Hard Times

Charles Dickens

1/2016 · First Avenue Editions ™

Táto e‑kniha

Mr. Gradgrind, views himself as the most practical man in Coketown. He has raised his children, Tom and Louisa, to be no-nonsense, unimaginative, and unsentimental. His friend—obnoxious, wealthy Josiah Bounderby—employs Tom as a clerk at his bank, and marries Louisa, thirty years his junior. But soon emotionally-repressed Louisa is nearly seduced into committing adultery, and unscrupulous Tom is suspected of robbing Bounderby's bank. Will Louisa be able to make her father see the shortcomings of his personal philosophy before it's too late? Or will Mr. Gradgrind be forced to reap what he sowed? Written by English author Charles Dickens, this satire of Victorian economic principles and social inequity was first published as a serial in Household Words over twenty weeks in 1854. This unabridged version is taken from the 1905 copyright edition.

O autorovi

Charles Dickens, perhaps the best British novelist of the Victorian era, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England on February 7, 1812. His happy early childhood was interrupted when his father was sent to debtors' prison, and young Dickens had to go to work in a factory at age twelve. Later, he took jobs as an office boy and journalist before publishing essays and stories in the 1830s. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, made him a famous and popular author at the age of twenty-five. Subsequent works were published serially in periodicals and cemented his reputation as a master of colorful characterization, and as a harsh critic of social evils and corrupt institutions. His many books include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and the couple had nine children before separating in 1858 when he began a long affair with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. Despite the scandal, Dickens remained a public figure, appearing often to read his fiction. He died in 1870, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.