eBookEnriched Classic (Enriched Classic)
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:
• A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information
• A chronology of the author's life and work
• A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
• An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader's own interpretations
• Detailed explanatory notes
• Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781416548157 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2007 |
| Series: | Enriched Classics |
| Sold by: | SIMON & SCHUSTER |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 448 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Date of Birth:
February 7, 1812Date of Death:
June 18, 1870Place of Birth:
Portsmouth, EnglandPlace of Death:
Gad's Hill, Kent, EnglandEducation:
Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and WellingtonRead an Excerpt
The One Thing Needful
Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!"
The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a schoolroom, and the speaker's square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster's sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's voice, which was inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker's hair, which bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker's obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders -- nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was -- all helped the emphasis.
"In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!"
The speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown person present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the inclined plane of little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.
Table of Contents
Introduction Acknowledgements A Note on the Text Select BibliographyCharles Dickens: A Brief Chronology
HARD TIMES: FOR THESE TIMES
Appendices: Contemporary Documents
Appendix A: The Composition of the Novel
- Household Words Partners’ Agreement
- Announcements in Household Words
- Dickens’s Working Memoranda
- Mentions in Dickens’s Letters
Appendix B: Contemporary Reviews of the Novel
- Athanaeum (12 August 1854)
- Examiner (9 September 1854)
- Gentleman’s Magazine (September 1854)
- British Quarterly Review (October 1854)
- Rambler (October 1854)
- South London Athanaeum and Institution Magazine (October 1854)
- Westminster Review (October 1854)
- Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (April 1855)
Appendix C: On Industrialization: Commentary
- Thomas Carlyle
- “Signs of the Times,” Edinburgh Review (June 1829)
- Chartism (1839)
- Past and Present (1843)
- Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufactures (1836)
- P. Gaskell, Artisans and Machinery (1836)
- J.S. Mill
- “Bentham,” London and Westminster Review (August 1838)
- Principles of Political Economy(1848)
- Arthur Helps, The Claims of Labour (1844)
- Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844 (1845)
- Charles Dickens, “On Strike,” Household Words (11 February 1854)
- Henry Morley, “Ground in the Mill,” Household Words (22 April 1854)
- Harriet Martineau, The Factory Controversy: A Warning Against Meddling Legislation (1855)
- W.B. Hodgson, “On the Importance of the Study of Economic Science as a Branch of Education for all Classes,” Lectures in Education Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (1855)
- John Ruskin, “Unto This Last,” Cornhill Magazine (August 1860)
Appendix D: On Industrialization: Fiction
- Harriet Martineau, A Manchester Strike (Illustrations of Political Economy No. 7) (1832)
- Frances Trollope, Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong (1840)
- “Charlotte Elizabeth,” Helen Fleetwood (1841)
- Elizabeth Stone, William Langshawe, the Cotton Lord (1842)
- Benjamin Disraeli
- Coningsby (1844) (i)
- Coningsby (1844) (ii)
- Sybil (1845)
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Mary Barton (1848) (i)
- Mary Barton (1848) (ii)
- North and South (1855)
- Charlotte Bronte, Shirley (1849)
- Charles Kingsley
- Yeast (1850)
- Alton Locke (1850)
- Fanny Mayne, Jane Rutherford, or The Miners’ Strike (1854)
Explanatory Notes
What People are Saying About This
"Charles Dickens offers Simon Prebble every opportunity to show off his talent." —-AudioFile
Reading Group Guide
1. Did Dickens have a clear purpose in writing Hard Times? Was Hard Times primarily an exhortation to solve the problems faced by
nineteenth-century England, or was his subject matter merely a vehicle that allowed him to write a humorous story using the familiar character types of his day? Do you consider Dickens primarily to be an activist? A social critic? A humor writer?
2. Describe the relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind. Why is Mr. Gradgrind's philosophy lost on Mrs. Gradgrind? What accounts for her total lack of understanding?
3. In the first few words of Hard Times, in the title to the first book, "Sowing, " there is a biblical allusion. Hard Times ends with another biblical allusion in the penultimate paragraph, where Dickens refers to the "Writing on the Wall." Biblical references are made throughout the novel, and Christian sentiment is appealed to constantly. How important are Christian underpinnings to Dickens's moral message? Do Dickens's criticisms and appeals go beyond the religious? If so, what other moral ideals are put forth in Hard Times, and what are their implications?
4. Coketown is, of course, a wholly fictitious city. However, it is a microcosm of England during the time of the Industrial Revolution and is modeled on cities that existed at the time. What are the problems of Coketown, and what are the causes of these problems? As a community, does Coketown accurately or inaccurately portray the ills of nineteenth-century English industrial cities? Does the creation of this fictitious town make Dickens's satire more effective than if he were to situate it in a real city? Why?
5. Since theconditions of life in English factory towns have changed, and many years have passed since the writing of Hard Times, what can be said to be the book's lasting value? Is it primarily historical, painting a picture of the way life was at one time? Is it moral or philosophical? Are the aspects of the novel that were important at the time of its publication still the ones that are valued today?
6. Are Rachael and Stephen realistic characters, even in the context of a satirical novel? What purpose do they serve to the novel as a whole, and which characters are they most starkly contrasted with? How does the scene of Stephen's death stand out in the novel? How is it important to the overarching themes Dickens is trying to convey?