Bleak House

Where has this book been? Why is a turd like Tale of Two Cities lauded as a masterpiece, while Bleak House sits in obscurity?

Of the 7 Dickens novels I've read, this is the best. An epic saga with a pile of enjoyable characters. Intrigue, suspense, romance, drama, scandal, and heart-wrenching sadness all play out in their time in Bleak House. For a large novel (Dickens' third longest by word count - only 1,553 words shorter than his longest - David Copperfield) with an enormous roster of characters - Dickens did a masterful job in bringing them all together in a tight little package through a brilliant story with important messages and lessons. Bleak House comes as close to Les Miserables or War and Peace as Dickens' gets.

Bleak House show more should not be the first Dickens novel you read, but it will be your favorite.

I do, however offer the following criticism:

There is no proper antagonist. I suppose Mr Tulkinghorn is supposed to be the antagonist, and maybe Mr. Vholes, yet both characters behave uprightly and even ethically and responsibly throughout the story. They are both simply pursuing their own interests in an above-board manner and making reasonable moral decisions given their circumstances, they just come off as villains (not even villains, really) on account of their objectives being perhaps at odds with the more likable characters. They're villains in the way that your favorite team's opponents in a championship game are villains. There's no character that you feel the need to hiss at and despise (which seems like something Dickens relished in his other novels.)

*read again in 2026 after having read all of Dickens' novels. I think it might still be my favorite. I think it's sort of funny how parts of the book are written in first-person from the perspective of Esther Summerson, who in my opinion might be the least interesting character in the book. I enjoyed the other chapters more. I wonder why he chose to write the book that way? show less

I really enjoyed this. You might say that Dickens had two different approaches to the novel: there's the bildungsroman that focuses on a single character, told in the first person, like David Copperfield (1849-50) or Great Expectations (1860-61). Or there's the "vast sweep of London" novel, taking in numerous strands and characters, like A Tale of Two Cities (1859) or Our Mutual Friend (1864-65). Bleak House is both, alternating between sections told in the first-person past tense by Esther Summerson (Dickens's only female narrator) and those told in the third-person present by an omnipotent narrator. (Anyone who thinks Victorian novels were stodgy in their formats has clearly never actually paid attention to them. Take that, show more modernists!)

Each of these would be a good novel on its own. Esther is a great Dickens protagonist, Dickens bringing his usual attention to detail when it comes to the development of the self. There are some great jokes (I love the one about the kid who fell down the stairs). The other half is one of Dickens's best crafted sweep-of-London novels, I think, with so many disparate parts that all revolve around a central point even when it doesn't seem like it. There are lots of great characters: the Jellabys, Vholes (if you made the law comprehensible, men like him would be out of work!), Sir Leicester, many more.

I'd be curious to see sometime if I'm right, but I actually think you could read each of these strands as its own novel and it would work fine, a book called Esther Summerson and another called something like In Chancery or Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Dickens has done great work (well, and bad) in both of these forms, but here he's wedded them together. I think it works really well, thanks to the divergent styles. Dickens is always interested in how people are shaped by societal forces, and Bleak House gives us both a novel of a person and a novel of societal forces at once, letting Dickens explore that balance to its fullest effect. Esther wouldn't be Esther without all the machinations around Jarndyce and Jarndyce, but if her sections were told like all the others, I think she might get lost in the novel. This isn't my favorite Dickens (that's probably still Great Expectations), but it's definitely up there. show less

This book has completely changes my opinion of Dickens. Like so many I studied Great Expectations at school and it was a dreary job. Imagine my delight to find in Bleak House a wonderfully compelling story where your expectations of characters are overturned and the story has wonderful plot twists. It's a really engaging read, or in this case listen.

Miriam Morgolyes does an exquisite job of narration, giving each character their own distinct voice; I really have no idea how she does it.

The books winds together many seemingly disparate stories into one: Ester and her mysterious birth, the grand family of the Dedlocks, the famous case of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce, the apparently childlike Mr Skimpole, the lawyers and their clerks, the show more wonderfully genteelly batty Miss Flite and the trooper and his friends.

