[1] It was originally serialised under the title Very Hard Cash in Charles Dickens' All the Year Round from 28 March to 26 December 1863, but the magazine's family readers blanched at Reade's strong attacks on asylums, so it did not perform well and actually depressed sales of the periodical.

Reade's work did better when released (with some reordering and amendment of the text, less concerned with creating instalment cliffhangers) as Hard Cash in three-volume book form by Sampson Low in December 1863.

A late nineteenth-century synopsis of the novel: This book, originally published in 1863, as Very Hard Cash is an alleged “exposure” of the abuses of private insane asylums in England and of the statutes under which they were sheltered.

Dodd enlists and serves as a common seaman, appearing to be capable but half-witted, until a second cataleptic shock restores his reason, when he returns home.

One embraces the maritime adventures of Dodd with pirates, storms, shipwreck, and highwaymen, while bringing his money home; and his subsequent service as a half-witted foremast-hand until his restoration to reason.

Dr. Sampson, the sturdy Scotch physician, who despises all regular practitioners, and comes to Alfred’s rescue at the crisis of the book, is one of Reade’s strongest and most original characters.