Taken in by absorbing Resistance story (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
hard times
'story' is the definition.
(Charles Dickens novel)
'taken in by absorbing resistance' is the wordplay.
'taken in' becomes 'had' (have can mean to trick or take in).
'by' becomes 'times' ('times' can mean multiplied by).
'absorbing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'resistance' becomes 'r' (electronics abbreviation).
'had'+'times'='hadtimes'
'hadtimes' placed around 'r' is 'HARD TIMES'.
(Other definitions for hard times that I've seen before include "Ma dithers about title of Dickens novel in tough period" , "Stealers of things" , "Dickensian chronicle" , "old book" , "work with social relevance" .)