Hard Times for These Times.; With an Introduction by Monica Dickens and Illustrations by Richard Scollins

Dickens, Charles

ISBN 10: 0876360312 / ISBN 13: 9780876360316

Published by Imprint Society., Barre, MA:, 1972

About this Item

Size: 8x12 inches.This is #1711 of 1950 copies printed, signed by the illustrator. Minor chips to the head & heal of the spine, else very good plus, clean, tight and bright condition in a like box.

Seller Inventory # 220323

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Hard Times for These Times.; With an Introduction by Monica Dickens and Illustrations by Richard Scollins
• Publisher: Imprint Society., Barre, MA:
• Publication Date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0876360312
• ISBN 13: 9780876360316
• Binding: Hardcover
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Fiction

About this title

Synopsis

"My satire is against those who see figures and averages, and nothing else," proclaimed Charles Dickens in explaining the theme of this classic novel. Published in 1854, the story concerns one Thomas Gradgrind, a "fanatic of the demonstrable fact," who raises his children, Tom and Louisa, in a stifling and arid atmosphere of grim practicality.Without a moral compass to guide them, the children sink into lives of desperation and despair, played out against the grim background of Coketown, a wretched community shadowed by an industrial behemoth. Louisa falls into a loveless marriage with Josiah Bouderby, a vulgar banker, while the unscrupulous Tom, totally lacking in principle, becomes a thief who frames an innocent man for his crime. Witnessing the degradation and downfall of his children, Gradgrind realizes that his own misguided principles have ruined their lives.Considered Dickens' harshest indictment of mid-19th-century industrial practices and their dehumanizing effects, this novel offers a fascinating tapestry of Victorian life, filled with the richness of detail, brilliant characterization, and passionate social concern that typify the novelist's finest creations.Of Dickens' work, the eminent Victorian critic John Ruskin had this to "He is entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every book he has written; and all of them, but especially Hard Times, should be studied with close and earnest care by persons interested in social questions."

Book Description

Cambridge Literature is a series of literary texts edited for study by students aged 14-18 in English-speaking classrooms. It will include novels, poetry, short stories, essays, travel-writing and other non-fiction.