Hard Times - Softcover

Dickens, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1517586046 ISBN 13: 9781517586041

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

Dickens’s tenth novel, “Hard Times”, describes the social and economic conditions of the mid- nineteenth century. Appalled at the working conditions prevalent at the outset of the Industrial Revolution in towns such as Manchester and Preston, he endeavored to “strike the heaviest blow” in his power to educate his readers. The story line deconstructs the assumption that prosperity runs parallel to morality and also attacks the Utilitarian philosophy prevalent at the time; "the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people." In contrast, Dickens felt that the pursuit of a totally rationalized society could lead to great misery. He believed that Utilitarian values promoted contempt between the industrialists and the workers and fostered a lack of imagination in young adults due to an over-emphasis on facts at the expense of more imaginative pursuits. Walter Allen, characterized the novel as being an unsurpassed "critique of industrial society", and George Orwell praised Dickens for his “generous anger." The Pied Piper Classics series offers a beautifully formatted collection of some of the finest writers of the past two centuries; an invitation to explore how certain themes of the human condition have remained timeless, and others have evolved.

About this title

About the Author

British novelist Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Over the course of his writing career, he wrote the beloved classic novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby,David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. On June 9, 1870, Dickens died of a stroke in Kent, England, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1517586046
• ISBN 13: 9781517586041
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232