SECOND WINNER AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS ( by ALEXA ADAMS)

1. NEW WINNER FOR ANA T. 'S GIVEAWAY

I have to draw another number since Luciana, who won The Sunne in Splendour given away by Ana T. last week, wrote back saying:  "I won something! I never win things in giveways! Thanks for Ana T and to you Maria! Oh yes, and for the random number generator! When I answered to the post I never thought I'd win! However, for more I think this book has an interesting story, I think it's better to pass it on to someone who will appreciate it more than myself. And it seems that a lot of your readers would appreciate it more than me. But I'm truly happy, as I never won anything! Good luck to the next one that will be the winner of this book!"

So, are you ready? Here we go again!

1. Buddyt
2. Jane GS
3. Virgulina
4. Mystica
5. Janicu
6. Missbluestocking
7. Marie Burton
8. Alexa Adams
9. Lua
10. Katherine
11. Roberta
12. Cariito
13. MelU
14. Felicia

AND THE NEW WINNER IS ...

 

 

BUDDYT !!!  CONGRATULATIONS!

 

2. I WON A GIVEAWAY MYSELF!

 

Today has been a good day, for several different reasons. All of them little special events. I received for example and e-mail from Alexa Adams which announced I had won a giveaway at her blog , First Impressions, a Tale of less Pride & Prejudice . I won Jane Austen's "LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP AND OTHER EARLY WORKS". It was not on my Austen shelf and I'm glad it is going to arrive and get its place there. Thanks Alexa. I'll treasure this book, especially because it comes from you!

 

3. ALEXA ADAM'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS - MY REVIEW
 By chance, today I've also just finished reading Alexa's first published work, First Impressions inspired to the characters and events in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. You know, Austen's first title for Darcy and Elizabeth's story was just First Impressions, but I don't think anything like what I've just read was in that juvenile draft. Alexa Adams has pleasantly reinvented the story, giving each of the character a possibility of redemption and improvement.

 How is it possible? Read my review of this delightful novel.

 

 

 

MY REVIEW IS ON MY AUSTENESQUE PAGE, MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
  BUT ALSO
ON GOODREADS
AND AT AMAZON.COM

ON A FIRTHIAN EDUCATION - ANOTHER COUNTRY (1984) AND FEVER PITCH (1997)

Preface

Don't worry, I'm not starting a  long sermon, nor a novel. This is just a short preface to my  DVD reviews. You know,  I'm on an educational journey. Since I started blogging I 've been learning very much and every day I want to learn more. For instance, I know many of you admire and  love Colin Firth and consider him the ultimate Mr Darcy. Well, don't laugh out loud, please! but I saw him in Bridget Jones I & II, Shakespeare in Love and The Importance of Being Earnest at the cinema without knowing much about him, precisely without knowing he was Mr Darcy. My first P&P adaptation was 2005. Yes, I know, unforgivable. Now, since thanks to blogging I've also met very good friends who love Colin Firth  and know everyhting about him and his career and, since I absolutely don't wan't to lose or disappoint them,  I'm working hard to reduce my ... ignorance. Of course,  I've seen  Pride and Prejudice 1995 now, how couldn't I? But Colin Firth worked in so many other interesting films, that I decided to see at least some of them . So I started my Firthian education. In brackets:  dear RA fans, don't worry,  I'm a very faithful woman, ... one and for life!

ANOTHER COUNTRY (1984)

Cast - Colin Firth (Tommy), Rupert Everett (Guy), Anna Massey, Robert Addie, Tristan Oliver, Michael Jenn, Cary Elwes, Frederick Alexander

This text  was adapted for the screen by Julian Mitchell who had previously written it as a play. It tells about the lives of a group of brats from British aristocracy and is set in one of the most  exclusive male public schools in the 1930s.  Two protagonists: Tommy Judd and Guy Bennet .  One of them , now a spy for KGB living in Moscow, recalls those years in a long flashback : dandism, marxist ideals, homosexuality, repression,  hypocrisy and cricket characterized the protagonists' youth.

