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Bleak House
Bleak House - Group Read 4
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Bleak House: Chapters 1 - 10
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Good question: Where did the birds come from? And we can answer that as there was only one place really where wild birds would be traded.
Until comparatively recently, there used to be an animal market in the East End, the Bethnal Green/Shoreditch border, in Club Row. (I used to work very close: just off Brick Lane :) ) It was part of Brick Lane market, which is still thriving, but the animal market was closed down in 1983. By then it had become a pet market.
In Victorian times they sold wild animals, but the conditions were truly terrible.
A report from 1850 about Club Row said:
"Roads were unmade, often mere alleys, houses small and without foundations, subdivided and often around unpaved courts. An almost total lack of drainage and sewerage was made worse by the ponds formed by the excavation of brickearth. Pigs and cows in back yards, noxious trades like boiling tripe, melting tallow, or preparing cat's meat, and slaughter houses, dust heaps, and 'lakes of putrefying night soil' added to the filth."
There is more about it in The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London by Judith Flanders
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So without further ado ...
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We meet more new characters: Mr. and Mrs. Snagsby and Guster. Later there is a grisly discovery.
Mr. Snagsby’s work has to do with Chancery. He is:
“a mild, bald, timid man with a shining head and a scrubby clump of black hair sticking out at the back. He tends to meekness and obesity.”
Mr. Snagsby - Mervyn Peake
Mr. Snagsby’s office and home is situated on Cook’s Court, Cursitor Street, near Chancery Lane. Mr. Snagsby used to be the junior in the firm of “Pfeffer and Snagsby”. When he was take on it occasioned a new sign over the door:
“For smoke, which is the London ivy, had so wreathed itself round Pfeffer’s name and clung to his dwelling-place that the affectionate parasite quite overpowered the parent tree.”
Now Mr. Pfeffer is in his grave. But during the seven years the two worked and resided together, there as also Mr. Pfeffer’s niece, a tightly corsetted individual:
“a short, shrewd niece, something too violently compressed about the waist, and with a sharp nose like a sharp autumn evening, inclining to be frosty towards the end.”
Rumours circulated that she had had been give pints of vinegar and lemon-juice, when young, and that this accounted for her bad temper. In due course, Mr. Snagsby courted and married the niece, and now:
“Mr. and Mrs. Snagsby are not only one bone and one flesh, but, to the neighbours’ thinking, one voice too. That voice, appearing to proceed from Mrs. Snagsby alone, is heard in Cook’s Court very often.”
Mrs. Snagsby - 'Kyd' (Joseph Clayton Clarke
Her “dulcet tones” can be heard far and wide, whereas Mr. Snagsby remains “retiring and unassuming …”
“Rumour … does say that Mrs. Snagsby is jealous and inquisitive and that Mr. Snagsby is sometimes worried out of house and home, and that if he had the spirit of a mouse he wouldn’t stand it”.
Their one servant “Guster” (short for “Augusta”) is often on the receiving end of Mrs. Snagsby’s sharp tongue. Guster is a young woman from the workhouse. The Snagsbys don’t pay her very much for her services, as she has fits. Guster herself feels that she is lucky to have a job at all, and thinks of the Snagsbys’ place as “a temple of plenty and splendour”. Thus everyone is satisfied. The parents of the two apprentices, who work at Mr. Snagsby’s. are not worried that their offspring will be prone to romantic temptations. Mr. Snagsby is complacent because he is being charitable, and Mrs. Snagsby is satisfied because there is always someone there to find fault with.
As we begin the chapter, Mr. Snagsby is surrounded, almost submerged, by all the tools of his trade.
Mr. Snagsby - 'Kyd'
“Mr. Snagsby standing at his shop-door looking up at the clouds sees a crow who is out late skim westward over the slice of sky belonging to Cook’s Court. The crow flies straight across Chancery Lane and Lincoln’s Inn Garden into Lincoln’s Inn Fields.”
This is where Mr. Tulkinghorn the great lawyer lives, in a large house, which is divided into rooms, where “lawyers lie like maggots in nuts”. The house itself however is still very grand, with roomy staircase and high painted ceilings with classical Roman subjects. The furniture in his own chambers is old-fashioned but solid, and of good quality:
“The titles on the backs of his books have retired into the binding; everything that can have a lock has got one; no key is visible. Very few loose papers are about.”
