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Bleak House

by Charles Dickens, Nicola Bradbury (editor), Hablot Knight Browne (illustrator)

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 32,195 ratings · 1,875 reviews

Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs, the romance of Esther Summerson and the secrets of her origin, the sleuthing of Detective Inspector Bucket and the fate of Jo the crossing-sweeper, these a...more

Paperback, 1088 pages

Published January 1st 1997 by Penguin Classics (first published 1852)

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Feb 27, 2012 B0nnie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: you

Shelves: favourite-books

Bleak House. How can it be over? I hold this incredible book in my hand and can’t believe I have finished it. The 965 page, 2 inch thick, tiny-typed tome may seem a bit intimidating. Relax, you can read it in a day - that is, if you read one page per minute for 16 hours. And you might just find yourself doing that.

Bleak House is more Twilight Zone than Masterpiece Theatre. However there is enough spirit of both to satisfy everyone. And indeed it should - it has it all - unforgettable characte...more Bleak House. How can it be over? I hold this incredible book in my hand and can’t believe I have finished it. The 965 page, 2 inch thick, tiny-typed tome may seem a bit intimidating. Relax, you can read it in a day - that is, if you read one page per minute for 16 hours. And you might just find yourself doing that.

Bleak House is more Twilight Zone than Masterpiece Theatre. However there is enough spirit of both to satisfy everyone. And indeed it should - it has it all - unforgettable characters, intrigue, plot within plot, ruined love, enormous themes, complications, and description - and what description! it goes so far, a lesser writer would be lost forever trying to find their way back. Above all, it has that brilliant, constant satirical voice of Dickens. That is the thing lost in TV, film and radio adaptations of his work. One merely gets a hint of it in the best of these.

The plot, the characters, the very fog that we encounter in the introduction, are all connected to one main thread: a lawsuit, the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. It involves an inheritance with several wills, and it cannot be decided which one is legitimate. The case is before the Courts of Chancery and has dragged on for generations.

Someone stands to gain a lot of money and property, but the long entanglement of the law has made it a curse. While greed and madness consume certain characters (sometimes literally), there are also those who know how pointless and destructive it is to live under such hope.

Bleak House is another reminder what an important influence Dickens was on Dostoyevsky, who understood his power very well.

Bleak House is alternatively narrated by the orphan Esther Summerson, and an omniscient third person. Dickens's sophisticated juggling of narrative invents a style that really can't be defined, just like the novel itself. Is it a thriller, a romance, magic realism, a murder mystery? Yes and no. Is it a treatise on poverty, domestic violence, false charity, obsession? Again, yes and no. All is mixed into the fog - along with that forty foot long Megalosaurus that Dickens summons in the opening paragraph – and emerges as one of the best novels ever written.

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Apr 15, 2013 Kalliope rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-english, literary-classics

Reading Bleak House has had a redeeming effect for me. Before this marvel took place Dickens evoked for me either depressing black and white films in a small and boxy TV watched during oppressive times, or reading what seemed endless pages in a still largely incomprehensible language. Dickens meant then a pain on both counts.

In this GR group read I have enjoyed Bleak House tremendously.

In the group discussion many issues have been brought up by the members. First and foremost the critique on the...more

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Dec 02, 2007 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fresh young people who have not yet ruined their eyesight

Shelves: crazy-ladies, social-work-or-relevant

Shivering in unheated gaslit quarters (Mrs. Winklebottom, my plump and inquisitive landlady, treats the heat as very dear, and my radiator, which clanks and hisses like the chained ghost of a boa constrictor when it is active, had not yet commenced this stern and snowy morning), I threw down the volume I had been endeavoring to study; certainly I am not clever, neither am I intrepid nor duly digligent, as after several pages I found the cramped and tiny print an intolerable strain on my strabism...more Shivering in unheated gaslit quarters (Mrs. Winklebottom, my plump and inquisitive landlady, treats the heat as very dear, and my radiator, which clanks and hisses like the chained ghost of a boa constrictor when it is active, had not yet commenced this stern and snowy morning), I threw down the volume I had been endeavoring to study; certainly I am not clever, neither am I intrepid nor duly digligent, as after several pages I found the cramped and tiny print an intolerable strain on my strabismic eyes. Straightening my bonnet, I passed outdoors into the frigid, sooty streets, where shoppers bustled by in a frenzy, now rushing into the 99-cent store, bedecked with PVC Santa Claus banners, now into Nelson's Xmas Shoppe, in search of glistening ornaments. Bowing my head perversely against busy crowds and fierce wind, I stepped into a subway, which conveyed me to a winding street down which I hurried until I reached a peculiar establishment, the shingle for which had been battered by the strain of city winters, by pollution, and no doubt by the small mischievious hands of vandals, who had modified the sign with their colorful signatures and illustrations, but upon which could still be read - with some effort - Amperthump & Hagglestern, Booksellers.

I entered to a sound of tinkling bells affixed to the heavy door, the hinges of which creaked as I propelled myself through its narrow passage. Proceeding forward, I heard a sullen voice squeak, "Check yer bag, miss?" and glanced up to see an urchin, nearly lost amidst piles of remaindered volumes, beckoning with one grubby hand while clutching a wrinkled comic in the other; I refused, smiling gently, and passed into the densely cluttered shop, where I was intercepted by Mr. Amperthump, the proprietor, a gentleman of about three and forty, whose thick-rimmed spectacles and corpulent physique recall two of a tragic trinity of dead singers, who upon seeing me took my cold hands in his ink-stained ones and kissed them. "How can I assist, my dear?" he boomed so loudly that a little one-eyed spaniel started from its slumber, and the urchins shelving books glared up at their master with undisguised annoyance.

