Hard Times

Published in 1854, the novel revealed Dickens' sharpest views on capitalism and its questionable moral underpinnings and spurred significant critical debate among his contemporaries. This story of class conflict in Victorian England serves as a powerful critique of the social injustices that plagued the Industrial Revolution. It is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens and tells the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father. When Louisa, trapped in a loveless marriage, falls prey to an idle seducer, the crisis forces her father to reconsider his cherished system. Yet even as the development of the story reflects Dickens's growing pessimism about human nature and society.