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Hard Times readalong 2022

242 replies

Piggywaspushed · 28/12/2021 09:52

Hello and welcome to the selected Dickensalong of 2022 : Hard Times.

This is Dickens' shortest novel (yay!) but was still serialised in instalments running from April to August 1854.

I propose shortening this slightly:

January BOOK ONE Chapters 1- 6
February Chapters 7–12
March Chapters 13 -16
April BOOK TWO Chapter 1- 5
May Chapters 6-12
June BOOK THREE Chapters 1 - 5
July Chapters 6 to end.

Some version number chapters consecutively but I have gone for the Wordsworth edition numbering. Hope that is OK.

So this is kind of a pint sized readalong! Might be more manageable for some of those who fall by the wayside normally (naming no names...)

I enjoy Dickens when he does social commentary so am looking forward to this one and to eventually meet Gradgrind.

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Terpsichore · 01/05/2022 22:52

Yes, I really enjoyed Mrs Sparsit’s spying expedition too, and her ending up drenched and covered in green, like ‘an old park fence in a mouldy lane’. I also loved his description of her gritty mittens like the mesh on meat-safes. It feels as though he really enjoyed writing Mrs S 😂

One thing that suddenly caught my eye was Bounderby saying the only pictures he once had, in his poverty-stricken youth, were the ‘engravings of a man shaving himself in a boot, on the blacking bottles’.
Seemingly just a funny throwaway reference but it’s such a telling little window on Dickens’s own painful memories of his childhood when he was made to work in a blacking factory for a year or so. I looked up the adverts for the firm and they showed a cat frightened by its own reflection in a highly-polished boot - surely he was slipping in a disguised reference to what was always a traumatic episode in his own life…?

ChessieFL · 01/05/2022 15:46

Hi all! I also enjoyed this section, with some very funny bits - Mrs Sparsit calling Bounderby a noodle, and the description of Mrs S after she had been spying in the woods, all wet and with bits of foliage hanging off her. Brilliant!

YnysMonCrone · 01/05/2022 10:42

I'm missing Sissy in this section, but caught Mrs S calling Louisa Miss Gandgrind, that is definitely rude. Kind of like the trash press insisting on calling the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton. It's disrespectful.
I like the staircase imagery as well

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Piggywaspushed · 01/05/2022 09:51

I agree London feels missing' but I like the almost Hardyesque addition of sinister woodland and symbolism. It feels a bit more 'modern' in its sexiness . I also like the addition of trains! The world was opening up and moving around.

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LadybirdDaphne · 01/05/2022 09:45

Yes, I think Tom explained to James Harthouse in last month's segment that Mrs Sparsit had her eye on marrying Bounderby herself; now she feels bitter towards Mr Bounderby and envious of Louisa.

I liked the real will she/won't she tension that was built around whether Harthouse would manage to seduce Louisa, and was so relieved when she made the wise choice of going to her father's house instead! I think this novel is really thematically strong in showing how terrible making a bad marriage could be in Victorian times, when there is no way out for most people - Louisa and Stephen Blackpool are equally trapped.

I am feeling less engaged in Hard Times than I was in OMF or LD, and wonder if it's because the story is relatively more straightforward, without the vast cast of interweaving characters (and perhaps crucially, without London acting as a character in its own right).

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 01/05/2022 08:38

Hi Piggy, hi everyone!

Yes, I thought that was an action-packed segment and I enjoyed reading it.

The passage you highlighted, Piggy, is simply fabulous. I think it is so sinister and menacing.
The image of the staircase is also wonderful, describing Louisa's descent into temptation.

Mrs Sparsit really came to the fore in these chapters. She is thoroughly unpleasant. I enjoyed her shaking her fist at Bounderby's portrait and calling him a noodle; so funny. I think she is jealous of Louisa's position as his wife. Her insistence of calling Louisa 'Miss Gradgrind' was so rude.

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Piggywaspushed · 01/05/2022 07:07

Hi All

First of the month! And a bit more action this month : bank 'robberies' , secret trysts, unhappy marriages and scheming! Very Victorian.

Mrs Sparsit - does she just fancy Bounderby? I didn't quite get why she shook her head at his portrait.
Dickens' serpentine description of her stalking Louisa is menacing and fabulous:

She thought of the wood, and stole towards it, heedless of the long grass and briers: of worms, snails, and slugs, and all the creeping things that be. With her dark eyes and hook nose warily in advance of her, Mrs Sparsit softly crushed her way through the thick undergrowth, so intent upon her object that she probably would have done no less if the wood had been a wood of adders.
Hark!
The smaller birds might have tumbled out of their nests, fascinated by the glittering of Mrs Sparsit's eyes in the gloom, as she stopped and listened.