Mr. Tulkinghorn keeps the secrets of the highest in the land confidential, and does not care to employ many clerks. He prefers to send out his his copying work, and only retains one assistant, a rather shabby, middle-aged man:
“who sits in a high pew in the hall and is rarely overburdened with business …
The middle-aged man in the pew knows scarcely more of the affairs of the peerage than any crossing-sweeper in Holborn.“
Something is on Mr. Tulkinghorn’s mind, and deep in thought and indecision, he moves small items around on his desk. Meanwhile, back at Mr. Snagsby’s place of business, it is time for tea. It is five or six o’clock in the afternoon, and Mr. Snagsby is about to go below stairs when there is a knocking at the door. The servant Augusta answers the door to see Mr. Tulkinghorn. Mr. Tulkinghorn asks for Mr. Snagsby, and Guster is glad to escape:
“regard[ing it] with mingled dread and veneration as a storehouse of awful implements of the great torture of the law—a place not to be entered after the gas is turned off.”
Still eating a greasy bit of bread and butter, Mr. Snagsby emerges and is startled to see the great Mr. Tulkinghorn. “Snagsby has brightened in a moment … modestly anticipating profit.”
Mr. Tulkinghorn carelessly asks Mr. Snagsby about some affidavits that Mr. Snagsby had copied for Mr. Tulkinghorn. He says he just happened to be passing, and is not even sure he has them with him, (deliberately checking in the wrong pocket). Mr. Tulkinghorn wants to know who had copied them, as the handwriting is “peculiar”, and he rather likes it. Mr. Snagsby checks his files and informs the lawyer that they sent the work out, as they had been rather busy at the time. They used one of their regulars: a man with the name, “Nemo”. Mr. Tulkinghorn comments that Nemo is Latin for “no one”, but Mr. Snagsby deferentially insists that it must be English for someone. It is the name the writer goes by.
He lives nearby, at a rag and bottle shop. Mr. Snagsby gestures to his wife, to show that this is a rich, influential customer, and she does not object to his absence. As Mr. Snagsby looks through the little window, he is distracted by the back of “Coavinses’”, the sheriff’s officer’s, where lights are also shining in their windows. Mr. Tulkinghorn asks to be taken to see “Nemo”, and Mr. Snagsby makes a show of telling his wife that he is accompanying Mr Tulkinghorn.
“Mrs. Snagsby bends to the lawyer, retires behind the counter, peeps at them through the window-blind, goes softly into the back office, refers to the entries in the book still lying open. Is evidently curious.”
It is nearly dark, but the street is still busy. As they walk, Mr. Snagsby explains that the area is rough, but that he chooses this writer because he will work through the night without stopping, until the job is done. They pass clerks who are on their way to the post office, and attorneys who are going home for dinner:
“diving through law and equity, and through that kindred mystery, the street mud, which is made of nobody knows what and collects about us nobody knows whence or how—we only knowing in general that when there is too much of it we find it necessary to shovel it away”.
Presently, they arrive at Mr. Krook’s Rag and Bottle shop, and Mr. Snagsby asks if Mr. Tulkinghorn is going in. Mr. Tulkinghorn affects to be unconcerned, and says not; and starts off home to Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Mr. Snagsby does go home, but as soon as he has gone, Mr. Tulkinghorn turns back, and enters Krook’s shop.
He asks to see Mr. Krook’s tenant. Mr. Krook asks if he means male or female, and Mr. Tulkinghorn replies male. Mr. Krook says he could call him down, but he doubts whether he would come. He gives Mr. Tulkinghorn a candle, and points him in the direction of the male lodger’s room:
“The cat expands her wicked mouth and snarls at him.”
Mr. Krook repeats what he has said to other visitors, that there were rumours that the lodger had sold himself to the enemy (the Devil):
“my lodger is so black-humoured and gloomy”
and warns the lawyer not to put him out of temper. Mr. Tulkinghorn carries on alone, and knock on the door. Receiving no answer he opens it, thereby accidentally putting his candle out.
“The air of the room is almost bad enough to have extinguished it if he had not. It is a small room, nearly black with soot, and grease, and dirt. In the rusty skeleton of a grate, pinched at the middle as if poverty had gripped it, a red coke fire burns low. In the corner by the chimney stand a deal table and a broken desk, a wilderness marked with a rain of ink.”
The meagre furniture is all broken or threadbare:
“the discoloured shutters are drawn together, and through the two gaunt holes pierced in them, famine might be staring in—the banshee of the man upon the bed.”
