num_pages: 1017
description: Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs, the romance of Esther Summerson and the secrets of her origin, the sleuthing of Detective Inspector Bucket and the fate of Jo the crossing-sweeper, these are some of the lives Dickens invokes to portray London society, rich and poor, as no other novelist has done. Bleak House, in its atmosphere, symbolism and magnificent bleak comedy, is often regarded as the best of Dickens. A 'great Victorian novel', it is so inventive in its competing plots and styles that it eludes interpretation.
language: English
title: Bleak House
titlecomplete: Bleak House
characters: Mr Tulkinghorn, Joshua Smallweed, Richard Carstone, William Guppy, Ada Clare, Harold Skimpole, Caroline Jellyby, Mr George, Mr Bucket, Charlotte Neckett, Lady Dedlock, Mr Snagsby, Jo, John Jarndyce, Esther Summerson, Allan Woodcourt, Sir Leicester Dedlock
genres: Historical Fiction, Novels, Literature, Victorian, Classic Literature, Classics, British Literature, Mystery, Fiction, 19th Century
ratings_count: 107002
places: England
publisher: Penguin Books