Home > Hard Times Summary & Study Guide > Summary and Analysis > Book II, Chapters 1-3: Summary and Analysis

Hard Times | Book II, Chapters 1-3: Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1: Effects in the Bank
Chapter 2: Mr. James Harthouse
Chapter 3: The Whelp

New Character:
Mr. James Harthouse: a gentleman from London, newly recruited to Gradgrind’s party

Summary
It is the end of a hot summer day in Coketown, some time after Bounderby and Louisa’s wedding. Mrs. Sparsit is installed at the bank. Bitzer, Gradgrind’s diligent old pupil, now employed at the bank as a porter (and as Bounderby’s informant and spy) keeps her company while she consumes a late afternoon tea.

The conversation...





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