Hard Times

By: Charles Dickens ~ Introduction by: Robert D. Spector

Hard Times ~~ Adobe eBook

Adobe eBook

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Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X Tiger

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Hard Times ~~ Microsoft Reader eBook

Microsoft Reader eBook

Platforms
Windows 98+, Tablet PC, Pocket PC 2003

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ClearType, advanced navigation, search, personal library, bookmarks, notes, and drawing.

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Hard Times Summary:

Hard Times appeared in weekly parts in Household Words in 1854, printed on the pages usually occupied by leading articles on the major social issues of the day. In the overlapping worlds of Gradgrind's schoolroom, Bounderby the humbug industrialist and Sissy Jupe of Sleary's Circus, Dickens joyfully satirizes Utilitarianism, the self-help doctrines of Samuel Smiles and the mechanization of the mid-Victorian soul. It is a novel deeply preoccupied with childhood and family life, bursting with unresolvable tensions and contradictions and wonderfully entertaining in its metaphorical wit and invention.