He was emphatically the novelist of his age. In his pictures of contemporary life posterity will read, more clearly than in contemporary records, the character of nineteenth century life.
--from the Daily News, 10 June 1870
The above quote, published the day after Charles Dickens died, shows a contemporary
view of his importance as a novelist. That assessment is as true today as it was
then.
Walter Allen, in The English Novel (New York: Dutton, 1954), notes that
owing to the peculiar nature of his connection with his public, Dickens more than any of his contemporaries was the expression of the conscience--untutored, baffled, muddled as it doubtless often was--of his age. It was as such that he was accepted and loved. . . . [H]e showed his readers what they themselves thought and felt of the great social problems which confronted them; or rather, reading him, they discovered what they thought and felt. (181)
The
tenth of his novels, Hard Times was first published serially in Dickens's
weekly magazine, Household Words, from 1 April to 12 August 1854, and
later as a single volume. It is a short novel, around 1/3 the length of his other
works, and because of this it lacks the customary wealth of characters and details.
At the back of your edition of the novel is a collection of essays: "Backgrounds, Sources, and Contemporary Reactions." To understand the thematic concerns of the novel, you should read the introductions to the sections on Industrialism (277) and Utilitarianism (315), and scan the material on Education (beginning on 303).
Before you read the novel, refer
to page 232. It provides a chart comparing the chapters as they appeared in serial
form in Household Words with the one-volume version. Knowing where the
serial installments ended sometimes helps to understand why a chapter begins or
ends as it does.
It might be interesting to approximate the original audience's experience of the novel by reading only one installment at a time. (Such an approach will require 20 days, one for each installment.)
Remember that Hard Times is the subject for your second essay assignment. Click here to review that assignment before you begin reading.
A good online resource for Dickens is David Perdue's Charles Dickens Page.
© Scott Foll 2000. All rights reserved.