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Opening in the swirling mists of London, the novel revolves around a court case that has dragged on for decades?the infamous Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs.

Presents a relentless indictment against the callous greed of the Victorian industrial society and its misapplied utilitarian philosophy.

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, school headmaster in Cokestown, a northern English village beset by industrialism, runs his family and his school with a rigid adherence to facts, but his daughter's loveless marriage, his son's involvement with gambling and robbery, and his encounters with a variety of characters, force him to recognize the value of the human heart.