Bleak House in On Paths Unknown

Feb 26, 2013 Mala rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: british-writer, classic-ever-enduring-appeal, victorian-age-modern-victorian

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 godfather, old school gentlemen, evil-plotting villains, grotesque caricatures, a wide variety of humour- from biting satire, drollery, to crazy slapstick, soc ...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Gary the Bookworm rated it it was amazing

I find it hard to believe that it's only been a month since I first entered Bleak House. The Goodreads group read had been going on for some time and I was so far behind that I pretty much listened/read it on my own. I had trouble finding a good audio version (don't bother with Librivox and if you buy it at iTunes, be forewarned that the Apple geniuses won't let you bookmark easily; thankfully there's an app that will). Anyway it took me awhile to work out the details and immerse myself in what I find it hard to believe that it's only been a month since I first entered Bleak House. The Goodreads group read had been going on for some time and I was so far behind that I pretty much listened/read it on my own. I had trouble finding a good audio version (don't bother with Librivox and if you buy it at iTunes, be forewarned that the Apple geniuses won't let you bookmark easily; thankfully there's an app that will). Anyway it took me awhile to work out the details and immerse myself in what was to become for me an all-consuming parallel world. If you're bothering to read this you probably have a general idea of why this has stood for nearly two centuries as Charles Dickens' masterpiece. People who smarter and more eloquent than me have already offered their brilliant analyses of it (see Goodreads group read).

I am a big fan of sprawling tomes from the Nineteenth Century but this one escaped me. Actually I've avoided Dickens since 9th grade when I was forced to read Great Expectations. He and I became reacquainted when I became obsessed with Broadway's Betty Buckley and I listened to the original cast recording of The Mystery of Edwin Drood . I was excited to read this and totally unprepared for its impact. Dickens pretty much defines the Victorian novel with his masterful storytelling sprinkled liberally with doses of outrage against the cruelty and disregard that the privileged class showed for those less fortunate. Some might suggest that his complex plot with its enormous cast-of-characters, was a cynical way of padding his pay, but his writing is so skillful that it all seems essential to the narrative.

Bleak House is concerned with many things but at its core are two women of vastly different stations in life. Esther Summerson, the sometimes narrator, an orphan, personifies the Victorian ideal of womanhood. Like Fanny Price and Jane Eyre, she has learned to make herself useful and she accepts the vicissitudes of life with grace and goodwill. She hopes that virtue will be rewarded and Dickens makes us believe that it should be as well. At the other end of the spectrum is Lady Dedlock, the mistress of Chesney Wold, and the toast of Londontown. They couldn't be more different from each other and each of them reminded me of popular characters from American TV.

The grand lady has reached the pinnacle of society but in so doing she has committed a grievous sin; her privileged life is based on a lie. Like Mad Men's Don Draper, she starts to unravel when her mysterious past catches up with her. She will inevitably fall from grace. Esther reminds me of Hannah from HBO's Girls with one important distinction. Esther has no control over her situation. If she hadn't come under the protection of her guardian, Mr Jarndyce, she probably would have perished on the street like less fortunate castaways. In this century, young women have the freedom-and responsibility-to make their own way. When Hannah stumbles, she can ask for help from her willfully clueless father, her arguably insane boyfriend, or she can come to her senses, and get on with her life. Dickens couldn't have imagined a world of choices for women, but he called for a kinder and less hypocritical society for the benefit of all. I have no doubt that people will be reading and discussing this for eternity. ...more

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Jan 13, 2017 Kamakana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, xxlong-over-800, aa-englandlit, comic-satire, aa-europelit, historicity, xlong-over-400, victorianish, dickens-charles, zz1840-1859

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

130117: this is a later later addition: as a reading project i have read several dickens this year, as follows:

this is a later addition: i watched the most recent bbc miniseries of this book. yes i guess this was 'telenovela' before tv was even created. this is certainly not a sedate, literary, treatment, but zips along. the story is there- perhaps too much brought forward- and the characters all defined, given, cast well. on th ...more

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