Hard Times readalong 2022

I skimmed it last night. Chapters 1-6 make a better division.

I’m happy to read the whole of Book 2 in March - it’s about 100 pages which is about the same as the instalments of Copperfield/OMF. Chapters 1-5 is only about 40 pages which doesn’t feel like enough to get into it.

However, if others prefer a shorter instalment that’s fine. There’s 12 chapters in book 2 though so wouldn’t chapters 1-6 be a better division?

Chapters 1-5 is fine by me too.

I also love the phrase 'a moral infection of claptrap' . A fantastic turn of phrase :)

Chapters 1-5 for March ok by me 👍🏻

Are we just reading Ch1-5 of Book 2 for next month? I should manage that

I managed to read the chapters this month, and I'm enjoying it so far. I agree poor Louisa, surely it isn't going to end well.
I am interested in the old woman wanting to just see Mr B? Like he is some kind of celeb? Has to be some kind of relative, but I won't speculate further.

Still loving Dickens turn of phrase about facts - and knowledge - particular "There was a moral infection of claptrap about him" . Brilliant

That first sentence should say based on love! Must learn to proofread….

There’s nothing wrong with age gap relationships when it’s based on live and both partners go into it on equal terms and with open eyes. Here, it’s awful because Louisa doesn’t really have any choice. Women were always the unequal partner anyway, but a big age gap just makes that power imbalance even worse.

On the plus side, Bounderby doesn’t seem the healthiest of specimens so hopefully Louisa won’t have to put up with him for long!

I’m enjoying this book. It is much faster moving than some of the other Dickens I’ve read. Like others I’m intrigued who the old woman is, and whether Stephen and Rachael will be able to get together. I also feel a bit sorry for Stephen’s wife - it can’t have been easy being an alcoholic then, there wasn’t exactly much support around was there?

Thank you Terpsichore! That's very interesting. That contrast is stark, when you think about it.

I wondered about the netting too, Fuzzy - I thought it was done with a kind of shuttle, but just in the hands. I found this explanation online:

Mrs. Sparsit netting at the fire-side…

Netting was a form of needlecraft, popular among Victorian ladies, that used linen, cotton, or silk thread to weave mesh purses as well as mesh decorations for handkerchiefs and similar articles. The "cotton stirrup" was used to hold the proper tension for making knots. Dickens surely intends us to see a sharp contrast between Mrs. Sparsit's netting as a leisure pursuit and Stephen's hard, unremitting labor of weaving at the mill. Note that Mrs. Sparsit carries on her hobby instead of taking lunch, as a sign of gentility, while Stephen must forgo his lunch during his one break simply in order to have time to speak to his employer.

Echoing others- poor, poor Louisa! Can you imagine having to sleep in the same bed, have sex with Bounderby and share a chamberpot? The horrors of that bedroom would be enough to make anyone give up on life.

As I mentioned previously, I'm reading this again as an adult after a gap of thirty-odd years, so I'm finding it really interesting as I go along, what I remember from first time round.

Not much, actually! My clearest recollection is the classroom scene and the characters of Louisa, Tom and Sissy, the young people. I also remember Gradgrind and Bounderby, but it's almost like I'm reading this novel for the first time. I think the younger me related for the most part to the younger characters.

Saying that, I feel more horrified now at the marriage between Louisa and Bounderby. Yuck and yuck again. The word 'repressed' describes Louisa perfectly. And depressed. It's like she has given up on her life, although she did make the point to her father as to whether she was expected to love Bounderby as her husband. I'm not sure if you can say she made a stand. It's not quite that, but she didn't submit quietly.

Poor Stephen and Rachel. His situation is so sad. I don't think I appreciated it so much as a young person, how desperately trapped he is in his marriage. That chapter was excellent, when his wife almost drank from the wrong bottle and he watched her, in turmoil. Rachel is clearly The Saintly One in this novel!

I also have my suspicions about the old woman.

Also, what is Mrs Sparsit up to with her foot in a cotton stirrup? Is she working on a loom? A small loom for the home?! She is also someone to be reckoned with. I wouldn't trust her an inch.

I think that Tom is going to go off the rails and I think he is going to take advantage of Louisa's new-found position. Mrs Sparsit doesn't seem to think much of the marriage (good for her). 'I hope you will be happy and get what you deserve' or words to that effect.

Yes, speaking as a Northerner originally (not a million miles from Preston/Blackpool), the dialect bits could have been so much worse!

I think the name ‘Stephen Blackpool’ might be a hint at the regional setting - Coketown is loosely based on Preston, 15 miles from Blackpool. I was quite impressed with Dickens rendering of dialect - if you read it in your head with a modern Lancashire accent, it came out quite sensibly. There’s an element of a Londoner’s stereotyping in there, but I didn’t think it was too bad.

I have a strong suspicion at who the ‘old woman’ might be, but don’t want to be spoilertastic (or wrong).

And I really thought Louisa’s sense of disgust would stop her marrying Bounderby, but, yuck, no.

I’m a bit tired and busy this week (and it’s bedtime here) but if I have any more useful thoughts tomorrow I’ll post again.

It’s a novelty to read a Dickens that's so compressed, isn’t it, after the leisurely pace of DC and OMF? We've positively whipped through Louisa being a child, growing up and now being married off to the creepy 30-years-older-than-her Bounderby.

Piggy, Dickens separated from his wife in 1858, and Hard Times was published in 1854, so it's a bit earlier, but by his own account he’d been unhappy for some time.....and of course he then formed his attachment to Ellen Ternan who was, errrrm, almost 30 years younger than him

Placemarking whilst I read the chapters this morning.

Place-marking for later on :)

Like others, I am also taken aback by how different this is to the standards (e.g. Davd Copperfield, Great Expectations). The humour from the off was surprising. Although if I was younger and at school studying it I reckon it would have passed me by and I'd hate it (I remember doing Great Expectations for O level and finding the Aged P and Mr Pumblechook intolerably tedious back then)

I've learnt some new words too! such as graminivorous and fistic.