SOURCE: "Hard Times: A Note on the Descriptive Titles of Its Books," in The Indian Journal of English Studies, Vol. XIII, 1972, pp. 22-28.

In the following excerpt, Banerjee explores the relation between the tripartite structure of Hard Times—"Sowing," "Reaping," and "Garnering"—and Dickens's development of the novel's themes.

'Sowing', 'Reaping', and 'Garnering' are three descriptive words which appear at the head of each of the three books of Hard Times. These words are connected with an activity which is universal and eternal. They are all the more curious in the context they are used. Being a novel set in an industrial area, Coketown, and about people connected with it, Dickens's application of the expressions is deliberate and figurative. The division of the novel in terms of the three clear-cut phases of agricultural activity has the effect of drawing pointed attention to three distinctive stages of the linear...