Rating: 
Summary: Dickens sings the blues.
Review: Despite the explicit title, "Hard Times" is not so much an ode to poverty and misery as it is a commentary on the increasing impact of industrialization on the fragmentation of society and on the dehumanization of education. The result, as Dickens implies, leads to lives hollowed by the emptiness of work for work's sake and wealth for wealth's sake. The setting is Coketown, a factory town befouled by industrial smog and populated by underpaid and undereducated laborers. The novel's most prominent character is one of the town's richest citizens, Josiah Bounderby, a pompous blowhard who owns a textile mill and a bank and whose conversation usually includes some boastful story about his impoverished childhood and the hard work that led to his present fortune. Bounderby is the commercial projection of Thomas Gradgrind, a local schoolteacher and an extraordinarily pragmatic man who instills in his students and his own children the importance of memorizing facts and figures and the iniquity of indulging in entertaining activities. Gradgrind offers to Bounderby his son, Tom Jr., as an unwilling apprentice, and his daughter, Louisa, as an unwilling bride. On the other end of the town's social scale is Stephen Blackpool, a simple, downcast man who works as a weaver at Bounderby's mill and slogs through life misunderstood and mistreated. When he refuses to join his fellow workers in a labor uprising, he is ostracized; when he criticizes the economic disparity between Bounderby and the workers, he is fired and forced to leave town; when Bounderby's bank is robbed one night, he is suspected as the thief. So halfway through the novel, Dickens grants his reader an interesting, albeit somewhat contrived, plot element to embellish the narrative. If this novel contains a ray of sunshine, it is in Sissy Jupe, a girl abandoned by her father and adopted by Gradgrind, whose oppressive educational method nearly breaks her. However, she grows up with her own intuitive sense of propriety, which she uses as a tool to eject a dishonorable character from the novel. Her strong and independent spirit will allow her to do much better in life than Louisa, who withers away in an unhappy marriage, and Tom Jr., whose boredom renders him vulnerable to temptations. Compared to his other novels, "Hard Times" is relatively short and straightforward and has few characters, as though Dickens felt that what he had to say was so important, it had to be said quickly and bluntly. He is less interested in realism than in making a point, and it's really the poetic power of his prose that enables him to get away with the overbearing sentimentality and often ridiculous caricatures that accompany his poignant human truths.
Rating: 
Summary: Some Old Truths
Review: _Hard Times_ is a familiarly sentimental work by Dickens. This is especially the case regarding the character of Sissy Jupe, an overly sweet, innocent young girl who is abandoned by her father. Dickens seems determined to tug at the heart strings with this character. Dickens does an admirable job in covering new ground concerning the factory owners and bankers exploitation of the poor, as well as exploring the beginnings of labor unrest in 1850's England. There is much for the factory laborer to be unhappy with in Cokestown, where the factories belch out dirty, polluted smoke all day long. Dickens combines these issues with his examination of the difficulties inherent in parenting and gives truth to the old adage that how the branch is bent, so grows the tree. Through much grief and contrition years later, school master Thomas Gradgrind learns that a cold, no nonsense approach to bringing up his daughter Louisa and his son, Tom, was wrong. Louisa has a good heart and dotes on her younger brother, but is otherwise very distrustful of humanity and exists in the world suffused in apathy; Tom is simply, as Dickens calls him, "a whelp", and a dishonest one at that. Louisa marries Josiah Bounderby, a banker who turns his nose up at the factory hands and mocks their aspirations to move up in the world. Bounderby refers to these individuals as trying to put a "gold spoon" in their mouths. The actions of Bounderby and the Gradgrinds directly lead to tragic consequences for Stephen Blackpool, an honest and courageous loom worker, who merely chooses not to be involved with the townspeople or their labor leader. Another old truth that there is no justice in the world is as real today as it was in Dickens' time.
Rating:
Summary: "Facts, Facts, Facts"
Review: "Now what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life...Stick to the Facts, sir!" With this opening, Dickens shoves his message down the gullet of the reader of Hard Times which is indicative of the entire story line, characters, and the social message that he is trying to shout out to his audience. The book is an allegorical message in every sense of the word where his descriptions of the character's physical traits bring their personalities to life. Dicken's description of the story's setting, Coketown, and those who live and work there, also illustrates the bleak and dismal attitude surrounding the Victorian Era and the changing social structure of the time.
