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Hard Times

By: Charles Dickens
Narrated by: Patrick Tull
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Editorial reviews

As the title suggests, the characters do not have much room for leisure and horseplay in this audiobook from Charles Dickens. Hard Times, performed with a biting musicality by veteran narrator Patrick Tull, is one of Dickens's later works and is a serious examination on the effects of the Industrial Revolution. The story begins with the no-nonsense Gradgrind household, where Mr. Gradgrind instills his strict teachings of facts and only facts. As the story progresses, the classic humor of Dickens seeps in, and Mr. Gradgrind receives some education himself. Whether it's the artful prose or the social commentary, there's plenty to enjoy as Patrick Tull takes listeners through this classic from Charles Dickens.

Publisher's Summary

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...
©1987 Recorded Books, Inc.

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