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    Bleak House
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    Bleak House
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    Bleak House

    By Charles Dickens

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    About this ebook

    Bleak House focuses on the unimaginably drawn out trial of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a case presided over by the Court of Chancery, a body which deals in matters of trusts and guardianship of infants. Characters have grown old, been born into, married into, and been divorced from various plaintiffs and defendants in the case, which has been dragged out so long as to consume sixty odd thousand pounds in court costs. 

    The story is told partly from the perspective of novel's heroine, the strong and sensitive Esther Summerson, and partly from an omniscient third-person narrator. Follow Dickens's brilliant and sweeping narrative of the case over an orphan child, which consumes the minds and spirits everyone involved. Unforgettable characters include and the childish and imprudent Harold Skimpole, the friendly yet depressive John Jarndyce, Lady and Sir Dedlock, and the cold and indifferent lawyer Tulkinghorn, who represents the iron will of the law.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSheba Blake Publishing
    Release dateMay 18, 2015
    ISBN9781304097866
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth, where his father worked as a clerk. Living in London in 1824, Dickens was sent by his family to work in a blacking-warehouse, and his father was arrested and imprisoned for debt. Fortunes improved and Dickens returned to school, eventually becoming a parliamentary reporter. His first piece of fiction was published by a magazine in December 1832, and by 1836 he had begun his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He focused his career on writing, completing fourteen highly successful novels, as well as penning journalism, shorter fiction and travel books. He died in 1870.

