As Charles Dickens grew older and more impatient with England's established social order, he wrote openly and angrily of the materialism that characterized the industrial world. Hard Times , written in 1854, is his bitterest novel. In it he lashed out against political and economic policies that ignored generosity, tolerance, and compassion and claimed that the "pursuit of individual fortune benefits society as a whole." 128 To Dickens, such policies were merely justifications for selfishness.

Into all relations... of this life, there must enter something of feeling and sentiment; something of mutual explanation, forbearance, and consideration; something ... not exactly stateable in figures; otherwise those relations are wrong and rotten at the core and will never bear sound fruit.

A Stern Warning

Dickens never hesitated to exaggerate society's shortcomings and play on people's emotions in order to gain sympathy and support for his views. Hesketh Pearson writes, "His nature was...