Drawing out my small copy of Bleak House, which I had obtained from the Queens Public Library -- supported, to wonderous effect, by the subsciption of tax dollars, and no doubt supplemented by charitable impulses of certain gentleladies -- and endeavored to explain, as simply as I could, that I desired an edition of the same narrative writ larger and in more mercifully legible print. However Mr. Amperthump appeared distressed and could not remain silent long, flinging my book away. "NO!" he cried. "You are too young and pretty" (at this I blushed and tried to protest, for I am not pretty, in fact I am plain) "to be reading this antiquated rot! Here, instead, is the latest experimental fiction from Rajistan D. McGingerloop." At this he placed in my hands a queer volume, unlike any I had seen before. "Throughout his controversial career McGingerloop has exploded one by one conventions of the novel... in this latest work he has done away with pages!" And indeed, when I examined the book I discovered he was quite right, and that the book I held was a brick of paper, and could not be opened, having as he indicated, no pages at all. I thanked Mr. Amperthump for his solicitude, at which point he pressed that I try Petunia al Gonzalez-Mjobebe's story of a love affair between an Iranian transexual and a Chinese android, a meditation, Mr. Amperthump assured me, on globalization and identity, but also, he said, a suspenseful legal thriller in its own right, albeit one subverting the conventions of that genre - quite, he added, subversively. Finally I was given to understand that in addition to Mr. Amperthump's conviction that I should not be reading Dickens, he had none in stock, and finally I gave my thanks for all his kindness and passed out again into the filthy snow and gloom.(less)

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Feb 16, 2012 Dave Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, classics

Finally finished it and it only took me four months [pats self on back, does a little victory dance and then weeps,] but I'm so glad I read it. This is a book--like The Brothers Karamozov--that makes the subsequent books the author wrote seem superfluous. It contains multitudes. All of humanity is represented here (well, all of Victorian English humanity at any rate.) The truest--and shortest--sentence of the book is the first one: "London."

The organizing metaphor of the book is the Chancery Co...more Finally finished it and it only took me four months [pats self on back, does a little victory dance and then weeps,] but I'm so glad I read it. This is a book--like The Brothers Karamozov--that makes the subsequent books the author wrote seem superfluous. It contains multitudes. All of humanity is represented here (well, all of Victorian English humanity at any rate.) The truest--and shortest--sentence of the book is the first one: "London."

The organizing metaphor of the book is the Chancery Court where people come to await judgments that never seem to come, or when they do come, come too late to be of any use. Kurt Vonnegut summarizes the point of the book when he said (in a completely different context, not talking about this book,) "A purpose of human life is to love whomever is around to be loved." The paragon of this idea is John Jarndyce who has a big stake in the outcome of a court case, but completely ignores it, instead spending his time coming to the aid of whomever needs his aid. He is the goodliest, most charitable character in any book I've ever read. His antipode is Mrs. Jellyby, who spends all her time on a hopeless scheme to aid Humanity at the expense of those who really need her--her poor forlorn family. Dickens calls this Telescopic Philanthropy (a great phrase.)

To me, the most interesting character is Mr. Bucket, detective. When it comes to his job, he posses an almost god-like perspicacity, and does it with amazing compassion, but even he can't save everyone. That's what makes Dickens a great artist. He's cynical about "officialdom," tender towards the frailty of humans, but ultimately realistic about mankind's chances for perfect happiness. He further illustrates this in his depiction of Sir Leicester. Leicester's an upper-class twit, but one capable of great suffering. His fate broke my heart.

All that being said, what I didn't like about the book was the "sweetness and light" of some of the Esther episodes. Early on it made me want to put the book down (or throw it at a puppy,) but eventually I got swept along by the amazingly complex narrative.
I realize this review is long and rambling (and getting longer and more rambling by this little postscript) and I could go on and on about fifty different scenes in this book that elated, saddened or otherwise moved me, so I'll just leave it at this: This book is sad, funny, tender, thrilling, heart-breaking, and Mr. Smallweed is kind of a dick. (less)

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Aug 30, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, oxford-classics, pre-1900s, sassysassenachs, voluminous, art-or-illustrated

Roll back to 1986—I was touring with Loudon Wainwright III upon the release of his More Love Songs album (which includes the famous ‘Your Mother & I’) when Loud strikes up a confab about Dickens. “Nicholls,” he begins, bunk-loafing in his usual roguish manner. “I do declay-ah that Bleak House is the greatest novel of the century, yessir-ee.” I was strumming a zither at the time, co-writing a song that would later appear on History. “Loud, you must be out of your mind. Everyone knows now that...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Mala rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-writer, classic-ever-enduring-appeal, victorian-age, bleak-house-group-read

Review of Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
Shelf: British writer,classic-ever-enduring-appeal,Bleak House group read 2013.
Recommended for: The romantic in you.

Dickens is all about sentiments– you may run down his books as melodramas,tear-jerkers,'poverty-porn' & so on but there is no denying their visceral appeal, for what are we without sentiments?

Bleak house,Dickens' masterpiece,has all of his staple/trademark ingredients– an inheritance,a missing will, a mystery, angelic damsels,fairy godfa...more

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Nov 05, 2011 Matt rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I get why people dislike the legal system. It’s slow, complicated, and costly. And the only time you hear about it is when an apparently horrible decision is reached. (I shudder at how many people were ready to scrap the jury system after the Casey Anthony verdict).