This film was presented at Cannes Festival in 1984 and signed the beginning of two really promising careers: Colin Firth's and Rupert Everett's.

I liked it. How couldn't I? Period film, amazing locations, 1930s England , great acting. Only that after watching Maurice or Dead Poets Society it seemed ... already seen. Then themes like marxism or homosexuality are dealt with in a  rather  rethorical, obvious way.

I loved Colin Firth's character though. Tommy  is an interesting teenager, rather unusual. Colin was already 24 when he played the part of this 17-year-old boy ready to bear scorn ,  unfriendliness and isolation in the name of his ideals. He is firmly attached to those ideals , at any cost. Uncommon young man, wise ,  smart and terribly witty.

Some of Colin/Tommy's lines are unforgettable:

1. Devenish : "I don’t see why you have to be against everything"

    Tommy: "I’m not. I’m for revolution"

2. (in the cricket chhanging room)

Wicked Fowler asks Tommy : " Are you trying to be clever or something?

And Tommy "I don’t have to try: I AM clever"

Then Fowler: " I’ve half a mind to ask Barclay for permission to beat you"

And Tommy:  "Well, you’ve half a mind, we can all agree on that!"

FEVER PITCH ( 1997)

Cast:  Colin Firth,  Mark Strong, Sarah Hughes, Holly Aird

There are at least three good reasons why I should have seen this film before.

1. It is based on one of Nick Hornby's works, he also  wrote the screenplay. I love his humour and have read several of his novels.

2. I'm surrounded by male human beings suffering from high fever pitch.

3. I am a teacher and the protagonists of the film are also teachers

Now I know what I lost. Great fun and sensitive dealing with contemporary society's obsessive manias, as usual in Nick Hornby. Hornby tried to self-analyze his soccer - mania in this story with irony and intelligence.

But how could Colin Firth move from calm and collected Mr Darcy to a coarse soccer hooligan like Paul Asworth?

Nick Hornby himself writes:

"Listen, it wasn't my idea, OK? I didn't insist on having Mr Darcy play 'me'; Liora Reich, the casting director, suggested it...though I immediately saw that she was right.

I  felt I had heard and made every joke it is possible to make on this subject within about ten minutes of Colin Firth's name first being mentioned; suffice to say that, yes,  I am bald and he is not, he is tall and I am not, my ears and stomach protrude more than his ears and stomach, he looks good on Tv in a wet white shirt and I ...well, nobody has ever given me a chance, actually, so I'm not conceding that one. The trouble is the TV and film actors look better than the rest of us - it could be argued that this is the whole point of them - and , in any case, physical verisimilitude was never a prerequisite. We were more interested in acting and stuff, and nobody can deny that Firth is one of the best actors of his generation. At Christmas 1995 , when we were casting, Pride and Prejudice was being watched  by 13 million people, and it was hard (for us anyway) to see Colin swapping from Austen breeches for the Arsenal boxer shorts". (from Nick Hornby, Fever pitch: The screenplay, London, Indigo, 1997)

Yes,  Mr Darcy  accepted,  it seems ...  he is a terrific Paul Asworth and he has a bald friend, Steve, played by Mark Strong.

FEVER PITCH is an enjoyable  romantic comedy about a man  , a woman   and a football team, Arsenal. It is only loosely based on Nick Hornby's best selling autobiographical novel. Paul Ashworth is an English teacher who  believes his long standing obsession with Arsenal serves him well. But when he meets Sarah, one of her colleagues his world of certainties starts cracking. Their relationship develops in tandem with Arsenal's roller coaster fortunes in the football league...

Thank you,  Mr Firth. It was a great pleasure to watch these two movies. A great pleasure,  indeed. Now, what's next? What are the unmissable ones in a good Firthian Education? I guess there are still many yet to go.

GIVEAWAY WINNER & MY JA BOOK CLUB

So, who's going to get the amazing book Ana T. offered last week in her interview for "My Blogger Buddies" ?

Do you remember? It was a great historical novel based on the life of King Richard III in which Sharon Kay Penman tries to redeem the historical figure from the  portrayal of a wicked sovereign Shakespeare depicted  in his play.

