So would you like to get a literary snapshot of London in Dickensian
times? You can forget the encyclopaedias and just read
Dickens’ Hard
Times. Not that it’s going to leave you feeling warm and fluffy inside, though. This book is very accessible (if it’s not forced down your throat at
school!), told in typical Dickensian style (was there ever a classier storyteller?) but using direct and distinctly unflowery language. His descriptions of dark, murky and smoke-filled London will leave you wanting to run straight to the shower afterwards. But more than all that, this is a commentary on the educational system of the time. It takes all those Sunday afternoon ‘horrible school’ films and brings them life – and truth. We’ve all met or heard about bullying schoolmasters – and the victims of class who are instantly targeted. Sissy – the unfortunate working class child of little to no education – is a perfect example of the ignorance of distinction between clever and intelligent. In his usual style, Dickens has produced caricatures which are truly believable – and frighteningly so. Thought-provoking, hard-hitting, this book can be read and understood on a number of levels – it depends on just how deep you want to dig.