Hard Times: A Novel

Front Cover
Harper, 1854 - England - 101 pages
 

Selected pages

Contents

I
13
II
14
III
20
IV
25
V
32
VI
38
VII
51
VIII
58
XX
132
XXI
138
XXII
147
XXIII
159
XXIV
171
XXV
183
XXVI
191
XXVII
195

IX
64
X
69
XI
69
XII
75
XIII
80
XIV
88
XV
93
XVI
101
XVII
106
XVIII
119
XIX
127
XXVIII
204
XXIX
209
XXX
215
XXXI
224
XXXII
232
XXXIII
241
XXXIV
249
XXXV
259
XXXVI
270
XXXVII
277

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Page 25 - He was a rich man : banker, merchant, manufacturer, and what not. A big, loud man, with a stare, and a metallic laugh. A man made out of a coarse material, which seemed to have been stretched to make so much of him. A man with a great puffed head and forehead, swelled veins in his temples, and such a strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open, and lift his eyebrows up. A man with a pervading appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start.
Page 156 - ... in the day of your triumph, when romance is utterly driven out of their souls, and they and a bare existence stand face to face, Reality will take a wolfish turn, and make an end of you.
Page 15 - Give me your definition of a horse. " (Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.) "Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!
Page 15 - Then he has no business to do it,' said Mr. Gradgrind. 'Tell him he mustn't. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?' 'He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, Sir.' Mr. Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with his hand. 'We don't want to know anything about that, here. You mustn't tell us about that here. Your father breaks horses, don't he?' 'If you please, Sir, when they can get any to break, they do break horses in the ring, Sir.
Page 34 - There was an old woman, and what do you think? She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink; Victuals and drink were the whole of her diet, And yet this old woman would NEVER be quiet.
Page 25 - ... swelled veins in his temples, and such a strained skin to his face that it seemed to hold his eyes open, and lift his eyebrows up. A man with a pervading appearance on him of being inflated like a balloon, and ready to start. A man who could never sufficiently vaunt himself a self-made man. A man who was always proclaiming, through that brassy speaking-trumpet of a voice of his, his old ignorance and his old poverty. A man who was the Bully of humility.
Page 14 - Thomas Gradgrind, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything over.
Page 19 - He and some one hundred and forty other schoolmasters, had been lately turned at the same time, in the same factory, on the same principles, like so many pianoforte legs. He had been put through an immense variety of paces, and had answered volumes of head-breaking questions. Orthography, etymology, syntax, and prosody, biography, astronomy, geography, and general cosmography, the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land-surveying and levelling, vocal music, and drawing from models, were all...
Page 81 - Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone at her • ' There have been plenty to do that. Thou art not the man to cast the last stone, Stephen, when she is brought so low.
Page 18 - I am very fond of flowers," returned the girl. " And is that why you would put tables and chairs upon them, and have people walking over them with heavy boots ?" " It wouldn't hurt them, sir. They wouldn't crush and wither if you please, sir. They would be the pictures of what was very pretty and pleasant, and I would fancy " " Ay, ay, ay ! But you musn't fancy," cried the gentleman, quite elated by coming so happily to his point. " That's it ! You are never to fancy.

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