As a lawyer, though, I see the legal system’s virtues (and as a public defender, its virtues, for me at least, do not include a hefty paycheck). For one, lawsuits are a better alternative than self-help justice. If your neighbor build...more

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Sep 01, 2008 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, english-lit

I know, something about a 900 page book with bleak in the title doesn’t exactly scream “summer fun”. Nevertheless, this was a page-turner with more laugh-out-loud moments than any book I've read in recent memory. Who could have seen that coming?? And it's gripping enough that I can understand why it was a bestseller, in spite of Dickens’ harsh social criticism and his rather daring innovation of dual narratives. But the story is a winner largely because of the dual narratives, which bob and weav...more I know, something about a 900 page book with bleak in the title doesn’t exactly scream “summer fun”. Nevertheless, this was a page-turner with more laugh-out-loud moments than any book I've read in recent memory. Who could have seen that coming?? And it's gripping enough that I can understand why it was a bestseller, in spite of Dickens’ harsh social criticism and his rather daring innovation of dual narratives. But the story is a winner largely because of the dual narratives, which bob and weave around each other like boxers before becoming hopelessly entertwined.

It opens with a grim, omniscient narrator describing the thick fog that pervades every part of London, suspending the city in a static morass of mud and smoke. In the center of the pestilence, where the fog is thickest, lies the High Court of Chancery — a place where cases become trapped in the quagmire of self-perpetuating legal proceedings, suffocate, and die. The most Byzantine of cases is JARNDYCE AND JARNDYCE, which has been going on so long that at least one generation of Jarndyces has expired while waiting for a judgment, and not even the lawyers have any grasp on its intricacies. The second chapter describes the similarly static aristocracy, specifically the wonderfully named Lord and Lady Dedlock, who seem to be existing in a state of suspended animation. Then, out of this somber drone of diseased stagnation emerges the other narrative, told with preternatural peppiness by Esther Summerson. At first her story, related with so much self-deprecation that you begin to wonder if she’s for real, seems to be the sort of story Victorian audiences were familiar with: a sweet young orphan overcomes her sad situation, finds a family, and lives happily ever after. Sigh. However, this sweet young orphan is introduced as being tied obscurely to JARNDYCE AND JARNDYC, so even before the two narratives get underway we know the melodrama narrative will be infected by the social criticism narrative. (To see how the one narrative literally infects the other, you'll have to read the book; it's a masterful stroke, even for Dickens.)

My favorite aspects of this novel, besides Dickens’ ability to turn a phrase better than anyone else, are the interwoven story lines, the very clever character doubling, and the unexpected depth he gives characters who could easily have remained garden variety. In fact, the most poignant moments were courtesy of totally unlikely minor characters, not the poor people/dying babies situations that you’d expect from a Dickens novel (and they’re in Bleak House a-plenty). Of course I cried at the poor people/dying babies moments also, but the others were better.

Dickens goes for broke with his humorous characterizations and bizarre names (the creepy small-fry Mr. Guppy; the detective Mr. Bucket; the thwarted suitor Mr. Woodcourt, who would court if he could - ha!). However, where this book really stands apart is the thematic relevance of its structure — what looks like a traditional melodrama being embedded in a social criticism. Read it and watch genius at work. Also fun is the way Dickens presents all sorts of “detectives” in the story, but makes the reader into the real detective. Not that the central mystery (Esther's parentage) needs much detection unless you're really not paying attention, in which case you should find something else to read, but keeping track of all the characters and their web of relationships does. Again, read it and watch genius at work, which, for $12, is a bargain.

(Personal note: Dickens’ hatred of the law — and especially lawyers — was born of his own experience clerking as a youth and wrangling over copyrights as an adult. Though Bleak House is an actual house in the story, it's really a metaphor for London, where multitudes of people lived in squalor and poverty just steps away from the oblivious middle-class. But it’s also a metaphor for a court system so tangled and corrupt that plaintiffs got sucked in for years, never to emerge with both health and sanity intact. Spookily relevant as I read the novel while dealing with the absurd mess of my grandfather’s estate. I felt like mailing copies of it to the more appalling members of my extended family, but of course cautionary tales are never understood by the people they’re meant to caution.)
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Feb 10, 2013 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: for-the-desert-island, 2013-gr-challenge

"The few words that I have to add to what I have written, are soon penned; then I, and the unknown friend to whom I write, will part for ever. Not without much dear remembrance on my side. Not without some, I hope, on his or hers." p.985

This is Dickens in 1853 writing to his reader through Esther as he brings to a close what I and just about everyone on my GR friends list acknowledge as Dickens' finest, most memorable novel.

Dang, but it holds up well – whether 160 years since publication or the...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Christopher H. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, favorites, victorian-literature, historical-fiction, read-in-2009, charles-dickens, my-western-canon, favorite-rereads, books-about-books, read-in-2012

"Bleak House" is clearly in my top four or five most favorite Dickens novels. It is dark and rich, and so completely immerses the reader in the characters and plotting. Somehow, I am most affected by Dickens' strong heroines; and Esther Summerson is just such a woman; even though she doesn't believe it of herself. The "Little Woman", "our dear Dame Durden", is such a kind-hearted and loving soul that you just can't bear to imagine anything untoward happening to her. The biting social satire that...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Jason Koivu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas my reading pace ground to a halt. Thanks a lot Dick...........ens!

This is a long book, but I've read longer ones that didn't seem half as long as Bleak House. Saharan-esque stretches of plodding plot didn't help. But more than that, this book suffers from having too much character, and characters with character, characterful characters with character to spare and well, you get the point. By the time Dickens had written Bleak House he'd experienced almost every...more

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Aug 17, 2008 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who wants to sink their teeth into a long read.

Shelves: lit-major, 2008-read, british, fiction, crazy-families, rich-folk, the-single-woman, mysteries-n-thrills

My summer reading project has been completed. At 989 pages, I feel like Super Reader!! And I must say, it was well worth the effort.

Bleak House is a massive, sprawling novel teeming with a multitude of characters. About 1/3 way in, I began to make a Who's Who chart, it was getting to be so out of control. You couldn't afford to forget even a presumably minor, minor character, for he or she was bound to show up again.