There was a discussion of the Oxford comma on Twitter the other day. I must day, Dickens' 'errant' commas are the making of the rhythms of that passage!

So, where will things go for Louisa - a poor product of her upbringing with all its ologies and total lack of autonomy? And what will come of the incident at the bank for Tom , and for blameless Stephen?

The snake imagery is interesting - lots of serpents lurking .

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AliasGrape · 07/04/2022 15:13

I'm late again, and I wasn't sure I'd make it at all because to tell the truth I'm not enjoying it at all! It has at least confirmed my feeling that I dont get on with Dickens. I do feel sorry for Stephen only he doesn't feel so much like a character as an idea/ collection of traits that stands for 'downtrodden man', and I can't bear the dialogue.

I'll have a little break and try again for May I guess!

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 03/04/2022 17:43

I think Mrs Blackpool serves as an illustration of Stephen's hard life rather than as a character in her own right.

InTheCludgie · 03/04/2022 17:13

I think Stephens dialogue pretty much went over my head too! Found myself skimming it a bit. Felt very sorry for him and annoyed at Bounderby, he seems to have made Stephen some kind of fall guy as he was the only one who he could 'get at', not having joined the union.

I didn't realise until reading here that Mrs Blackpool had disappeared again (must have skimmed that little bit too!).

DesdamonasHandkerchief · 03/04/2022 15:32

Thankfully listening on Audible, read by Bertie Carvel beautifully, so Stephen always sounds like Stephen whatever Dickens is doing with his dialogue!

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Piggywaspushed · 03/04/2022 10:13

Yeah, it's a bit like Hardy doing the 'yokels'. Just skip past it....

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IsFuzzyBeagMise · 03/04/2022 09:25

I think much of Stephen's dialogue must have gone over my head when I read this as a student!

Terpsichore · 02/04/2022 22:28

I wish I'd never said Dickens did quite well with the Lancashire accent - his transliteration went a bit bonkers in this section

I was definitely feeling this too!

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Piggywaspushed · 02/04/2022 22:02

To the end of Book Two I suggest?

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LadybirdDaphne · 02/04/2022 21:57

Sorry, couple of days late with my comments! I wish I'd never said Dickens did quite well with the Lancashire accent - his transliteration went a bit bonkers in this section.

I don't have too much to add, other than that I feel worried for Louisa - it seems she will be very vulnerable if James Harthouse tries to seduce her, because she has no experience of being flattered or wooed.

What chapters are we reading in April, Piggy?

LadybirdDaphne · 02/04/2022 21:57

Sorry, couple of days late with my comments! I wish I'd never said Dickens did quite well with the Lancashire accent - his transliteration went a bit bonkers in this section.

I don't have too much to add, other than that I feel worried for Louisa - it seems she will be very vulnerable if James Harthouse tries to seduce her, because she has no experience of being flattered or wooed.

What chapters are we reading in April, Piggy?

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 02/04/2022 14:19

Ah...Chessie....thanks :).yes! It is a great name!

ChessieFL · 02/04/2022 13:40

Mealy Potatoes is in David Copperfield Fuzzy. Not a key character though.

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 01/04/2022 20:49

He told Rachel he would avoid trouble for his own good and he wouldn't ever break a promise to her.

Yes. That sounds vague, but that's what I got from it.

Terpsichore · 01/04/2022 20:35

Sorry, I see everyone's pointed that out about Stephen B and the Union! I don’t know why he’s so against them….

Terpsichore · 01/04/2022 20:32

Apparently Mrs Gaskell had to get Dickens to agree not to put a strike in his book because she was already planning for that to be a major plot point in North and South - so I suppose that’s why he went with Stephen Blackpool being sent to Coventry.

I must say I couldn’t quite grasp why he’s being shunned either, but after a bit of reading round, it seems to be because he won’t join a workers' union.

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 01/04/2022 20:14

@ChessieFL

Dickens is great for names. My favourite is Mealy Potatoes.
Where is that from Chessie? :)
ChessieFL · 01/04/2022 19:29

Dickens is great for names. My favourite is Mealy Potatoes.

YnysMonCrone · 01/04/2022 18:17

Just checking in, I read the chapters back at the beginning of the month and I am now struggling to remember what happened (That will teach me!) I'll read the next chapters at the end of April.
I love Dickens names as well - Mr Bumble and Mr Sowerberry (Oliver Twist).

I felt very sorry for Stephen Blackpool too- I hope things come right for him - It is him and Louisa I am rooting for.