The tale begins in a school, barren of the delightful faces usually evident in children, due to the staunch efforts of Mr. Gradgrind and Mr. M'Choakumchild, the proprietor and schoolmaster of Coketown's school. Their quest is to instill nothing but facts into the children of Coketown "until they were full to the brim." They attempt to create an environment in which no child will be allowed flights of fancy or fits of imagination. The fruits of this quest are strongly apparent in Gradgrind's own children, Thomas and Louisa, who are encouraged to learn facts, and not allowed to participate in activities that other youths would see as a necessary part of life. Following their education, the two are given over to the control of Mr. Bounderby, a self-proclaimed, self-made man, proud that he has pulled himself up the "corporate ladder" and into a better life than he claims to have come from. Louisa becomes Bounderby's wife at the insistence of her father, and Thomas, an employee at Bounderby's bank. The one wild card added into the equation is Sissy Jupe, the daughter of a circus performer who has abandoned his station in life and his daughter, as well. Gradgrind takes in this pure, young soul in order to prove that his methods can be used to teach respect and proper behavior, even in a girl raised in an environment such as the one in which Sissy has been raised.
Along the path, Dickens introduces some of the other residents of Coketwon, including Stephen Blackpool, an honest and hardworking, virtuous man who lives in misery due to bad choices made in his youth. His friend and co-worker, Rachael, is also hardworking and honest, and although there is romantic interest evident, Blackpool's unwise decisions of younger days keep them apart. Also mired in the plot is Mrs. Sparsit, Mr. Bounderby's house keeper, and a truly despicable and pathetic character. And last in the line of detestable characters that Dickens adds is James Harthouse, an upstart from another place whose sole purpose in the novel is to wreak havoc on the lives of the others while remaining absolutely clueless to his part in their misery. The story continues as the characters trod along in their lives with only suspicion that there is another way of life, until Dickens casts his redemption spell in the form of Stephen Blackpool's martyrdom for society and Sissy's powerful moral character that affects Harthouse so strongly that he leaves Coketown.
Throughout the tale, Dickens so strongly exerts his opinions and hopes that at times the book left me feeling ambivalent towards almost every charcter introduced. And his use of language, although allowing the tale to be vivid in the mind of the audience, also makes the reader wonder if he wasn't being paid by the word, rather than by the page.
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Summary: A College Student's Review
Review: To be quite honest, I didn't find this book overly entertaining. However, though you may call me old-fashioned, I still believe there is educational value to reading. And the book is educational. For openers, it provides us a picture of the world in which Dickens lived. It isn't a very attractive picture, but it is probably an accurate one. The city of Coketown was dirty; its inhabitants breathed polluted air; they struggled to make ends meet. There were a few exceptions among the upper echelon, like Bounderby who owned a country home to which he could retreat. But for the most part, the citizens of Coketown were trapped in a day-to-day mundane existence that didn't offer many bright spots. There's no way I would want to trade places. The book is also revealing in other ways. We learn of the class structures of Dickens' day. We learn of the silly pretensions and the airs people of the upper class put on. Morality and integrity seem mostly limited to the lower class, particularly the circus. Dickens gives us a picture of education that is dreary, directed at the head and away from the heart. The carrying out of justice seems somewhat elusive. In the words of Stephen Blackpool, "its all a muddle." This could be a summary of the times. Things do seem to be pretty messed up. Still, the book has its appeal. I think for me, the best part was the descriptions of the characters. They definitely weren't complex or sophisticated. On the contrary, they were almost too obvious in their representation of the roles they played. They remind me of facades of a building on a movie set. Bounderby is constantly bragging that he "came from a ditch." His character reminds me of so many people who thrive on a sense of their own importance. Tom was a whiner--please, spare me the privileged child who is never satisfied and always looking to be bailed out. Louisa needed to get some gumption and stop doing everything according to the book. For Pete's sakes, forget your upbringing and get a life! Sissy was fun; and Rachael was admirable. Stephen Blackpool got quite a bit of ink devoted to him. Had his character had a better command of the English language we might actually have been able to understand what he was saying. Oh, well. The best characters, without a doubt, were Mrs. Sparsit and Bitzer. Mrs. Sparsit gets the Oscar for best female in a comedy role; Bitzer for the character everyone loves to hate. The circus people deserve at least a mention; they definitely add some color to the novel. So, no, its not a must-read, in my opinion. But I've definitely read a lot worse. You must take fair warning, though. Nearly everyone I know has to power through at least the first half of the book. Eventually it gains some momentum, and you'll probably want to finish it. Even if you're not crazy about the book, you can still mention you've read something by Charles Dickens. Someone somewhere might actually be impressed.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, amusing, thoughtful... outstanding!
