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Hard Times (Vintage Classics Dickens Series)
Hard Times (Vintage Classics Dickens Series)
Nov 23, 2025 11:13 AM

Author:Charles Dickens

Hard Times (Vintage Classics Dickens Series)

‘Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.’

The children at Mr Gradgrind's school are sternly ordered to stifle their imaginations and pay attention only to cold, hard reality. They live in a smoky, troubled industrial town so entertainment is hard to come by and resentments run deep. The effects of Gradgrind's teaching on his own children, Tom and Louisa, are particularly profound and leave them ill-equipped to deal with the unpredictable desires of the human heart. Luckily for them they have a friend in Sissy Jupe, the child of a circus clown, who retains her warm-hearted, compassionate nature despite the pressures around her.

Also in the Vintage Classics Dickens Series:

A Christmas Carol

A Tale of Two Cities

David Copperfield

Great Expectations

Oliver Twist

Reviews

A masterpiece...a completely serious work of art

—— F.R.Leavis

The greatest of Dickens' work...should be studied with close and earnest care

—— John Ruskin

Big and earnest, though circus folk and bank robbery add colour to its canvas of industrialists and loveless marriages

—— Sunday Times

Bewitching… as self-possessed and comforting as – well, a cat

—— Sunday Telegraph

The Travelling Cat Chronicles is delightful. Like a tender feline companion the uniqueness of this book is its subtle yet persistent charm that insinuates itself into your heart long after the encounter has ended.

—— FIONA MELROSE

A book about kindness and love, and about how the smallest things can provide happiness

—— STYLIST

Arikawa has a lightness of touch that elevates this to a tale about loyalty and friendship ... while speaking to our basic human need for companionship

—— JOHN BOYNE , IRISH TIMES

Heart-wrenching but uplifting

—— RED MAGAZINE

The Travelling Cat Chronicles is why I read books. This beautiful story has everything. It's funny, heart-warming, heart-breaking and kind.

—— FOREWORD BOOKS

Prepare to have your heart strings tugged by this quirky tale . . . It's a deceptively gentle story that you won't need to be a cat lover to fall for.

—— SUNDAY MIRROR

Sweet, sad and lovely, this is a roadtrip novel with a difference

—— PSYCHOLOGIES MAGAZINE

This is the book I am giving everyone . . . the book I am recommending to anyone buying something Japan-related or cat-related, and, quite possibly, the book I am placing in someone's hand when they ask me what my favourite book is. For a bookseller, that is the highest accolade a book can ever receive

—— WATERSTONES YORK

A beautiful travelogue

—— SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

This story of a cat, a man, self-sacrifice and friendship will have you totally captivated ... An addictive tale of friendship and love.

—— WOMAN'S WEEKLY

i found myself sobbing ... unable, unwilling to let this joyful little book go

—— NPR

Stunningly beautiful. Tender, warm, sad and uplifting

—— THE LAST WORD REVIEW

I would urge people not to dismiss this as a 'cat book'; it is too much about human interaction and relationships to be so simply defined. A novel with wide appeal. I predict it will make a popular Christmas gift.

—— READINGS, BOOK GUIDE, AUSTRALIA

I'm not ashamed to say it had me at meow.

—— WASHINGTON POST

A book that stands out within the world of cat literature ... and it's a world worth exploring.

—— TIME MAGAZINE

I found myself sobbing ... unable, unwilling, to let this little book go.

—— NPR

The Travelling Cat Chronicles is as much a loving tribute to Japan’s obsession with and reverence for cats as it is an endearing introduction for non-Japanese readers to the country’s ever-fascinating culture and deeply rooted traditions.

—— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

A book that speaks volumes about our need for connection - human, feline or otherwise.

—— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

This touching novel of a brave cat and his gentle, wise human will resonate with lovers of animal tales, quiet stories of friendship, and travelogues alike.

—— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Gentle, soft-spoken, and full of wisdom

—— KIRKUS REVIEWS

A delight to read

—— FINANCIAL TIMES

Prepare to have your heartstrings tugged by this quirky tale

—— SUNDAY MIRROR

A sprightly, digressive, intriguing fandango on life and time

—— Kirkus Reviews

These individuals converge to confront each other in the big shabby house, like characters in a Chekhov play. At first, hellish implosion looms. Slowly, erratically, connection creeps in. Lux quietly mediates. Ire softens. Sophia at last eats something. Art resees Nature..."Winter" gives the patient reader a colorful, witty - yes, warming - divertissement

—— San Francisco Chronicle

With Iris and Lux as catalysts, scenes from Christmas past unfold, and our narrow views of Sophia and Art widen and deepen, filled with the secrets and substance of their histories, even as the characters themselves seem to expand. As in Sophia's case, for Art this enlargement is announced by a hallucination - "not a real thing," as Lux tells Iris, whose response speaks for the book's own expansive spirit: "Where would we be without our ability to see beyond what it is we're supposed to be seeing?"

—— The Minneapolis Star Tribune
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