Title: Hard Times Written by: Charles Dickens Genre: British Literature, Fiction, Classics
Who was the hero of this book? As Thackeray’s
Vanity Fair is called the Novel without a Hero, I likewise tried to decide who Charles Dickens intended as the protagonist of this book. Just when I finally decided on Lousia, she met Mr. Harthouse, and then I was a bit flummoxed. Cecilia Jupe, anyone? Only her part was so small...
WARNING! Spoilers follow! ( Fact, fact, fact! )You know, this was the first Dickens I’d ever read, and I admittedly had a bit of difficulty getting used to his style. Not to disparage him any, it took me longer to get used to Jane Austen since Sense & Sensibility was my first exposure to her novels, and the same with G.A. Henty. Dickens certainly has his own “flavour” and as I heard someone else express it so quaintly, he was clearly getting paid by the word. ;-P But several times, when he was more serious, I was downright impressed by the eloquent beauty of his phrases, especially when describing an object. I’d like to know if there are any novels of his that have less of the comedic attempts and more of the serious and realistic. (anyone?)
I suspect that different people could get different “messages” out of this book. I was thinking of what exactly Dickens was trying to convey, and my humble opinion he was trying to illustrate the dangers of depriving human beings of creativity, imagination, love, and affection. All work and no play, if you will. Also, from what little I know about Dickens’ childhood, working in a blacking factory and all that, I couldn’t help but wonder if the underlying theme of “Fact, fact, fact!” was intended to mirror his own experiences. I caught one actual references to blacking bottles, and there were countless mentionings of the importance of a happy and carefree childhood with proper amounts of imagination. I don’t know. I probably tend to read too much into an author’s actual life being inserted into their works, but I can’t help it sometimes. After all, they *do* do it often. But was Dickens doing it?
To be brutally honest, this book is not in my top 10. (*hides* sorry Katherine dear!) But, I will most certainly say that I liked it enough to persevere and I will be reading more Dickens in the future. We own both
A Tale of Two Cities and
Bleak House (hehehe -- good excuse to rent the mini-series!!!!) and I’d like to read those eventually. So, I guess you could say I’m a Dickens fan now. :-D
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