About the Book: Hard Times
Considered Dickens harshest indictment of mid-19th-century industrial practices
and their dehumanizing effects, this novel offers a fascinating tapestry of
Victorian life, filled with the richness of detail, brilliant characterization,
and passionate social concern that typify the novelists finest creations. Of
Dickens work, the eminent Victorian critic John Ruskin had this to say: "He is
entirely right in his main drift and purpose in every book he has written; and
all of them, but especially Hard Times, should be studied with close and earnest
care by persons interested in social questions.