Hard Times + CD

Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life… This is the principle on which I bring up these children, Stick to Facts, sir!’ Charles Dickens sets out to show how this utilitarian philosophy – stated by Mr Gradgrind at the beginning of Hard Times – produces, though its denial of feeling, and imagination, disastrous results in his own family and in society as a whole. The novel is an impassioned plea for a society in which people are not viewed as statistics to be manipulated but respected as suffering individuals with dreams and aspirations. Dickens’s response to the harshness of Victorian industry and education is often expressed, despite its seriousness, through humour and irony.