The narration technique was a little strange--some chapters had the ol' 3rd-pers...more

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Mar 09, 2012 Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Okay, so this is the 1853 version of The Wire. But with less gay sex. And no swearing. And very few mentions of drugs. And only one black person, I think, maybe not even one. And of course it's in London, not Baltimore. But other than that, it's the same.

Pound for pound, this is Dickens' best novel, and of course, that is saying a great deal. I've nearly read all of them so you may take my word. Have I ever written a review which was anything less than 101% reliable, honest and straightforward?...more

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Jan 25, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tam-lin, 2009, in-by-of-england, mystery, reviewed, victorians-and-wannabes

If you have a thousand pages at your disposal, you can critique every social ill including poverty, plight of orphans, the patronage system for doctors, domestic violence, greed, gluttony, industrialization (just at the last moment, let's move the story to Yorkshire so he can comment on the ironworks), a legal system that tramples justice, poor parenting, misguided do-gooders, religion, middle class pettiness, imperialistic national pride, and money-lenders. If you don't have to worry about gett...more If you have a thousand pages at your disposal, you can critique every social ill including poverty, plight of orphans, the patronage system for doctors, domestic violence, greed, gluttony, industrialization (just at the last moment, let's move the story to Yorkshire so he can comment on the ironworks), a legal system that tramples justice, poor parenting, misguided do-gooders, religion, middle class pettiness, imperialistic national pride, and money-lenders. If you don't have to worry about getting a book finished so you can get paid, you can spend a few paragraphs at the beginning of the chapter just describing the London fog or the brick makers' squalid lane or the Lincolnshire countryside or the walk in the back of the country house and the history of the ghost that haunts it or London streets in the morning or London streets in the evening or London in the rain or London in the summer or London -- I don't mean to support the current demands of the publishing industry, but like a Martin Scorcese film, Bleak House could have been a bit shorter. I would have been okay with that, especially as I carried it back and forth on the subway for weeks.

Having finished it (and put some ice on my shoulder), I can be generous with praise. Mystery, social criticism, comic relief, language to make you stop your own efforts in shame, love stories, madness, and sorrow. Having the time, patience, and payment per installment, the novel can meander through a dozen lives and spend time on all of them. Dickens could devote time to each issue while advancing his Cause against the English legal system all the while. It's brilliant.

Everyone else can talk about the Cause though; I already know that a legal system and justice system are not one in the same. What struck me was the astute observations of an illegitimate, orphan, Esther (and don't think that name wasn't a deliberate choice) about parenting. She sees a series of examples of how parents ignore their responsibilities to their children, through their own self-righteous obsessions, poverty, alcoholism, selfishness, pride, bitterness, or sheer inability. There isn't a single good example in the book except for Mr. Jarndyce, who is a guardian, creating a family by taking in those who need him, not raising a family of his own. (I'll give you Mrs. Bagnet, too, but I'm not sure about all that military discipline).

The book is more interesting if you have read other nineteenth century social literature. I saw several reviews complaining of Esther's goodness and sweetness (although if you've read Jane Austen you'll know that good women can still be interesting). I thought switching the narrative to her perspective gave a depth to her character that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. Her simple kindness was more genuine than I expected when she was first introduced. If you made it through Uncle Tom's Cabin, the difference in complexity between Esther and Stowe's Eliza is beyond comparison. The sentimentalism is consistent with authors like Elizabeth Gaskell and Frances Hodgson Burnett. For all that I love them, I must confess that Dickens managed it better. I hope they'll forgive me.

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Mar 25, 2013 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: charles-dickens, 2013, group-read, victorian-era, victorian-literature, chancery-court, multiple-narrators, lawyers, social-issues-in-literature

Review to follow. An exquisite read in characterization, plot, structure, and theme. A unique combination of social commentary , through cynicism and optimism. Dickens' finest work.

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Oct 05, 2011 Lowed rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Classic Literature is "sometimes" composed of boring words, made into a boring story with a boring pace, that has a boring plot, populated with boring characters playing different boring roles.

Fine. This may be an exaggeration, but try getting a copy of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. It's long, it's boring, it's several hundred pages that described how "fashionable intelligence" is observed by the upper class in the eighteenth century, and how the judicial system affects every aspect of the lives...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Black Elephants rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Grinding away the lives of all involved, the interminable case known as "Jarndyce and Jarndyce" in the Chancery courts is the sticky tape that brings our large Dickensian cast together. And that cast is pretty awesome as always with all their ticks, quirks and foibles. Bleak House, unlike the name, is anything but sorrowful.

There are two main stories that make up the book. The first is the court case, and the other is the mystery of a Mr. Nemo, his connection to Lady Dedlock and how that finds i...more Grinding away the lives of all involved, the interminable case known as "Jarndyce and Jarndyce" in the Chancery courts is the sticky tape that brings our large Dickensian cast together. And that cast is pretty awesome as always with all their ticks, quirks and foibles. Bleak House, unlike the name, is anything but sorrowful.

There are two main stories that make up the book. The first is the court case, and the other is the mystery of a Mr. Nemo, his connection to Lady Dedlock and how that finds itself attached to our narrator Esther Summerson. This is the only Dickens book I've read where the protagonist is a female, but true to his other novels, she is an orphan and must make her way in the world. She has more help than Oliver Twist by being the ward of the current Mr. Jarndyce, the owner of Bleak House. He is an amiable and amazing philanthropist who has given up all his rights to the case rather than have it drive him to distraction and ruin his life. His great uncle blew out his brains due to it, and it will also be the demise of several other characters in the book. Mr. Jarndyce says that when he first inherited the manor, it was bleak and had "the signs of his misery upon it." But Mr. Jarndyce's resolution and directions in life change it so when our protagonist Esther Summerson arrives, it's a cheerful and cozy place to live.

