Which phrase best describes the general mood of 18th century Great Britain?

No Frank............. the category is the button you hit in order to choose Hard Times. You don't want to do that...........

Hard Times reveals Dickens' increased interest in class issues and social commentary. In contrast to the earliest work, like the more "playful" novel, The Pickwick Papers, Hard Times is seen by critics as being more in line with the novels published immediately before it: Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, and Bleak House. While Hard Times does not have the epic proportions of some of Dickens's other work, the concern for the plight of the poor and the hypocrisy of the leisure class is more explicit than it had been previously.