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    Reviews for Bleak House

    4/5

    2,343 ratings122 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A good winter read, but I feel like it must have worked better as originally published in monthly installments. As a novel, it feels bloated and overstuffed, with far too many characters and subplots gumming up the works. The satire on the legal machinations is excellent, however.
    • 5/5
      Loved it.I haven't read a classic novel for a while, so I found it slow going for the 50 pages or so. But once I became used to the writing style, it turned into a page turner. Dickens is such a wonderful author with a sharp sense of humour and a way of describing society's structures and people that I really enjoy reading. In this novel, he writes a lot from a woman's perspective and displays a sympathy and understanding that I think was far beyond the norm for his time. A great story that explores themes of obsession, of living in the present without focusing too much on either the past or the future and all the many relationships that make up our lives.
    • 5/5
      I knocked off a half star because of that absurdity concerning spontaneous combustion.
    • 5/5
      Picked this up in London - had been promising myself to spend a bit of time on Dickens over the next few months.
    • 5/5
      Dickens' 17th important work, his 9th novel, his 1st utter masterpiece. Bleak House is gorgeous, powerful, and diffuse in a way that signals we're on to the author's third act, in which the vibrant characters and internal examination he had been trialling begin to come together. Apparently, as he got to the end of this novel, Dickens was finding his life and its burdensome pile of commitments to be a little much, but perhaps it was because he was giving more than ever to his work. Lady Dedlock and Esther both provide dimensional (well, at least bordering on two-dimensions, which is something for this guy) portraits into this maudlin world. The social satire of the Jarndyce case is barbed in a different way to Dickens' anger on the treatment of the poor: it is a more tongue-in-cheek satire about the inanities of humankind. Richard and Ada aren't exactly fountains of great depth, but their actions still contribute their detail to the many facets that make up this unified whole. While I think that Dorrit and Great Expectations are also masterpieces (and I haven't yet read Our Mutual Friend), Bleak House is absolutely the most Dickensian of CD's achievements.
    • 5/5
      I had to read this one as part of my required reading for a history of publishing class that I took in college. The history of this book itself and how it was published was incredibly interesting, aside from the fact that the book is great. It's crazy to think that Dickens wrote the majority of his well known works in increments and adapted his writing according to the reactions of the audiences. Bleak House was beautifully atmospheric and, in classic Dickensian style, has all sorts of characters that are intertwined in ways that they don't realize until all loose ends gets tied. Highly recommend (even though the page count is incredibly intimidating).
    • 4/5
      Another rich, full masterpiece by the "Great One" himself. The story follows Ada and Richard, two orphaned beneficiaries in the infamous Jarndyce & Jarndyce court case and their friend Esther as they grow to adulthood as wards of John jarndyce and choose different paths along the slippery and dangerous byways of the byzantine English chancery court. The novel, originally serilised, is rich in its description of Victorian London and its often unfortunate inhabitants, personified by the simple, tragic crossing sweep, Joe. Evil and villainy is embodied in the indomitable character of Mr. Tulkinghorn who weaves the many disparate threads of the story together as the lawyer to Sir Leicester and Lady Deadlock, both of whom figure prominently in Jarndyce & Jarndyce and Esther's life. However, humorous characters also populate the story, my personal favorite being the country squire, Lawrence Boythorn, an irascible, loud, warm-hearted friend of John Jarndyce, along with William Guppy, the sad, love-smitten and hilarious legal clerk at Kinge & Carboys, and the dogged and menacing police detective, Inspector Bucket, whose contributions, in the end, reveal a strong sense of ethics and a good heart!Dense and multi-layered, this book is not for readers with a short attention span and lust for action. However, if complexity, tragedy, comedy and subtleties in mood are your "cup of tea" than drink up, I say!
    • 5/5
      My favourite Dickens book, I could read this over and over. It has so much depth, and fantastic memorable characters. It's both fun and dark all at the same time. Pure genius.
    • 4/5
      This is of course one of Dickens's most famous and esteemed books, a huge novel with a galaxy of fascinating characters. For me, this is not quite up there with my personal favourites, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and Pickwick Papers, but is still a very good novel. The basic narrative is quite simple, drawn out across 67 chapters, but it is that galaxy of characters that really make this one. In some Dickens novels (Our Mutual Friend, Little Dorrit), I have found significant numbers of characters rather dull and the chapters in which they featured very skimable, but there were almost none such here. Some of the most memorable/interesting were the tragic Lady Dedlock; the vagabond trooper George; Mrs Jellyby, who is dedicated to public causes but abandons her husband and children; the Bagnets, where the wife articulates all her husband's opinions for him at his request; Boythorn, the Dedlocks' neighbour in dispute with them over a right of way; Miss Flite, the poor little lady whose mind has become unhinged by the interminable legal case Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which also breaks the health of Richard Carstone. No one describes grinding poverty and degradation like Dickens and his descriptions of the unfortunate Jo, the crossing sweeper and Jenny, grieving over her dead baby and brutalised by her husband, are also striking and tragic. The novel is almost a microcosm of early 19th century society, both the lows and highs.
    • 4/5
      This is a lengthy tome, a sort of extended rant about the complications of the Victorian legal system which served only the lawyers and not the litigants. There were welcome moments of light relief - Old Mr Turveydrop, in particular, whose deportment is quite overwhelming my dear. Brilliant.
    • 5/5
      I would love to write a review about this book, but after traipsing and trundling and tumbling through a book so complex and so wonderful and so crazy-making as this, I don't think I am up to the task! I will then just say, as I said of "Persuasion," that classics are classics for a reason. And so it is with this.
    • 5/5
