{"product_id":"hard-times-9780451530998","title":"Hard Times","description":"\u003cb\u003eDickens's scathing portrait of Victorian industrial society. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCoketown, the depressed mill town that is the setting for one of Charles Dickens's most powerful and unforgettable novels, is all brick, machinery, and smoke-darkened chimneys. Its emblematic citizen, the schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind, lives to impose his version of education: facts and statistics that feed the mind while starving the soul and spirit. Inflexible and unyielding, he places conformity above curiosity and logic over sentiment, only to see his philosophy warp and destroy the lives of his own family. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFilled with memorable characters and scenes, \u003ci\u003eHard Times\u003c\/i\u003e is a daring novel of ideas--and, ultimately, a celebration of love, hope, and imagination. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith an Introduction by Frederick Busch \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eand an Afterword by Jane Smiley\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCharles Dickens\u003c\/b\u003e (1812-70) had a happy childhood until age twelve when, due to his father's confinement in debtors' prison, he was forced to leave school to work in a factory. He taught himself shorthand and worked as a parliamentary reporter until his writing career took off with the publication of \u003ci\u003eSketches by Boz\u003c\/i\u003e (1836) and \u003ci\u003eThe Pickwick Papers \u003c\/i\u003e(1837). As a novelist and magazine editor, Dickens had a long run of serialized success, including \u003ci\u003eOliver Twist\u003c\/i\u003e (1838), \u003ci\u003eDavid Copperfield\u003c\/i\u003e (1850), \u003ci\u003eA Tale of Two Cities\u003c\/i\u003e (1859), and \u003ci\u003eGreat Expectations\u003c\/i\u003e (1861). In later years, ill health slowed him down, but he continued his popular dramatic readings from his fiction to an adoring public, which included Queen Victoria. At his death, \u003ci\u003eThe Mystery of Edwin Drood\u003c\/i\u003e remained unfinished. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eFrederick Busch\u003c\/b\u003e (1941-2006) was the author of eighteen works of fiction, including \u003ci\u003eClosing Arguments\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGirls\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Mutual Friend\u003c\/i\u003e, a novel about Charles Dickens. The winner of numerous awards, he was the Fairchild Professor of Literature at Colgate University. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003eJane Smiley\u003c\/b\u003e is an American novelist. In addition to her many novels (including \u003ci\u003eTen Days in the Hills\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHorse Heaven\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eA Thousand Acres\u003c\/i\u003e), she wrote a short biography of Charles Dickens for the Penguin Lives series (2001).\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Signet Book","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50527040045330,"sku":"9780451530998","price":4.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_37f4f2f2-e49f-4e3d-a8b0-e11c2eee6f7d.jpg?v=1768913528","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/hard-times-9780451530998","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}