I think that one of the main themes that connects this book is how people decide to live and make their way in the world, as well as what consequences their choices wreck and how they must live by those consequences. The people involved with the case and who are awaiting a decision must decide whether to put their lives on hold till a verdict is reached or live. But the Chancery court has decided to eke this case out until its dried up, and the side characters must decide if they will associate with the main characters due to the potential outcome of the case or for better purposes. It's not all one decision, of course, but a string of decisions. For instance, Mr. Guppy is a young man working his way up in a world from a low position to that of a lawyer. He goes through the book deciding to love Esther forever, help her up in the world, discover the secret that is her birth, reject her, still help her, then propose marriage to her again.

It's a huge book but very rich, tense and expansive in the way Dickens can include so many aspects of English class society in one novel. It's got one of my favorite casts of Dickens characters, and oh yes, one spontaneously combusts. Bet you didn't expect that!

P.S. If you're interested in a great miniseries, Masterpiece Theatre showed a "Bleak House" with stellar performances from everyone. In that series, I had such a hard time dividing and smoking out the good characters from the bad characters. Often I was at the edge of my seat for fear that a person I thought was good was about to turn evil. Also, the second main story is more fleshed out and given more screentime, and it's well worth it.

P.P.S I've finally figured out why Dickens endows even the most insignificant character with such a dollop of weirdness that would make them recognizable 400 pages after they've appeared. It's because it makes them recognizable to the reader and easy for the author to reuse them 400 pages after they've appeared. Amazing!

A few quotes of funness:

Mr. Turveydrop, the model of Deportment, "'In some respects [my son:] treads in the footsteps of his sainted mother. She was a devoted creature. But Wooman, lovely Wooman, ' said Mr. Turveydrop, with very disagreeable gallantry, 'what a sex you are!'"

From Mr. Chadband, an impressive clergyman, "Peace be on this house! On the master thereof, on the mistress thereof, on the young maidens, and young men! My friends, why do I wish for peace? What is peace? Is it war? No. Is it strife? No. Is it lovely and gentle, and beautiful, and pleasant, and serene, and joyful? Oh yes! Therefore, my friends, I wish for peace, upon you and yours"

"The fair Volumnia being one of those sprightly girls who cannot long continue silent without imminent peril of seizure by the dragon Boredom, soon indicates the approach of that monster with a series of indisguisable yawns."(less)

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Jan 02, 2009 Rashaan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

And Dickens created woman. Never breathed a more pure, more compassionate, more true soul than Dickens' take on the Platonic forms of Beauty and Good, our dear Miss Esther Summerson. So sweet, so kind, so generous and forgiving, our narrator and the main character of Dickens' magnus opus will make readers want to bop Chuck D on the head and rant "In the name of all women, what are you doing?". His idolization and idealization of the opposite and "fairer" sex will jostle readers and induce nausea...more And Dickens created woman. Never breathed a more pure, more compassionate, more true soul than Dickens' take on the Platonic forms of Beauty and Good, our dear Miss Esther Summerson. So sweet, so kind, so generous and forgiving, our narrator and the main character of Dickens' magnus opus will make readers want to bop Chuck D on the head and rant "In the name of all women, what are you doing?". His idolization and idealization of the opposite and "fairer" sex will jostle readers and induce nausea, you'll feel like you're flying in the midst of the most ridiculous turbulence. Dickens' women are upsetting because they're so damn good, its all together bad. Even his most aloof and distant, seemingly selfish, or downright scandalously villainous women still have a streak of blinding sheen and radiance. Despite their flaws they glimmer like rhinestones. Faux gems and paper roses tiptoeing, so as not to sully their dresses, through a grotesque and mud-mired Victorian London.

Though Ms. Summerson lacks faults, which is the biggest fault of her character, she is the keeper of the keys to Bleak House, both literally and figuratively. Our first person narrator is the authority. She decides how we feel about Mr. Skimpole, and encourages us to forgive and be patient with Richard Carstone. She sugarcoats the Nabakovian blow that John Jarndyce deftly hurls at our passenger jet ripping a Growlery-sized hole into our story. Miss Summerson is the heart, mind, and soul to this gargantuan body of text. She is the moral compass that keeps those who are near and dear to her, which includes us readers, on the righteous path to all that is Good & True. This is not to say that she does not have her charms or that the story itself suffers greatly under the burden of her sainthood, but Bleak House is no Our Mutual Friend. This predecessor lacks flamboyant characters with even more flamboyant names. The plot winds and wends its way through London in a steady and encompassing roll. But this Thames does not roil and seethe; the river does not belch corpses, the back ends and alleyways aren't rife with the shadiest and therefore liveliest of characters. We see Dickens working his way towards his last published novel. BH includes prototypes of his two fantastically wonderful main characters Lizzie and Jenny, soon to become Lizzie Hexam and Jenny Wren. And there's the brilliantly rhymed chapter title, "Found Drowned," another nod to OMF. In this aspect, BH is merely a stepping stone to the awe-inspiring wonderland that OMF embodies.

The story opens with Esther's fall, her disgraceful origin, symbolic to the original sin we all share. Through Esther's eyes we experience what it means to be damned in a damned world, and this forsaken realm is the gritty, underhanded, corrupt city of London. Esther encounters all sorts of people from the suffragette-in-the-making Mrs. Jellyby, whose family's history and their ties to African coffee plantations, seem worthy of a novel all their own. There are street urchins who tug at the heart strings, and petty jealous bourgeois who give the petty jealous bourgeois their bad reputation. For some love spends itself all too quickly like a young teenage boy at the penny arcade. And for others, like the Dedlocks, love is a fleeting dream wilted into a life full of regret.

