"A bitter indictment of industrialization, with its dehumanizing effects on workers and
communities in mid-19th-century England."--Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

"The narrator's British accent goes well with Dickens's overly dramatic and lush prose."
--AudioFile

Originally written for Dickens's weekly magazine, Household Words, this short novel follows
the fate of Sissy Jupe, a warm-hearted circus child, and the family that adopts her. Deserted by her
ailing father, Sissy is taken into the cold household of the Gradgrind family, which operates a school.
The "eminently practical" Thomas Gradgrind believes only in facts and figures and has raised his
children accordingly, thoroughly suppressing the imaginative sides of their nature. They grow up in
ignorance of love and affection, of beauty and culture, or of empathy for others, and the consequences
are devastating. Only after numerous crises does Thomas realize that his principles have corrupted
their lives.

Dickens's satirical expos of the Industrial Revolution condemns the utilitarianism that exploited the
bodies, minds, and souls of the vulnerable labor class.