Gradgrind develop his sons into perfect utilitarians. His physical description personified this characterisation of the rigid and insistent pedagogue: In a famous passage, a visiting official asks Gradgrind's students "Suppose you were going to carpet a room. Would you use a carpet having a representation of flowers upon it?" The character Sissy Jupe replies, ingenuously, that she would because, "If you please, sir, I am very fond of flowers." Gradgrind is the most dynamic character in "Hard Times" since he comes to recognize that emotions are important when his daughter Louisa has an emotional breakdown. The text of the entry is
Cedric Charles Dickens severe stroke following emergency surgery, and died on 11 February 2006 aged 89. His autobiography, "My Life", was published in 2016 to mark the centenary of his birth. Assembled from Dickens' own writings by his daughter Jane Monk and Marion Dickens Lloyd, the book has an introduction by Miriam Margolyes and was launched at the Charles Dickens Museum in September 2016. Cedric Charles Dickens Cedric David Charles Dickens (24 September 1916 – 11 February 2006) was an English author and businessman, and the last surviving great-grandson of Charles Dickens and steward of his literary legacy. Cedric "Ceddy" Dickens was the