Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

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Hard Times by Charles Dickens

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RHard Times&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RCharles Dickens&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&LI&&R &&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&R
    New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influences--biographical, historical, and literary--to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&R &&L/P&&R&&LP style=MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&&RSet amid smokestacks and factories, &&LB&&RCharles Dickens&&L/B&&R's &&LI&&RHard Times&&L/I&&R is a blistering portrait of Victorian England as it struggles with the massive economic turmoil brought on by the Industrial Revolution. &&L/P&&R&&LP&&RChampioning the mind-numbing materialism of the period is Thomas Gradgrind, one of Dickens's most vivid characters. He opens the novel by arguing that boys and girls should be taught nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Forbidding the development of imagination, Gradgrind is ultimately forced to confront the results of his philosophy--his own daughter's terrible unhappiness. &&LP&&RFull of suspense, humor, and tenderness, &&LI&&RHard Times &&L/I&&Ris a brilliant defense of art in an age of mechanism.&&L/P&&R&&LP&&R&&LB&&RKaren Odden&&L/B&&R received her Ph.D. from New York University, where she did her dissertation on Victorian literature. Most recently a lecturer at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she is now a freelance writer and lives in Arizona.&&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R
Dickens, Charles: - Charles John Huffam Dickens wrote twenty novels, dozens of short stories and novellas, several plays and countless articles and essays during his long and eventful writing career. From the time that Charles Dickens' novels were first published, in serialized monthly or weekly installments, they have never gone out of print in the UK. Charles Dickens is often considered to be the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. Charles Dickens' colorful, if challenging, early life had a huge impact on his later works. Raised in poverty with little formal education, even working for a time as a child laborer, Charles' childhood on the harsh streets of London shaped his identity and fueled his creative drive. The harsh conditions he endured, the humiliation of running from his father's debts and his long daily walks around the poorest parts of London gave him first-hand experience of the world his colorful characters eventually inhabited. Charles' characters themselves, of course, were influenced by the rich cast of kind and evil, funny and tragic, rich and destitute people Charles came into contact with throughout his life. Charles novels revolutionized readership in the Victorian era and the serial publication schedule he preferred soon became the dominant mode for novel publication. Although providing a novel in weekly or monthly installments was a huge commitment for Charles, and a difficult one to pull off, this format allowed him to respond to feedback while writing and make adjustments to plot and character. Unlike some writers who closed themselves off from the world around them and worked in a solitary manner, favoring the internal world over the external, Charles was a social creature and by nature a multi-tasker. An indefatigable man, Charles wrote almost constantly from the time he tasted his first literary success with The Pickwick Papers to the day of his death. Charles was also a renowned philanthropist who campaigned vigorously for the rights of the most unfortunate in society. A social butterfly, Charles Dickens had countless friends including a number of prominent Victorian writers, artists, actors and businessmen. Before his death, Charles was even invited to a private audience with Queen Victoria, who was a fan of his work. The adjective, 'Dickensian' refers to something 'of or reminiscent of the novels of Charles Dickens, especially in suggesting the poor social conditions or comically repulsive characters that they portray.' That the work of Charles Dickens has spawned its own descriptive term demonstrates how fully it has permeated English culture, from the moment of its creation to the present day. Charles Dickens' life story can be read like one of his own novels with the man himself represented by different characters at different times. At first he is the poor child worker with a debt-ridden father, treading his rags to riches path on the chaotic and dirty London streets. Soon, he becomes a newspaper man who struggles to accept the injustice he sees in the law courts, in parliament, on the very streets he walks. Later, he is a cheerful father with a growing brood of children and a chaotic home life and further on in life he is a bachelor in the throes of a passionate and scandalous love affair with a younger woman. The best person to write the life of Charles Dickens would have been Charles himself but he has left that task to others. Living his life was exhausting enough.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781908533746
ISBN 10 1908533749
Title Hard Times
Author Charles Dickens
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Atlantic Publishing, Croxley Green
Year published 2012-02-28
Number of pages 0
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.