Hard Times

Name: Hard Times
Brand: Hachette UK
Availability: InStock
Author: Charles Dickens
ISBN: 9781908377012

Author: Charles Dickens

Narrator: Harriet Walter

Abridged: 3 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: CSA Word

Published: 01/01/2026

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

Set in the north of England during the 19th century, 'Hard Times' is the story of Thomas Gradgrind, a schoolmaster, who has strong and overbearing views on how his children, Louisa and Tom, should behave in order to become 'models in society'. As the children get older their father's teachings start to impact significantly on their lives, Grandgrind starts to question his own resolve and begins to wonder whether he has been misguided and blind to their needs Set against a background of wealth and poverty where the rich rule and the poor are left to suffer, 'Hard Times' is more than a vehicle highlighting social injustice, it is also full of drama, romance, comedy, pathos and a tantalisingly elusive, but none-the-less compelling, sliver of 'hope'.
Read by the accomplished actress and narrator Dame Harriet Walter.

About Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-70) was born in Portsmouth, and grew up in Kent and London. He began contributing to periodicals in his twenties, publishing his first book in 1836. He published magazines and serialised novels throughout his career, achieving international fame for his writing and public readings. David Copperfield was first published as a serial between 1849 and 1850, and as a book in 1850.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bionic Jean

“Now, what I want is Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts; nothing else will ever be of any service to them.” So begins Hard Times, and what an......more

Goodreads review by Rhiannon

This book is, for me, Dickens' best. I loved every second of it, the darkness of Tom's steady descent into drinking and gambling were brilliant and there were several times I found myself simply rereading a few paragraphs over and over, in awe at them. (The end of Chapter XIX, The Whelp, is somethin......more

Goodreads review by Amit

The novel depends on the opposition between fact, Dickens's name for the cold and loveless attitude to the life he associated with Utilitarianism, and fancy, which represents all the warmth of the imagination. A contrast which gives it both tension and unity.......more

Goodreads review by Henry

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind , a very wealthy, former merchant, now retired, only believes in facts, and mathematics, two plus two, is four... facts are important, facts will lift you into prosperity, facts are what to live by, they are the only thing that matters, everything else is worthless ... knowing.......more