An honest review of Hard Times - read me

Advantages: Very interesting and thought provoking with a genuinely good storyline
Disadvantages: Difficult to get into, and very complicated in places -not a light read

...demonstrate the injustice and make the reader empathise with him) Hard Times is about Mr. Gradgrind; a characture which Dickens likens very ofter to a stone. He has a daughter, Louisa, whom he has brought up in his system of 'Facts' and who has never had the oportunity to experience fancy. She shows very little emotion throughout the book. Mr. Gradgrind's friend, Mr. Bounderby, has his eyes set on marrying Louisa from the very beginning. Even though Dickens makes it clear that she hates him, she does not see her own life as important enough to refuse so because of this, duty to her father, and her slimy brother, Tom's persuasion, she marry's Mr. Bounderby. Having married him, another slimy character, Mr. Harthouse enters the picture, and attempt to woo Louisa into commiting adultery. However, with the help of the angelic Sissy, he leaves town...

allie_cat 01.06.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hard Times - Charles Dickens

Hard Times certainly not hard going

Advantages: Very evocative mood, the usual great characters.
Disadvantages: Not very exciting, if you must have excitement.

...In some ways, Hard Times isn't altogether my cup of tea. I tend to prefer Dickens' contemporary Wilkie Collins to the man himself, possibly due to an infantile yearning for obvious 'excitement' as I read. And Hard Times is about as far from Collins that Dickens gets: very little 'action' as such and a large amount of social comment. However, I find the book absolutely absorbing, compulsive reading. The reader doesn't turn the pages to find out what happened so much as simply for the pleasure of reading. In terms of Dickens' work, I rate it below Oliver Twist and above A Tale of Two Cities. In Hard Times, Dickens creates a set of characters based in a 'typical' industrial town, taking the spectrum of social class from the workers to their employers, taking in circus artists, a schoolmaster and a washed-up ex-aristocrat along...

DavidBedford 17.05.2001 · Read review
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Review of Hard Times - Charles Dickens

Hard Going

Advantages: Decent parable
Disadvantages: Atrocious work of fiction, try Our Mutual Friend instead

...When your sitting in English and your teacher tells you the standard question for a book is something along the lines of "Is it a novel or a parable?" you know its not going to be an easy read. In the case of Hard Times you might be forgiven for thinking that it will be a difficult read because its by Dickens and its victorian. You'd be wrong. The problem is not when it was written but how it was written. Hard times is a story about education and society's desire for wealth rather than spiritual happiness. It begins with the education of Tom and Louisa Gradgrind and shows how their factual education makes their lives difficult. Louisa marries Mr Bounderby, a bad choice and is tempted by unfaithfulness before running back to her father. Tom steals money and has to be helped abroad. Other characters such as Stephen Blackpool...

Telute 12.03.2001 · Read review
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Review of Hard Times - Charles Dickens

You won't have a hard time reading this

Advantages: Keeps you hooked until the end
Disadvantages: It set in an american prison

...Hard Times main character is John Constantine. Constantine appears to be a chain smoking mystery man who wanders through the book while things seem to happen around him. The key-word in the previous sentence was "seem" in reality Constantine is the instigator of much that happens in the book whetehr this is due to what he does or simply because he is there is another matter. The book is set in an american prison. It begins with Constanites arrival and we see him being given a guided tour by Tray, leader of a gang. The tour shows us the different factions within the prison, the nazis, muslims, lifers and bikers. Each faction is depicted as tough and Tray makes clear that anyone outside a gang won't last long. At the same time we are shown the thoughts of Tray's "wife" Candy, these make clear the importance of attaching yourself...

Telute 25.04.2001 (27.04.2001) · Read review
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Review of Hellblazer: Hard Time - Brian Azzarello

Hard-Fi back with a vengeance!

