Hard Times

Bits of Background

From the Initial Address in Household Words (30 March 1850)

. . . No mere utilitarian spirit, no iron binding of the mind to grim realities, will give a harsh tone to our Household Words.  In the bosoms the young and old, of the well-to-do and of the poor, we would tenderly nourish that light of Fancy which is inherent in the human breast; which, according to its nurture, burns with an inspiring flame, or sinks into a sullen glare, but which (or woe betide that day! can never be extinguished.

*        *        *

From “Frauds on the Fairies” in Household Words (1 October 1853)

In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.  Our English red tape is too magnificently red ever to be employed in the tying up of such trifles, but every one who has considered the subject knows full well that the nation without fancy, without some romance, never did, never can, never will hold a great place under the sun. . . .

 *        *        *

From a letter to John Forster (20 January 1854)

I wish you would look at the enclosed titles for the Household Words story, between this and two o’clock or so, when I will call. . . . It seems to me that there are three very good ones among them.  I should like to know whether you hit upon the same.

1. According to Cocker.  2. Prove It.  3. Stubborn Things.  4. Mr. Gradgrind’s Facts.  5. The Grindstone.  6. Hard Times.  7. Two and Two are Four.  8. Something Tangible  9.  Our Hardheaded Friend.  10. Rust and Dust.  11. Simple Arithmetic.  12. A Matter of Calculation.  13. A Mere Question of Figures.  14. The Grandgrind Philosophy.

 *        *        *

From a letter to John Forster, written while Dickens was visiting Preston (29 January 1854)

I am afraid I shall not be able to get much here. . . . There is very little in the streets to make the town remarkable.  I am told that the people “sit at home and mope.”

*        *        * 

From a letter to John Forster (February 1854)

The difficulty of the space is CRUSHING.  Nobody can have an idea of it who has not had an experience of patient fiction-writing with some elbow-room always, and open places in perspective.  In this form, with any kind of regard to the current number, there is absolutely no such thing.

*        *        * 

From a letter to Peter Cunningham (11 March 1854)

The mischief of such a statement [Cunningham’s assertion that Hard Times is about the Preston strike] is twofold.  First, it encourages the public to believe in the impossibility that books are produced in a very sudden and cavalier manner . . ; and secondly in this instance it has this bearing:  it localizes (so far as your readers are concerned) a story which has a direct purpose in reference to the working people all over England. . . .

*        *        * 

From a letter to Elizabeth Gaskell (21 April 1854)

I have no intention of striking.  The monstrous claims at domination made by a certain class of manufacturers, and the extent to which the way is made easy for working men to slide down into discontent under such hands, are within my scheme; but I am not going to strike.  So don’t be afraid of me.

*        *        * 

From a letter to Thomas Carlyle (13 July 1854)

I am going, next month, to publish in one volume a story now coming out in Household Words called Hard Times. . . . I know it contains nothing in which you do not think with me, for no man knows your books better than I.  I want to put in the first page of it that it is inscribed to Thomas Carlyle.  May I?