Bleak House harbors more characters than any sane reader would want to keep track of. More often than not, some of the chapters are difficult and remain fuzzy and confusing merely because the characters are, for the most part, forgettable. Dickens seems to have spent more time and meticulous care to detail and setting and because of this his magnificent writing blazes. If you read BH for anything, read it and revel in his use of extended metaphor. Marvel at his sorcery for personification and hyperbole. Use BH as a standard of measurement for figurative language.

A moral tale with inventive and masterful prose, everyone in BH has a responsibility and moral obligations to uphold and live by. No one gets away without sacrificing something. And those who are most beautiful in the aesthetic and physical sense seem to have the most to lose. As if Dickens first bows to Plato's Forms and then gives those very same Forms the finger. Beauty lies within we learn. Life is a stage, and everyone is expected to act their part and pay their dues. Though BH cannot compare to the masterpiece of OMF, this novel is an excellent study of city and place, and surely must have inspired Joyce's Dublin, Woolf and Conrad's London, and certainly Rushdie's Mumbai, Roy's Kerala, and countless other authors who center their narrative on the metropolis. Yes, its boring at times. Yes, you should skim over some of the more ancillary characters whose stories ultimately dead-end. But there are plenty of passages which you'll want to immerse yourself in, completely, and dive to the very depths of masterful writing. You will kick and holler, but as they say "no pain, no gain." And if you read BH with a careful ear and conscientious eyes, you will undoubtedly gain--think of BH as steroids for your writing muscles.(less)

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Jun 27, 2007 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

A more damning indictment of the use of the legal system to obstruct justice, protect the powerful and stymie social change would be hard to find. Naming a character Sir Arrogant Numbskull is just a taste of the novel's satiric bite.

My generic comment about Charles Dickens:
First of all, although I am a partisan of Dickens' writing and have read and relished most his works, I concede to three flaws in his oeuvre that are not insignificant. First, while he seemed to develop an almost endless varie...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Andy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Andy by: Neil

Shelves: 2012, audiobook

This is partly a review of the story and partly of the audiobook version narrated by Hugh Dickson.

There is a large Dickens shaped hole in my bookshelves. My only exposure to date has been the Christmas Books, prompted by the Muppet Christmas Carol (still my favourite Christmas movie) and a few TV drama versions of Great Expectations and Oliver. Back in 2010, in a Gisborne bookshop I found a intriguing 'Crime Classics' version of Bleak House portraying it as the first great detective novel. I bou...more This is partly a review of the story and partly of the audiobook version narrated by Hugh Dickson.

There is a large Dickens shaped hole in my bookshelves. My only exposure to date has been the Christmas Books, prompted by the Muppet Christmas Carol (still my favourite Christmas movie) and a few TV drama versions of Great Expectations and Oliver. Back in 2010, in a Gisborne bookshop I found a intriguing 'Crime Classics' version of Bleak House portraying it as the first great detective novel. I bought it and it sat on my to-read shelf ever since. Then last year Neil Gaiman blogged about the audiobook version narrated by Hugh Dickson. We had a 3 month trip coming up so I downloaded it to give it a whirl.

Audiobooks are still relatively new to me. I've never really figured when I should be listening to them - I don't commute and just prefer reading myself. Plus, it's 37 hours long. But, 3 months round China and India with some mammoth train and car journeys... I started at the end of last year, got half through then put it aside while returning to my normal life. But then I started a 20 min commute to work every day and I plugged it back in. I finished this week.

After a slow start (both in pace and relating to the format) I rapidly fell into the story. It's quite impressive, vast in scale and character yet expertly connected and purposeful. It's also very relatable, without feeling old or dated. Dropping in and out, Bleak House has taken on the role of soap opera for me, complete with heroes and villains, cliffhangers and shock developments. Grandiose at times yet equally committed to small character moments and interactions at others. I can completely see how the periodical publication would have made an addictive experience.

I think my enjoyment was massively helped by Hugh Dickson who does a tremendous job of narrating and giving unique voice to all the characters. He really helped me appreciate the nuances and subtleties for something that at times could be a little impenetrable in text. I did wonder on a few occasions whether I should switch to the book but I read quite fast and I actually enjoyed his slow and measured narration so I stuck with it. He gave greater weight and emotion to scenes than I would have had I been reading myself. I rarely linger (something that often causes conflict as I race to finish a story) and this was a story that needed time.

There are so many characters to treasure, with some of the bit part roles the most fun. I got on with most of the leads though I found Esther to be a little too insipid and humble for my liking but she drives her narrative well. Inspector Bucket is wonderfully smug. Hugh's voicing of Grandfather Smallweed however, is brilliantly comic and nasty all at the same time; somewhat over the top perhaps but extremely entertaining and I frequently found myself with a big smile on my face. Speaking of villains, I was itching for something really unpleasant to happen to Harold Skimpole. Possible the most disgusting and infuriating character I've ever read. Every time he was around I felt my blood boil and a rage take over; what a repellent character and so different to a classic 'villainous' role.

Come the end I genuinely cared for many of the characters and couldn't wait to see how it all panned out. Surprising and a little shocking, it ultimately satisfied.

As my first real Dickens experience I really enjoyed it and actually miss it now it's over. I wish I had Hugh Dickson there to read to me the rest of his works! I need to do some thinking as to what I will read next and whether I opt for another audiobook experience but I'm definitely keen to explore more of Dickens' world. Well recommended both as story and for this specific audiobook (thanks to Neil Gaiman for that one). (less)

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Dec 13, 2012 Julie Davis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: desert-island-books, a-good-story-is-hard-to-find-podcas

Good Story #47. Fog at Julie's house, fog at Scott's place. Fog. The fog doesn't stop Julie and Scott from discussing Bleak House The risk of overwhelming deportment doesn't stop them either.

