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Just for fun - A Dickens Character game
By Bionic Jean · 190 posts · 64 views
last updated Dec 05, 2015 01:53AM
In which members identify their least favourite Dickens novel
By Tristram · 118 posts · 102 views
last updated Oct 14, 2014 07:05AM
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In which the proud members of the Pickwick Club meet
By Jonathan · 960 posts · 394 views
By Jonathan · 960 posts · 394 views
last updated Jan 03, 2018 05:07PM
What Members Thought
Hard Times is no Tale of Two Cities, and it's definitely no Bleak House. It's a compact narrative, centered around maybe five people, rather than fifty-five, with a minimum of subplots and next to none of Dickens' usual brand of grotesque caricatures. (And yes, I'm ripping off the critic in the foreword of the book.)
But it's absorbing nonetheless. Maybe because of these differences in style (you need to devote about a month to one of his more convoluted narratives). The suburb of Coketown, with ...more
But it's absorbing nonetheless. Maybe because of these differences in style (you need to devote about a month to one of his more convoluted narratives). The suburb of Coketown, with ...more
I think the first half of this book has some of Dickens finest writing although the plot is much more lumpy than other books. As I read it the rhythm of his sentences shone through clearly, and I felt I could start to see how his words made such perfect sense. Maybe though, this was just Dickens coasting, not pushing himself so much. nevertheless, I enjoyed it more this time round than first time.
I had a bit of a problem with the plot - but not the usual problem with Dickens: of co-incidences, a ...more
I had a bit of a problem with the plot - but not the usual problem with Dickens: of co-incidences, a ...more
Highly enjoyable, a great take on the industrialisation of The North and a critique of 'rationality' and what happens when you focus on STEM without the humanities. That said, it does have an anti-union theme (Dickens, why?? You were so close) with the apolitical scab Stephen Blackpool being made into a Christlike martyr for 'true' middle-ground moral integrity.
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Sep 14, 2009
Albie
added it
Hard Times (A Longman Cultural Edition) by Charles Dickens (2003)
Nov 05, 2008
Maya Panika
marked it as to-read
Aug 31, 2010
June
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
classics,
old-england,
england,
best-of-the-best,
favorites,
nineteenth-century,
re-reading
Oct 04, 2014
Jess :)
marked it as to-read
Aug 16, 2022
Bokelskerinnen
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
classics,
charles-dickens
