Bleak House (1959 TV serial)

Bleak House (1959) is the first BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. It was adapted by Constance Cox as an eleven-part series of half-hour episodes first transmitted from 16 October 1959.

It stars Andrew Cruickshank in the role of John Jarndyce, Diana Fairfax as Esther Summerson and Colin Jeavons as Richard Carstone. The complete series still exists.

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Hard Times

Hard Times – For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and highlights the social and economic pressures of the times.

Background

Hard Times is unusual in several respects. It is by far the shortest of Dickens' novels, barely a quarter of the length of those written immediately before and after it. Also, unlike all but one of his other novels, Hard Times has neither a preface nor illustrations. Moreover, it is his only novel not to have scenes set in London. Instead the story is set in the fictitious Victorian industrial Coketown, a generic Northern English mill-town, in some ways similar to Manchester, though smaller. Coketown may be partially based on 19th-century Preston.

One of Dickens's reasons for writing Hard Times was that sales of his weekly periodical, Household Words, were low, and it was hoped the novel's publication in instalments would boost circulation – as indeed proved to be the case. Since publication it has received a mixed response from critics. Critics such as George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Macaulay have mainly focused on Dickens's treatment of trade unions and his post–Industrial Revolution pessimism regarding the divide between capitalist mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era. F. R. Leavis, a great admirer of the book, included it--but not Dickens' work as a whole--as part of his Great Tradition of English novels.

Hard Times (1915 film)

Hard Times is a 1915 British silent drama film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Bransby Williams, Leon M. Lion and Dorothy Bellew. It is based on the 1854 novel Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

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Hard Times (1975 film)

Hard Times is a 1975 film starring Charles Bronson as Chaney, a drifter who travels to Louisiana during the Great Depression and begins competing in illegal bare-knuckled boxing matches. The movie was Walter Hill's directorial debut.

Plot

Chaney (Charles Bronson), a mysterious, down-on-his luck drifter during the Great Depression, arrives in town in the boxcar of a freight train. He comes upon a bare-knuckled street fight run by gamblers. After the bout, he approaches one of the fight's organizers, the fast-talking "Speed" (James Coburn), and asks Speed to set up a fight. Betting his few dollars on himself, Chaney wins with a single punch.

Speed wants to become Chaney's manager. They travel to New Orleans, where Speed intends to enter Chaney against local fighters at long odds. Chaney takes a cheap sleeping room. At a diner, he meets Lucy Simpson (Jill Ireland), a lonely woman whose husband is in prison. They begin an uneasy affair.

Chaney cautions Speed that he wants to make a little money to "fill a few in-betweens," and then move on. Speed recruits a cutman, the medical school dropout Poe (Strother Martin). An opium addict ("a dyed in the wool hophead") Poe is relieved when Chaney accepts him.

A Tale of Two Cities (1917 film)

A Tale of Two Cities is a 1917 American silent historical drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring William Farnum, Jewel Carmen and Charles Clary. The film is based on Charles Dickens' novel of the same title, which has been filmed a number of times.

Plot summary

During the French Revolution a British lawyer courageously takes the place of a French aristocrat sentenced to be guillotined.

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A Tale of Two Cities (album)

A Tale of Two Cities is the debut album by British musical group Mr Hudson & The Library, released on 5 March 2007. It is named after the Charles Dickens novel of the same name.

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Great Expectations (Tasmin Archer album)

Great Expectations is the title of the debut full-length album by British singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer. Released in late 1992 on Capitol, it contained her sole American chart hit, "Sleeping Satellite", which peaked in the lower rungs of the Top 40 at number 32. The album itself reached a peak of 115 in the States. The single and album fared better in other parts of the world, however, such as Australia (single reached number 14; album peaked at 56).

Her success was more pronounced on her home turf, however. "Sleeping Satellite" went to number 1 both in the UK and Ireland, while sitting just outside the top 10 in Germany (number 12). Three more UK singles were released in the wake of her initial success: "In Your Care" (UK #16), "Lords of the New Church" (UK #26) and "Arienne" (UK #30). The success of those four singles pushed the album to Platinum Status in the UK for sales of over 300,000 copies.

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