The dehumanizing effects of heavy industrialization are given form and bitter indictment in this Dickens novel. Raised by a hard, pragmatic father concerned only with sterile principles, Tom and Louisa Gradgrind grow up with little imagination,...
Henry James’s admiration for “this masterly little novel” has been echoed throughout the twentieth century by readers of Pierre et Jean. It marked a turning point in the development of French fiction, situated as it is between traditional...