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“Hard Times” by Charles Dickens. Read by Dick Estell. Books on Tape (Unabridged, eight cassettes, 12 hours). “Hard Times” is Dickens’ both-barrels attack on the costs of the Industrial Revolution--work at its most exhausting, capital at its most insensitive, workers at their most despairing. It’s also Dickens at his least amusing but most passionate. Josiah Bounderby, the banker-mill owner, is a burlesque, as is Gradgrind the pedant, trying to eliminate all feeling from the steady consideration of facts. Stephen Blackpool, a worker, is the doomed and noble hero, Louisa Gradgrind Bounderby the heroine. As usual, Dickens’ villains have all the good lines, here assigned to the scheming Mrs. Sparsit and Louisa’s rotten brother the Whelp. Dickens’ description of the provincial mill town is sociological reporting at its angry best. The novel somehow calls for an English voice, but Estell’s reading is clear, varied and interesting. Information: (800) 626-3333. ***