Hard Times

Mr. Gradgrind, views himself as the most practical man in Coketown. He has raised his children, Tom and Louisa, to be no-nonsense, unimaginative, and unsentimental. His friend—obnoxious, wealthy Josiah Bounderby—employs Tom as a clerk at his bank, and marries Louisa, thirty years his junior. But soon emotionally-repressed Louisa is nearly seduced into committing adultery, and unscrupulous Tom is s...