Hard Times by Charles Dickens

I am not sure how far down my list of Dickens novels to be read was Hard Times, but I am certain it was not my pick for third. However, this lesser-known novel was quite surprising. It was both hilarious and tragic. How can that be? Charles Dickens wrote it, that's how. Several of his characters are entirely laughable {get acquainted with Mr. Bounderby}, but it is oh-so-sad. My heart is still breaking just a little.

Synopsis:

In the industrial city of Coketown lives several characters, namely: Mr. Thomas Gradgrind; his son, Tom; his daughter, Louisa; his friend, Mr. Josiah Bounderby; Bounderby's employee, Stephen Blackpool; Bounderby's housekeeper, Mrs. Sparsit; and an unfortunate daughter of a circus man, Sissy Jupe.

It all begins when Sissy Jupe's father deserts her and the Gradgrind's take her in. Now Mr. Gradgrind is a school master who only cares about facts, which makes Sissy seem at first quite ignorant because she is after all merely the daughter of a circus man. Poor thing. After a few short years pass, Mr. Bounderby proposes marriage to the beautiful, young Louisa Gradgrind, who only accepts for her brother Tom's sake because he is apprenticed to Mr. Bounderby. Why not? Then Stephen Blackpool is suspected is robbing Mr. Bounderby just as he has left Bounderby's employment, and all is one great muddle until the very end when most things are sorted out, but no one really has a happy ending at all.

The Moral:

Once you get there in the novel, you realize that the obsession with facts within the Gradgrind family {and in Mr. Bounderby} has resulted in a lack of moral qualities and virtues, which funnily enough makes Sissy Jupe the grand heroine of the novel. So do not let intelligence blind you to goodness.

Overall:

I really enjoyed reading this novel, and laughed out loud several times. Though not my favorite Dickens novel thus far, it is certainly one I wish to own myself.

Off to the bookstore!

-KB

Rating: 4/5