Hard Times - Charles Dickens

Published in 1854, Hard Times is Dickens' shortest novel and the only to feature no scenes in London. The story takes place in Coketown, a fictitious mid-Victorian industrial zone in Northern England where wealthy manufacturers and oppressed factory hands alike are governed by strong utilitarian principles. Mr Gradgrind, a well-to-do businessman, presides over the indoctrination and raises his own children, Thomas and Louisa, to be perfect models of the system. Fancy and imagination are methodically snuffed out at an early age, ensuring that nothing but logical, mathematical, and scientific fact remain. Sleary's horseriding circus serves as a direct contrast to the ordered and rational world of the Gradgrinds, giving full sway to laissez-faire entertainent. The town's other principle player, 'self-made' man and mill owner Josiah Bounderby, acts as Dickens' favourite archetype; the corpulent and bullying buffoon who provides most of the novel's antagonism.

Hard Times was originally published in weekly instalments for the periodical, Household Words, before appearing in novel format. It is divided into three parts: 'Sowing', 'Reaping', and 'Garnering.' The biblical allusion to 'reaping what one sows' calls to mind an agricultural process very different to the images of machinery and mechanisation throughout, hinting at the necessity for organic development. A strong critique of the Poor Law and squalid working conditions predominates, here exemplified in the figure of Stephen Blackpool, a downtrodden labourer trapped in a wheel of despondency and routine. As can be conferred from its title, Hard Times is all very grim and dystopic, with perhaps more of a focused didacticism than Dickens' other novels. At times, one can almost feel his indignation burning through the pages. Being rather short in length, there is not the usual range of subplots and extended mystery to unravel, but Dickens does his best to spice things up with a bank robbery, sexual harrassment, and a tragic mine shaft accident.

Not having much left to write on this distinctly average book, I would like to recall a particular incident concerning my middle sister. It was a cold winter's day in Colchester as she tramped the high street on her way to college, clutching her bag which was falling to pieces. The crowds pushed by in a hurry, jostling and flooring her to the pavement. The bag split and the contents spilled out. Then there she was, on her hands and knees, scrambling to retrieve her belongings as people kicked them this way and that. Her eyes lit on the scuffed copy of Hard Times lying in the muddy snow. As she looked on, an oblivious boot stomped it deeper into the muck. Was there ever a more sublime moment of irony? Always something deeply ridiculous in such moments, it still makes me collapse into fits of laughter when I recall it. Overall, although reasonably entertaining, the book simply paled in the shadow of Bleak House. Not to mention that some of the characters' accents were incredibly frustrating to decipher.

Rating: 2/5