Review: "Hard Times," by Charles Dickens

Despite being Charles Dickens's shortest novel, "Hard Times" reveals the author's vision of a society demoralized by the soul-crushing conditions and institutions of the modern industrial age. With indignation and sarcasm, Dickens forces the characters in his novel to face the negative consequences that he believed were the result of the dogmas of utilitarianism. These characters include a father whose philosophies on education and life emotionally cripple his children, a hypocritical factory owner, and a circus performer who has been abandoned by her father. Interwoven narratives from this collection of different characters incorporate Dickens's anger at a society unjustly exploiting the minds and bodies of the vulnerable working class.