He is motionless.
“His hair is ragged, mingling with his whiskers and his beard—the latter, ragged too, and grown, like the scum and mist around him, in neglect.”
Mr. Tulkinghorn's Discovery - Felix O. C. Darley 1863
Everything is foul and filthy, and yet despite all, the lawyer can detect an unmistakeable odour: “the bitter, vapid taste of opium”. He tries to rouse the man, by striking his iron candlestick against the door. Surely his eyes are open? But the candle goes out, and Mr. Tulkinghorn is left in the dark:
“with the gaunt eyes in the shutters staring down upon the bed”.
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About Guster’s Pauper Education:
Charles Dickens says:
“although she was farmed or contracted for during her growing time by an amiable benefactor of his species resident at Tooting, and cannot fail to have been developed under the most favourable circumstances, Guster ”has fits,“ which the parish can’t account for.”
This residence at Tooting really existed, and was Mr. Drouet’s Establishment at Surrey Hall, Lower Tooting. It was a privately operated residential school for pauper children located around eight miles to south-west of London. Drouet’s and similar establishments took pauper children up to the age of fourteen when they could earn their own living. Such schools did provide a little formal education but, outside of school-hours, children were employed at menial tasks such as oakum picking and sorting bristles. This might reminds us of Oliver Twist, in the workhouse.
By 1848, Mr. Drouet had almost doubled the number of residents at his establishment to just under 1400, and now also took children from the Holborn and St Pancras unions. In January 1849, the school became the centre of a scandal when a cholera epidemic broke out. Eventually 180 childrem died there.
An investigation ultimately acquitted Mr. Drouet of manslaughter charges—to Charles Dickens’s great anger and disgust. Outraged, Charles Dickens published four pieces about the events at Tooting, and Drouet’s subsequent trial, in the weekly journal “The Examiner” between January and April 1849. And he immortalised the school in this sarcastic comment.
“Guster” more than likely had epilepsy, of course.
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About Mr. Tulkinghorn:
Ah, I can hear you say, now you’re going to tell us who he is based on! But in fact I’m not! In this case, it is Mr. Tulkinghorn’s residence which is taken from life :)
This is modelled on John Forster’s house: Charles Dickens’s friend, and future biographer. It is located at no. 58 Lincoln’s Inn Fields (See number 7 on the map at the beginning of the next thread). Here it is now:
Mr Tulkinghorn's residence - Lincoln's Inn Fields
You might remember the contemporary engraving I posted for chapter 1, of this huge area of the Courts of Chancery.
Mr. Tulkinghorn, the great man of secrets, seems indistinguishable from his house. Charles Dickens always seems to imbue his houses with human characteristics. The description of Mr. Tulkinghorn’s home helps our understanding of him as a “man of secrets”.
“… its roomy staircases, passages, and antechambers still remain; and even its painted ceilings, where Allegory, in Roman helmet and celestial linen, sprawls among balustrades and pillars, flowers, clouds, and big-legged boys, and makes the head ache—as would seem to be Allegory’s object always, more or less.”
“everything that can have a lock has got one; no key is visible”. All those locks, and one assistant who is not given any privileged information. He is:
“a great reservoir of confidences. His clients want him; he is all in all”. And in the chambers of Tulkinghorn:
“In those shrunken fragments of greatness, lawyers lie like maggots in nuts”.
Charles Dickens has no love for the Law!
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Did anyone feel that Mr. Snagsby’s consort (the delightful Mrs. Snagsby) was a little like Krook’s (Lady Jane)?
I enjoyed the irony of the man who owns a stationery shop, stocking writing implements to do with the law—and who employs people to write—taking a lawyer to a Rag and Bottle shop owned by a man who is illiterate—all in order to find a man who has a very distinctive style of writing.
What do we make of the ending? Charles Dickens certainly liked his cliffhangers, and it feels a bit as if some strands of the story are drawing together. We might think we know what has happened to the law-writer, but the original readers had to wait a whole month to find out whether their suspicions were correct, as this is the end of an installment. So we just have to get through our free day tomorrow, before we are told :)
Jean - thank you for the wonderful range of additional information, all so interesting. I enjoy the illustrations but I sometimes wonder if the illustrator has read the book. Dickens says Mr Snagsby tends to obesity but both of these illustrations show a thin man. Not how I imagine him at all. Do you have any thoughts on this? It seems to happen quite often.It took me a while to get past the first paragraph of this chapter by the time I’d looked up pounce, wafers, green ferret, bodkins etc. I don’t like to read a word and not know what it means but it slows me down!
