Monday 1 February 2021

Hard Times: Charles Dickens

 Introduction

Hard Timesnovel by Charles Dickens, published in serial form (as Hard Times: For These Times) in the periodical Household Words from April to August 1854 and in book form later the same year. The novel is a bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and communities in mid-19th-century England.
Louisa and Tom Gradgrind have been harshly raised by their father, an educator, to know nothing but the most factual, pragmatic information. Their lives are devoid of beauty, culture, or imagination, and the two have little or no empathy for others. Louisa marries Josiah Bounderby, a vulgar banker and mill owner. She eventually leaves her husband and returns to her father’s house. Tom, unscrupulous and vacuous, robs his brother-in-law’s bank. Only after these and other crises does their father realize that the manner in which he raised his children has ruined their lives. (Britannica

Check your understanding of the novel: Online Test






Additional Resources:





Musical Performance of Hard Times in Hindi:



Understanding Hard Times: An Analytic Note by F.R Leavis /The Great Tradition


Article: Why Hard Times is a bad novel? - J. B. Priestley

Video recording of Online Classes on Hard Times



Video recording of the session on the discussion on 'Research Articles on Hard Times':


No comments:

Post a Comment