      Another classic Dickens - great characterization and brings to light a great inequity.
    • 4/5
      Not the strongest of his plots, but still a very good book. A good condemnation of the civil justice system. I absolutely saw the ending coming though. The spontaneous combustion was a little weird -- what it had to with anything, I'm not sure. What it boils down to, though, is that I really liked Esther and her scenes carried the book. Richard should have been slapped around and Ada needed a mega dose of reality, but many of the other characters were pure Dickensian classics, whether you loved them, hated them or cried with them.
    • 5/5
      first line: "London."A far cry from "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" -- but it does establish a setting."London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Implacable November weather."And there's the setting fleshed out.Really, though, what I love most about Bleak House is not the setting, or even the overall plot, but rather the characters and their interactions. I've read this, my favorite Dickens novel, twice (so far).Bleak House is a great combination of the comic and the tragic, the satirical and romantic, the petty and the benevolent. And because it's Dickens, it's a good, meaty read.
    • 5/5
      It's a heavy volume of 1034 pages (that includes the intro and many appendices). What is the Bleak House? It is an old mansion, home of John Jarndyce and his three wards: Ester, Ada and Richard. It is also the squalid conditions of Tom's-All-Alone. It is the bleak out come of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce. It is the Victorian shame of an illegimate child. There are many bleak houses in this book. Bleak House carries a warning against the excesses of nuisance suits and the danger of a laissez-faire government which it wraps up in a delightful albeit complex and dense comedic romance of a young woman supposedly orphaned and sent to live with her guardian who is stuck in a generations long lawsuit over an estate. Interestingly, I recently read an American story that obviously borrowed heavily from Bleak House. To anyone who enjoys Bleak House, I recommend The Big Mogul by Joseph C. Lincoln.
    • 4/5
      The needless suffering caused by the bureaucracy of the Chancery Court in London permeates this book with its multitude of eccentric characters. Bleak House requires a generous time commitment and much patience in the beginning as the characters and their circumstances are introduced. However, after the stage is set, the action picks up and moves along quickly. As always with Dickens, there is a mixture of humor and satire along with the darker side of social conditions in Victorian England.
    • 4/5
      Very good, but very long and sad. Not sure if I would read again
    • 5/5
      My favorite Dickens.It was given to me as a gift when I was involved in an epic and long-lived legal battle, which undoubtedly biased my opinion. Nonetheless, it is a very entertaining read.
    • 5/5
      Difficult to get into at first due to switching narrators/verb tenses and a slow start to the plot, "Bleak House" ultimately proves rewarding to those who are willing to search out and examine the novel's underlying structure of analogy, comparison, and linkage. This is an extremely complex work, both in technique and in its conceptual underpinnings. For the reader who is willing to put work into deciphering the text, and who loves Dickens' minor characters, this will be a beloved book. The reader looking for a light, superficial read will most likely be frustrated and irritated.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book by Dickens I've tried, and it contains all the good and bad things I've heard about him.The most enjoyable thing about the book is the immense cast of characters. One cannot help but be awed by Dickens' skill in this regard. There must be about 50 characters, each of whom has a distinct personality and many of whom are identifiable by their speech patterns alone. Despite the enormous cast of characters I only got them confused once or twice. I found it enjoyable to think, My God, what an imagination this man must have had to create this little universe!But all of Dickens' downfalls are present here. The heroine is a terribly passive, "pure," one-dimensional Victorian orphan. And there is plenty of schmaltzy melodrama. The novel contains a couple death scenes which are laughable and ridiculous.I had no trouble getting into it early on (the first couple chapters are phenomenal). That said, I could never read more than 50 or 60 pages in one sitting.Everyone should try Dickens at least once, and I think that despite its flaws this is a very enjoyable read.
    • 5/5
      It's always daunting to review a 'classic', as there are always so many other opinions lurking in the background, but I'll try to give an unadulterated view in my Dickens reviews this year. I enjoyed BH enormously. Dickens seems to me to have two main types of novel: the personal stories like David Copperfield and Great Expectations; or the great social panoramas like Our Mutual Friend or The Old Curiosity Shop. Bleak House, although it contains the personal history and first person narrative of Esther Summerson, is in the latter category. The inanimate antihero is The Law, and it is manifest in a variety of ways - through the amoral lawyer, Tulkinghorn, far removed from any tender human emotion; through the madness of poor Miss Flyte and the obsession of Richard; and through the mind-numbing and soul destroying atmosphere of the Court of Chancery. The law is an instrument of harm in this book, and an object of horror, because the very process and persons that should uphold justice and peace instead make confusion, misery and poverty. Bleak House is a book about obfuscation, and the plot is deep and twisty including hidden identities, murder, scandal, mislaid documents, love - wise and unwise, loyalty and hatred. There are many interesting characters to love or hate, including Dickens' staple preternaturally good woman in Esther Summerson (who is likeable nevertheless)The portrait of Inspector Bucket is especially satisfying, and I found in him the type of many of fiction's hero detectives. His way of insinuating himself and apparently carrying on a perfectly normal conversation whilst extracting information is particularly reminiscent of Peter Whimsy.Dickens has some hard things to say about the society and mores of his time, but he doesn't let the social comment get in the way of a cracking good yarn.
    • 4/5
