Hard Times (AmazonClassics Edition)

By: Charles Dickens

Narrated by: Richard Halverson

In Coketown, England, wealthy retiree Thomas Gradgrind has founded a school based on his belief that life should be factual - not fanciful. Among his pupils are his children, Thomas and Louisa, who are raised on his teachings of rational self-interest and grow into loveless, despairing adults. As he bears witness to his children’s suffering, Gradgrind is forced to confront the dangers of his dispassionate, utilitarian philosophy.

Published serially in 1854 and packed with page-turning cliff-hangers, Hard Times explores representatives of English society - the disappearing aristocracy, the growing middle class, indigent laborers, and nomadic circus people - as they navigate the ways of Victorian England during the Industrial Revolution.

AmazonClassics brings you timeless works from the masters of storytelling. Ideal for anyone who wants to listen to a great work for the first time or rediscover an old favorite, these new editions open the door to literature’s most unforgettable characters and beloved worlds.

Revised edition: Previously published as Hard Times, this edition of Hard Times (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Public Domain (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Slow, a bit outdated, probably better than I think.

I'm sure there are those who get more out of this story than I did, as I spend much of my time reading it a bit lost.
This is top 3 hardest books to get through.
It was a sort of labor of patience, so for that I am appreciative; I need work on my patience as we all do.
The cultural differences in country of origin as well as the difference in time/generation caused much of the despotic understanding, I think.
Happy to say I finally finished it, just to be able to say that I finished it and checked it off my list.
I personally would rather read any other Dickens book.

Very Badly Narrated

The culture of redefining the authors original work through excessive narrator interpretation is again at play here and in too many novels narrated these days. It is for the reader to make such interpretation - not the narrater.