Here are the commenters who entered the giveaway
1. Buddyt
2. Jane GS
3. Virgulina
4. Mystica
5. Luciana
6. Janicu
7. Missbluestocking
8. Marie Burton
9. Alexa Adams
10. Lua
11. Katherine
12. Roberta
13. Cariito
14. MelU
15. Felicia

THE LUCKY WINNER IS....

CONGRATULATIONS LUCIANA!!!

YOU WON THIS GREAT BOOK. ENJOY YOUR READING.

AND THANKS AGAIN TO ANA T. FOR BEING MY  GUEST!

And now this month's heroine at My Jane Austen Book Club: Fanny Price. As you know I'm re-reading Mansfield Park this month for my reading club. In this post I confess my perplexities respect to Fanny and my total incapacity to get to like her very much. Can any of you, my Janeite friends, help me to change my mind? To convince me that I'm partially or completely wrong? You'll find also a link to a multiple choice test with self correction at the end of my ramblings. If you want to try it ... 

Here's my post

MY BLOGGER BUDDIES WITH GIVEAWAY - LAUREL ANN AT AUSTENPROSE

Today I am proud and honoured to post my friendly chat with one of the bloggers I most admire and from whose blogging experience I've tried to learn as much as I could . Laurel Ann at Austenprose is someone I'm sure many of my Janeite readers know and appreciate. I regularly read her blog and sometimes comment her interesting posts but when her avatar peeps on Fly High! to contribute her opinion... I'm so pleased and flattered! She has even granted you readers and commenters a very special giveaway. Read through this interview, answer her question/s in your comments and two of you will got the chance to win a great Austenesque read! Please, remember to add your e-mail address so that I can contact you in case you win.

Laurel Ann Nattress is a life-long acolyte of Jane Austen having been converted at a young age by the BBC/PBS 1979 mini-series Pride and Prejudice. On a whim she was inspired to create Austenprose , a blog honouring the brilliance of Jane Austen's writing. She delights in introducing neophytes to the charms of Miss Austen's prose as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble. An expatriate of southern California, she lives near Seattle, Washington where it rains a lot.

Impossible not to start with her: Jane Austen. I read P&P when I was 14 and then, one after the other, her other novels. Mansfield Park only relatively late, I think I was already married when I read it. What is your history as a Janeite, Laurel Ann?

I read all of Jane Austen’s major novels in my teens. I really liked P&P, NA and S&S but struggled through Emma and did not get Mansfield Park at all. I liked the love story in Persuasion but it was not my favorite. Interestingly as I’ve matured I appreciate Austen’s last three novels more.

I found and saw many of the adaptations of JA’s novels only since I started blogging and regularly visiting the Net. That means less than a couple of years. What do you think of the ones you’ve seen so far? Can you choose among them your best favourite? I mean, just one.

Nope. Can’t choose one, but I can narrow it down! In 1980 I saw the BBC/PBS production of P&P staring Elizabeth Garvey and David Rintoul and loved it. I was hooked on Austen onscreen. I did not see another Austen adaptations for sixteen years when P&P95 premiered in the US in 1996. Since then I have seen all the adaptations and Austen inspired movies. I’ve been a bit of a movie junkie all my life so Austen at the movies was an easy addiction. As a Janeite I like to pick them apart and analyze their charms and foibles. I can not say that I dislike any of them intensely. Well, maybe one! Of the strict adaptations my favs would be P&P95 and Persuasion95. Of the Austen inspired movies Clueless, You’ve Got Mail and Last Days of Disco.

Now an engaging question. Something I’m really concerned with. Don’t you find all those beautiful - and which I love watching so much - TV series and movies based on her novels have cast an unreal distorted romantic light on Jane and her work? I mean, reading and re-reading her novels I’m more and more convinced she is one of the wittiest critic of romance and sentimentality.

