Hard Times (Norton Critical Editions) | Charles Dickens | Hard Times is Dickens shortest novel as...

Hard Times (Norton Critical Editions) | Charles Dickens | Physical comedy, social commentary, irony, and pathos with a sharp ear for vocabulary and conversation

books:

Hard Times (Norton...

	Hard Times (Norton Critical Editions) Charles Dickens W. W. Norton, 2000 - 496 pages average customer review:based on 67 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

This text, that of the 1854 first edition, has been re-edited in light of recent scholarly findings. Annotations have been revised and expanded. Backgrounds, Sources, and Contemporary Reactions reprints all of the documents on industrialism, education, and utilitarianism that appeared in the Second Edition, save one, and introduces new pieces by R. D. Butterworth and Thomas Carlyle. Criticism collects seventeen important essays on Hard Times-seven of them new to the Third Edition-by Hippolyte Taine, John Ruskin, George Gissing, Bernard Shaw, F. R. Leavis, Monroe Engel, Robert Barnard, David Craig, David Lodge, Roger Fowler, Patricia E. Johnson, Gorman Beauchamp, Martha C. Nussbaum, David L. Cowles, Jean Ferguson Carr, Eric P. Levy, and Leona Toker. A Chronology and revised Selected Bibliography are also included.

About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehenive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

for more information click here

Hard Times is Dickens shortest novel as it takes the lid off respectability in ficitional Coketown

Hard Times was written in 1854 by England's greatest novelist Charles
Dickens (1812-1870. It is the shortest of his novels. The novel was originally published as a weekly series in "Household Words" periodical edited by Dickens. The novel reads quickly telling a story that is still relevant in our own post-industrial 21st century Western Society.
The novel is set in fictional Coketown set in the English Midlands. The first scene is set in a classroom where children are being taught by rote
learning. Only FACTS yells Mr. Gradgrind who has raised his two children the feckless Tom and the more impressionable Louisa to eschew the emotions of art and the heart to stick strictly to practical learning.
Enter into the town Mr. Sleary's circus. Cecilia (Sissy) Jupe is a young girl whose father is employed by Sleary to ride horses. He deserts Sissy who is adopted by the Gradgrind family. Sissy befriends the lonely lass Louisa. Louisa is forced into a loveless marriage with the bloviating humbug industrialist Josiah Bounderby. Bounderby has crafted a false story of a difficult childhood while disdaining the love of his mother who lives in the country.
We also met the tragic Stephen Blackpool a miner who is wed to an alocholic wife. Stephen is in love with the beautiful and kind Rachael. He will be framed for the robbery of Bounderby's bank which was really robbed by Tom Gradgrind.
The novel is divided into three parts covering several years. Many of the characters come to a bad end. The novel attacks industrialism, the state of British education and the necessity for entertainment in the lives of everyone.
All of Dickens fictions are worth reading. Hard Times is a good introduction to the second half of his career in which he moves to more serious themes. A Victorian classic which will be enjoyed by the discriminating reader.

for more information click here

Physical comedy, social commentary, irony, and pathos with a sharp ear for vocabulary and conversation

Charles Dickens was a great writer. A simple statement, easily and often made, but its correctness is confirmed and enlarged with each story that I read.

He was so good at what he did, and was so well-loved in his time, and so often imitated, that he is easily dismissed or parodied. No matter, He writes physical comedy, social commentary, irony, and pathos with a sharp ear for vocabulary and conversation and an internal clock for pacing that is nearly infallible.

This tale focuses on Coketown, an early industrial city blighted by its creating industry, its owning tycoon, its proto-organizing workers, its ambitious MP, and his morally-bankrupt protégé. Hard Times is considered one of Dicken's strongest statements against the grinding poverty of the unrestrained industrial might of the time.

for more information click here

Excellent Edition of a Worthy Classic

Although not one of his more popular novels, Charles Dickens' Hard Times still stands as a classic among classics. Carrying on with his highly prolific writing style, this novel is a bit more bleak than his other renown works, but enjoyable from the start, especially with Dickens' excellent choice of character naming.
Suitable for most ages, this classic should not be passed up. And with the Norton annotations and notes, this edition will help readers understand better the context in which the author writes in.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

products you might be interested in

recommendations

Books Read October 2003-October 2004
Fall Semester 2003 -- Reading List
Books I've Read 2008