Cover image for

Bleak House

Categories Fiction, Audiobook
Language English
Published 1853
Notes

The story concerns a long-running legal dispute which has far-reaching consequences for all involved, and serves as Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system (based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk). The author's harsh characterization of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave voice to widespread frustration with the system, helping to set the stage for its eventual reform in the 1870s.

Approx. 354,149 words.

Excerpt

kind. Chizzle, Mizzle, and otherwise have lapsed into a habit of vaguely promising themselves that they will look into that outstanding little matter and see what can be done for Drizzle--who was not well used--when Jarndyce and Jarndyce shall be got out of the office. Shirking and sharking in all their many varieties have been sown broadcast by the ill-fated cause; and even those who have contemplated its history from the outermost circle of such evil have been insensibly tempted into a loose way of letting bad things alone to take their own bad course, and a loose belief that if the world go wrong it was in some off-hand manner never meant to go right.

Thus, in the midst of the mud and at the heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery.

"Mr. Tangle," says the Lord High Chancellor, latterly something restless under the eloquence of that learned gentleman.

"Mlud," says Mr. Tangle. Mr. Tangle knows more of Jarndyce and Jarndyce than anybody. He is famous f

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2008.03.27
Amitabh

The legal case that provides the background to Bleak House is less memorable than the unforgettable assortment of characters, delineated with masterful word pictures, that are liberally scattered through it. This book is definitely not an easy read. But at the conclusion the reader is left with a vivid ringside-view impression of 19th century England and English society, at different levels, that neither history books nor paintings or photographs could have provided.

2007.04.13
R Stephan

Very moving. Record number of pages.

2007.03.10
Joe Romaninsky

This is my favorite of the Dickens novels. It is crammed with a variety of interesting characters and incidents in sturdy plot. All of us have known people like one or another of his memorable cast. The outcome of the probate battle on which the fortunes of its contestants depend was a surprise that left me laughing out loud.

(Only later did I find that, in another case of art copying life, it mirrors the outcome of the centuries long fight over the estate of Ferdinand Magellan.)

If you love Dickens, this is a must read. It is one of those books you know you must someday read again.