Hard Times, Charles Dickens’s tenth novel, was published in 1854 after having been serialized that same year in Dickens’ weekly periodical Household Words. It is an unusual novel in at least two respects. First, it is one of Dickens’ shortest works, its length being less than one quarter of those novels immediately preceding and succeeding it. And second, it does not take place in and around London but in Coketown, a generic mill town in the north of England.  Hard Times is a work that distills the essence of Dickens’ concerns: the rights of the undervalued worker, the inequities of the capitalist system attendant to the industrial revolution, the coarseness of the then modern era, and the failure of the institutions ostensibly in place to protect the rights and lives of the vulnerable poor and lower classes. Like others who’ve suffered at the machinations and relentless grind of blind and deaf bureaucracies, Dickens’ bias for the underdog was as real as the impact his father’s financial ruin had on his childhood. Dickens wrote what he knew, and although his extraordinary industry, famous work ethic, prolific output and unparalleled success lifted him into the upper realms of the wealthy, he never lost sight of or his feelings for the vulnerable, who too often suffered in a society more concerned with status, wealth and profit than the people who were exploited to make the whole thing work.  (Summary by Michael Hogan)

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