Information about Hard Times

For other uses see Hard Times (disambiguation).

Hard Times

Author	Charles Dickens
Country	Britain
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel Social criticism
Publisher	Wordsworth (UK)
Publication date	1854
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	NA

Hard Times is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book is one of a number of state-of-the-nation novels published around the same time, another being North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, which aimed to highlight the social and economic pressures that some people were experiencing. The novel is unusual in that it is not set in London as was Dickens' wont, but in the fictitious Victorian industrial town of Coketown. It has met mixed critical response from a diverse range of critics, such as F.R. Leavis, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Macaulay. This was usually for Dickens' treatment of trade unions, coupled with post-Industrial Revolution pessimism regarding the divide between capitalistic mill owners and undervalued workers during the Victorian era of Britain.

Background and publication

Dickens' reasons for writing Hard Times were monetary, educational and critical. Sales of his weekly pulp fiction periodical, Household Words, were low and so he published the novel in instalments in an attempt to increase sales. Pertaining to the educational reason, Dickens wished to satirize radical Utilitarians whom he described in a letter to Charles Knight as 'see[ing] figures and averages, and nothing else'. He also wished to campaign for reform of working conditions. Dickens had visited factories in Manchester as early as 1839, and was aghast at and appalled by the environment in which workers toiled. Drawing upon his own childhood experiences, Dickens resolved to 'strike the heaviest blow in my power' for those who laboured in horrific conditions.

Prevalence of utilitarianism

The Utilitarians were one of the targets of Dickens' mordancy in this novel. Utilitarianism was a particularly prevalent school of thought during this period, its most famous proponent being John Stuart Mill. Theoretical Utilitarian ethics hold that a passionless promotion of general social welfare is the ultimate goal for the individual and society in general, a position which may best be summarised as that which promotes 'the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people'. In the novel, this idea is conveyed in Bitzer's response to Gradgrind's appeal for compassion. Dickens was appalled by what was, in his interpretation, a selfish philosophy, which was combined with materialist laissez-faire capitalism in the education of some children at the time, as well as in industrial practices. In Dickens' interpretation, the prevalence of utilitarian values in educational institutions promoted contempt between millowners and workers, creating young adults whose imaginations had been neglected, due to an over-emphasis on facts at the expense of more imaginative pursuits.

John Stuart Mill had a similar, rigorous education to that of Louisa Gradgrind, consisting of analytical, logical, mathematical, and statistical exercises. In his twenties, Mill had a nervous breakdown, believing his capacity for emotion had been enervated by his father's stringent emphasis on analysis and mathematics in his education. In the book, Louisa herself follows a parallel course, being unable to express herself and falling into a temporary depression as a result of her dry education.

Statistics

The spurious usage of statistics is a subject about which Dickens expresses great anger. It is worth noting that, in his lifetime, Dickens did not decry the wholesale usage of statistics, per se, such as for reformative and sanitary purposes, but Dickens demonstrates how this information can be subjected to perversion and abuse, for purposes of subjugation and creating statistics that are class-biased. Nicholas Coles points out in his work The Politics of Hard Times: Dickens the Novelist versus Dickens the Reformer, that Dickens' critique was:

"against statistics as a form of social knowledge, a way of knowing which necessarily constitutes the object of its knowledge - in this case the working class and their conditions of life - in particular ways and which thereby dictates particular approaches to it. It is statistics as what Michel Foucault would call a disciplinary technology of knowledge, as a mechanism for moral and political surveillance and restraint."

Dickens also rails against the potentially oppressive use of statistics to justify the unequal distribution of wealth. One of many instances in which the fact-bound, "metallurgical" characters in the novel attempt to indoctrinate those who still have "tender imaginations" appears in Chapter IX. Asked to state the first principle of political economy, Sissy, a young student, responds "To do unto others as I would that they should do unto me." Mr. Gradgrind sees this innocent substitution of the Golden Rule for the rule of self-interest as absurd and says disapprovingly that the girl's answer "[is] very bad." Thus Dickens' critique of this discipline extends his critique of statistics, as another form of knowledge as power, rather than compassionate knowledge.

