Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Summary from the publisher of Hard Times (Unabridged audiobooks)

In the spare, no-nonsense Gradgrind household, Tom and Louisa are raised according to their father's unyielding guiding philosophy: facts - nothing but facts. But while a ban on imagination is mere policy for the Gradgrind children, lack of whimsy is a necessary survival skill in Coketown, the grimy and grim working-class burg devoted to nothing but the relentless advance of industry... (Recorded Books, Inc. 1987)

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Summary from the publisher of Hard Times (Unabridged audiobooks)

One of the most widely read of Dickens' major novels, Hard Times is Dickens' powerful and withering portrait of Coketown, a Lancashire mill town, in the 1840s. The novel is particularly harsh in indicting England's educational system, represented by Thomas Gradgrind, who runs a school in which he focuses on driving wonder, fancy, and imagination from children's minds to be replaced only by facts. Gradgrind finally sees the error of his ways and abandons Utilitarianism and resolves to learn the "philosophy" of the circus. (Chivers Audio Books 1998)

This version is narrated by Martin Jarvis, one of Britains best character actors...

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Summary from the publisher of Hard Times (Unabridged audiobooks)

Thomas Gradgrind is an eminently practical man who believes in facts and statistics and has brought up his 2 children, Louisa and Tom, accordingly, thoroughly suppressing the imaginative sides of their nature. They are raised in ignorance of love and affection, and the consequences are devastating. No other work of Dickens presents so harsh an indictment against the attitude of life he associated with Utilitarianism. With savage bitterness Dickens exposes the devilish industries and institutions that exploited the bodies and minds of the vulnerable labor class. (Blackstone Audiobooks 1993)

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Summary from the publisher of Hard Times (Abridged audiobooks)

In this, Dickens' most openly political novel, we discover the terrible human consequences of a ruthlessly materialistic philosophy in the lives of Thomas Gradgrind's family, brought up to believe that only "Facts! Facts! Facts!" have any meaning. Set in Coketown, a typical Lancashire milltown, the novel graphically exposesd the truth about Victorian "progress". (NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd 1997)

Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Summary from the publisher of Hard Times (Abridged audiobooks)

Thomas Gradgrind - a successful businessman who only values cold, hard facts - has raised his children to suppress their imaginations and rely on grim practicality. They do. His daughter Louisa marries her brother Tom's employer - partly to protect his job, and partly out of indifference to her own fate. But Tom robs his boss and contrives to frame one of the mill hands, while Louisa recognizes her lack of love for her husband, and returns to her father. When he realizes what his principles have led to in the forming of his children, it makes for one of Dickens's harshest indictments against the practices and social rationalizations of mid-19th-century England, as well as great literature. (Dove Audio, Inc. 1996)