Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
payment page
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 16, 2023 June 9, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Hard Times is a novel by Charles Dickens that was published in late 1854 (as Hard Times for These Times) after having first appeared serialized in 20 weekly installments in Dickens’s publication Household Words between April and August 1854. Unusually short for a Dickens novel, Hard Times is set in a fictional medium-sized smoke-filled English mill-town called Coketown. As the title suggests, it is a somewhat bleak novel, focusing on the plight of the increasingly dehumanized factory workers as their lives are contrasted with those of the wealthy.
Read our detailed chapter-by-chapter Summary & Analysis or Full Book Summary of Hard Times.
See a complete list of the characters in Hard Times and in-depth analyses of Thomas Gradgrind, Louisa Gradgrind, Josiah Bounderby, and Stephen Blackpool.
Here's where you will find analysis of the major themes to motifs, symbols in Hard Times. as well as a listing of its point of view, tone, and other literary devices.
Find the quotes you need to support your essay, or refresh your memory of Hard Times.
Test your knowledge of Hard Times with quizzes about every section, major characters, themes, symbols, and more.
Increase your knowledge of Hard Times by reading background information about Charles Dickens and his novel as well as mini essays about the characters of Mrs. Sparsit and Bounderby.
