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, 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: 107012
places: England
publisher: Penguin Books Canada, Limited