I agree that she is a witty critics of social mores, finance and love. Once I got past the fact that a novel can not transfer perfectly into a movie, I enjoyed the Austen adaptations so much more. I do like the movies that include more of her beautiful language and get miffed when they rewrite her heavily. Bad choice. Recently, the new adaptations have been sexed up and over energized to try to entice a new younger audience. I think this a mistake also. People are attracted to an Austen movie for specific reasons – her reputation as a writer, her humor, wit, romance and living for two hours in Regency England. For instance, I find her sparing dialogue between Lizzy and Darcy far sexier than overt sexual scenes in other movies. That is part of her mystique and her charm. She is great at romantic tension and sharp dialogue. That’s why other authors have admired and tried to emulate her for 200 years. I just wish screenwriters understood also.

 Now very quickly. Which of JA’s girls are you most like? And who is your best favourite among her heroes?

Don’t laugh, but I am Fanny Price with a bit of Catherine Morland thrown in. Anyone who would start a blog on a whim definitely is seeking adventure and sticking with it diligently for over two years requires fortitude and patience which we all know Fanny Price had in abundance.

My favorite hero is Henry Tilney, with Mr. Darcy a close second. William Price, a minor character in Mansfield Park has definite potential and it is my fondest wish that a talented Austenesque writer will continue his story. I have a fondness for men in blue uniforms that go to sea during the Napoleonic Wars.

5. Fan Fiction or Austen-based fiction, sequels and what-if novels. You are an expert in this field. You’ve read and reviewed so many of them and even interviewed their authors. I, on the other hand, am a total novice, I’ve actually just started and with my prejudices hard to be overcome. What do you think is the function of this genre, which seem to be very popular, and what are the limits of  decency you would set – if any?

Thank you for the compliment Maria, though I am sure there are many others who are far more well read and informed than myself. They are just not blogging about it obsessively! Hmmm? What is the function of sequels and what are the limits of propriety? You are opening Pandora’s box I fear. Briefly, you can probably guess I am very much in favor of sequels since I have read and reviewed so many novels inspired by Austen and her characters. We just want more Jane, and since we can’t have more than six major novels, her letter and minor works we must read the next best thing. As far as tolerance of sequels that take Lizzy and Darcy into space, follow them into the bedroom or change their sexual preference, who am I to pass judgment? I am a bit like Jane Bennet in this regard and make allowances for differences in situation and temper and will give anything a try for three chapters to see if it has wings. Those that make it to chapter four must have a fresh concept skillfully rendered, Austen allusions or her characters reverently portrayed and humor in the form of wit and irony, please. I know. It’s a tall order. I’m fastidious. I will be gentle with new authors, but if you are a seasoned veteran abusing my Jane, I will voice my opinion decidedly.

I highly appreciate – quite Austenesque a statement don’t you think ? – your blog and it inspired me for several of my recent activities: group reading of Austen’s works. It was great online with Sanditon or Lady Susan (BTW, thanks! I’ve finally read the minor works also thanks to your events) and now I’m experiencing a JA reading club in my real life. Mixed aged, but mostly so much younger than me, my reading mates love JA. Have you got any suggestions for us? We are reading Manfield Park this month and going to read Emma in May and , finally, Persuasion in June.

I am so pleased that I have inspired you in some small way to read Jane Austen and cultivate a wider understanding of her talent. An Austen blogger could not hope for a more rewarding compliment.

Book clubs are great fun. You are quite ambitious to read an Austen novel a month and I commend you. I might suggest following each of the major novels with a sequel of the same novel. You might also consider one of the many great Austen biographies available. Elizabeth Jenkins and Claire Tomalin are two biographers that I particularly like.

Your blog is JA focused and have got hundreds of followers and a huge number of contacts every day. As an expert blogger, do you have any tip for a successful blog to give us?

I owe much of my small success to others who helped me every step of the way. I have been online in the Austen community for over ten years and my connections paid off. I must give much of the credit to Vic who was my co-blogger at Jane Austen Today and Mags at AustenBlog for expert advice and suggestions on how to do everything and handle problems. They are the real blogging Masters. My advice to new bloggers is to visit blogs and observe. See who is successful and discover why. Find a friend to mentor you. Blog in a niche that you are passionate about. Be sincere. Write at your comfort level. Show your enthusiasm. Work on improving your writing and research skills weekly. Most importantly, have fun.

