Bleak House

Front Cover
Wordsworth Editions, 1993 - Fiction - 723 pages

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.

 

Contents

In Chancery
3
In Fashion
7
A Progress
14
Telescopic Philanthropy
31
A Morning Adventure
42
Quite at Home
53
The Ghosts Walk
72
Covering a Multitude of Sins
80
Esthers Narrative
197
Lady Dedlock
209
Moving On
224
A New Lodger
235
The Smallweed Family
248
Mr Bucket
263
Esthers Narrative
274
An Appeal Case
289

Signs and Tokens
97
The LawWriter III
111
ΧΙ Our Dear Brother
119
On the Watch
131
Esthers Narrative
143
Deportment
157
Bell Yard
175
TomAllAlones
188
Mrs Snagsby Sees It All
304
Sharpshooters
312
More Old Soldiers Than One
324
The Ironmaster
334
The Young Man
343
Esthers Narrative
352
Copyright

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About the author (1993)

Charles Dickens, perhaps the best British novelist of the Victorian era, was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England on February 7, 1812. His happy early childhood was interrupted when his father was sent to debtors' prison, and young Dickens had to go to work in a factory at age twelve. Later, he took jobs as an office boy and journalist before publishing essays and stories in the 1830s. His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, made him a famous and popular author at the age of twenty-five. Subsequent works were published serially in periodicals and cemented his reputation as a master of colorful characterization, and as a harsh critic of social evils and corrupt institutions. His many books include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens married Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and the couple had nine children before separating in 1858 when he began a long affair with Ellen Ternan, a young actress. Despite the scandal, Dickens remained a public figure, appearing often to read his fiction. He died in 1870, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.

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