Hard Times by Charles Dickens

I love Charles Dickens!

He is the best storyteller ever. Sure, his plots are the tiniest bit melodramatic sometimes, but that's what a good story is all about--the big events. Would a story about a little girl on the way to her grandmother's house with a basket of cookies have been told to generations of children if it concerned only her inner turmoil and fear about becoming a woman? No, we need the (symbolic) wolf, and the attempted deception, and, yes, the wood chopper. Dickens published in serial form, so he had to include cliffhangers to keep readers coming back for more. You don't have to read the first 50 (or 100) pages to get to the meat of the story; he starts off with a bang and never lets up.

The story of Hard Times concerns the children of Thomas Gradgrind, who have been educated at his school and at home to ignore emotion and "fancy" in preference for facts. "Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else," he says. Consequently, his children Louisa and Thomas grow up emotionally stunted and, in the case of Thomas, selfishly self-centered.

Intertwined with their story is the story of Mr. Bounderby, the factory owner in the fictional city of Coketown, who also adheres to the philosophy of "just the facts," allowing him to ignore the wretched condition of the town and the workers because the statistics say that everything and everybody are proven to be above average.

Dickens often concerned himself with revealing the inadequacies and failings of society and government during his time, and that was the case here. While this philosophy of education is no longer in vogue (In fact, it has veered the other way somewhat.), the viewpoint of the factory owner still seems to be operative--it's all about the facts--profit and loss figures. What does it matter that rivers and lakes are polluted; it's too expensive to fix those problems. What does it matter that hundreds of thousands of people in my own country are put out of work; it improves the profit-margin to outsource overseas.

But the real genius of Dickens resides in his portrayal of characters. They are sometimes exaggerated, particularly the villains, but they are instantly recognizable as people you have known. When I meet a person who is a real suck-up, I think to myself, "He's a Uriah Heep." (from David Copperfield) When I meet a person who seems truly selfless and empathetic, I think to myself, "She's a Biddy." (from Great Expectations) Now when I meet a person who is a complete humbug, pretending to be someone he isn't, I will think, "He's a Mr. Bounderby." (Or maybe I will think, "He's a Rick Perry." Forgive the current political commentary, but Rick Perry is the biggest humbug I have seen in a long time.)

This is not the most enjoyable Dickens book I have read, but it was still better than books by most everybody else. It was a little grim, short on the usual comic relief, but still better than the rest. Just as the less-well-known plays of Shakespeare (which are also melodramatic and have exaggerated characters, but long on story and accurate character portrayal) are also better than the rest.

Read more Dickens!