{"product_id":"hard-times-charles-dickens-9781494752002","title":"Hard Times","description":"Hard Times is unusual in several respects. It is by far the shortest of Dickens' novels, barely 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 Victorian industrial Coketown, a generic Northern English mill-town, in some ways similar to Manchester, though smaller. Coketown may be partially based upon 19th-century Preston. One of Dickens's reasons for writing Hard Times was that sales of his weekly periodical, Household Words, were low, and it was hoped its 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 F. R. Leavis, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Macaulay have mainly focusing 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Charles Dickens\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 149475200X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781494752002\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Createspace Independent Publishing Platform\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/20\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 268\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAccelerated Reader:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReading Level:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoint Value:\u003c\/b\u003e 20\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eInterest Level:\u003c\/b\u003e Upper Grade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eQuiz #\/Name: \u003c\/b\u003e50672 \/ Hard Times\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Charles Dickens","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48995816571135,"sku":"9781494752002","price":15.24,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/hard-times-charles-dickens-9781494752002","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}