Hard Times is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. It describes nineteenth-century England and satirises the social and economic conditions of the era.
Hard Times is unusual in several ways. It is the shortest of Dickens's novels, only just a quarter of the length of
those written immediately before and after it. Also, unlike all but one of
his other novels, Hard Times has neither a preface nor
illustrations. Moreover, it is his only novel not to have scenes set in
London. Instead the story is set in the fictitious (=fictional,
imaginary) Victorian industrial Coketown, a generic Northern English
mill-town, in some ways similar to Manchester, though smaller.
One of Dickens's reasons for writing Hard Times was
that sales of his weekly periodical Household Words were low,
and it was hoped the novel's publication in instalments would boost circulation
– as indeed proved to be the case.
Since publication it has received a mixed response from critics. Critics such as George Bernard Shaw have mainly focused on Dickens's treatment of trade unions and his post–Industrial Revolution pessimism regarding the divide between capitalist mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era. Read here.
Oliver Twist is perhaps Charles Dickens’s most famous novel. It first appeared in instalments in 1837 and was later published as a book. The novel fictionalises the economic insecurity and humiliation the novelist himself experienced when he was a boy.
The novel was the first of the author’s works to realistically depict the impoverished London underworld and to illustrate his belief that poverty leads to crime.
The name Twist, given to the protagonist by accident, represents the disgraceful reversals (=changes) of fortune that he will experience. Oliver Twist is a poor orphan who is brought up in a workhouse in a heartless way, he is underfed and receives no education. He is later sold to an undertaker (=funeral director) as an apprentice, but the cruelty of his new master forces him to run away to London. There he falls into the hands of a nasty gang of young pickpockets led by Fagin, an old Jew who is one of Dickens’s best characterizations. They force Oliver to help them in their criminal activities. The boy is temporarily rescued by Mr Brownlow, a benevolent gentleman. Then Oliver is kidnapped by the gang. After many incidents, the gang is eventually caught by the police. Mr Brownlow adopts Oliver and shows kindness and affection towards him.
