Bleak House — Charles Dickens

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Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens published in 20 monthly instalments between March 1852 and September 1853 It is held to be one of Dickens s finest novels containing one of the most vast complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub plots in his entire canon The story is told partly by the novel s heroine Esther Summerson and partly by an omniscient 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 Memorable characters include the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn the friendly but depressive John Jarndyce and the childish and disingenuous Harold Skimpole as well as the likeable but imprudent Richard Carstone

This is a very exciting story I can really imagine what London was like So many years ago Luke 11 It would have been far better if you had never been born Esther at fourteen has never known love Determined to live well earn some love and overcome the shadow of her birth she takes her first steps into an unknown world A family curse a manipulating lawyer poverty and secrets threaten to destroy Esther s world Are the walls of Bleak House strong enough to protect her and her new friends from such powerful forces The reader will be caught up in an unfolding mystery full of surprises Perhaps the biggest mystery of all is Who is Nemo

Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens first published as a 20 episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853 The novel has many characters and several sub plots and is told partly by the novel s heroine Esther Summerson and partly by an omniscient narrator At the centre of Bleak House is a long running legal case in the Court of Chancery Jarndyce and Jarndyce which comes about because a testator has written several conflicting wills In a preface to the 1853 first edition Dickens claimed there were many actual precedents for his fictional case One such was probably the Thellusson v Woodford case in which a will read in 1797 was contested and not determined until 1859 Though many in the legal profession criticised Dickens s satire as exaggerated this novel helped support a judicial reform movement which culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s

With an Introduction and Notes by Doreen Roberts University of Kent at Canterbury Illustrations by Hablot K Browne Phiz Bleak House is one of Dickens finest achievements establishing his reputation as a serious and mature novelist as well as a brilliant comic writer It is at once a complex mystery story that fully engages the reader in the work of detection and an unforgettable indictment of an indifferent society Its representations of a great city s underworld and of the law s corruption and delay draw upon the author s personal knowledge and experience But it is his symbolic art that projects these things in a vision that embraces black comedy cosmic farce and tragic ruin In a unique creative experiment Dickens divides the narrative between his heroine Esther Summerson who is psychologically interesting in her own right and an unnamed narrator whose perspective both complements and challenges hers