num_pages: 760
description: Bleak House is one of Dickens's 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 dark 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.
language: English
title: Bleak House
titlecomplete: Bleak House
characters: Mr Tulkinghorn, Mr Bucket, Allan Woodcourt, William Guppy, Harold Skimpole, John Jarndyce, Charlotte Neckett, Ada Clare, Richard Carstone, Sir Leicester Dedlock, Esther Summerson, Caroline Jellyby, Lady Dedlock, Mr George, Jo, Joshua Smallweed, Mr Snagsby
genres: Fiction, Mystery, British Literature, Classic Literature, Literature, Classics, Novels, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Victorian
ratings_count: 107006
places: England
publisher: Wordsworth Editions