      1053 Bleak House, by Charles Dickens (read 27 May 1970) On June 9, 1970, Dickens will have been dead 100 years. I thought it only fitting that I note the upcoming anniversary by reading something of his. So I have just finished Bleak House. I am impressed. Long, I at times merely plodded along, not liking it. But in probably the second half of the book it became much more enjoyable. One came to see the much-vaunted array of Dickensian characters, some of whom one liked, others of whom irritated. I enjoyed Smallwood, the crippled mean man, but was repelled by Mrs. Jellyby, who concerned herself with Africa and ignored her family. Turveydrop I thought an ass--an example of Deportment. His son, the self-effacing dancing master, likewise. These are all minor characters, but so much point was spent developing them! Esther Summerson, the partial narrator, was so saccharine good as to repel. And the switch by which her guardian, John Jarndyce, hands her from himself to Allan Woodcourt is illustrative of her impossible submissiveness. Leicester Dedlock is the husband of Esther's mother and the principal story is woven around this. Jarndyce v. Jarndyce is an impossible case, and as a lawyer I resent the anti-lawyer talk, although old procedures certainly left much to be desired. Dickens is great, but others can write better stories. This is the fifth Dickens book I have read, having read A Tale of Two Cities on Dec 12, 1946; Great Expectations on Mar 18, 1948; Pickwick on May 13, 1959, and David Copperfield on June 14, 1959. I don't know but what I may read more Dickens--some day. {I did.]
    • 5/5
      I listened to this very long audiobook. I believe there were 34 parts, most of which were over an hour long. That's a lot of listening but I never found it tedious. In fact I could hardly wait until I had the next opportunity to listen to it. Simon Vance, the narrator, did a terrific job of all the different characters.Dickens was no fan of the legal system and that shows clearly in this book which revolves around a case in Chancery court, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. I never did figure out what the dispute was but I am not alone in this. None of the many solicitors involved understood the case but that didn't stop them from representing some interest. John Jarndyce, one of the primary litigants, never went to court and he had no belief that it would ever be settled. John became guardian to a young woman, Esther Summerson, who had previously been raised by her aunt. When the aunt died Jarndyce took over care of Esther, sending her to school and then bringing her to Bleak House to help him raise two orphaned relatives, Ada and Richard. Ada and Richard are also parties in the litigation but Jarndyce never allows this fact to impair his treatment of them. As Ada and Richard grow up they fall in love. Richard cannot settle to any occupation having tried medicine, the law and the military in turn. Then he devotes himself to the lawsuit and turns agains John Jarndyce. These are only the main characters in the book. There are a host of other characters who interact with Ada and Richard and Esther and Mr. Jarndyce. Some of them are comical, like the perennially broke Mr. Skimpole; some of them are tragic like Lady Deadlock who bore an illegititmate child that she thought had died at birth. One of my favourite minor characters was Mr. George, formerly a military man, who runs a shooting gallery in London. George is in debt to a money-lender and, although he works hard and lives meagrely, he seems to have no way of paying off his debt. When he was charged with murdering the lawyer who represented the money-lender I was sure he couldn't be responsible.As always Dickens' portraits of the poor are heart-wrenching. There are a lot of deaths in this book, more than I remember in other Dickens' novels. So it certainly is not a light-hearted book. However, I very much enjoyed listening to it.
    • 5/5
      Bleak House is a book that has it all: murder, adultery, romance, blackmail, and a touch of the gothic. I have to admit to a bit of a tear at the end, to which my husband says "what? Crying over a book?" My response: you've got no soul. I think it would be difficult not to be moved by this book even a little. My edition also had reproductions of the original artist illustrations. I very highly recommend this one!I can't even begin to summarize because of the complexities of the plot and many subplots, but there are a number of very good analyses available on the internet should you be so inclined. The barebones outline is this: the books starts and ends with the case of Jarndyce & Jarndyce, a lawsuit which has been going on for so long that most of the principals involved have long since passed on. It has become somewhat of a joke in the court of Chancery, an institution that Dickens strongly criticizes by painting a vivid picture of the court's ineptitude, of lawyers whose sole job is to create business for themselves, and of those who find their interests tied up completely in the hands of lawyers & of the courts. Because of this lawsuit, two cousins are taken under the care of one John Jarndyce, who also brings along Esther Summerson as his ward. The story focuses on the fortunes and misfortunes of this group of people, along with several supporting characters and their stories. To go beyond this would be to give the show away, but I can say that this book's strong suit is (as is usual in a Dickens novel) the characterizations. The imagery in this novel is also a part of the story as is the commentary on existing social conditions and his critique of such things as the chancery courts, lawyers, old institutions that should have long passed out of existence, the missionary & do-gooder zeal, and the various types of dandies, fops and leeches that lived off of others.I very highly recommend this book to anyone who may be interested; it is long and it can get complicated, but it is a sterling example of the work of Charles Dickens, and should not be missed.
    • 5/5
      Critics say this is Dickens' best and most complicated work. I would agree! There are so many sub plots and so many characters that one needs to be on their toes while reading this book. Was it worth it? YES! This Dickens novel tells of the injustices of the 19th century legal system in England. It has the makings of a great soap opera: drug use, affairs, illegitimate children, stalking, murder, and spontaneous combustion! [Bleak House] is told both by an unidentified, third-person narrator and a first-person narrator. The third person narrator tells the story in the present and Esther Summerson tells the story in the past, which may be confusing. [Bleak House] is a not an easy read, but well worth the effort.
    • 4/5
      Robert Whitfield is a good reader, but some of the women's and children's voices sound a bit unnatural (particularly Caddy and Charley). The novel Bleak House of course gets 5 stars.
    • 3/5
      I could easily write many negative things about this novel. For starters it is LONG. It is more a social and political commentary than a novel. The story follows many interconnected subplots told from the point of view of a third person narrator - or from the first person viewpoint of Esther Summerson, whose voice is not the least bit believable. (Biting the inside of my cheek to refrain from making snarky Mary Sue comments) The subplots are all tied up too neatly at the end.

