| The terrible mistake was the contemporary utilitarian philosophy， expounded in Hard Times (1854) as the Philosophy of Fact by the hard-headed disciplinarian Thomas Gradgrind. But the novel， Dickens s shortest， is more than a polemical tract for the times; the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father is one of Dickens s triumphs. When Louisa， trapped in a loveless marriage， falls prey to an idle seducer， the crisis forces her father to reconsider his cherished system. Yet even as the development of the story reflects Dickens s growing pessimism about human nature and society， Hard Times marks his return to the theme which had made his early works so popular: the amusements of the people. Sleary s circus represents Dickens s most considered defence of the necessity of entertainment， and infuses the novel with the good humour which has ensured its appeal to generations of readers. |
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