Hard times

Now with new illustrations. Listen along with downloadable MP3 audio. Thomas Gradgrind believes that facts and money are more important than feelings and imagination.

After Sissy Jupe - a circus child - is left alone in the world, Gradgrind takes her into his house, looking after her and teaching her facts with his own children Tom and Louisa.

Some years later the Gradgrind family meets hardtimes.

Louisa becomes a prisoner in a loveless marriage, and Tom has problems at work. In the end, Thomas Gradgrind learns the importance of feelings and imagination. Word count: 14,121CEFR: B1