What are the best and worst aspects of your blogging experience?

Reader comments just make me smile and all my hard work worth while. Seeing an author succeed after my help with promotion is great too. Interestingly, the worst experiences are the opposite of the positive. Comments that are vicious and spiteful, and authors and their family who lash out because they do not agree with your unfavorable opinion of their book. Happily, those instances are the exception.

 What kind of reader are you? Are there other genres and authors you like reading?

Before I started blogging I used to read a large range of genres: classics, fiction, chick-lit, romance, biographies, social histories, art and music books. I am a bookseller by profession so I have a wide pallet before me every day to get excited about. Since I have been blogging, my focus is entirely on Austen, sequels, Regency-era novels, histories, biographies and social histories. In the past my favorite authors were Charlotte Bronte, Diana Gabaldon, Sara Donati, Vita Sackville-West, Margaret Mitchell, Oscar Wilde and many others. Now, its Jane Austen all the time!

As for period drama or costume movies, JA adaptations apart, what are you favourites?

Oh, I thought you would never ask. I luv bonnet drama’s and have a long list of favs. Jane Eyre 1944, Gone with the Wind 1939, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir 1947, That Hamilton Woman 1942, Waterloo Bridge 1940, North and South 2004, Wives and Daughters 1999, The Importance of Being Ernest 1952 & 2002, Little Dorrit 2008 and many more.

 I read somewhere that your ideal holiday would be … a six - month’s Grand Tour through Europe finished off by a month in the Caribbean with either

Colin Firth

 Richard Armitage

or Gerard Butler.

Hard to decide, I know , but ...I’m so curious ...

Oh ... a lady never kisses and tells.

Ooops! Wrong picture? Sorry, Laurel Ann, forgive my impertinence! I was just inspired by your final statement ...

Jokes apart, thank you for being my guest and finding the time to answer my questions.

And for your incredible giveaway!!!

Here are the details

1.Two winners

2. You can select which book  you want from this  amazing list

Mr. Darcy Broke My Heart,
Confessions of a JA Addict
Love, Lies & Lizzie,
Cassandra & Jane,
Willoughby’s Return,
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters,
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,
The Intrigue at Highbury,
 Lydia Bennet’s Story,
Searching for Pemberley,
 Old Friends and New Fancies
Dawn of the Dreadfuls

3. Shipment to continental US only

4.  You can ask Laurel Ann a question about a sequel or Austen novel  OR you can write which your fav sequel is and why

5. Laurel Ann will answer you daily at Fly High!

6. Winners will be announced on Monday 26th April

7. Do not forget to leave your e-mail address, please!

.

RA FRIDAY - READY FOR JOHN PORTER?

Will Mr Armitage succeed in conquering the male audience his new modern drama is addressed to ? Will he manage to make them forget his being  considered a heartthrob? Because Mr Armitage's strategy in choosing roles lately has given many of us this impression. He wants to get rid of  the cliches attached to his career so far. The new Mr Darcy, the heartthrob, the bloke sent by Heaven and  so on ... We, all of us , who met and started admiring his talent as John Thornton in North and South, will keep our fingers crossed for him and his STRIKE BACK and will wish him the best of luck and great success.

...Get rid of the clichés but not of us, though!  Mr Armitage should know what he has caused in our lives since he has, by chance, entered them from a TV screen. He should know his faithful admirers have undergone radical changes in their tastes, habits and even attitudes  following him. They are flexible, very curious and patient, and they adore to widen their horizons. He will not get rid of his ... loyal "army" so easily. Chris Ryan - the author of the best selling novel on which this new drama is based - has never had so many female readers, for example. So, I imagine many of them will also see the six episodes of this action drama with their partners/husbands or alone.

I don't want to sound self-centred but I 'll give you an example of  how much a sensible ordinary woman , always by the book, rather rational and reserved, has  changed since she started following RA's career. If it is not clear I'm going to tell  you about myself.

