num_pages: 820
description: Bleak House may well be the finest literary work to come out of nineteenth-century England. In no other Victorian novel is the narrative more artful, the cast of characters more engaging, the satire more biting, the range of life more wonderfully vast. A miracle of authorial creation, the book is constructed around three great themes: the High Court of Chancery, whose litigation of Jarndyce and Jarndyce symbolizes the murky institutional fog surrounding all England; the theme of misplaced children, setting whimsical, carefree Harold Skimpole in a poignant contrast with sad, young, nameless Jo; and the mystery theme, a romantic tangle of trails followed by the three unforgettable sleuths, Guppy, Tulkinghorn, and Bucket, leading to the astonishing revelation of a certain lady's long-held secret. In prose that is unexcelled in its vivid evocation and intensely sensual imagery, Bleak House displays Dickens at the height of his creative powers.This Bantam Classic edition includes, as Introduction, a series of excerpts from Vladimir Nabokov's famous Cornell lectures on Bleak House.
language: English
title: Bleak House
titlecomplete: Bleak House
characters: Richard Carstone, Caroline Jellyby, Mr Tulkinghorn, Harold Skimpole, William Guppy, Esther Summerson, Mr Snagsby, Allan Woodcourt, Mr Bucket, Sir Leicester Dedlock, Lady Dedlock, Joshua Smallweed, Ada Clare, Mr George, Charlotte Neckett, Jo, John Jarndyce
genres: Mystery, Fiction, 19th Century, Classics, British Literature, Classic Literature, Historical Fiction, Literature, Victorian, Novels
ratings_count: 107002
places: England
publisher: Bantam Classic