Hard Times: For These Times

What it is

A novel by Charles Dickens, first serialised in his weekly magazine Household Words between April and August 1854. It is set in the fictional industrial town of Coketown and follows characters including the schoolmaster Mr Gradgrind, the mill owner Mr Bounderby, and the mill worker Stephen Blackpool.

Why it matters

Unusually short for a Dickens novel and set entirely outside London, it is one of his clearest statements against the harsh economic thinking of his time, criticising both an education based only on