Publication

The novel was published as a serial in his weekly publication, Household Words. Sales were highly responsive and encouraging for Dickens who remarked that he was 'Three parts mad, and the fourth delirious, with perpetual rushing at Hard Times '. The novel was serialised, every week, between April 1 and August 12 1854. It sold well, and a complete volume was published in August, totalling 110,000 words. Another related novel, North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, was also published in this magazine.

Extremely popular when first written—it doubled the circulation of Household Words, the journal in which it was serialized—the book was for some time thought inferior to other works in the Dickens canon. It was considered perhaps too polemical. More recently it has been acclaimed again by critics as one of Dickens's important works, and the vividness of its language, its allegorical power, and engagement with issues of imagination, utilitarianism and domesticity acknowledged. The earlier great Dickens novels also appeared first in serial form.

Plot summary

Dickens' novel follows the classical tripartite structure of novels, and the titles of each book are related to Galatians 6:7, 'For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' The interpretation of this quote being, what ever is effected upon or done in the present will have a direct effect on what happens later. Book I is entitled 'Sowing', Book II is entitled 'Reaping', and the third is 'Garnering'. These titles are a deliberate motif used, and have to be borne in mind when reading the book and analysing its narrative and content.

Book I: Sowing

Mr. Gradgrind, whose voice is 'dictatorial', opens the novel by stating 'Now, what I want is facts' at his school in Coketown. He is a man of 'facts and calculations.' He interrogates one of his pupils, Sissy, whose father is involved with the circus, the members of which are 'Fancy' in comparison to Gradgrind's espousal of 'Fact'. Since her father rides and tends to horses, Gradgrind offers Sissy the definition of 'veterinary surgeon'. She is rebuffed for not being able to define a horse factually; her classmate Bitzer does, however, provide a factual definition. She does not learn easily, and is censured for suggesting that she would carpet a floor with pictures of flowers "So you would carpet your room - or your husband's room, if you were a grown woman, and had a husband - with representations of flowers, would you? Why would you?". She is taught to disregard 'Fancy altogether'.

Louisa and Thomas, two of Mr. Gradgrind's children, pay a visit after school to the touring circus run by Mr. Sleary, only to find their father, who is disconcerted by their trip since he believes the circus to be the bastion of Fancy and conceit. With their father, Louisa and Tom trudge off in a despondent mood.

Mr. Gradgrind does have three younger children, however they do not feature in the book or film. They receive only a mention.



Josiah Bounderby, 'a man perfectly devoid of sentiment', is revealed as being Gradgrind's closest friend. Bounderby is a manufacturer and millowner who is affluent as a result of his enterprise and capital. Bounderby is what one might call a 'self-made man' who has risen from the 'gutter'. He is not averse to giving dramatic summaries of his childhood, which terrify Mr. Gradgrind's weak wife who is often rendered insensate by these horrific stories. He is described in an acerbic manner as being 'the Bully of Humility'.

Mr. Gradgrind and Bounderby visit the public-house where Sissy resides to inform her that she cannot attend the school anymore due to the risk of her ideas propagating in the class. Sissy meets the two collaborators, informing them her father has abandoned her not out of malice, but out of desire for Sissy to lead a better life without him. This was the reasoning behind him enlisting her at Gradgrind's school and Gradgrind is outraged at this desertion. At this point members of the circus appear, fronted by their manager Mr. Sleary. Mr. Gradgrind gives Sissy a choice: either to return to the circus and forfeit her education, or to continue her education and never to return to the circus. Sleary and Gradgrind both have their say on the matter, and at the behest of Josephine Sleary she decides to leave the circus and bid all the close friends she had formed farewell.

Back at the Gradgrind house, Tom and Louisa sit down and discuss their feelings, however repressed they seem to be. Tom, already at this present stage of education finds himself in a state of dissatisfaction, and Louisa also expresses her discontent at her childhood while staring into the fire. Louisa's ability to wonder, however, has not been entirely extinguished by her rigorous education based in Fact.

We are introduced to the workers at the mills, known pejoratively as the 'Hands.' Amongst them is a man named Stephen Blackpool or 'Old Stephen' who has led a toilsome life. He is described as a 'man of perfect integrity'. He has ended his day's work, and his close companion Rachael is about somewhere. He eventually meets up with her, and they walk home discussing their day. On entering his house he finds that his drunken wretch of a wife, who has been in exile from Coketown, has made an unwelcome return to his house. She is unwell, and mumbles inebriated remarks to Stephen, who is greatly perturbed by this event.

