This is the sixth volume to be published in "The Dickens Companions"
series. Information is arranged in the form of notes presented for
convenient use with any edition of Hard Times. Short notes supply
historical data on a variety of topics. Longer, discursive notes
assemble facts and contextual information which students need in order
to understand issues central to the novel. Thus, for example, details
about food, costume and transport appear alongside notes about the
political and social concerns of the day. To help readers find annotated
material from the novel's text, "The Companion" provides in italics the
opening phrase of the paragraph to which the annotation refers, followed
in bold by the words or passage to be annotated and then the explanatory
note. Readers of the novel in search of more information about a note or
phrase have only to find the appropriate chapter in "The Companion",
looking for the italicized phrase that identifies the paragraph and then
the bold
entry. This format makes accessible to any reader allusions that may
seem otherwise dense or puzzling, as well as providing dependable
factual information about the novel's historical and cultural
background, especially helpful to students. Each book is the result of
extensive research, making the series useful to the community of
scholars interested both in Dickens and in all aspects of Victorian
Britain.
