Bleak House
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Bleak House
Charles Dickens
Literature
James Mustich
Aug 7, 2018
Although it lacks the affectionate warmth of David Copperfield and the narrative unity of Great Expectations, Bleak House is considered by many critics to be its author’s greatest achievement. Unlike those other two novels, which, of course, have their own ardent champions, Bleak House is not steeped in childhood or focused on the unfolding of a childhood’s layers of hopes and sorrows in later life; it is a novel of adulthood, a nuanced exploration of social mores, economic and legal entanglement, romantic passion, mature love, and murderous envy. Innovative in its structure, it is told in two distinct and alternating voices. This capacious book seems to be a compendium of everything its author had learned about inventing characters and telling stories. It weaves several strands of popular (or soon to be popular) fiction—social satire, romance, sentimental education, the novel of sensation, and the detective story—into a single vast tapestry of reading that is surprising, intellectually compelling, and wholly satisfying.
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Deirdre
Jun 25, 2019
Dickens shows us the best and the worst of humankind
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Debra Hanff
May 23, 2020
I plan to reread this someday. It is so powerful.
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Jo
Nov 28, 2025
"Bleak House" combines the intertwining stories of disparate characters into one mesmerizing, hilarious and dramatic tale, part romance and part mystery. Self-effacing yet acerbically perceptive Esther Summerson has spent her life in the shadow of her illegitimacy; her brutal godmother declaring that she bears her mother's disgrace and must make amends for it. When Esther is hired by the beneficient Mr Jarndyce to be governess to his young ward Ada Clare, she quickly becomes a confessor and advisor to him, Ada and the latter's cousin, Richard Carstone. The three are each one of many plaintiffs enmeshed in the inheritance case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, languishing in the Court of Chancery. So is Lady Honoria Dedlock, the ennui-ridden wife of a baronet and society beauty. The death of a law writer with a mysterious connection to Lady Dedlock sets the enigmatic Mr Tulkinghorn on a cat-and-mouse chase to uncover her secrets. So too, are William Guppy, hopelessly in love with Esther, and his best friend investigating, for reasons of the heart. The secret they are all seeking is the very same Esther has always wondered about, and the domino chain of events, pulling disparate individuals together, have a direct impact on Esther and her pursuit of happiness.
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