The next day, Stephen makes a visit to Bounderby to try and end his woeful, childless marriage through divorce. Mrs. Sparsit, Mr. Bounderby's paid companion, is 'dejected by the impiety' of Stephen and Bounderby explains that he could not afford to effect an annulment anyway. Stephen is very bewildered and dejected by this verdict given by Bounderby.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gradgrind prepares to talk to his daughter about a "business proposal," but she is seemingly apathetic in his company, and this seems to frustrate Mr. Gradgrind's efforts. He says that a proposal of marriage has been made to Louisa by Josiah Bounderby, who is some 30 years her senior. Gradgrind uses statistics to prove that an age inequity in marriage does not prove an unhappy or short marriage however. Louisa passively accepts this offer. Bounderby is rendered ecstatic by the news, as is Louisa's mother, who again is so overwhelmed that she is overcome yet again. Sissy is confounded by but piteous of Louisa.

Book 2: Reaping

Book Two opens with the attention focused on Bounderby's new bank in Coketown, of which Bitzer alongside the austere Mrs. Sparsit keep watch at night for intruders or burglars. A dashing gentleman enters, asking for directions to Gradgrind's house, as he has been hired to teach in his school. It is James Harthouse, a languid fellow, who has failed to find his calling in life, and idly gallivants from task to task.

Harthouse is introduced to Bounderby, who again reverts to almost improbable stories of his childhood to entertain Gradgrind. Harthouse is utterly bored by the blusterous millowner, yet is astounded by his wife, Louisa and notices her melancholy nature. Louisa's brother Tom works for Bounderby, and he has become reckless and wayward in his conduct, despite his meticulous education. Tom decides to take a liking to James Harthouse, on the basis of his clothes, showing his superficiality. Tom is later debased to animal status, as he comes to be referred to as the 'whelp', a denunciatory term for a young man. Tom is very forthcoming in his contempt for Bounderby in the presence of Harthouse, who soaks up all these secretive revelations.

Stephen journeys to Bounderby's retreat in the country to inform him of his abstention from joining the union led by the orator Slackbridge, and Bounderby accuses Stephen of fealty and of pledging an oath of secrecy to the union. Stephen denies this, and states that he avoided the Union because of a promise he'd made earlier to Rachael. Bounderby is bedevilled by this conflict of interest and accuses Stephen of being 'waspish'. He dismisses him on the spot, on the basis that he has betrayed both employer and union. Later on a bank theft takes place at the Bounderby bank, and Stephen Blackpool is inculpated in the crime, due to him loitering around the bank coincidentally, the night before the robbery.

Sparsit observes that the relationship between James Harthouse and Louisa is moving towards a near tryst. She sees Louisa as moving down her 'staircase', metaphorically speaking. She sets off from the bank to spy upon them, and catches them at what seems to be a propitious moment. However, despite Harthouse confessing his love to Louisa, Louisa is restrained, and refuses an affair. Sparsit is infatuated with the idea that the two do not know they are being observed. Harthouse departs as does Louisa, and Mrs. Sparsit tries to stay in pursuit, thinking that Louisa is going to assent to the affair, Louisa has not though. She follows Louisa to the train station assuming that Louisa has hired a coachman to dispatch her to Coketown. Sparsit however, misses the fact that Louisa has instead boarded a train to her father's house. Sparsit relinquishes defeat and proclaims 'I have lost her!' When Louisa arrives at her father's house, she is revealed to be in an extreme state of disconsolate grief. She accuses her father of allowing her the opportunity to have an innocent childhood, and that her rigorous education has stifled her ability to express her emotions. Louisa collapses at her father's feet, into an insensible torpor.

Book 3: Garnering

Mrs. Sparsit arrives at Mr. Bounderby's house, and reveals to him the news her surveillance has brought. Mr. Bounderby, who is rendered irate by this news, journeys to Stone Lodge, where Louisa is resting. Mr. Gradgrind, tries to disperse calm upon the scene, and reveals that Louisa resisted the temptation of adultery. Bounderby is inconsolable and he is immensely indignant and ill-mannered towards everyone present, including Mrs. Sparsit, for her falsehood. Bounderby finishes by offering the ultimatum to Louisa of returning to Bounderby, by 12 o'clock the next morning, else the marriage is surfeited. Suffice to say, Mr. Bounderby resumes his bachelorhood, when the request is not met.

