Hard times
By: Charles Dickens ; edited with an introduction and notes by Paul Schlicke.
Contributors: Schlicke, Paul.
Series: Oxford world's classics
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Oxford [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 299
ISBN-13: 9780199536276
Subjects: Social problems -- Fiction; England -- Fiction
Genres: Fiction.
Description: "Thomas Gradgrind is the guiding luminary of the Coketown school, stern proponent of the Philosophy of Fact, whose ill-conceived idealism blinds him to the essential humanity of those around, with calamitous results. His daughter Louisa becomes trapped in a loveless marriage and falls prey to an idle seducer, and her brother Tom is ruined thanks to their father's pet theories. Meanwhile Sleary's circus offers a vision of escape and entertainment, a joyful contrast to the dreariness of life in Coketown. The hardship of the workers and the victimization of Stephen Blackpool are set against the exuberance of the circus people in Dickens's much-loved moral tale. Gradgrind is forced to reconsider his cherished system when he realizes that 'Facts alone' are not, after all, enough"--Page 4 of cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [xxii]-xxiv).