Review: I'm surprised by all the two and three-star reviews appearing on this site. For me, "Hard Times" was enjoyable right from the start and memorable long after. The writing is evocative and fluid, and although it can be easy to get lost due to some of the anachronisms in Dickens' writing, in general the writing is excellent. The characters, while not subtle (it's pretty easy to sum them up in a few words) are all memorable and tug on the heartstrings quite a bit. Sissy, Mr. Gradgrind, Mr. Bounderby, Stephen, Tom, and Louisa are great characters (and just because they're easily defined, they are no less human or believable). Finally, the story itself is a bit sobering (as it was intended to be) but it's also very human and shows the possibilities of redemption quite nicely. In short, "Hard Times" is excellent. I'd recommend it to any fan of Dickens or just anybody who likes good literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, Dull, one of the worst books ever written
Review: This book was a total waste of my time. don't get me wrong though im a very avid reader but, DAG!! was Dickens intending for his book to be so boring or did it just mistakenly happen. The characters were hard to understand and so was the plot. ONe character in particular got on my last nerve: the circus person (can't remember his name because it was just that unimportant). He talked with a lipse which was hard to read.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Alright...
Review: Pretty much, the beginning and the middle of this book is pretty dull. The thing that really saves it towards the middle. So I would not read this book if you are looking for something gripping or that will really make you eager to find out what is going to happen next. The book is simply put a drama with no positive turning points until the end. The ending of a book is really inportant to me. This book has a good ending , so that raises the from my point of view.
The book was kind of hard to follow for me. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that there are too many characters. There is at least twenty. Some of these characters are Louisa, Mr. Bounderby, Mr. Gradgrind, Sissy Jupe, and Stephen Blackpool. Stephen Blackpool's story was very sad and really affected my emotions as I read it. I also felt that Sissy Jupe went through a lot but stayed strong through her troubles.
The basic storyline is this: Mr. Gradgrind opens a private school that teaches his philosophy: facts only! He is the father of Tom and Louisa. Louisa has been preplanned to marry Mr. Bounderby, a banker that is twice her age. She does not like this.
This book also does not teach good morals and the reading level is pretty high. I would say that anyone who reads this book should be at least 15 years old. I pretty much have mixed feelings for this book.
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Summary: hard times review
Review: this book is hard to understand and boring
Rating:
Summary: It's not a beautiful life
Review: Parts of this book are brilliant. Dicken's description of Louisa's breakdown is perfect and chilling. But some of the first person, lisping, cockney dialogue made it rather hard to read. The themes of inequality and hypocrisy soar high, but so does the sappiness.
Rating:
Summary: Still Hard Times
Review: This book isn't Oliver Twist. This book reminds me of Animal Farm, only not as comical, but the social commentary is the same. What would the world be like if children were raised without that magical sense of wonder and pretend? What was the world like before the working class was not respected for all the hard work they do? Those definately would be hard times. This is just the scenario in this book. In this book, Coketown is a hard place. The factory workers toil day in and day out yet get no respect from "civilized society". Louisa and Thomas Gradgrind are raised with books and facts and no room in the world for emotion, and then Sissy, a carnie orphan, enters their world as each spiral in different directions due to their upbringing. What happens? Hard times indeed but in the end, the human spirit triumphs even if not everyone gets to see that wonderful ending.
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