Hard Times by Charles Dickens

I can't say that I completely enjoyed Hard Times. I loved A Tale of Two Cities but this one was stylistically really different - probably due to the time constraints that Dickens was trying to get used to. The style was really dry and the introduction mentions that he wrote more "journalistically" (or something) which to me translates to "dry and boring".

I'm not quite sure as to what it was but I think it's because he took too long to build up the characters and when the plot finally started moving I had lost interest in the novel. I had picked it up a while ago and it took me quite some time to finish this less than 300 page book. It shouldn't have taken me this long to finish it but I kept putting it down for more engaging texts (Disgrace was a much easier read... probably also because it's modern fiction...).

At any rate, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone except those in academic circles because it really is just an academic read. The middle of the novel is so un-engaging (for a lack of a better word) that even if it ends quite nicely, I would hesitate to say that the novel is "good."

However, the introduction does mention that he was adjusting and how suffocating a weekly serial was for him so I mean I can see how the time constraints affected his writing. Hopefully my next Dickens novel will be a better experience.