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“Now, what I want is facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. you can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them”. - Hard Times
Introduction
Book Name: Hard
Times: for these Times.
Author Name: Charles
Dickens
Genre: Novel
Language: English
The Hard Times is the novel written by Charles
Dickens is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. This book tells about the opposition between fact and fancy, the importance of
femininity.
About the Author
Charles Dickens [7 February 1812 - 9 June 1870] was an English writer and social critic. Charles Dickens was an author from the British coast who had given many books and stories to literature. His works include the famous Great expectation and Hard times that are now been considered classics. He was the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His novels and short stories are widely read today.
Despite his lack of formal education, He edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories, and non-fiction articles, and campaigned for children's rights, education, and other social reform. Dickens’s shortest novel is set in the age of the Industrial Revolution when industrialists made their fortune while the laborers who worked for them slaved in dangerous and unhealthy conditions.
It is set in
the Age of Reason, when the prevailing philosophy of the day held that the only motive that mattered to people was Self-Interest and that the only thing people
should be allowed to believe in from the cradle upward is pure, unadulterated
Fact. Dickens writings, such as poor social or working conditions, etc.
About the Book
This is the only small novel of his “Hard Times” The rest of the novel is very vibrant with a minimum of 700 pages. The plot is quite simple and easy. It
is set in the middle of the 19th century in town England, where
there are factories and a lot of workers.
There is a Thomas Gradgrind who has a son and a daughter. He has raised his children along these strict, utilitarian lines. The choice results of his experiment are Louisa, who marries a blustering tycoon she does not love and is tempted within an inch of adultery by an immoral playboy; and Thomas Jr., also known as “The Whelp”, who sullenly exploits for his pleasure, and who finally brings the deepest shame and heartbreak on the family.
Gradgrind has this point of view on how children should be educated and make decisions and life choices. He thinks that all these should be done based on facts, reason, and logic And there should no emotion. He tries his think about his children. That how Gradgrind had planned the things were not followed because humans are not rational beings, but are emotional beings.
The main theme of the novel is reason vs emotion is a powerful one. Many times, Dickens
just put words into his characters. Hard times by Charles Dickens is a satire
on the industrial age.
What you will like about Hard Times:
A lot. It’s short, for a Dickens novel. It’s
accessible-anyone can read it without a great deal of learning and without
getting lost in convoluted descriptions. It’s vivid the characters are sharp;
the setting is quickly and strongly drawn. It's an exciting-a great story,
part mystery, part romance, part social satire. And it’s moving. It’s a great
novel.
My rating for this book will be 4 on 5 because
this novel teaches us that living a life of utilitarian material calculation,
rather than a life of empathy, feeling, and imagination leads to misery.
You can buy this book easily from Amazon: Hard Times
Written By - Prachi Mann
Edited By - Anamika Malik
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