´It is proof of Dickens´ genius (or maybe just the unchanging nature of Britain) that you can read Hard Times as if it were all happening now´ Guardian
´Facts alone are wanted in life´: the children at Mr Gradgrind´s school are sternly ordered to stifle their imaginations and pay attention only to cold, hard reality. They live in a smoky, troubled industrial town so entertainment is hard to come by and resentments run deep. The effects of Gradgrind´s teaching on his own children, Tom and Louisa, are particularly profound and leave them ill-equipped to deal with the unpredictable desires of the human heart.Luckily for them they have a friend in Sissy Jupe, the child of a circus clown, who retains her warm-hearted, compassionate nature despite the pressures around her.
