Hard Times

By Dickens, Charles

Book Id: WPLBN0002950935
Format Type:
File Size: 314.37 MB
Reproduction Date: 2007

Title:	Hard Times
Author:	Dickens, Charles
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Fiction, Satire
Collections:	Audio Books Collection, Hard Times
Historic Publication Date:	1854
Publisher:	LibriVox Audio Books


Citation APA MLA Chicago Dickens, B. C. (1854). Hard Times. Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Hard Times, the shortest of Dickens's full-length novels, is set in the fictitious Victorian-England city of Coketown, where facts are the rule and all fancy is to be stamped out. The plot centers around the men and women of the town, some of whom are beaten down by the city's utilitarian ideals and some of whom manage to rise above it. The novel was written in 1854 and was a scathing attack on then-current ideas of utilitarianism, which Dickens viewed as a selfish and at times oppressive philosophy. Perhaps the novel's best features are its clever, ironic narration and the larger-than-life characters that push the plot forward, such as the upper-class banker and hypocritical braggart, Josiah Bounderby, and the fact-driven schoolmaster, Thomas Gradgrind. (Summary by Rosalind Wills).

Summary
Electronic recorded live performance of a reading

Excerpt
Satire