# Hard Times

By Charles Dickens.

"Hard Times" by Charles Dickens is a novel first published in 1854. Set in the fictional industrial town of Coketown, it satirizes the harsh social and economic conditions of Victorian England. The story follows the rigid utilitarian Thomas Gradgrind, his children Louisa and Tom, the boastful factory owner Josiah Bounderby, and the struggling mill worker Stephen Blackpool. Through their intersecting lives, Dickens examines the grinding divide between wealthy capitalists and exploited workers in post-Industrial Revolution society, questioning whether facts alone can sustain human happiness. (Summary by Project Gutenberg, written by machine.)

- Language: English
- Subjects: England -- Fiction; Domestic fiction; Social problems -- Fiction; Utilitarianism -- Fiction; Education -- Fiction; Political fiction

[Read it](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/gutenberg/786/read)
[Plain text](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/api/books/gutenberg/786/text)

## Audiobooks of it

- [Hard Times](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/845) by Charles Dickens (10 h 55 min, English)
- [Hard Times (version 2 dramatic reading)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/books/librivox/5688) by Charles Dickens (12 h 1 min, English)

From Project Gutenberg. Public domain in the United States.