Hard Times. For These Times.

DICKENS, Charles.

$1,200.00

Item Number: 148215

London: Bradbury & Evans, 1854.

First edition in book form of Dickens’ attack on the living conditions of England’s mid-19th century industrial cities. Octavo, bound in full calf by Sangorski & Sutcliffe with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, top edge marbled, marbled endpapers. In near fine condition. Original cloth covers bound in at rear, bookplate to the front pastedown. Housed in a custom marbled slipcase.

Initially published serially in Household Words between April and August of 1854, Hard Times was published in book form almost immediately following the final serial in 1854. Viewed as a departure from Dickens' previous tales, the work presents what was to become an increasingly somber picture of contemporary society in Dickens’ works. Critics such as George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Macaulay focused on Dickens' treatment of trade unions and his post–Industrial Revolution pessimism in regards to the divide between capitalist mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era. F. R. Leavis, a great admirer of the book, included it – but not as a whole – in his Great Tradition of English novels.