I hate hammering advertising. I hate advertising in general. I feel it as invasive, as a sort of brainwashing my dignity and my independent will totally abhor. Why do I not only accept but even appreciate this advertsing campaign? Why do I, on the contrary, thank God for all this advertising stuff around the new  drama from British Sky 1? Why do I stare in admiration at the photo of the cast arriving at the Premiere (April 15th )?  I'm quite unrecognizable to myself . You know who is to blame for all this! I'm even a bit angry with my new self, the silly one, betraying the other's deepest and more firm convictions!    But what can I do, I must forgive her. She is really interested in the ...product. Sound schizofrenic? Maybe I AM starting suffering from a form of dissociation.
So, what I want to say is ... do you think his admirers - including me -  will be discouraged by the fighting , the explosions, the chasing or torture scenes in Strike Back? I don't think so.

All of you will have heard of  Sky1 Strike Back Premiere held yesterday afternoon. Richard Armitage left the set of Spooks 9 to be at View West End, London. While he  smiled at the photographers, hugged and joked with his colleagues, answered the reporters' questions, and seemed to have real fun , on the forums and sites RA dedicated pics and news came out one after another. Enthusiastic comments all over. The show business machine, the red carpet thing, the least interesting part in RA's job - to me, at least. But I find impossible not to get involved. He was there yesterday and  I wanted to see if he looked well (seems tired , doesn't he?), safe and sound, as fit and gorgeous as usual. So I joined the chorus of "Awwww"! and "I wish I was there"

Are you ready to see our lovely and caring Harry J. Kennedy transformed into a war machine? Broody millowner in love, John Thornton - still competing with Mr Darcy in many hearts -  transformed into a  tough and rough soldier in action ? I bet many of you are and can't wait for that!  May 5th is near, luckily. But only for British audience. The others we'll have to wait for the DVD released in June.

Anyhow, don't expect simply a Rambo all muscles and rage, Richard's John Porter will have a soul and a compelling background story .

Richard himself  - as he usually loves doing - underlines the complex human aspect of his character in a short  interview he released (you can listen to and watch it HERE or HERE) :

""He (John Porter) starts off as somebody that’s absolutely black and white, by the book, top of his field and then it starts to fall apart. He makes an error of judgement - it’s seen as an error of judgement by the people he works for- and it falls out as ending his career. He goes on a journey of atonement looking for the reasons why that happened, within himself, and in the world that he’s working in, because he always believes he made the right judgement."

I'm ready for John Porter. What about you?

new SB trailer

STRIKE BACK OFFICIAL SITE

Strike Back at Imdb

My previous posts about STRIKE BACK

1. My review of Chris Ryan's novel

2.Richard Armitage Strikes Back : One More John 

(including names and photos of the cast)

3. I know, I know, it's not Friday...

CHARLES DICKENS, HARD TIMES - THE NOVEL & THE BBC ADAPTATION (1994)

I've watched this DVD only recently, though this TV adaptation is 16 years old . It was made by 'BBC Schools', a low cost production. And the sparse sets and Coketown streets are indeed very basic. But this is more than compensated for by the quality of the cast. this version boasts a cast most big budget films would just dream about: Alan Bates, Richard E. Grant, Harriet Walter, Bill Paterson, and the great Bob Peck, magnificent as Gradgrind .Superb actors, who drive the story along and convey the character so essential to Dickens through a glance or a gesture, in what is a very stripped down and shortened version of Dickens' classic novel.

Inevitably a lot of Dickens' complexity is lost, and the effect of its abridgement leads to a rather jerky approach, with abrupt shifts of time and scene. But overall this is a great adaptation, it is a tribute to the BBC's commitment to quality educational films.

THE PLOT

Thomas Gradgrind is an educator and a riter on political questions. He has founded a school where his education theories are put into practice: children are taught nothing but facts, and he educates his own children, Louisa and Tom, in the same way, neglecting their imagination and their affections. He also adopts Sissy Jupe, whose father worked  in a circus.