The erstwhile Harthouse leaves Coketown, on an admonition from Sissy Jupe, never to return. He submits. Meanwhile, Mr. Gradgrind and Louisa cast suspicions that Tom, the 'whelp', may have committed the bank robbery. Stephen Blackpool who has been absent from Coketown, trying to find mill work under a pseudonym, tries to exculpate himself from the robbery. On walking back to Coketown, he falls down the 'Old Hell Shaft', an old pit, completing his terminal bad luck in life. He is rescued by villagers, but after speaking to Rachael for the last time, he dies.

Louisa suspects that Tom had a word with Stephen, making a false offerance to him, therefore urging him to loiter outside of the bank. Mr. Gradgrind and Sissy concur with this theory and resolve themselves to find Tom, since he is in danger. Sissy makes a plan for rescue and escape however, and she reveals that she suspected Tom early on during the proceedings. She sends Tom off to the circus that she used to be a part of namely, Mr. Sleary's. Louisa and Sissy travel to the circus, to see how Tom is. Remorselessly, Tom says that he had little money, and that robbery has the only solution to his dilemma. Mr. Sleary is not aware of this and agrees to help him reach Liverpool, and Mr. Gradgrind, prays that his son is able to board a ship that will send him to the faraway Americas. The party is stopped, however, by Bitzer, who is anxious to claim his reward for the misdemeanour. The 'excellent young man' is entreated to show compassion and questions whether he has a heart, to which Bitzer, cynically responds, that of course he has a heart, and that the 'circulation could not be carried on without one'. Sleary is dismayed by this revelation, and agrees to take Bitzer and Tom to the bank without any further delays. However, he sees that Mr. Gradgrind has been kind to Sissy, and agrees to detain and divert Bitzer whilst Tom leaves for Liverpool.

Returning to Coketown, Mrs. Sparsit is relieved of her duty to Bounderby who has no qualms about firing a lady, however 'highly connected' she may be. The final chapter of the book details the fates of the characters. Mrs. Sparsit returns to live with her aunt, Lady Scadgers. The two have feelings of acrimony towards each other. Bounderby dies of a fit in a street one day, having squandered his fortune on speculation. Tom dies in the Americas, having begged for penitence in a half-written letter to his sister, Louisa. Louisa herself grows old and never remarries. Mr. Gradgrind abandons his Utilitarian stance, which brings contempt from his fellow MPs, who give him a hard time. Rachael continues to labour while still consistently maintaining her work ethic and honesty. Sissy is the moral victor of the story, as her children have also escaped the desiccative education of the Gradgrind school and grown learned in 'childish lore'.

Characters in "Hard Times"

Major characters

In Hard Times it can be affirmed that there is no main protagonist. A criticism of Dicken's novels is that the intricate plots and eventual denouement mean that several characters are involved only to represent ideas of Dickens, usually at the expense of their development as human beings, ergo, representing straw men and women.

Mr. Thomas Gradgrind

Tom Gradgrind is a utilitarian who is the founder of the educational system in Coketown. 'Eminently practical' is Gradgrind's recurring description throughout the novel, and practicality is something he zealously aspires to. He represents the stringency of 'Fact', statistics and other materialistic pursuits. Only after his daughter's breakdown does he come to a realisation that things such as poetry, fiction and other pursuits are not 'destructive nonsense'.

Josiah Bounderby

Josiah Bounderby is a business associate of Mr. Gradgrind. He is a bombastic, yet thunderous merchant given to lecturing others, and boasting about being a self-made man. He employs many of the other central characters of the novel, and his rise to prosperity is shown to be an example of social mobility. He marries Mr. Gradgrind's daughter Louisa, some 30 years his junior, in what turns out to be a loveless marriage. Bounderby is the main target of Dickens' attack on the supposed moral superiority of the wealthy, and is revealed to be an utter hypocrite in his sensational comeuppance at the end of the novel.

