Bleak House in Never too Late to Read Classics

Jan 23, 2015 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: victorian, english-fiction, classics, detective, literary-fiction, murder

UPDATE: On my second reading of Bleak House, I found myself just as caught up in the story, just as involved with the characters, and just as amazed at Dickens’ ability to weave a world that one can only be sorrowful to leave behind in the end. I closed the book the second time with tears standing in my eyes and with a strong conviction that if you could only have The Bible, Shakespeare and Dickens in your library, you would have the whole of humanity at your fingertips.

************************* UPDATE: On my second reading of Bleak House, I found myself just as caught up in the story, just as involved with the characters, and just as amazed at Dickens’ ability to weave a world that one can only be sorrowful to leave behind in the end. I closed the book the second time with tears standing in my eyes and with a strong conviction that if you could only have The Bible, Shakespeare and Dickens in your library, you would have the whole of humanity at your fingertips.

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It always feels a bit presumptive when I am trying to review the masters of the novel, a Dickens, Hardy, or Eliot. What can someone like myself contribute, that might matter, to the appreciation of a masterpiece like Bleak House. And yet, I want to effuse about it, I want to praise it, I want to say how completely effective it is and how strangely relevant to our society if you merely put the characters in cars instead of horse-drawn conveyances. I want to tell everyone that within its pages you will find the human condition has changed less than the progress we have made might indicate. At their hearts people are in want of love and understanding, food and warmth, that they are greedy or kind or confused or evil in the same way regardless of the era of their birth.

One of the major characters, Esther, might be painted a bit too perfect and faultless, too sweet and grateful and considerate; but I find myself quite happy with her and wanting to believe that there might exist people who at least strive to be this good. John Jarndyce is one of the finest characters in fiction--a man who does good wherever he can and expects nothing in return, including thanks. And what can one say of Harold Skimpole? He is despicable because he never takes any responsibility for his actions and lives the life of a leech by cloaking himself in the guise of a child. He is a universally harmful person, at whom one chuckles in the beginning, but loathes by the end. A host of fascinating characters (Lady Dedlock, George the Trooper, and Inspector Bucket all shine) people this novel and keep the suspense and interest alive throughout. Because this is Dickens, you can be sure there are villains aplenty, innocents in danger of being squashed by society, and poverty of a level that is appalling. If there is anything Dickens understands it is class division and the inability of the ordinary man to lift himself out of the gutter once life has flung him there.

Then there is the condemnation of the legal system and the sad injustice that is built into its operations. The suit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce that is at the heart of the novel exposes in how little measure the legal system exists for the good or benefit of those who find themselves in its grasp. How sad, we are told, to wrap your life up in any expectation of justice or relief from the courts, what a waste of time for anyone but the lawyers who alone seem to profit from the venture.

Dickens knows his craft and provides just the right mix of sentiment, humor and mystery. In turn, I laughed aloud, cried a bit and neglected chores to get to the end of a chapter and the possible nugget of information that might help to solve one of the myriad mysteries presented. He plays with words and images and I could not help noting that the least “bleak” house of all was John Jarndyce’s home that officially carried the name.

Every time I read a true classic, I have to stop and kick myself for having been so long getting around to it. There is a reason these stories have lasted through centuries. There is a reason they do not fade into oblivion along with so many of their fellows. They spoke to the audience they were written for, and, they speak just as eloquently to the audience that finds them today. If I live long enough, I hope to be able to say I have read every Dickens novel. At least now I can say I have read Bleak House, and it was an experience worth having. ...more

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Sep 11, 2023 midnightfaerie rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, mystery, drama, classic-tomes

Classics come in many forms; old, long, eloquent, brief and dirty, political, gritty and mean, sad with a touch of humor – but somehow, Charles Dickens manages to incorporate it all, and Bleak House is no exception.

While not my favorite Dickens by far, it’s often cited as one of his greatest works and I wonder if it’s just because the few that get through this tome feels it’s their right to cite it as the best, thereby making other classical lovers, such as myself, feel the need to read it. I fe Classics come in many forms; old, long, eloquent, brief and dirty, political, gritty and mean, sad with a touch of humor – but somehow, Charles Dickens manages to incorporate it all, and Bleak House is no exception.

While not my favorite Dickens by far, it’s often cited as one of his greatest works and I wonder if it’s just because the few that get through this tome feels it’s their right to cite it as the best, thereby making other classical lovers, such as myself, feel the need to read it. I felt like the characters in Great Expectations were just a bit more colorful, the plot in David Copperfield just a bit more relatable, and the lesson learned with a happy ending done so much better in A Christmas Carol. But there is much to love in Bleak House, and still worth the read.

So many themes beautifully written run through this story. Capitalism and the differences between the classes is once again a pedestal Dickens stands on. He works through the politics of the time and shows characters that are extreme in their conflicting life situations; from the poor homeless boy who is constantly used and then asked to “move on” to the upper-class gentlemen who refuses to acknowledge the self-made man as a true aristocrat. He shows the ineffectual work of the politicians running the country and characters who discuss the changing times vs those who insist on embracing tradition at all costs. He speaks to injustice and corruption in the legal system, going so far as to create characters that are driven mad by the processes of the court they get involved in. And of course love and sacrifice shown through our heroine, Esther, and so many other themes in between. This alone could label this a classic piece of literature. But there’s so much more, such as Dickens’ unique style of writing, the age of the book, and its popularity among others.

