Spark Notes Hard Times

By Charles Dickens and SparkNotes

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586634461
• ISBN13: 9781586634469
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: SparkNotes
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.3" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A microcosm of the industrial revolution

This is a gem and for those readers out there who are tempted to try Dickens, then, apart from A Christmas Carol, this is the only book by him that can be read in a day (unless you are an insomniac). I have - like many of the other reviewers I am sure - read every one of Dickens' works including the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood. For sheer brilliance, Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Bleak House and in my opinion Little Dorrit. But for something transcending literature - a deep social and political commentary - try Hard Times. Plus you won't grow old trying to finish it as it's about 300 pages (220 in somew versions).

Outstanding In A Different Way.

Charles Dickens visited Preston during a strike. So, this book is written largely based on his observations. People tend to go from one extreme to the other on this one. They tend to either really like it, or really dislike it. While it lacks the artful improvisation of some of his works like "The Pickwick Papers," "David Copperfield," or "Our Mutual Friend," it is good in a different way. Right away, we meet Thomas Gradgrind who thinks that FACTS are the answers to all the questions in life. While he may seem harsh and brutal, he does have a conscience, and he honestly believes in what he does. We then meet Sissy Jupe and Bounderby. Sissy Jupe is pretty much the opposite of Thomas Gradgrind. She is one who hangs onto sentiment and hope. Bounderby on the other hand is the more dark and extreme version of Gradgrind. (Though it is hard to hate Bounderby because we can see the society that created him.) Through clever wording, Dickens describes the darkness and sadness of the area. Interestingly, the dark Bounderby has one notable redeeming feature. He is good to his housekeeper Mrs. Sparsit. We later meet Stephen Blackpool who has worked 12 years in Bounderby's factory. He is a good honest man who suffers because he can not go along with any extreme. He loves a woman named Rachel, but he is already married. (And of course the marriage is not a happy one.) Stephen then has a dream that foreshadows his fate. One of the most disturbing events of the book then takes place. Under her father's advice, the 20 year old Louisa agrees to marry the 50 year old Bounderby. (Charles Dickens could have hardly known that some time later he would marry the young Ellen Ternan, but we won't go there.) Later, we learn that Slackbridge is stirring up a mutiny in the factory and poor Stephen Blackpool is cast out because he will not join. And even Bounderby will not help poor Stephen. (What a situation!) Louisa (now Mrs. Bounderby) gives Stephen some money to help him, but Tom Jr knows that he can probably use Stephen's slowness to his advantage. James Harthouse starts to grow close to Louisa, and we can see the tension rising. The bank is then robbed, and poor Stephen Blackpool is suspected, but it doesn't take much for us to know who really did it. Interestingly, Mrs. Sparsit (Bounderby's servant) continues to use Louisa's maiden name. Louisa knows that her brother probably robbed the bank, but she can not bring herself to tell. The tension between Bounderby and Louisa begins to increase, and we can guess that the marriage does not have much longer. In a well written chapter Louisa has an emotional breakdown due to her upbringing, and the good in Thomas Gradgrind starts to show. His intentions were good, but he realizes he was wrong. (Thomas Gradgrind is not exactly a Murderstone or a Uriah Heep.) In a rage, Bounderby ships Louisa's stuff back to her father's, and we can see the marriage is over. But there is more to come. Stephen Blackpool is still suspected of robbi

More Than Facts

I initially lamented the fact that Hard Times was assigned to me in my British lit. class. I had read some of Dickens's melodramas like A Tale of Two Cities and Oliver Twist and enjoyed them, but everything I heard about Hard Times said this was nothing like those. This was supposedly just strictly social commentary. My interpretation of that: BORING. But then I read it.Hard Times isn't like Dickens's other novels, but I don't think that it has any less heart than those masterpieces. In fact, Dickens endured himself much further to me with this novel as he has his characters perform Thomas Carlyle's enduring philosophy. The novel follows the Gradgrind family who is raised adhering to FACTS and living in a society which worships the manufacturing machine. As the novel progresses, connections are made and broken, and the characters come to the realization that there is much more to reality than the material facts.Hard Times is told so compassionately. The reader cares for these people and their tragic lives. The story is also told with biting humor that still cuts at today's society (this novel feels really modern), and the underlying philosophy is one which is so needed in our post-modern world. I would certainly recommend this novel to fans of Dickens and to fans of the truly literary novel.

Entertaining, amusing, thoughtful... outstanding!

I'm surprised by all the two and three-star reviews appearing on this site. For me, "Hard Times" was enjoyable right from the start and memorable long after. The writing is evocative and fluid, and although it can be easy to get lost due to some of the anachronisms in Dickens' writing, in general the writing is excellent. The characters, while not subtle (it's pretty easy to sum them up in a few words) are all memorable and tug on the heartstrings quite a bit. Sissy, Mr. Gradgrind, Mr. Bounderby, Stephen, Tom, and Louisa are great characters (and just because they're easily defined, they are no less human or believable). Finally, the story itself is a bit sobering (as it was intended to be) but it's also very human and shows the possibilities of redemption quite nicely.In short, "Hard Times" is excellent. I'd recommend it to any fan of Dickens or just anybody who likes good literature.

BEAUTIFUL, SORROWFUL, AND HONEST

Dickens creates a novel that virtually revolutionizes literature of the 1800's. At a time where most writers wrote in a stuffy prose full of unrealities and a jaded outlook, Dickens dares to tell with honesty what he sees through his window. Hard Times has yet a misleading title. It gives one ideas of harshness, depression, poverty, and social decline--although the actual reality of then-London, still not something you would choose to read. However, Hard Times has as much depression and poverty as any of Dickens' other works. It is just in this case that Dickens chooses to remind the world that in the deepest despair there is beauty yet to be seen. Dickens was a strange author. In his supposedly inspiring books, you get an overdose of sadness, and in his depressing books, you find beauty. It is this case with Hard Times. It is a poor, honest man's search for justice in a world where only the rich have merit. It is a girl's search for true love while battling the arranged marriage for money. And lastly, a woman's search for recognition against her favored, yet dishonest brother. It is these searches that at last come together and become fufilled. And, while at the same time telling a captivating story, it comments on the then--and still now--presence of greed and total dishonesty one has to go through for money. The title of this review sums up Hard Times. Its beauty comes from the pure searches for truth, the sorrow comes from the evil the characters most overcome to get there, and the honesty is both the truth with which Dickens portrays life and the the overwhelming truth that these protaganists create.Holly Burke, PhD.Clinical Psychologist, Abnormal Psych. ProfessorGeorgetown University, Johns Hopkins Inst.