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Hard Times Study Guide

by Charles Dickens

Hard Times study guide contains a biography of Charles Dickens, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Mr. Gradgrind is a man of "facts and calculations." He identifies a student, called Girl number twenty, who replies that her name is Sissy Jupe. Gradgrind corrects her that her name is Cecilia regardless of what her father calls her. Jupe's father is involved in a horse-riding circus and this is not respectable‹in Gradgrind's opinion. He advises Cecilia to refer to her father as a "farrier" (the person who shoes a horse) or perhaps, a "veterinary surgeon." Sissy Jupe is a slow learner, among the group of stragglers who admit that they would dare to carpet a room with representations of flowers because she is "fond" of them. Sissy is taught that she must not "fancy" and that she is "to be in all things regulated and governed by fact."

Mr…

Read the full Hard Times Summary

• Hard Times Summary
• About Hard Times
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Summary and Analysis of Book I, Chapters 1-5
• Summary and Analysis of Book I, Chapters 6-10
• Summary and Analysis of Book I, Chapters 11-16
• Summary and Analysis of Book II, Chapters 1-6
• Summary and Analysis of Book II, Chapters 7-12
• Summary and Analysis of Book III, Chapters 1-5
• Summary and Analysis of Book III, Chapters 6-9
• Related Links on Hard Times
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 1
• Test Yourself! - Quiz 2
• Author of ClassicNote and Sources

• Hard Times: Major Themes
• Hard Times: Essays
• Hard Times: E-Text
• Hard Times: Questions
• Hard Times: Purchase the Novel and Related Material
• Charles Dickens: Biography