[2]Title to be discussed: We continue our discussion of Hard Times [2]by Charles Dickens. [3] Date of meeting: Monday, May 16, 2011. Summary: Hard Times [2]was a huge and immediate success upon publication in 1854. Yet this novel is not the cheerful celebration of Victorian life [4]one might have expected from the beloved author of The Pickwick Papers [5]and The Old Curiosity Shop. [6] Compressed, stark, allegorical, it is a bitter expose of capitalist exploitation during the industrial revolution [7]--and a fierce denunciation of the philosophy of materialism, which threatens the human imagination in all times and places. With a typically unforgettable cast of characters--including the heartless fact-worshipper Mr. Gradgrind, the warmly endearing Sissy Jupe, and the eternally noble Stephen Blackpool--Hard Times [8]carries a uniquely powerful message and remains one of the most widely read of Dickens’s major novels.
- Book Clubs [9]
- Baldwin Boettcher [10]
