Hard Times, Charles Dickens

[Khandro]

With my afternoon cup of tea, I have just finished reading it. Has anyone any comments about it? I have now looked it up on Wikipedia and see it has been presented by BBC twice as a radio play and once on television, all of which I missed.

[Canary42]

I studied it as part of an OU course about 20 years ago - I very much enjoyed it but at the same time found it educational, the usual mixture of social injustice laced with humour which seems to be a trademark of Dickens. Also not so heavy as some of his work IMO, and easier to get into as a result. I've not seen or heard the BBC versions.

[Khandro]

Canary; After finishing the book I looked it up on Wikipedia and learnt it was not only C.D's shortest novel but also the only one set entirely outside of London. The location isn't clear but probably Manchester (my birthplace) or its surroundings.
He did visit there, and without the benefit of being able to listen to Coronation Street :0) he must have had to rely on his memory for how people spoke 'oop north'.
I thought it a great read, but had trouble with his attempts to write in the vernacular, I tried to say some of Stephen Blackpool's sentences out loud and still couldn't quite get it all. Worst was presenting the Circus manager, Mr Sleary, with an unnecessary lisp, (very un PC today!) which made it difficult to understand the meaning of what he was saying.
I discovered that the BBC production of 1977 is available for £5.99 on Amazon and have ordered a copy, it has Timothy West (Mr Bounderby, natch!) and Patrick Allen - I guess as Mr Gradgrind, also Edward Fox gets a part.
The production is studio-based and by modern TV period pieces, probably a little dated, produced by Manchester-based Granada it won awards.
Looking forward to watching its 200 minutes.

[Canary42]

For some reason, I can't recall why, I assumed it was based in the Potteries.

Yes, I agree, Sleary's and Blackpool's speech was challenging to read. It must be difficult for an author to decide where to draw the line in such circumstances, where they need to highlight a dialect or speech difficulty, but remain readable.

I'll see if I can dig out my OU notes (if I've still got them).

[Mamyalynne]

Coketown is reputed to be based on Preston, it's many a decade since I read it.

[Tilly2]

I loved Hard Times and used Mr Gradgrind's 'aphorisms' several times in my Education essays when doing my teacher training. As the basis for an essay on educational change and development, he was an excellent basis from which to work.

Thank you, Mr Dickens.

[Canary42]

Confirming what Mamyalynne says, apparently Dickens visited Preston in January 1854 to get material for this book.

Google "Charles Dickens visit to Preston 1854" for several supporting links, here's one :-

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2002/mar/04/guardianletters2

[Khandro]

Canary; Thanks for the link.
Guardianista, Mr Austen Lynch of Preston (?) seemed concerned that Dickens didn't do a better job saying; "....... The more the shame then, that, after such first-hand experience, Dickens made so feeble an attempt to depict the life and vitality of Preston's working classes. Hard Times, though set in Preston, has all too little of Preston in it.

The fool seemed not to realise it was set in 'Coketown', a place of Dickens's imagination, not Preston. He was writing a novel, not a town guide.

[Tilly2]

My all time favourite is Martin Chuzzlewit. It made me laugh out loud.

[Khandro]

Tilly; I might try that next. I'm starting to work (not the right word) my way through Dickens, snow outside, log fire and a glass of whiskey - heaven!
I previously read Barnaby Rudge - set against the Gorden riots, of which I knew nothing.

[Tilly2]

Khandro, Martin Chuzzlewit is a 'big' book but well worth reading. I hope you enjoy it. x

[Khandro]

Tilly; It's ordered already - and it's even on its way apparently!
Keep subscribed to this thread and I'll give you an appraisal, which I'm sure will be favourable.
It will take a while, I'll have to finish the two non-Dickens books I'm reading first, Jeremy Paxman's, 'The English' (bedside) and re-reading after many years the extraordinary autobiography of Wilfred Thesiger, 'The Life of my Choice', (fireside).

[Tilly2]

I'll look forward to that, Khandro. Thank you.

For Christmas, I was given a copy of Alan Bennett's 'Keep On Keeping On' .
He's not everyone's cup of tea but I have read most of his work. He makes me smile.

[Khandro]

Tilly; I haven't heard of that but the title reminds me of the acronym Churchill put on many of his wartime correspondences - 'KBO' (keep *** on).

[Khandro]

Pity the cyber police have removed the word b*gg*r*ng

[Tilly2]

Not heard of that, Khandro........just as well!

[Khandro]

Tilly; Martin Chuzzlewit just arrived, wow! 716 pages and smallish type-face too, it should last the winter out, - lots of log fires and wee drams ahead :0)

[Tilly2]

Snuggle down, Khandro and enjoy it.

[Canary42]

One aspect of Martin Chuzzlewit which amused me was how Dickens apparently tried to back-track on the rather critical satire contained therein when he later planned to embark on a lecture tour of USA. Always one eye on the commercial side.

[Khandro]

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I'm now nearly half-way through MC, He is now in America and disliking the N.Y. snobs and C.D. shows in his writing a distaste for slavery which was still rampant as he wrote it in 1843 and it not being abolished until 1866. Not sure when C.D. made his visit. His description of conditions travelling steerage is eye-watering.

[Canary42]

Brief edited extract from Wiki :-

In the late 1850s Dickens began to contemplate a second visit to the United States, tempted by the money that he believed he could make by extending his reading tour there. The outbreak of the Civil War in America in 1861 delayed his plans. Over two years after the war, Dickens set sail on 9 November 1867 for his second American reading tour. In early December, the readings began. He performed 76 readings, netting £19,000, from December 1867 to April 1868.

During his travels, he saw a significant change in the people and the circumstances of America. His final appearance was at a banquet the American Press held in his honour on 18 April, when he promised never to denounce America again.