I found Ester, one of the principal narrators, quite amusing, since she is the pattern of a demure useful moral victorian lady. It leaves me wondering if this was Dickens' ideal of feminine virtue. However, I think she was set up as such to be a contrast to the mystery of her birth; the sins of the parents not being visited upon that of the child in this case. I can see however that she could be, for some at least, a rather annoying prissy little woman.

There are some truly touching scenes which Dickens deals with sensitivity and tenderness, particularly in relation to the very poor Joe. This is in marked contrast to his treatment of the lawyers, for whom one can presume Dickens lost no love. He is scathing in his condemnation of the waste of time and money, their cynical manipulation of people and circumstances for their own ends. It is clear that he feels that the Court of Chancery was the last place an honest person should go for justice, the case of Mr Gridley is clearly an example of how it ruined ordinary people.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and had to race through the final third of the book, desperate to find out what happened next. Highly recommended, even if you think you don't like Dickens. show less

Did I read this book? I suppose I did. Mostly it felt like I was just whining while in its vicinity.

I don’t care what anyone says about Bleak House. Defend it all you want. I’ve experienced the damned thing. It fucking sucks. Part of my disdain for it, I admit, may be baked into the fact that I had to read it at an absolutely brutal pace (2 weeks for this monster, along with four other classes’ worth of reading each night). But even despite that, reading Bleak House felt like genuine physical torture. Opening this book each night, I felt a sickness wash over me, a nausea that gripped my very bones.

I do not particularly want to delve into all the reasons I hated this book, as I’ve already spent so much of my preciously short life show more with its ragged, ponderous prose pressed up to my weary eyeballs. Suffice it to say that combining two years’ worth of serialised chapters into a novel is a recipe for utter disaster. There are no stakes until probably about 500 pages in. There is no impetus at all for the story to be told. Digressions are plentiful are never enjoyable. Side characters constantly reappear, seemingly with the sole purpose to grate on the reader’s patience—Dickens has an especial fondness for Skimpole that leads to his constant cropping up despite never being integral to the story in any way. And even the prose isn’t terribly impressive. Dickens vacillates between maudlin sentimentality and cynical disdain; he takes perverse pleasure in telling, telling, telling (rarely showing); he uses characters in the same way a better novelist would use setting—they’re inanimate automatons motivated solely by the fact that there must be words on the page, not because they have any inner spark which leads to a compelling story. Bleak House is, essentially, the worst, most overpopulated soap opera you’ve ever seen, transplanted onto nearly 1,000 pages and told in the most self-important, circular way imaginable. The reader does not explore this world or these characters; she is strapped to a chair while they are force-fed to her until she vomits.

And don’t you dare try to excuse this shit based on its age; I’ve read far older books that were far more entertaining and better written. Even some of Dickens’ contemporaries were contemptuous of disgustingly long slogs like Bleak House, with Henry James referring to serialised multi-plot volumes like this as “large, loose, baggy monsters.” This is what happens when an author is allowed to run unsupervised through the world he has created—unbearable confusion and narrative chaos.

Excuse my while I thank the gods that I never have to think about this horrid thing ever again. show less

“There were two classes of charitable people: one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.”

An obscure piece of Victorian law seems to be an unlikely subject matter for a novel but this is what Dickens provided us with here. The story starts in the courts with the long running Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a complicated case involving wills and inheritances. Through 900+ pages Dickens soon takes the reader on a journey through the banal obfuscation of the court, the posturing of the greedy attorneys and the general inadequacies of the system, along the way touching upon the differing meanings of charity.

Esther Summerson, is a poor orphan, taken in by show more Mr. John Jarndyce, who himself refuses to have anything to do with the case. Esther becomes housekeeper and companion for the two young wards of John Jarndyce whom he has taken in: Richard and Ada. Together, the three grow up affected by the case in different ways. Mr. Jarndyce is a beacon of kindness and wisdom, shunning the case and living a life of generosity to all whom he encounters. However, he isn't able to keep his wards from becoming tempted by the promised wealth of the case.

