Hard Times (novel) Gradgrind - a younger sister of Tom and Louisa Gradgrind who spends a lot of time with Sissy Jupe. She is cheerful, affectionate and despite looking similar to Louisa, in personality she is opposite. Dickens wished to educate readers about the working conditions of some of the factories in the industrial towns of Manchester, and Preston, to "strike the heaviest blow in my power", and as well to confront the assumption that prosperity runs parallel to morality. This notion he systematically deconstructed in through his portrayal of the moral monsters, Mr. Bounderby and James Harthouse. Dickens also believed in the
Letters of Charles Dickens more intimate than any biography", and the critic Nicholas Lezard recommended it in the "Guardian" with the words, "The whole book bursts with the author’s energy, and you will love him and know him better after reading even a few of these letters." Also in 2012, a 4-hour audiobook was issued by Naxos under the title "Charles Dickens: A Portrait in Letters", the readers being David Timson and Simon Callow. One reviewer wrote that they "create myriad personalities with varying accents, tones, class distinctions, and personal idiosyncrasies that are nearly flawless". Letters of Charles Dickens The letters of Charles Dickens,