Hard Times was published in 1854, and is the story of Thomas Gradgrind. The setting for the story is the imaginary industrial city of Coketown. Gradgrind is a practical man who trusts facts and figures more than he does emotions and creativity. He teaches his own children, Tom and Louisa, the same values. As the children grow up, Tom becomes a self interested hedonist, while struggles with the feeling that she is missing something in her life. Gradgrind forces his Louisa to marry his friend, Josiah Bounderby, who is thirty years older than her, but her only love is really for her brother who works for Bounderby. When James Harthouse arrives, he attempts to seduce Louisa. When Harthouse declares his love for Louisa, she flees to her father's house where she confesses to her father how unhappy she is. Gradgrind realizes the errors of his philosophy of self-interest, and protects her from her husband. At this time Tom robs the local ban and frames a factory worker named Stephen Blackpool. It almost works, but he eventually gets caught and is forced to flee the country.