Having read Hard Times, I think this is a very good novel, and also very representative of what Charles Dickens style writing is. This novel was very enjoyable for the middle-class in the moment it was written, provideing such a high and sophisticated elements in the story: a lot of vitality in his characters, animation in objects, and also caricaturization and exageration in some aspects of the characters. But I think that this is not only a novel that wants to entertain people, but I consider it like a kind of writing that appeals to good sentiments and kindness despite all the big amount of cruelty and dramatism it can show in some pasages.
Kindness I would consider as the key word in this novel, since kindness, good heart are the main power and we find at the end how generosity prevaleces over everything. Dickens works a lot in connection with kindness, because he considered it as something the readers trust: it is not a matter how sad or unfair the situations are, the reader trusts in a final kindness over that grey and sordid world.
This story appears as a kind of exam of the society of that moment, showing the evil aspects of some people, although at the end of the day, it is hoped a little bit of kindness in order to mend everything. Dickens explores this element in human heart, and puts it in his novel as something definitive.

Another aspect I would like to consider is that Dickens is very active and alive narrator. He provides a very own voice along the whole text, and this is noticeable. We can see his style in the characterization of the characters, providing very significant names to them ( as to Gradgring or Blackpool). Also very inocent characters that are suffering in this world ( it contributes to dramatism), showing at the same time the corruption of this world, and also implicating a kind of moral reform due to the experiences they have to bear.

Finally, I think this is a very grey novel with social transformations due to the industrial revolution ( showing powerful economists v.s. working-class, where the first ones do not seem to be very humans, and the second ones, are even mistreated. There is also a philosophical aspect: the utilitarism ( what is good for the greater part, is also good for the minor part), so art or literature do not seem to be very useful here. This is an aspect showed in Grandgrind and his family: they are not very happy, so utilitarism could mean sadness.
I also can observe a lot of contrasts in this novel: rich world v.s. poor people; industrialism and utilitarism v.s. imagination; a hard and difficult to bear city in contrast with the coloured and imaginative circus ( showing the humanity of Sleary). So this is a very important aspect, the circus. It represents imagination, humanity, generosity, kindness. The conflict is mended at the end by the circus, since kindness is what remains after evilness, dramatism or unfairness. If we want to prevent this world falls off, just a bit of kindness could be enough to save this world, because kindness and imagination are necessary in our lives.