========
My comments.

Bleak House is on my personal challenge list, meaning that I should be chiseling away at some book from that list or I'll keep putting them off forever and never read one.

Having been surprised by how much I loved A Tale of Two Cities and having heard that Bleak House is Dickens' best, it...more Good Story #47. Fog at Julie's house, fog at Scott's place. Fog. The fog doesn't stop Julie and Scott from discussing Bleak House The risk of overwhelming deportment doesn't stop them either.

========
My comments.

Bleak House is on my personal challenge list, meaning that I should be chiseling away at some book from that list or I'll keep putting them off forever and never read one.

Having been surprised by how much I loved A Tale of Two Cities and having heard that Bleak House is Dickens' best, it is the next of his books I thought I'd try. However, it is so intimidatingly hefty that I've had the book on hand for several months before finally launching myself at it.

Dickens begins by introducing several strands of story and then settling on a first-person narrator, Esther Summerson, at least for this section. At this point we are just meeting Mrs. Jellyby and I actually laughed aloud. I know a Mrs. Jellyby. Don't we all? So much engaged in her African cause that she ignores the very real want in her own family gathered around her. I love the way that everything Esther picks up or tries to use garners the comment, "It was dirty." Children fall down stairs unnoticed, the carpet is coming off the stairs in a most dangerous fashion, dinner is almost raw, and all the while Mrs. Jellyby "fixed her fine eyes on Africa again."

However, as she at once proceeded with her dictation, and as I interrupted nothing by doing it, I ventured quietly to stop poor Peepy as he was going out, and to take him up to nurse. He looked very much astonished at it, and at Ada's kissing him; but soon fell fast asleep in my arms, sobbing at longer and longer intervals, until he was quiet. I was so occupied with Peepy that I lost the letter in detail, though I derived such a general impression from it of the momentous importance of Africa, and the utter insignificance of all other places and things, that I felt quite ashamed to have though so little about it.

I laughed aloud reading this.

Meanwhile, the fog is everywhere. One wonders if that fog which makes lawyers focus on details in the Jarndyce case until the money is gone although they are still making a fine living, is the same which clouds Mrs. Jellyby's vision. It is easy to ignore the real significance of life around you when focusing on the intangible elsewhere gives us the excuse to ignore the immediate demands we find less attractive, like a filthy home or crying baby. It adds a disturbingly uncanny element.

I must concede Will Duquette's contention that Dickens characters can be very unrealistic. But who would give them up for the realistic ones? And he does realistic very well, when he needs to. Esther is realistic. Mr. Guppy also ... although so amusing while one is sorry for him. And then there is Mr. Bucket. Possibly one of the best detectives I've ever seen (at this admittedly early point in the book) ... how is it I didn't know Dickens wrote a detective? And one so canny and good at blending in?"

You know, I expected that I'd read a few pages (slogging through them) and intersperse them with a newer book. But I'm hooked. I can never possibly convey how great, how riveting I am finding this book. It is a mystery, a horror novel, a romance, a look at character (or the lack thereof), and much more ... all laced with a self awareness that I find startlingly modern. O Dickens. And here I thought A Tale of Two Cities was sublime. How little I knew...

As a result of my amazement at how good this book is, it will be the November book for A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. 900 pages of solid goodness. Ladies and gentlemen, start your reading now!(less)

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Dec 09, 2011 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dickens, kindle, classics, 1001-books, rwswinter11-12, 5-star-reads

I continue to thoroughly enjoy Charles Dickens. This one has as its underlying premise Britain's Court of Chancery. He tells us in his Preface of the real state of that Court, and that there was at the time of writing Bleak House a case that had been in existence for 20 years. In this novel, the fictitious case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce - a case of disputed and conflicting wills - has been in existence beyond the lives of the original litigants. And then Dickens remarks: In Bleak House I have pur...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, 3ms, british-literature, fiction-19th-century, buddy-read, mtbr-challenge-2013, read-2013, victorians

Book discussion at Classic Books @ Yahoo.

DISCUSSION SCHEDULE

"Bleak House" by Charles Dickens read: David's Perdue's Charles Dickens Page.

01/18/13 Chapters 1 - 5
01/25/13 Chapters 6 - 10

02/01/13 Chapters 11 - 15
02/08/13 Chapters 16 - 20
02/15/13 Chapters 21 - 25
02/22/13 Chapters 26 - 30

03/01/13 Chapters 31 - 35
03/08/13 Chapters 36 - 40
03/15/13 Chapters 41 - 45
03/22/13 Chapters 46 - 50
03/29/13 Chapters 51 - 55

04/05/13 Chapters 56 - 60
04/12/13 Chapters 61 - 67 (End)

Opening sentence:
"London, Michael...more

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Sep 28, 2007 annie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Now, I am ashamed to say that I like Dickens. I like him best when I'm in a bad mood.

Still, I like Dickens. And this is supposed to be good Dickens - but I thought it was totally second-rate. His best characters (he only has about five actual characters, overall) stink in this, and having his most vapid character (the young woman) narrate is putting his worst foot forward. I want to strangle her, and she isn't even real. And I'm sure she would submit humbly to my strangulation. It all gets a l...more

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Feb 27, 2009 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is wonderful to me, how Dickens can weave metaphors through hundreds of pages, and use them as a tool to paint the perfect portraitures of his characters. Take Mr. Jarndyce's "east wind" for instance, which represents the difficulty he has in coping with difficult situations in his life. It is used when we first meet him and throughout the book, until the last pages, when Dickens introduces a decided resolution for Mr. Jarndyce, when his inclement "east wind" becomes the "west wind" of his ho...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Laurele rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2009, dickens-novels, audible

I'm amazed at the way Dickens took so many themes and streams and wove them all together to form a satisfying conclusion in this long novel. He did an excellent job with his only female narrator, too.