Advantages: Great songs, band has developed a lot since 1st album
Disadvantages: None

...Most bands struggle desperately to recreate the quality of their debut album, and in the case of Hard-fi, they certainly had a big act to follow, but in my opinion they have delivered the goods in style with this cracking record. Usually I find myself disappointed with follow-up albums, but this is one of the only follow-ups that is as good as, or even surpasses the original. In my view, "Once Upon A Time In The West" is even better than debut record "Stars of CCTV." To fully appreciate an album, I truly believe that one must listen to it in its entirety. As a completework, this is a great album. With songs such as "Suburban Nights" and "Can't Get Along Without You", the band has reproduced some of the edgey quality that brought them to the dance with their debut album, while songs such as "We Need Love" and "Tonight...

MrEvans101 23.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of Once Upon A Time In The West - Hard-Fi

Once Upon A Time In The West - Hard-Fi

Advantages: Some nice string harmony meddlies.Vocally quite good.Similar to Kasabian and Kaiser Chiefs.
Disadvantages: Bit samish and really all that memorable.

......

SpookyMoon 29.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Once Upon A Time In The West - Hard-Fi

Die Hard

Advantages: Brucieeee! :-D
Disadvantages: Some acting isnt wonderful...

...Love this film :-p And not only because its got a VERY sexy Bruce Willis running around!!!! The film has been on TV alot recently, possibly promoting the new Die Hard 4.0 film, and I was (forced!!) to watch it with my husband, I didn't want to...its not my kind of film, but when we watched it, I found it amazing!!! Yes some of the acting of the foreign men (Karl), isn't wonderful, but other than that, the film is amazing! The story line is gripping, the characters are played wonderfully by the actors, and theres the right amount of comic factors in there to make it light hearted whilst still been a good action film! The basic storyline is that of a police agent who goes to see his wife and kids who he lives apart from in new york for christmas, but when he is at the office block she works in, all hell breaks loose and a huge...

stephbond89 17.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Die Hard (DVD)

The Hard Way

Advantages: Great plot and good pace to the book
Disadvantages: predictable

...think for fans of the author this is a very clever ploy to make you buy another one of his books. Overall I think this book was well written and I enjoyed it when the story shifted to Britain as the characters tried to fit into British life and talked more about things and places I could relate to. Conclusion: A very enjoyable if slightly predictable read. I would recommend this author to anyone who has not tried him who likes action thrillers. As I think if you have read one of Lee's books either love or hate the Jack Reacher's character. For me I think I will not try another Lee Child novel for quite some time. As I feel I understand his style and know now what to expect from any one of his books. There are so many good authors' out there still waiting to be read. I will try a different one next time. Thanks for reading my...

CPTDANIELS 08.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Hard Way - Lee Child

Time for a Good Hard Rant!!!

Advantages: At least I will feel better after this.
Disadvantages: You may be one of the people that have been offended by this.

...Time for a rant and this will I feel offend some of you out there, but oh well. So there are many things in life that bug the living daylights out of me and believe it or not quite a few of my dislikes revolve around this website, so without further ado here goes nothing. Food Reviews So first up we have the food review sections, now before you lot start, I know that I have written a review on a chocolate bar myself but if you take a closer look at it again please take note of the thick layers of sarcasm that the review came loaded with. Now the main problem I have with this section is who seriously uses it, I mean before you go out and buy that pack of ?Bernard Matthews Turkey Drumsticks? from the supermarket do you expect me to believe that you come on to Ciao and start typing T.U.R?., well come on raise your hand if you do. Hmmm...

HarryKgh 22.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Frustrations with Ciao

Time for me to call Time

Advantages: Illustrated topical serious current affairs articles
Disadvantages: US voice, very little "feel-good" factor

...or have missed a week, these don?t make a lot of sense. So to sum up. It is an interesting publication. If you like to keep abreast of current affairs then it will give you a different perspective to that in the UK media. It is for the serious-minded, and some of the articles make hard reading. It is definitely not for the faint-hearted as it does not shy away from harrowing detail, and you must be prepared to tolerate the US style of writing. When my free subscription runs out, I will miss it but I will not be renewing it. For further details: If you want to subscribe, the easiest way is probably to visit www.timeeurope.com/customerservice - when I tried this, an advert popped up offering 4 free copies of Time + remaining 48 issues for total annual subscription of £35.88 for the year which they claim is 77% off the cover price...

Discerna 09.05.2003 · Read review
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Review of Time