I can’t imagine the anticipation of the serial readers having to wait a full month to find out the identity and fate of Nemo. I’m having to discipline myself not to read ahead!
I have a question that I'm sure has been answered before, but since I haven't read any biographies of Dickens, and this is my first group read, I'll ask anyway. Writing as he did, in installments, did he map out the entire book beforehand, or was he just winging it as he went along? Either way is brilliant, as there are so many characters and details.
I loved, right at the top of this chapter, running into the phrase "red tape," looking it up, and learning it's been used since the 16th century to tie up administrative documents, and that it is still used today, called "legal tape," for barristers' briefs. :-)
Loved the imagery of "fog was the ivy of London".
This was such a great chapter. I noted Mr Snagsby walking in the sun and noticing the sparrows, perhaps as an antidote to his wife. And I’m surprised that Tulkinghorn’s residence is based on Forster’s home given how viciously he insulted it (the reference to maggots in particular).
And Krook’s Rag and Bone returns. And in such a startling way. Tulkinghorn is acting so mysteriously and then to have that ending. I wonder if this could be the same handwriting that Lady Dedlock recognized.
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Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
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Yes, Kyd is especially bad at this :( He only ever drew characters, and frequently they do not match the text. I only ever include them here if they are passable - and if I have nothing better!
The only ones commissioned by Charles Dickens himself are those by Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne) - and these are exactly as per instructions. Phiz was not able to read the text much in advance though, as the installment had only just been written (he got a draft copy). I think I also mentioned before that if Charles Dickens was not happy with something about an etching by Phiz, he would order him to redo it!
But there aren't illustrations for each chapter, because Phiz provided 2 illustrations for each installment.
The other early illustrators also did not provide 67 illustrations, (as would be needed for one per chapter) and tended to choose the same scenes. Fred Barnard is the most prolific, but he has not illustrated chapter 10. Neither have Hablot Knight Browne, Harry Furniss or Sol Eytinge Jnr.
I was delighted to find that Felix O. C. Darley provided this photogravure as a frontispiece, as his works are few and far between. That's the one I included of the scene :)
Would you prefer me not to include the lesser artists' ones, everyone, if there's a bare day? Kyd is very much my back-up only, although I do think the modern ones by Mervyn Peake capture the oddity and atmosphere very well, and occasionally I might include a minimalist one by Edward Gorey.
Jean, thank you for all that additional information. I would prefer that the illustrations of the lesser artists are included. The lesser known illustrations are often so well done and imagined.
I'm a bit torn about the schools for pauper children. It did keep them off the streets, fed and clothed but it seemed to do nothing about education. The establishments seem to be more a combination of orphanage & child workhouse than a school. Yet, it clothed & fed them, and kept the children relatively safe until they were employed.
Were these schools a first step to the Child Welfare systems?
I really enjoyed learning that Mr. Tulkinghorn's house was based on John Forster's. It's a nice house. Forster had a nice home.
Like Sue, I'm a bit surprised that Dickens chose Forster's home to be the residence of Mr. Tulkinghorn.
Sue, I think the letter and handwriting are the ones that caused such an effect from Lady Dedlock. I'm as curious as Mr. Tulkinghorn about the person who caused such a reaction from her.
I enjoyed the atmospheric telling of this chapter. It's so gothic with the fog and the candle being blown out at creepy moments. The ghosts of the past seem to be emerging from that room as the door opens. It's so well done.
I can't wait to find out who this Law-Writer is and how he fits into the story. The opium addiction makes me think that he's a victim of a horrible past that he himself cannot face. If so, will Tulkinghorn help him or keep him in opium chains to his own advantage?
I'm glad we don't have to wait a month to find out more.
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I talked a bit about his mems in the introductory posts to Bleak House I think, and included one for one particular chapter.
Charles Dickens's first few novels were spontaneous, but by the time he wrote Dombey and Son, he had a system of "mems" in a notebook, with the general part on the left, and specific part on the right hand page. Bleak House is so complex that it had to be extremely carefully plotted.
I've looked at the "mem" for chapter 10, and it just has the title "The Law-Writer", just as chapters 8 and 9 do, all under Installment 3 - presumably he would remember exactly what plot points he needed to write for these!