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Jun 30, 2012 El rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to El by: Bookish

Shelves: 1001-books-list, big-effing-books, late19th-centurylit

Oh, Chucky D., you were such a soap opera writer! I equally love and hate that about you.

I didn't love Bleak House as much as I loved Our Mutual Friend, but there were aspects of Bleak House that were truly amazing and which made my brain spontaneously combust. First and foremost I think I loved the fact that parts of the book were narrated by a female, Esther Summerson. This is the only (right?) Dickens book narrated from a female pov which excited me to no end. Would this have been a different...more

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Mar 28, 2009 Terry Gorman rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not-all-that

This was the hardest book by Dickens I've read. I found myself very impatient with it. It always annoys me how Dickens' characters "just happen" to have connections. (Madam DeFarge just happens to be the sister of... Her husband just happens to be the old servant of...) For the most part, I accept it as a way of limiting characters and I acknowledge that sometimes in life people do in fact just happen to be connected. However, Bleak House takes this to an extreme - and I found myself not wanting...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Rebecca Reid rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: b-fic-pre-1900

Bleak House (published serially 1852-1853) is a sweeping saga of epic proportions. Charles Dickens obviously planned the plot carefully, especially by providing introduction and characters for the bulk of the first third of the novel, so that the last third of the novel would swiftly move to a satisfying conclusion that ties all the previously unconnected threads together.

Because of its imposing nature (the novel in print is nearly 1000 pages), its abundance of memorable characters, and Dickens’...more Bleak House (published serially 1852-1853) is a sweeping saga of epic proportions. Charles Dickens obviously planned the plot carefully, especially by providing introduction and characters for the bulk of the first third of the novel, so that the last third of the novel would swiftly move to a satisfying conclusion that ties all the previously unconnected threads together.

Because of its imposing nature (the novel in print is nearly 1000 pages), its abundance of memorable characters, and Dickens’ elegant writing style as he created the settings, Bleak House is not a novel for every reader. The beginning is confusing especially. But for the careful and interested reader who takes the time to sink into the details and immerse oneself in the foggy and confusing murk that is 1850s London, Bleak House provides a number of keen insights in to the impact of social class on life and the changing nature of social class in those years, especially in the context of a satiric look at the Court of Chancery and the practice of law in nineteenth century England in general.

Of course, the novel addresses a number of other social issues. For example, Dickens approaches gender roles to some extent (in Bleak House, Dickens writes with a female first person narration, and some of the women’s struggles are ones men probably would not deal with) and, as is typical of Dickens, the plight of the orphan and the poor is central.

But to me, the bulk of the issues he describes seem to hearken back to a changing upper class in Victorian England. One wealthy family has a secret to keep hidden, a secret that probably would not be detrimental to their reputation had they not been upper class. Another gentleman lives in poverty due to his own misguided hopes. The exaggerated and sometimes ridiculous caricatures of other supposedly upper class persons also bring more questions to the front of the reader’s mind: what makes a gentleman and a lady? Why? How do persons of the different classes differ?

Bleak House is crammed with rather depressing commentary on both the lives of the poor and of the rich, the hazy nature of the law courts (specifically Chancery), and a frank discussion of illegitimacy. This gives Bleak House a rather depressing tone: the marvelously written first chapters, which capture the fog and dirt of Victorian London, are a pretty accurate foreshadowing of the hopelessness many the characters will face. And yet, I personally found Bleak House anything but depressing. The residence of John Jarndyce which was called Bleak House was full of cheer, charm, and pleasantness. Further, as the story of Esther’s life became uncovered, her satisfaction in life seemed only to improve. And while there were, I admit, a number of unhappy ends in the novel, for the most part, I found the ending a satisfying resolution to a lengthy and deep story (albeit a satire-rich ending).

Although I not certain Bleak House will end up on my list of favorite Dickens’ novels (I believe that will still include Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol), it’s certainly one I will enjoy sinking my teeth in to again in a few years. There’s a reason it’s a classic, and it is certainly a novel that is meant to be reread and pondered and enjoyed time and again.

I wrote a few posts at my blog with more thoughts on the novel as I read it (less)

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Nov 07, 2011 Bre Cregor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

And now, a post script...at the beginning.
I have spent the last 24 hours synthesizing the three Dickens books I have read, four, if you count A CHRISTMAS CAROL, which is not a novel.
It occurred to me why Dickens's characters make such fabulous...characters, in movies and in plays.
Charles was known to have "tread the boards". This, I believe, influenced his writing, and his characters.
Melo-dramatic could most surely describe characters like Guppy and Smallweed. However, Dickens was intelligen...more

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About Charles Dickens

A prolific 19th Century author of short stories, plays, novellas, novels, fiction and non-fiction; during his lifetime Dickens became known the world over for his remarkable characters, his mastery of prose in the telling of their lives, and his depictions of the social classes, morals and values of his times. Some considered him the spokesman for the poor, for he definitely brought much awarenes...more

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“And I am bored to death with it. Bored to death with this place, bored to death with my life, bored to death with myself.” — 52 people liked it

“LONDON. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snow-flakes — gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas in a general infection of ill-temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if the day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ’prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds.

Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets, much as the sun may, from the spongey fields, be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy. Most of the shops lighted two hours before their time — as the gas seems to know, for it has a haggard and unwilling look.

The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest near that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation, Temple Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the very heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery.” — 25 people liked it

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