Hard Times

3.5 stars

Dickens’s tenth published novel was also his shortest (50-60% of his usual word count) and the only one not set wholly or partly in London.

The setting is Coketown, a fictional northern English industrial centre in which, despite the name, they make stuff than dig it out of the ground. It’s semi-rural, i.e., not full blown dark satanic mill territory, more DSM adjacent.

Thomas Gradgrind is superintendent of a school devoted to teaching facts, and nothing but facts, eschewing anything imaginative or aesthetic. He runs things at home the same way. His kids are named Tom Jr, Louisa, Adam Smith, Malthus and Jane. Make of that what you will. He later becomes a member of parliament. Think proto-Margaret Thatcher, although he softens up a bit after he’s elected.

Gradgrind’s bestie is local self-made businessman James Bounderby, who is fond of sharing details of his tough upbringing (Think Monty Python’s “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch) l. Mr B fancies young Louisa in a manner we would deem inappropriate today and she did then, but she eventually marries him, at least in part to secure financial security for her big brother. (Spoiler alert: the marriage doesn’t last.)

Meanwhile, Gradgrind takes in the daughter of a circus clown who abandons her, ostensibly to educate her, but actually to make her into their housemaid.

Meanwhile, Stephen Blackwell, loyal employee of Bounderby who never causes any trouble, ends up getting scapegoated for actions of militant trade unionists blah, blah, blah…

Themes include the evils of utilitarianism (Google it), officials being officious, exploitation of workers, repression of unions — bog standard 19th industrial political stuff in other words — with a side order of morality.

Bottom line
Not Dickens’s finest work (he rushed it out in weekly instalments because he was running short of the readies), but far from his worst. Gradgrind and Bounderby are caricatures that have been reused many times, at least in part, by later authors.

This is one of Charles Dickens's most powerful and unforgettable classic. Get it! I swear to you, you will not be disappointed.