On the left hand side of his notebook, his mems for installment 3 say:
Richard and Ada - love. Yes. Slightly.
Miss Jellyby? No
Nemo? Yes
New people - Mrs. Pardiggle - yes - New traits in Richard - yes - slightly
Coavinses? No
Interesting, isn't it?
I don't have many thoughts about the Snagsbys. Mr. Snagsby seems to be a transitional character; one who acts as the connection between Mr. Tulkinghorn and the Law-Giver. He's a cog in the wheel with no real role (that I can see) at the moment.
His wife is fun to read about with all the lemon & vinegar and tight corsetting but she must be a bear to live with. All that shrewness and exactitude. She wasn't pleased that Mr. Turklington left tea; she had to check to make sure the absence was warranted.
I really liked how Dickens used the crow to transition from Mr. Snagsby's home to Mr. Turklington's home. A crow never misses a detail. They are smart birds.
I also like the name Snagsby. It fits him so well as he "snags" the law work as it goes "by". He was seeing "snagging" profits when Mr. Turklington entered his ship.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Diane wrote: "Writing as he did, in installments, did he map out the entire book beforehand, or was he just winging it as he went along? ..."I talked a bit about his mems in the introductory post..."
Lord! How he could have written this complex drama with just those few notes is a wonder to me. Today we would have storyboards and lines of tension and character sketches etc, not to mention dozens of drafts. What he must have had going inside his head is awesome to contemplate!
Petra wrote: "Jean, thank you for all that additional information. I would prefer that the illustrations of the lesser artists are included. The lesser known illustrations are often so well done and imagined.
..."
Dickens had little good to say about 19th century residential schools in England. In fact, he devoted an entire novel, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY to their criticism. (I could be mistaken but I believe this was the very first review that I ever wrote for Amazon many years ago):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It's sad to think that the North American and Australian aboriginal versions of residential schools as implemented by the national governments and the Roman Catholic Church were, if anything, even worse than what Dickens' saw in England.
Jean, I like those notes in Dickens' notebook on Installment 3. That is interesting. It tells me that Mrs. Jellyby will be back and there's more to learn about Richard as we go along. Intriguing!
Petra wrote: "Sue, I think the letter and handwriting are the ones that caused such an effect from Lady Dedlock. I'm as curious as Mr. Tulkinghorn about the person who caused such a reaction from her. "And I'm curious to see if we're right that this rather dissipated character IS actually the writer in question. If he is, I want to see how Dickens managed to get the past the (in my mind) insurmountable difficulty of pulling the character out of a stoned-out-of-his-mind opium stupor into a state in which he could sit up all night writing in a legible and interesting hand. Not only that, a style of handwriting that would maintain its recognizability. Don't forget that Lady Dedlock's shock was caused by her having seen the writing elsewhere and then recognizing it on Tulkinghorn's document!
Paul wrote: "It's sad to think that the North American and Australian aboriginal versions of residential schools as implemented by the national governments and the Roman Catholic Church were, if anything, even worse than what Dickens' saw in England...."Thank you, Paul!
That helps me put the schools in perspective. It's a situation of doing harm while basing the attempt on good intentions of some sort. A plan gone wrong.
Did parents give their kids to these schools to give them a chance for a better life? Did the schools pick up pauper kids off the streets? or both?
Paul wrote: "I want to see how Dickens managed to get the past the (in my mind) insurmountable difficulty of pulling the character out of a stoned-out-of-his-mind opium stupor into a state in which he could sit up all night writing in a legible and interesting hand.."This crossed my mind, too.....but I hadn't thought about a secondary writer.
I thought that if/when he had some work, he could hold off the opium until the work was done. He needs to earn money for this habit; therefore, some control of sanity (for small periods of time) would be needed in order to feed the habit?
I like the idea of a secondary writer who uses this guy as a foil. Mysterious and interesting.
Petra wrote: "Paul wrote: "Did parents give their kids to these schools to give them a chance for a better life? Did the schools pick up pauper kids off the streets? or both?"The concepts of "pauper" and "streets" were meaningless and non-existent to Canadian and Australian aboriginal peoples in the 18th and early 19th century. These children were literally kidnapped by force, removed from their families, and installed in residential schools to have the "aboriginal" culture and language beaten out of them under (again literal) pain of torture, starvation, and death. There is an enormous and growing body of excellent non-fiction history and related historical fiction in both countries, a large number of which should be considered as MUST reads.