Meanwhile, a plethora of minor characters appear, their connections to the case not always immediately apparent. There are wayward family members, a man who spontaneously combusts, an inspector of detectives lurking at the fringes, a young street urchin who sees something he shouldn’t, a great lady with her own damaging secret, a vengeful maid, a couple of old soldiers, a kind doctor who becomes a shipwreck as a hero, and many, many more. It’s a colourful cast.

One of the features of Bleak House is that Dickens mimics the slow feel of the court, the endless recycling of the same old arguments that keeps everything from progressing, the lawyers growing richer, the clients more disillusioned, making Dickens social commentaries harder to follow than they usually are.

There are a lot of side conversations making it slow and complicated but these are interspersed with some occasional interludes of excitement and flashes of dry wit. It’s a beautiful piece of writing that I believe achieved a lot of good after it's publication but it’s just not Dickens’ strongest, and these are not his best characters. Fans of Dickens shouldn't miss Bleak House, but it also shouldn’t be your first try at his writings. This is my sixth. show less

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Title: Bleak House
Series: ----------
Author: Charles Dickens
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 1047
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Shamelessly Stolen from Wikipedia

Sir Leicester Dedlock and his wife Honoria live on his estate at Chesney Wold. Unknown to Sir Leicester, before she married, Lady Dedlock had a lover, Captain Hawdon, and had a daughter by him. Lady Dedlock believes her daughter is dead.

The daughter, Esther, is in fact alive and show more being raised by Miss Barbary, Lady Dedlock's sister. Esther does not know Miss Barbary is her aunt. After Miss Barbary dies, John Jarndyce becomes Esther's guardian and assigns the Chancery lawyer "Conversation" Kenge to take charge of her future. After attending school for six years, Esther moves in with him at Bleak House.

Jarndyce simultaneously assumes custody of two other wards, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare (who are both his and one another's distant cousins). They are beneficiaries in one of the wills at issue in Jarndyce and Jarndyce; their guardian is a beneficiary under another will, and the two wills conflict. Richard and Ada soon fall in love, but though Mr Jarndyce does not oppose the match, he stipulates that Richard must first choose a profession. Richard first tries a career in medicine, and Esther meets Allan Woodcourt, a physician, at the house of Richard's tutor. When Richard mentions the prospect of gaining from the resolution of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, John Jarndyce beseeches him never to put faith in what he calls "the family curse".

Meanwhile, Lady Dedlock is also a beneficiary under one of the wills. Early in the book, while listening to the reading of an affidavit by the family solicitor, Mr Tulkinghorn, she recognises the handwriting on the copy. The sight affects her so much she almost faints, which Tulkinghorn notices and investigates. He traces the copyist, a pauper known only as "Nemo", in London. Nemo has recently died, and the only person to identify him is a street-sweeper, a poor homeless boy named Jo, who lives in a particularly grim and poverty-stricken part of the city known as Tom-All-Alone's ("Nemo" is Latin for "nobody").

Lady Dedlock is also investigating, disguised as her maid, Mademoiselle Hortense. Lady Dedlock pays Jo to take her to Nemo's grave. Meanwhile, Tulkinghorn is concerned Lady Dedlock's secret could threaten the interests of Sir Leicester and watches her constantly, even enlisting her maid to spy on her. He also enlists Inspector Bucket to run Jo out of town, to eliminate any loose ends that might connect Nemo to the Dedlocks.

Esther sees Lady Dedlock at church and talks with her later at Chesney Wold – though neither woman recognises their connection. Later, Lady Dedlock does discover that Esther is her child. However, Esther has become sick (possibly with smallpox, since it severely disfigures her) after nursing the homeless boy Jo. Lady Dedlock waits until Esther has recovered before telling her the truth. Though Esther and Lady Dedlock are happy to be reunited, Lady Dedlock tells Esther they must never acknowledge their connection again.

