Length11h 26m
About this audiobook
Hard Times stands as Charles Dickens’s most searing indictment of the Victorian age’s utilitarian ethos. Set against the grim backdrop of a northern mill town, this novel pits the cold, calculating philosophy of Thomas Gradgrind—a man who raises his children on a diet of nothing but statistics and empirical data—against the unruly, vital, and deeply human forces of imagination and compassion.
Through the tragic fates of Louisa Gradgrind, bound to a loveless marriage, and Stephen Blackpool, an honest worker ostracized for his integrity, Dickens weaves a narrative of unflinching social critique. Yet, in the midst of the soot and machinery, he finds room for the redemptive grace of Sleary’s circus, a tawdry but joyous sanctuary where wonder is still allowed to breathe.
This edition offers a timeless exploration of the conflict between progress and humanity, reason and feeling—a warning, as urgent now as ever, against the tyranny of a world that measures all things, even the soul, by the cold calculus of profit.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.7 (102.5K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, StoryGraph, Amazon
GenreGeneral Fiction, Literary Classics
Length11 hrs 26 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1By Dickens in Cactus Catalogue:
20CHAPTER III
2Book I - CHAPTER I
21CHAPTER IV
3CHAPTER II
22CHAPTER V
4CHAPTER III
23CHAPTER VI
5CHAPTER IV
24CHAPTER VII
Show all chaptersShow less
6CHAPTER V
25CHAPTER VIII
7CHAPTER VI
26CHAPTER IX
8CHAPTER VII
27CHAPTER X
9CHAPTER VIII
28CHAPTER XI
10CHAPTER IX
29CHAPTER XII
11CHAPTER X
30Book III - CHAPTER I
12CHAPTER XI
31CHAPTER II
13CHAPTER XII
32CHAPTER III
14CHAPTER XIII
33CHAPTER IV
15CHAPTER XIV
34CHAPTER V
16CHAPTER XV
35CHAPTER VI
17CHAPTER XVI
36CHAPTER VII
18Book II - CHAPTER I
37CHAPTER VIII
19CHAPTER II
38CHAPTER IX
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