy and virtuous--are engaging and well done. The other interesting thing about Hard Times is the relationship that Dickens creates between himself and the narrative. As Sleary puts it, "people need to be amused". Perhaps Dickens saw himself in Sleary's place: as Sleary provides entertainment and diversion for the heartless people of Coketown, Dickens writes to free people from the harmful self-interested world around them.

Can you think of any other Victorian writer who compare their writing to a fair?

Of all the novels of Dickens , Hard Times is my favorite by far.I love the way he uses metaphors and satire to depict the monotony of its characters' life and also his brilliant take on education as we know it. There is no character that we can actively dislike. And I specially love the final chapter- the way it is written ( ....this was not to be.......such a thing was to be...) . I had read and loved many other novels by Dickens but this one made me his die-hard fan.