Hard Times: For These Times
- 376
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- Film 1988 +2
- On screen
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
In “Hard Times: For These Times”, Dickens aims a pointed satire at industrial England and its materialist creed. The novel surveys English society, the hard lives of factory workers included, and leaves no doubt about its moral. Some readers find it gripping to this day; others feel it drags, even while its characters hold their interest.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Hard Times: For These Times is the tenth novel by English author Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book surveys English society and satirises its social and economic conditions.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 3 times — from 1915 to 1988.
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.9 across 130 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 47% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 7.8. That is how 7.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 22 | 17% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 7 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 6.6 | 101 | 78% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.