'Nuff said, ... that's a long way off topic from BLEAK HOUSE.
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More than anything, yes. You may remember that in Little Dorrit, Tattycoram came from an orphanage similar to the one Guster went to (the information post is about the foundling hospital is LINK HERE. The actual school Guster went to is in my information post for today, of course.
There also the "Charitable School for Grinders" - (a fictitious school but based on several) which you may remember Mr. Dombey (view spoiler) (as a reward!) in Dombey and Son.
So these are 3 different types of poor schools.
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Thankfully Guster was not subjected to (view spoiler), or any such notorious schools up North.
Petra - excellent point about the crow - well spotted! And "snags" LOL!
Kathleen - "Lord! How he could have written this complex drama with just those few notes is a wonder to me." Indeed!
Kathleen wrote: "I loved, right at the top of this chapter, running into the phrase "red tape," looking it up, and learning it's been used since the 16th century to tie up administrative documents, and that it is s..."Thanks, Kathleen. That term popped out for me, too.
Such a complex chapter with several new characters, lush descriptions, and the mysterious law writer, Nemo (Nemo is Latin for no no one.) It was difficult to know where to turn one’s attention as a reader.
I loved the description of Lincoln’s Inn as having a …a set of chambers now, and in those shrunken fragments of greatness, lawyers lie like maggots in nuts. Also comparing the stuffy, old-fashioned Mr. Tulkinghorn to an unopenable oyster of the old school.
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Bionic Jean, "Dickens Duchess"
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Thanks, Jean. I was familiar with the term, red tape, and it’s usage, but was curious about it’s origin, which Kathleen pointed out in her post #765.
Bionic Jean wrote: "Sorry for not explaining about colloquial expressions like "red tape". I do try to paraphrase them or add a note, if I spot an obviously "English" or archaic one ... but that one slipped through as..."I think most of us are familiar with the term as it's used colloquially, but what I found fun was remembering it was actually a thing on a shelf in a shop. :-)
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Lovely! I hope someone is keeping a note of all these bird references :)
John Forster must have had the patience of a saint! He put up with a lot from his friend, even to having a most unflattering portrait of him written in a later novel. And yet he was the only person Charles Dickens ever took any notice of, about plans for his writing, and had first sight of all the works before anyone else. And he was the only one Charles Dickens trusted to write his biography after his death, (though there are dozens more now of course). Perhaps that was enough to make John Forster feel valued.
And I think the maggots comment was really about Mr. Tulkinghorn and his ilk.
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Ah - now I see! Thanks :)
Glad to find my radar isn't that far off then, Kathleen and Donna.
It's interesting how the Law Writer is called Nemo or "no one" in Latin. I wonder if he has another name, and what his relationship is to Lady Dedlock who was startled when she recognized his writing. I think an opium addiction is one way to sell yourself to the Devil (the story that Mr Krook and the street children tell about him).
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Yes, that was a deliberate little joke by Charles Dickens which might have slipped past.
Mr. Tulkinghorn does say that it means no one, but Mr. Snagsby argued, logically enough, that it must mean someone, as his lodger had asked his wife to call him by that name!
If Charles Dickens's readers knew Latin, or had merely come across the word, it's a lovely understated joke :)
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I did pause and wonder if it was spoilerish - then decided it wasn't. People are so intuitive and quick-thinking here that it would be obvious :)
I especially enjoyed the wonderfully dark and gothic description of what Mr. Tulkinghorn smells, sees, and feels upon opening the second floor's "dark door." The writing here is so evocative! I can almost smell that horrible room that has been closed up like a tomb, rotting in all of its dilapidated furniture and smoke of opium.One thing that made me chuckle was much earlier in the chapter when Dickens writes: "The middle-aged man in the pew knows scarcely more of the affairs of the peerage than any crossing-sweeper in Holborn." Even without all of Mr. Tulkinghorn's confidences, there's a lot that the common people see and know.
I also liked Dickens' wonderful metaphor for how carefully Mr. Tulkinghorn holds his secrets. "An oyster of the old school whom nobody can open." It's such an unfussy and perfect metaphor that anyone would understand. And I like that in his rooms, "everything that can have a lock has got one; no key is visible." He keeps everything locked away and holds the keys somewhere no one can see.
