Books

1854. London: Bradbury & Evans, 1854. 8vo, viii, 352 pp. Publisher's green moiré cloth, pale yellow endpapers. Skillfully rebacked, repairing a some loss to the original backstrip, light sunning to backstrip and board edges, minor thumb-soiling and spots to text block edges, slightly loss in the gutter of p.1/2. Contemporary ownership inscription dated 1853 on half title. § First edition in book form in the first issue binding with "Price 5/" at foot of spine and all internal points noted by Smith. A nice copy. Smith I, 11. Dickens's shortest novel, first published in serial form in Household Words in the same year.

Charles Dickens' 'Hard Times' is a critical examination of Victorian industrial society and its impact on human life, depicting harsh realities of the era.