Hard Times Penguin Black Classics

Hard Times is Charles Dickens’s shortest major novel and a sharp critique of industrial society, utilitarian thinking, and the damage caused by reducing life to facts alone. Set in the fictional factory town of Coketown, it follows Thomas Gradgrind, his children Louisa and Tom, and the compassionate Sissy Jupe as their lives are shaped by rigid education and emotional strain. This Penguin Classics edition presents the novel in a clothbound format and includes editorial notes and an introduction.