Hard Times | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 4 pages of analysis & critique of Hard Times.
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Hard Times | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 4 pages of analysis & critique of Hard Times.
This section contains 1,137 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Monroe Engel

SOURCE: "Addenda: The Sports of Plenty," in The Maturity of Dickens, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959, 169-89.

In the following excerpt, Engel favorably appraises Hard Times, focusing upon its economy of presentation and emphasis upon the need for imaginationnot utility aloneto make life bearable and full.

The recent marked increase in the reputation of Hard Times has come at the expense of Dickens' general reputation. Satisfaction with this one sport of his genius has been used as a basis on which to denigrate that genius in its more characteristic manifestations. Hard Times satisfies the modern taste (in the arts alone) for economy—in Action, for spare writing and clearly demonstrable form. Dickens was capable of both, but they were not natural or congenial to him, and he chose to employ them only under the duress of limited space. Curiously enough, Hard Times grants a scant measure...

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This section contains 1,137 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Monroe Engel
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Monroe Engel from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.