Chapter 10Dickens manages to convey a great deal of insight into the nature of his characters in remarkably few words (and has a lot of fun in doing so). Mrs. Snagsby is “something too violently compressed about the waist, and with a nose like a sharp autumn evening, inclining to be frosty at the end.” The origin of both her compressed figure and her flinty personality is rumored to have been her mother’s single-minded actions in lacing her up every morning “with her maternal foot against the bed-post for a stronger hold and purchase.”
In common with Mr. Jellyby, Mr. Snagsby finds himself entirely under the toe of his wife and seems to have become quite accustomed to his state of subjugation. I cannot help wondering whether the frequent recurrence of such hellish women as Pardiggle, Jellyby and Snagsby, in company with submissive men, is evidence of Dickens having run afoul of weak and ineffectual men; is he pointing up what he perceives as a character flaw in men of his acquaintance, that their weakness encourages their women in their aggressive, shrewish behavior?
In Dickens’ day of course nothing resembling a photocopier existed; every document that required copies to be made had to be individually hand written by copyists or clerks. The work was often “sent out” — in this case to a stationer who in turn sublet the job to a third party. This clearly raises the issue of confidentiality (in fact, a lack thereof). Which appears to be in stark conflict with Tulkinghorn’s character and habits of secrecy “An oyster of the old school, whom nobody can open.” Little wonder that rumor is rampant and supposedly private affairs such as that of Jarndyce and Jarndyce are bruited about in the shops and streets, such that some completely uninvolved person like Krook is troublingly well informed. There’s a serious disconnect here.
Connie wrote: "I think an opium addiction is one way to sell yourself to the Devil (the story that Mr Krook and the street children tell about him)i..."I forgot the street children and Mr. Krook tell that story about the law-writer. Good memory Connie and thanks for reminding me!
Jean, I also really like ALL the illustrations you post. Though I also agree with Fiona that sometimes the drawing doesn't look at all like the character described. But then seeing someone else's interpretation is so interesting, that I don't mind, in fact I like it.
Donna, I love that you quoted An Oyster of the old school, whom nobody can open what a wonderful metaphor for Tulkinghorn. There were so many wonderful metaphors in this chapter, but the oysters and the maggots are hard to forget.
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Nice observation about this novel. We have to wonder if there will be any more to come, and where, if anywhere, this may lead!
Greg - I liked the parts you pulled out, and agree that the physical sensations conjured up in this chapter are really powerful!
I'm doing this one as an audiobook, so it's difficult for me to quote passages, but two really made an impression...I loved the image (mental video clip) of 'rumour' flying around like a bat! Also, my modern sensibilities at first laughed hearing '... at most times a shady place' as a double-entendre jab (dig/diss) at the legal arena with meanings of 'shady'.
Jim wrote: "Dickens manages to convey a great deal of insight into the nature of his characters in remarkably few words (and has a lot of fun in doing so). "I liked your thoughts, Jim. I too got the feeling that Dickens was having so much fun writing this chapter. You pointed out some of my favorites. I also loved the oil paintings (way too much oil!) of Mr. and Mrs. Snagsby and how in Guster's eyes they were equivalent to Raphael or Titian and then Dickens sarcastically says that those paintings give Guster some "recompense for her many privations".
I thought too we got some of Dickens' own opinions about art in this chapter when he describes the Allegory paintings at Tulkinghorn's house and says they make the headache -- as would seem to be Allegory's object always, more or less. I chuckled at that line. Does he have some specific painting or painter in mind?
I looked up the symbolism of crows to see if the one black crow flying from Mr. Snagsby to Mr. Tulkinghorn's homes might be a clue from Dickens. Black symbolizes internal transformation & growth and a single crow symbolizes a special message from a close relation/friend who has recently passed away.
Perhaps that means the Mr. Tulkinghorn (or Snagsby) is one (or will become one) of the "good guys" in this novel?
Of course, the symbolism might not have been a "thing" in Dickens' times or the symbolism might have been different in his days.
The above symbolism may not be a part of Dickens' times or this novel at all.
Bionic Jean wrote: "I did pause and wonder if it was spoilerish - then decided it wasn't. People are so intuitive and quick-thinking here that it would be obvious :)..."
I didn't think it was spoilerish at all. I would suspect that the Jellybys will make another appearance and Richard, being a main part of this story, will be more fleshed out over time.
Both Ada and Richard are being revealed very slowly. We don't know much about them at all.
While we don't know Esther's family history, we do know a fair amount about her personal history. We know nothing of this about Ada or Richard. At some point, Dickens is going to have to share their stories with us.