      Did I mention how long it is?

      Nevertheless, it kept me interested enough to finish reading it. (Well, almost. After a certain character died, I read the remaining 8% out of sheer stubbornness) Despite the lack of character development, I found myself sympathizing with many of the characters and caring what happened to them.
    • 5/5
      I have to admit that I read this after I saw the series starring Gillian Anderson. This helped me follow the plotline a little better. It is true that there is an amazingly large cast of characters and many twists and turns throughout this complex story. But the heavy detail made everyone so real and alive. I wanted to live at Bleak House! As usual, the book is much better than the T.V. series as good as that was.
    • 5/5
      Probably my favorite Dickens novel I've read to date. A friend of mine was surprised because there's "a WHOLE CHAPTER ON MUD." But I think Dickens makes some astute and far-reaching social commentary in this, something he was really starting to hone with Hard Times.
    • 4/5
      Charles Dickens 9th novel, written as a serial was a bit slow on the upstart but over all an enjoyable book once into a bit. A lot of characters that slowly come to light and how they are interconnected. This is the story of Chancery (or equity law courts) which is part of the legal system. The court system is eating away at the inheritance of those who were to benefit. There are a lot of characters and a lot of subplots. This is supposedly the author's best book though I still hold A Tale of Two Cities as my favorite. Uniqueness/Legacy of Bleak House: it is different than the other Dickens that I have read. It is told both by a third-person omniscient narrator and a first-person narrator (Esther Summerson). Some consider this a mistake. Legacy: 3 Plot: 4 Characterization: (perhaps too many) but they all came together: 4. Esther is a bit over Victorian but appropriate to the time I guess. 4 Readability: 3 Achievement: 5 Style: 3 Rating: 3.625