Showing results for "Hard Times" in Literature & Fiction

Charles Dickens' 1854 novel opens with the philosophy of education espoused by the eminently practical Mr. Gradgrind, who prizes "facts and calculations." He raises his children, most prominently Louisa and Tom, to eschew imagination and emotion and embrace order and reason. The results are disastrous: Louisa marries out of duty to the supposed self-made man Mr. Bounderby, while Tom grows up dissolute, ultimately commits theft and blames it on an unfortunate laborer, Stephen Blackpool. Set in the fictional Coketown, a mill town in the north of England, Dickens' novel satirizes capitalism, ...

Inspired by the runaway success of Scott Stuart's TikTok and Instagram series, Bedtime Stories for Hard Days will help soothe and repair as children prepare to start tomorrow afresh. With Stuart's characteristic warmth, friendliness and compassion, each story invites children to reflect on the day they've experienced before letting it go and relaxing into rest.