Upon her recovery, Esther finds that Richard, having failed at several professions, has disobeyed his guardian and is trying to push Jarndyce and Jarndyce to conclusion in his and Ada's favour. In the process, Richard loses all his money and declines in health. He and Ada have secretly married, and Ada is pregnant. Esther has her own romance when Mr Woodcourt returns to England, having survived a shipwreck, and continues to seek her company despite her disfigurement. Unfortunately, Esther has already agreed to marry her guardian, John Jarndyce.

Hortense and Tulkinghorn discover the truth about Lady Dedlock's past. After a confrontation with Tulkinghorn, Lady Dedlock flees her home, leaving a note apologising for her conduct. Tulkinghorn dismisses Hortense, who is no longer of any use to him. Feeling abandoned and betrayed, Hortense kills Tulkinghorn and seeks to frame Lady Dedlock for his murder. Sir Leicester, discovering his lawyer's death and his wife's flight, suffers a catastrophic stroke, but he manages to communicate that he forgives his wife and wants her to return.

Inspector Bucket, who has previously investigated several matters related to Jarndyce and Jarndyce, accepts Sir Leicester's commission to find Lady Dedlock. At first he suspects Lady Dedlock of the murder but is able to clear her of suspicion after discovering Hortense's guilt, and he requests Esther's help to find her. Lady Dedlock has no way to know of her husband's forgiveness or that she has been cleared of suspicion, and she wanders the country in cold weather before dying at the cemetery of her former lover, Captain Hawdon (Nemo). Esther and Bucket find her there.

Progress in Jarndyce and Jarndyce seems to take a turn for the better when a later will is found, which revokes all previous wills and leaves the bulk of the estate to Richard and Ada. Meanwhile, John Jarndyce cancels his engagement to Esther, who becomes engaged to Mr Woodcourt. They go to Chancery to find Richard. On their arrival, they learn that the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce is finally over, but the costs of litigation have entirely consumed the estate. Richard collapses, and Mr Woodcourt diagnoses him as being in the last stages of tuberculosis. Richard apologises to John Jarndyce and dies. John Jarndyce takes in Ada and her child, a boy whom she names Richard. Esther and Woodcourt marry and live in a Yorkshire house which Jarndyce gives to them. The couple later raise two daughters.

My Thoughts:

First off, I started out trying to synopsize this myself and gave up after 3 paragraphs. As you can see by the wiki synopsis, there is a ton of stuff going on and I simply didn't feel like re-inventing the wheel. I have this feeling I'll be doing more of that kind of thing for big, complicated books from now on. Besides, beyond me, who really reads those synopses anyway? And even I don't read them except when I want to refresh my memory of what a book is about. I feel ashamed though, deep inside. Like I'm a school boy cheating on his test or something, hahahahahahaha! Yeah, ok, not really.

This was my 3rd time reading this and I have to say, it does nothing but get better with each reading. There are a wide range of characters, both in age and temperament that I suspect I'll be able to enjoy at the various seasons of my life. From Richard and Ada as young lovers, to Esther who is guided by duty and rewarded with Love, to George the military man who just wants to do the right thing, to Lady Deadlock who appears cold and haughty even while her heart is breaking, to John Jarndyce, the Guardian and supporter of so many. And that is just to name a few. Dickens brings these people alive and makes them wonderful to read about. And the villains of the story range from the cruel and grasping to the inept and almost bumbling. I LIKED reading about them all.

This was a long book. Previously I've read it divided into 2 volumes (as that is what I own) but the ebook I read was one single volume. While it took me most of the month to work my way through this, I didn't feel like I wished I was reading something else or that I was wasting my time. Reading Dickens is never a waste of my time. I realize that everyone isn't going to share my particular love of Dickens but I sure wish everyone did. I tend to look at reading Dickens as an investment in myself. I enjoy the story, I enjoy the characters, I enjoy the themes (for the most part except when he gets a bit preachy about some social issue which has no relevance today) and I enjoy the writing style. Honestly, what more can I ask for from an author?

I don't have any deep insights to offer and I'm not going to write a bunch of bull to sound like some Literati, but if you've never tried Dickens, for your own sake, please do. If he's not for you, he's not for you, but if he is, my goodness, you're in for a world of wonder!

★★★★★ show less