Diane - I loved that imagery about the fog too! I was excited to see the title of this chapter because I instantly thought of that mysterious bloke in Mr. Krook’s shop and the writing that Lady Dedlock saw.
Mr. Tulkinghorn apparently noticed Lady Dedlock’s reaction and became curious. When he went to visit the copyist, for some reason the description of the copyist made me think of Mrs. Rouncewell’s son that was lost. There wasn’t really anything specifically mentioned, something about his scraggly appearance just made me think of someone that had been lost and/or was in hiding which led me to Mrs. Rouncewell’s son.
I loved the little exchange about “Nemo” between Mr. Tulkinghorn and Mr. Snagsby.
Mr. Tulkinghorn is giving off a sinister vibe to me. From his description, how he lives, how he acts - I just don’t trust him.
Then there were all those ominous references to crows around Mr. Tulkinghorn.
...when he looked out of his door just now and saw the crow who was out late.
Petra - It's interesting you pointed out crows could be a good omen, I always think of them as signifying that something creepy is about to happen. That seems to be how they're used in scary movies/shows. (I don't watch any real horror, but the mild ones I've seen always seem to use crows that way. :)
Sue - Thanks for pointing out the reference to sparrows!
Jim - I was wondering about how much secrecy there could be with Mr. Tulkinghorn if everything is sent out to copyists, as well. It seems like it would be hard to keep lawyerly secrets if all your official paperwork had to be copied so many times. Of course, they would take care to not hire someone that couldn’t keep quiet about privileged material.
I liked Mr. Snagsby’s expressive coughs.
Mr. Snagsby, as a timid man, is accustomed to cough with a variety of expressions, and so to save words.
And another reference to paper!
Mr. Snagsby has dealt in all sorts of blank forms of legal process; in skins and rolls of parchment; in paper—foolscap,
Jean - I love all the images you post! And thank you for posting the “mems.” I thought that was very intriguing.
Natalie wrote: "Mr. Tulkinghorn is giving off a sinister vibe to me. From his description, how he lives, how he acts - I just don’t trust him."Well, he is a lawyer, after all! ;-) and I suspect that, given the theme of the entire novel, Dickens probably intended for you to feel somewhat less than charitably disposed toward the legal profession.
Natalie, I was surprised about the positive symbolism, too. I expected to find something dark and ominous. Like you, I don't really trust Mr. Tulkinghorn either. Dickens descriptions aren't flattering and his name reminds me of "skulking" and "horning in".
Jean - thanks for the information on illustrations. I hope you’ll continue to print all you have as I enjoy seeing them, even if they don’t always marry up with what is in my mind’s eye.
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No, that's spot on and deliberately intended, John! (And Paul) Not too "modern" :)
The first known use of shady, meaning "disreputable" or "of questionable merit, unreliable" was in 1848, 5 years before Bleak House was published :)
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In fact crows are always ominous in Charles Dickens. He has used crows (or rooks or ravens - some sort of corvid) as warning signs in each novel we've had as a group read! Crows are often circling around St. Paul's, or Rochester cathedral, or wherever we happen to be, when something bad is going to happen.
Even David Copperfield was born in the house named "The Rookery", and the visitor who arrived that evening (view spoiler) commented how inauspicious it was - a bad sign - (view spoiler).
This was a particularly dark chapter, and it comes with more mud! :) The crow also stood out to me like with Petra and Natalie. At first, I thought of the crow as a representation of Mr. Tulkinghorn as he comes and goes freely but with some air of mystery. It specifically hit me when I read
Mr. Tulkinghorn goes, as the crow came -- not quite so straight, but nearly --to Cook's Court....
But I always thought that crows mean that death is imminent. Then with the description of Nemo at the end, I almost wonder if he will die soon. 'Blot-headed' candles and extinguishing candles really made it seem like foreshadowing to me. I feel like we still need to see him again before it happens though as he seems to glue some of the storyline together.
I also found the list of items at the beginning a bit over-the-top and enjoyable. It seems there is a sort of organization to it with writing utensils, stationary, and other things being separated by semicolons.
Dickensians!
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
P.D. James (other topics)Charles Dickens (other topics)
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P.L. Travers (other topics)
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As Jenny says, we were told these were Richard and Ada, until Mr. Jarndyce gave them a home. Until then Richard had been at boarding school (someone was asking about this too - sorry I forget who) but we have not been told about Ada's upbringing.