Hard times (Unabridged ed)

'NOW, what I want is, Facts.' One of Dickens's most famous opening lines sets the scene for this powerful novel which questions the harsh, rational attitudes predominating in a world of fierce industrial growth.

Dickens vividly presents industrial Coketown - a quintessential northern English mill town in the 19th century - and the overbearing figure of Mr Thomas Gradgrind with his utilitarianist philosophy; and contrasts it with the right of every person to enjoy life regardless of social class.

Particularly praised by renowned English critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), this moral fable is arguably Dickens's most significant work.