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Original poster

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.

OP posts:
Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 01/04/2022 17:42

She's gone AWOL again. Think it merited a sentence.

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ChessieFL · 01/04/2022 17:41

Hello! I also felt sorry for Stephen in these few chapters. I admire him for making his stand, even though I don’t really understand why he’s doing it.

Do we know what’s happened to Stephen’s wife? The last thing I remember was Rachael stopping him killing her, but can’t recall what happened to her after that. Have I missed something?

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 01/04/2022 16:58

Not much. But he wasn't a worker himself, I guess....

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IsFuzzyBeagMise · 01/04/2022 16:37

I think I read somewhere Piggy that he didn't, but ...it doesn't make sense?!

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 01/04/2022 16:34

Yes I agree. Maybe Dickens didn't like unions!

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IsFuzzyBeagMise · 01/04/2022 16:30

Yes, poor Stephen. The poor lad. I also feel so sorry for him with everything stacked against him. His treatment by Bounderby was appalling.

I was trying to figure out why he didn't join the union. It seems that Rachel told him to avoid trouble for his own good, but that seems to have majorly backfired! If he had held ranks with his fellow workers, he would have kept his job and stayed in town. It feels a little flimsy to me. I think that Dickens is determined to make him the outsider.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 01/04/2022 15:24

Think we discussed this before but I also like aptonym.

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Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 01/04/2022 15:24

@Terpsichore

I read John Mullan’s very interesting The Artful Dickens recently, which had a good chapter about names. He talks about Mrs Sparsit a bit, and how Dickens makes fun of her by choosing ridiculous names for the illustrious forbears she’s so proud of - ‘Lady Scadgers’ and of course the late husband who’d been ‘a Powler’. Dickens collected lists of names, apparently.

(Mullan’s book taught me a new word - ‘cratylitic’, for names that indicate a character’s qualities, eg M’Choakumchild in Hard Times, or Tite Barnacle in Little Dorrit )

O yes, I have read that and forgot!

I feel terribly sorry for poor Stephen. What a tragic figure he cuts , with his love for Rachael, his desire to be good, the ostracising from the workers and the awful elite condemning him to poverty and worse. Apparently the strike is based ion the Preston Strike which Dickens had read about. Ordinary workers were treated so horrifically in the industrial revolution and before. It's no wonder Marx arose.

A fabulous museum btw is the Museum of Working Class History in Manchester.

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IsFuzzyBeagMise · 01/04/2022 15:14

I must look up that book, Terpsichore. I think I would find it interesting.

Mrs Sparsit tells James Harthouse that her husband was a Powler and he doesn't have a clue what she's talking about.

I love the humour in Dickens.

Terpsichore · 01/04/2022 14:21

I read John Mullan’s very interesting The Artful Dickens recently, which had a good chapter about names. He talks about Mrs Sparsit a bit, and how Dickens makes fun of her by choosing ridiculous names for the illustrious forbears she’s so proud of - ‘Lady Scadgers’ and of course the late husband who’d been ‘a Powler’. Dickens collected lists of names, apparently.

(Mullan’s book taught me a new word - ‘cratylitic’, for names that indicate a character’s qualities, eg M’Choakumchild in Hard Times, or Tite Barnacle in Little Dorrit )

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 31/03/2022 21:31

Yes! Perhaps it's more to do with 'sparse'.
She doesn't give too much away, does she :)

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 31/03/2022 21:14

It is indeed! (hence the mini market chain...)

I presume her name also has something to do with 'sparse'?

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IsFuzzyBeagMise · 31/03/2022 19:17

'Sparen' is 'to save' in German, so it's appropriate that Mrs Sparsit is The Bank Dragon :)

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 31/03/2022 19:14

@Piggywaspushed

Me too !

This thread does keep hiding itself!

Loved Mrs Sparsit The Bank Fairy, known to many as The Bank Dragon Grin

Yes Grin I loved that too.
Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 31/03/2022 18:26

Me too !

This thread does keep hiding itself!

Loved Mrs Sparsit The Bank Fairy, known to many as The Bank Dragon Grin

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IsFuzzyBeagMise · 29/03/2022 09:36

Place-marking for the next installment!

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 03/03/2022 16:12

Dickens is as subtle as a sledgehammer, Alias!

Mrs Sparsit is going to live in rooms at the Bank.
Bounderby is in total thrall to her. I don't think she has a first name, does she?

AliasGrape · 03/03/2022 13:31

Oh poor Louisa! Horrifying. I think she did well to speak up/ question her father as much as she did, the way she described her upbringing was so sad - and he father was actually proud of himself for it.

Mrs Sparsitt is an interesting one. I can’t quite work out where she’s meant to be going now?

Stephen/ Rachael/ his wicked wife - all a bit too heavily done for me right now. Not subtle old Dickens was he?

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 02/03/2022 20:50

Yes, I agree with both of you. She was more fiery when younger, but has been ground down (small pun there!)

Sissy seems to be faring better. She is still herself. She is an individual, she hasn't been broken by the system. She feels compassion for Louisa on hearing the news of her impending marriage, but Louisa can't deal with her kindness and shuns her.

InTheCludgie · 02/03/2022 20:11

That's likely I guess SapatSea, which is a pity as she seemed to have a bit of fire about her when younger. Maybe it's been stamped out of her as the years have gone on.

SapatSea · 02/03/2022 19:32

I think Louisa is passive because that is what she has been conditioned into, she is likely incredibly depressed and just numbed by life. Maybe since she hasn't been out and about and has lived quite an enclosed life she may not realise all that marriage might entail.

ChessieFL · 02/03/2022 19:06

I genuinely have no idea who the old woman is!

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 02/03/2022 16:51

Yes. I'm getting more than a bit tired of his blustery rags-to-riches spiel.

InTheCludgie · 02/03/2022 16:40

The bit in the last chapter where Bounderby mentions how he had watched Louisa grow up made me feel a bit queasy. Was really hoping she would refuse him! Now she's condemned to a lifetime of being bored stiff by his stories of how hard he had it back in his youth.

DesdamonasHandkerchief · 02/03/2022 16:31

Nothing to add, agree the marriage between Louisa and Bounderby is skin crawling. I really didn't understand why she was quite so passive when entering into it.

Did feel very sorry for Stephen B. stuck with his millstone of a wife, thank goodness marrying in haste and repenting at leisure isn't a life sentence these days. I was willing her to drink the poison and free him up for the saintly Rachael. I'm a very Bad person obvs.

I think we all know who the old woman is Wink but as you're all being so noble and not speculating I won't either Grin