{"product_id":"hard-times-charles-dickens-9781618959508","title":"Hard Times","description":"\u003cp\u003eHard Times - For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book surveys English society and satirises the social and economic conditions of the era.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHard Times is unusual in several ways. 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 on 19th-century Preston.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne 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 and Thomas Macaulay 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. F. R. Leavis, a great admirer of the book, included it - but not Dickens' work as a whole - as part of his Great Tradition of English novels. (wikipedia.org)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Charles Dickens\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1618959506\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781618959508\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bibliotech Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/07\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 242\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.13lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d\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":"Hardcover","offer_id":48439851319551,"sku":"9781618959508","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_28889dd7-de46-4880-b2dd-49b962eeb00a.jpg?v=1777179549","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/hard-times-charles-dickens-9781618959508","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}