One of my favorite things about Dickens is how he writes his male characters. From their Dickensonian names to their descriptive attributes, I tend to love them all; from the slimy car salesman type man who picks his pimples, to the great-hearted guardian that tries to help everyone in his path. That being said, I am one of those who believes is a little 2-demsional when writing his women. I’ve stated this before and I don’t know if it’s because he is a man, or it’s how he saw women of the time, but they come across as flat with no depth. Esther is often criticized as being so sickly sweet-good, and it can be irritating, but I found her refreshing compared to the others in the novel. Lady Deadlock was probably written the best as far as the women went, with her secret she was hiding, that caused her torment and ultimately her fall from grace. A secret that would be considered ridiculous in today’s standards and I think on some level Dickens was trying to show that as well, or at least the difference between the struggles of a man vs. a woman during that time. Her maid was a great example of a 2-dimensional villain, consumed by her hatred and with no other interests in life that we could see as readers. There were many of these though, like Mrs. Snagsby who was obsessed with her jealousy towards the women her husband interacted with and her overactive imagination.

My favorite male character was probably Mr. Bucket, who apparently Agatha Christie modeled fictional detective Hercule Poirot after. The detective archetype is one of my favorites and I love to see different portrayals of them. I still think Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is the best detective, with his arrogance and attitude, but Mr. Bucket pulled out some fun stops in Bleak House along the way as well. He was entertaining and engaging and even though I guessed a good part of the mystery I actually didn’t see everything coming. There was still some mystery in events that left me surprised, which I enjoy.

Overall, Bleak House probably falls somewhere around the middle if I had to rate what I’ve read by Dickens so far. It has all the same elements of his other books, I think I just didn’t enjoy the story as much as some of the others. I still love the way Dickens has so many characters and brings them altogether in the end in ways you don’t expect. The development of his plots are methodical and deliberate and always a joy to read. There is no ambiguity in the conflict of the story, as we always know who we’re supposed to be rooting for and who the bad guy is in that particular chapter (since there are always many characters we aren’t supposed to like). And the narrative follows form, the book leading up to multiple climaxes at the end, some with foreshadowing, some without, and always a few red herrings thrown in for good measure.

Another delightful book by Charles Dickens which again proves his authenticity and earns him the right to be termed a classical author.
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Jun 03, 2022 Shirley (stampartiste) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-author-dickens-charles, challenge-bingo-2022, classics-500-plus-pages, published-1899-and-earlier, read-classics

What an incredible, complex story full of twists and turns and incredibly memorable characters! There were so many layers to this story that there is no way I would have derived the pleasure and understanding I did were it not for reading it with Bionic Jean's wonderful Dickensians! group. The pace of reading (one chapter a day, with a day off between installments) provided more time to reflect on each chapter. If you are a Charles Dickens admirer, then I encourage you to join this group to get ...more

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Jun 21, 2019 Christine PNW rated it liked it · review of another edition

Whew - I have finished this 813 page book after a couple of false starts.

It's classic Dickens. I've heard it called his masterpiece, but I don't have enough experience with Dickens to weigh in on that subject. I did like it a whole lot better than Dombey and Son, but I didn't like it so well as either Great Expectations or Oliver Twist.

The last 20% was a bit of a bloodbath, though, with a murder, an attempted frame-up, and then one of those Victorian deaths where a character just up and dies of Whew - I have finished this 813 page book after a couple of false starts.

It's classic Dickens. I've heard it called his masterpiece, but I don't have enough experience with Dickens to weigh in on that subject. I did like it a whole lot better than Dombey and Son, but I didn't like it so well as either Great Expectations or Oliver Twist.

The last 20% was a bit of a bloodbath, though, with a murder, an attempted frame-up, and then one of those Victorian deaths where a character just up and dies of despair. I think my favorite character was poor Caddy Jellyby Turveydrop, although I liked all of the women in this one (Ada was kind of meh, but only because she had a whiff of Dora about her). Mrs. Jellyby is a hoot and I can certainly understand why she has become the stuff of Dickensian legend.

Anyway, Dickens is always just Dickens. His books are teeming with life, like when you're in 5th grade science class and the teacher puts a drop of pond water under a microscope so all of the kids can see all of the little amoebas and bacterium and other bits of life wriggling about. I know that he is melodramatic and that his characters more often resemble caricatures, but once I fall into a Dickens, I feel like I'm in Victorian, England, which is a place I dearly love to visit in the literary sense (don't get me wrong, I have no illusions about how awful and smelly it would've been to actually live in it).

I have to share the second paragraph in the book, because it is so fabulously Dickensian and atmospheric:

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river where it flows among green aits and meadows, fog down the river where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little 'prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds. ...more

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