Thomas Gradgrind is a cold and industrious man obsessed with facts, statistics and practicality. He raises his oldest children, Louisa and Tom, according to this philosophy, never allowing them to engage in what he considers to be fanciful pursuits. But when Louisa is forced into a loveless marriage to the much older, she and Tom must risk anger.
Dickens's great novel of social protest in 19th-century England
Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy, retired merchant, is a cold and industrious man obsessed with facts, statistics, and practicality. He raises his oldest children, Louisa and Tom, according to this philosophy, never allowing them to engage in what he considers to be fanciful pursuits. But when poor Louisa is forced into a loveless marriage to the much older, self-made Josiah Bounderby, she and Tom must risk anger, betrayal, and heartache to break free of their restricted lives and find the happiness they have been so long denied.
Facts alone are wanted in life. The children at Mr. Gradgrinds school are sternly ordered to stifle their imaginations and pay attention only to cold, hard reality. The effects of Gradgrinds teaching on his own children, Tom and Louisa, are particularly profound and leave them ill-equipped to deal with the unpredictable desires of the human heart. Luckily for them, they have a friend in Sissy Jupe, the child of a circus clown, who retains her warm-hearted, compassionate nature despite the pressures around her.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
