Ratings31
Average rating3.2
Dickens scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society and its misapplied utilitarian philosophy, Hard Times features schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, one of his most richly dimensional, memorable characters. Filled with the details and wonders of small-town life, it is also a daring novel of ideas and ultimately, a celebration of love, hope, and limitless possibilities of the imagination.
Reviews with the most likes.
the girls getting the good happy ending while all the shitty characters get bad endings? a bit too nice but I like it just the same
I finally finished this beast. Actually, it's only 236 pages but it felt like a beast. It took me so long and I'm not well so it took me even longer.
It had interesting parts but I felt like it dragged overall. Pretty much all the characters were interesting, but again, it dragged. So I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. I didn't hate it and I didn't love it. It had a nice message, and it wasn't hard to figure out what it was trying to say.
I now know that to be considered a “classic” it has to be the most god awful boring book. Most of the chapters felt like fillers and had no relevance to the story and the characters that are heavily accented are the ones that talk the most just to make it even worse. For example, “...for onny o' th' monny causes that carries grief to the poor man's door, an' there'll be tender wi' yo, gentle wi' yo, comfortable wi' yo, chrisen wi' yo.”