annie's review
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
annie's review
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
annie's review
rating:
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 little like the fable about the masochist and sadist in hell, where the masochist says "punch me," and the sadist says, "no".
Dombey and Son is so much better - all the characters and plots and stories in this (excluding the legal stuff) is in Dombey and Son. Failing that, David Copperfield. I even like Tale of Two Cities, if only because I like knitting.
Sad, sad. Bleak House was my last unread Dickens. I had been saving it for a rainy day, and this'n mad...more
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 little like the fable about the masochist and sadist in hell, where the masochist says "punch me," and the sadist says, "no".
Dombey and Son is so much better - all the characters and plots and stories in this (excluding the legal stuff) is in Dombey and Son. Failing that, David Copperfield. I even like Tale of Two Cities, if only because I like knitting.
Sad, sad. Bleak House was my last unread Dickens. I had been saving it for a rainy day, and this'n mad...more
