Hard Times cover art

Hard Times

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Hard Times

By: Charles Dickens
Narrated by: Anton Lesser
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Hard Times is Dickens's most political novel. Set in the industrial north of England, in Coketown, he examines the lives of working people, who are taught by the capitalists Gradgrind and Bounderby to think only of the facts of life and not to indulge in imagination. Gradgrind’s own children have been so educated and as a result are dysfunctional and disconnected from their feelings. Only the travelling circus company of Sleary seems to offer any hope of humanity in Coketown. Hard Times is a deeply moving story written in anger to strike a blow for the victims of the dehumanising processes of industry.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2011 Naxos AudioBooks Classics

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Dombey and Son cover art
Classic Starts® cover art
The Pickwick Papers: Dickens on Dickens cover art
Nicholas Nickleby cover art
Little Dorrit cover art
The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens cover art
The Cricket on the Hearth cover art
Martin Chuzzlewit cover art
The Old Curiosity Shop cover art
Our Mutual Friend cover art
A Tale of Two Cities cover art
Barnaby Rudge cover art
Sketches by Boz: Volume 1 cover art
Great Expectations cover art
Jane Eyre cover art
Keep the Aspidistra Flying cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliant narration of an unexpectedly great read. Would highly recommend to anyone usually daunted by dickens.

Dickens made easy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Much easier to get through the book with this. Listen at speed 1.3, bit slow.

Well read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Had to read this as part of my degree it’s certainly not my usual type of novel. Having said that I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. However Anton Lesser is AMAZING he brought the characters to life and made it much more bearable and easier to listen to. I can’t believe how many different voices he did my favourite was Mrs Sparsit and Josiah Bounderby. Would definitely recommend this particular audiable.

Hard work quite hard going

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Lovely performance from Anton Lesser, whose voice has an attractive timeless quality. A wonderful range of voices and accents, totally convincing and beautifully balanced.

Excellent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narration excellent. Enjoyed every minute from beginning to end. Had no difficulty in listening to the end.

Dickens at his best.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews