Hard Times

The dehumanizing effects of heavy industrialization are given form and bitter indictment in this Dickens novel. Raised by a hard, pragmatic father concerned only with sterile principles, Tom and Louisa Gradgrind grow up with little imagination, culture or concern for others. Louisa chooses Josiah Bounderby for a husband, a vulgar man who owns a bank and a mill, whom she leaves after a while and returns to her father's house. Her unscrupulous brother adds to the family crises by robbing his brother-in-law's bank. The father finally sees how his cold, principled upbringing has damaged his children's lives.