Mr Gradgrind suggests his daughter should marry Josiah Bounderby, a  rich factory owner and banker of the city some thirty years older than she is. Louisa, desiring to help her brother Tom in his career, consents to the marriage, which naturally proves to be very unhappy.

Tom, who is selfish and lazy, is given a job in Bounderby's bank, and eventually steals some money from it, making everybody think Mr Blackpool, an honest factory worker, guilty of that. Tom's guilt is discovered eventually , but  he runs away and hides among the circus folk, who show  kindness and sympathy by sheltering him . Meanwhile, Louisa has realised she has sacrificed her life and her chances to love. She has met Mr Harthouse, she has fallen in love, she doesn't want to be Mr Bounderby's wife anylonger.

In the end Mr Gradgrind understands the damage caused by his narrow-minded and materialistic philosophy.

(If you want a more detailed plot, have a look here)

HARD TIMES, AN INDUSTRIAL NOVEL - DICKENS AND GASKELL

For this  event hosted by Jenny at TakeMeAway  this week, I've chosen this classic by Dickens. Throwback Thursday  is a weekly corner to write about good reads from the past. Those books we so much loved and we don't want to forget .

 The story is set in Coketown, fictitious name for the typical Victorian industrial town (partially based on 19th century Preston) , where the air is polluted by smoke and ashes and pervaded by the poisonous smell from the canal and the river. The sad , monotonous life of the people is reflected in the grey, gloomy, atmosphere of the setting. The appalling misery of the working classes is embodied by Stephen Blackpool: one of the hands in Bounderby’s factory, Stephen lives a life of drudgery and poverty. In spite of the hardships of his daily toil, Stephen strives to maintain his honesty, integrity, faith, and compassion.

Dickens had visited factories in Manchester as early as 1839, and was appalled by the environment in which workers toiled. Drawing upon his own childhood experiences, Dickens resolved to "strike the heaviest blow in my power" for those who laboured in horrific conditions. That experience must have provided him inspiration while writing his HARD TIMES.

In this novel, published in instalments in 1853 in his review HOUSEHOLD WORDS, Dickens deals with the sufferings of the factory system , the activity of trade unions, the appalling living conditions of workers with  his post-Industrial Revolution pessimism regarding the divide between capitalistic mill owners and undervalued employees during the Victorian era. Another related novel, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, was also published in this magazine in 1855. Her story was set in another fictitious industrial town of the North of England, Milton, based on Victorian Manchester . Anyhow, in their dealing with the reality of the factory system, the two great novelists show differences. In HARD TIMES the social issues and  the social context are the background of the story and Dickens's main interest is in the effects which that harsh reality has on the characters' lives and affections ; his focus is on the characters' emotions and feelings and, for this reason,  his novel has been defined as "humanitarian". In Mrs Gaskell's NORTH AND SOUTH, or also in her previous MARY BARTON (1848), the social issues and the social context come in the foreground, they are part of the plot as much as the intelinked lives of the characters.

UTILITARIANISM

The Utilitarians were one of the targets of Dickens in this novel. Utilitarianism was a prevalent school of thought during this period, its most famous proponents being Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Theoretical Utilitarian ethics stated that promotion of general social welfare is the ultimate goal for the individual and society in general: "the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people." But Dickens believed that,  in practical terms, the pursuit of a totally rationalized society could lead to great misery.

Bentham's former secretary, Edwin Karbunkle, helped design the Poor Law of 1834 (Dickens' target in OLIVER TWIST 1837-38), which deliberately made workhouse life as uncomfortable as possible. In the novel, this is conveyed in Bitzer's response to Gradgrind's appeal for compassion at the end of the story.

Dickens was appalled by what was, in his interpretation, a selfish philosophy, which was combined with materialist laissez-faire capitalism in the education of some children at the time, as well as in industrial practices. In Dickens' interpretation, the prevalence of utilitarian values in educational institutions promoted contempt between mill owners and workers, creating young adults whose imaginations had been neglected, due to an over-emphasis on facts at the expense of more imaginative pursuits.  Tom and Louisa Gradgrind are sad exemplifications of Dickens' pessimistic vision of the results of Utilitarian educational methods.