Louisa Bounderby nee Gradgrind (AKA "Loo")

Louisa is the unemotional, distant and eldest child of the Gradgrind family. She has been taught to abnegate her emotions, and finds it hard to express herself clearly, saying as a child she has 'unmanageable thoughts'. She is married to Josiah Bounderby, in a very logical and businesslike manner, representing the emphasis on factuality and business pathos of her education. Her union is a disaster and she is tempted into adultery by James Harthouse, yet, she manages to resist this temptation with help from Sissy.

Cecilia Jupe (AKA "Sissy")

The embodiment of imagination, hope and faith. Abandoned by her father, a circus performer at Sleary's circus. Gradgrind offers Sissy the chance to study at his school and to come and live at Stone Lodge with the Gradgrind children. Due to Sissy's high morals and natural warm-heartedness she has a huge influence on the Gradgrind family. When Mrs Gradgrind dies she largely takes over the role of mothering the younger Gradgrind Children: Jane, Adam Smith and Malthus.

Stephen Blackpool

'Ol' Stephen' as he is referred to by his fellow 'Hands' is an improvident, indigent worker at one of Bounderby's mills. His life is immensely strenuous, and he is married to a constantly inebriated wife who comes and goes throughout the novel. He forms a close bond with Rachael, a female worker. After a dispute with Bounderby, he is dismissed from his work at the Coketown mills and is forced to find work elsewhere. Whilst absent from Coketown he is accused of being guilty of a crime that he has been framed for. Tragically, on his way back to vindicate himself he falls into a pit, and seriously injures himself. He is rescued, but dies of the pain of the fall.

Stephen is a man "of perfect integrity", a man who will never give up his moral stand point to follow along with the crowd (which leads to the conflict with Slackbridge and the Trade Union).

Other characters

As with the major characters, the other existing characters play the role, in the novel, of representing Dickens' ideas. She is a working-class circus performer who is abandoned by her father, who has to leave the circus and is partially 'educated' by Thomas Gradgrind, and the delightfully ludicrously named Mr. M'Choakumchild. Bitzer is a classmate of Sissy's and brought up on facts and is taught to operate according to self-interest. He takes up a job in Bounderby's bank, later on in the novel. Mrs. Sparsit, is a 'classical' widow who has fallen upon despairing circumstances, she is employed by Bounderby, yet her officiousness and prying get her fired in a humorous send-off by Bounderby. James Harthouse who enters the novel in the 2nd book, is an indolent, languid, upper-class gentleman, who arrives in Coketown hoping to enter into Parliament with the help of Gradgrind. Other characters include Tom Gradgrind, Louisa's brother; Signor Jupe, Sissy's father; Mrs. Pegler, a 'mysterious old woman'; Slackbridge, a dishonourable union leader; Mr. Sleary, the manager of a circus, who speaks with a lisp; and Mrs. Gradgrind, the wife of Mr. Gradgrind who is an invalid.

Major themes

Relating back to Dickens' aim to, 'strike the heaviest blow in my power', he wished to educate readers about the working conditions of some of the factories in the industrial towns of Manchester, and Preston. Relating to this also, Dickens wished to expose the assumption that prosperity runs parallel to morality, something which is cruelly shattered in this novel, due to his portrayal of the moral monsters, Mr. Bounderby, and James Harthouse, the cynical aristocrats. Dickens was also campaigning for the importance of imagination in life, and not for people's life to be reduced to a collection of material facts and statistical analysis. Dickens' favorable portrayal of the Circus, who he describes as caring so 'little for Plain Fact', is an example of this.

Fact vs. Fancy

This theme is developed early on in this novel the bastion of 'Fact' being the 'eminently practical' Mr. Gradgrind, and his 'model' school, which teaches nothing but Facts. Any imaginative or aesthetic subjects are eradicated from the curriculum, but analysis, deduction and mathematics are emphasized. Conversely, Fancy is the opposite of Fact, encompassing, fiction, music, poetry, and novelty shows such as Sleary's circus. It is interesting that Mr. Sleary is reckoned to be a fool by the Fact men, but it is Sleary who realises people must be 'amuthed' (amused) . This is made cognisant by Tom's sybaritic gambling and Louisa, who is virtually soulless as a young child, and as a married woman. Bitzer, who has adhered to Gradgrind's teachings as a child, turns out to be an uncompassionate egotist.

