Our Novel: Hard Times

 

Our book for 2026-2027 will be Hard Times, with a bonus add-on novel: North and South.

 

From April 1st through August 12th of 1854, Charles Dickens's novel Hard Times appeared in the weekly journal Household Words. Each installment brought from one to three chapters to readers, who sadly had to go without illustrations. Later editions provided illustrations, but none as famous as the ones Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) had drawn for other Dickens novels.

 

When published as a single volume, the book was divided into three sections: Sowing (about children being ground down by the educational system), Reaping (showing those students now as young adults), and Garnering (tracking the characters as they try to salvage something of their wrecked lives). Set in the fictional city of Coketown, Hard Times critiqued the factories that had come to dominate the northern city of Manchester and the utilitarian philosophy that reduced human beings to cogs in a machine.

 

The month after Hard Times finished publication, Household Words began running a new novel by a writer Dickens has enthusiastically championed: Elizabeth Gaskell. Her first novel, Mary Barton, had been a hit when it was published anonymously in 1848, and Gaskell’s new novel North and South originally was credited as “by the author of Mary Barton” in Household Words. Also set in a fictionalized version of Manchester (called Milton in the novel), North and South is in clear dialogue with Hard Times, likewise depicting industrialization, labor agitation, and strikes.
 
Beginning in March, we’ll be reading North and South, discussing how Dickens and Gaskell influenced one another and commented on each other’s work. (As Gaskell’s editor, Boz even chose the title North and South, so if you don’t like it, blame Dickens!)

  

The Penguin editions are recommended, but not required. Please join us for a year-long study of Dickens and his circle and their exploration of the Industrial Revolution.

  

  

Past novels:

2025-2026: A Tale of Two Cities

2024-2025: Sketches by Boz

2023-2024: Little Dorrit

2022-2023: Oliver Twist

2021-2022: Martin Chuzzlewit

2020-2021: David Copperfield

2019-2020: The Old Curiosity Shop

2018-2019: Dombey and Son

2017-2018: Barnaby Rudge

2016-2017: Great Expectations

2015-2016: Our Mutual Friend

2014-2015: Nicholas Nickleby (Part Two)

2013-2014: Nicholas Nickleby (Part One)

2012-2013: Bleak House (Part Two)

2011-2012: Bleak House (Part One)

2010-2011: A Tale of Two Cities

2009-2010: Pickwick Papers

2008-2009: American Notes and Hunted Down (short story collection)

2007-2008: Hard Times and The Mystery of Edwin Drood

2006-2007: Little Dorrit

2005-2006: Oliver Twist

2004-2005: David Copperfield

2003-2004: Martin Chuzzlewit

2002-2003: Barnaby Rudge

2001-2002: The Old Curiosity Shop

2000-2001: Nicholas Nickleby (Part Two)

1999-2000: Nicholas Nickleby (Part One)

1998-1999: Dombey and Son

1997-1998: Pickwick Papers

1996-1997: Our Mutual Friend

1995-1996: Great Expectations

1994-1995: A Tale of Two Cities

1993-1994: Bleak House