My Dickensian Read: Hard Times

I just finished reading Hard Times, the 10th and also the shortest novel authored by Charles Dickens. I was not aware of this novel before purchasing the product online which was a collection of 6 Dickensian books in one pack. I bought it mainly for the ones I had heard of but have not read yet, particularly A Tale of Two Cities. So, I actually stumbled upon Hard Times, and it turned out to be a good read.

The first thing that attracted me is the novel's length. Still, this shortest novel of Dickens includes three books, each consisting of 16, 12 and 9 short chapters respectively. Another thing unusual is that this novel doesn't include any sketches, which are usually featured in other Dickensian novels.

The novel was published in 1854, during the height of the Industrialization in England, driven by capitalism, which was criticized in many if not all Dickens's works. Interestingly, the three mini books contained in the novel were named Sowing, Reaping and Garnering respectively. These were terms of the preceding agricultural era, and were used in an unspoken protest against industrialization by which the poor had been further exploited and marginalized, in Dickens's view. On the other hand, it's said that for the title of the book Dickens drew inspiration from Galatians 6:7, reading "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

The primary setting of the story is Coketown, a fictitious name that perfectly matches its status as a fast growing industrial town in northern England. A passage at the beginning of Book II well describes it, as quoted below:

"Seen from a distance in such weather, Coketown lay shrouded in a haze of its own, which appeared impervious to the sun's rays. You only knew the town was there, because you knew there could have been no such sulky blotch upon the prospect without a town. A blur of soot and smoke, now confusedly tending this way, now that way, now aspiring to the vault of Heaven, now murkily creeping along the earth, as the wind rose and fell, or changed its quarter: a dense formless jumble, with sheets of cross light in it, that showed nothing but masses of darkness:—Coketown in the distance was suggestive of itself, though not a brick of it could be seen."

Though there are no sketches in the novel, there are many pictures available online, depicting plot details of Hard Times, and this is probably the most iconic one: Mr. Gradgrind caught his daughter Louisa and son Tom who slipped out of the house to watch a Circus performance, something that Mr. Gradgrind considered totally useless and a waste of time. Mr. Gradgrind is a man of rationalism, self-interest, and cold, hard facts. He considers himself a practical man and tries to raise his five children to be equally practical by forbidding the development of their imagination and emotions. He even names his two youngest children Adam Smith and Malthus, the two famous economists of the time.

This picture sketches Mr. Bounderby, Gradgrind’s friend and later Louisa’s husband, though he is 30 years her senior. Bounderby claims to be a self-made man and describes being abandoned by his mother as a young boy. He boasts that from his childhood poverty he has risen to become a banker and factory owner in Coketown, known by everyone for his wealth and power. However, as Mrs. Pegler, his caring mother, is revealed in Book III, his claimed self-made success story is exposed as a lie. While the fact-driven Mr. Gradgrind showcases the downside of utilitarianism, Mr Bounderby is the representation of the greedy, heartless part of capitalism.

The main theme of the novel is the conflict bewteen cold facts, numbers and rationality versus the warm feelings, imagination and emotions. While Mr. Gradgrind has been a firm believer of pure facts and has raised his children to this effect, he is not hopeless. He experiences an epiphany and transforms into a humane person after being confronted by his daughter Louisa, as quoted below:

'How could you give me life, and take from me all the inappreciable things that raise it from the state of conscious death? Where are the graces of my soul? Where are the sentiments of my heart? What have you done, O father, what have you done, with the garden that should have bloomed once, in this great wilderness here!'

In the same chapter, there's a short passage that reads, "the Good Samaritan was a Bad Economist." I was curious and learned after some research that, in biblical interpretation, Good Samaritans are taught to always help strangers without expecting anything in return, which could be seen as "bad economics" because it doesn't align with self-interested or cost-effective behavior of a good economist. Very interesting!

Another theme is the marginalization and exploitation of the poor by the burgeoning capitalists of the time. In the book Dickens created the term "Hands" to represent the lowest level laborers at the factories in Coketown: these Hands are useful because they produce some output. But they do not have brains, feelings or emotions, and they are cheap and completely dispensable. 

Like other Dickensian works, the novel has been adapted numerous times in different media, and I found this most interesting: a new production released only two months ago on BBC Radio 4. This will surely be the channel I tune into in the coming days.

Reading this book, coupled with my recent visit to England, is a new step forward in my self-learning journey of English literature, history, and culture. I look forward to my next good read.