Officiousness, spying and knowledge

Prying and knowledge is key to several characters, namely Mrs. Sparsit and Mr. Bounderby. Mr. Bounderby spends his whole time fabricating stories about his childhood, covering up the real nature of his upbringing, which is solemnly revealed at the end of the novel. While not a snooper himself, he is undone by Sparsit unwittingly revealing the mysterious old woman to be his own mother, and she unravels Josiah's secrets about his upbringing and fictitious stories. Mr. Bounderby himself superintends through calculating tabular statements and statistics, and is always secretly rebuking the people of Coketown for indulging in conceitful activities. This gives Bounderby a sense of superiority, as it does with Mrs. Sparsit, who prides herself on her salacious knowledge gained from spying on others. All 'superintendents' of the novel are undone in one way, or another.

Honesty

This is closely related to Dickens' typical social commentary, which is a theme he uses throughout his entire œuvre. Dickens' portrays the wealthy in this novel, as being morally corrupt. Bounderby has no moral scruples, and this is evidenced when he fires Blackpool 'for a novelty'. He also conducts himself without any shred of decency, frequently losing his temper. He is cynically false about his childhood. Harthouse, a leisured gent, is compared to an 'iceberg' who will cause a wreck unwittingly, due to him being 'not a moral sort of fellow', as he states himself. On the opposite spectrum, Stephen Blackpool, a destitute worker, is equipped with perfect morals, always abiding by his promises, and he is always thoughtful and considerate of others, as is Sissy Jupe.

Literary significance & criticism

Despite being a bestselling novel, critics have been found to have a diverse range of opinions on Dickens' novel. Renowned critic John Ruskin declared Hard Times to be his favourite Dickens work due to its exploration of important social questions. However, Thomas Macaulay branded it "sullen socialism", because it is clear that Dickens did not fully comprehend the politics of the time. This point was also made by George Bernard Shaw, who decreed Hard Times to be a novel of 'passionate revolt against the whole industrial order of the modern world'. Shaw criticized the novel for its failure to provide an accurate account of trade unionism of the time deeming Dickens' character of Slackbridge, the poisonous orator as 'a mere figment of middle-class imagination'.

The prominent literary critic F. R. Leavis, in his controversial book, The Great Tradition, described the book as essentially being a 'moral fable', and awarded it the distinction of being a 'work of art', decreeing it the only significant novel of Dickens worth scrutinizing.

Walter Allen, in an introduction to an alternative edition, characterised Hard Times as being an unsurpassed 'critique of industrial society', which was later superseded by works of D. H. Lawrence. Other writers have described the novel as being as G. K. Chesterton commented on the book in his work Appreciations and Criticisms, 'the harshest of his stories', whereas George Orwell praised the novel and Dickens' himself, for its 'generous anger'.

References

• Ackroyd, Peter (1991). Dickens: A Biography. Harpercollins. ISBN 0-06-016602-9. 
• Dickens, Charles (1854). Hard Times. Wordsworth: Printing Press. ISBN 1-85326-232-3. 
• House. M.; Storey. G. & Tillotson. K. (1993). The Pilgrim Edition of the letters of Charles Dickens, Vol VIII.. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-812617-4. 
• Leavis, F. R. (1970). The Great Tradition. Chatto and Windus. 
• Thorold, Dinny (1995). Introduction to Hard Times. Wordsworth: Printing Press. 
• 1870 illustrations of Hard Times. Harry French's Twenty Plates for Dickens's "Hard Times for These Times " in the British Household Edition (1870s). Retrieved on May 23, 2005.
• Basic summary of Hard Times. ClassicNotes: Hard Times Short Summary. Retrieved on May 23, 2005.
• Hard Times. Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton. Retrieved on July 31, 2007.
• Hard Times: An Introduction. Hard Times: An Introduction by Walter Ellis. Retrieved on May 23, 2005.

External links

Online editions

• Hard Times, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Hard Times – complete book in HTML one page for each chapter.
• Hard Times - Searchable HTML version.
• Hard Times - Easy to read HTML version.
• Hard Times - PDF scan of entire novel as it originally appeared in The Strand Magazine.

Filmed versions