Bleak House has been brooding on my TBR list for years because, even though I’m a long-time Dickens fan, I was intimidated by the length and by what I perceived would be a weighty novel. I’m ecstatic that I overcame my hesitance, because this novel was more fun than a mariachi band on a roller coaster. Sure, about 9 people die, but you can’t make gruel without smashing a few oats, right? There are so many characters that the death toll amounts to maybe 12%, and you can’t even count the adorable orphan, because that’s just a given.
Going in, all I knew about Bleak House was that Dickens gets really into describing the fog, and that this was the novel where a character dies by spontaneous combustion, an act, by the way, which Dickens defends in the preface, saying. “I have no need to observe that I do not willfully or negligently mislead my readers, and that before I wrote that description I took pains to investigate the subject.” I didn’t know which character was going to meet this infamous fate, and while I’m going to include some spoilers in this review, I’m not going to spoil that mystery for you. I hope that you, like me, will try to guess until, about halfway through the novel, you begin shouting, “This is it, it’s happening!”
Bleak House isn’t the stuffy Victorian story I was expecting. It’s a soap opera of a tale that includes scandal, blackmail, murder, legal battles, and true love. Today’s so-called “reality” shows can’t come close to the deception and shenanigans these Victorians got up to.
“Vanderpump Rules? Gentlemen, I say ‘Vanderpump Drools!’ “
At the center of the story is a case before the Court of Chancery involving one of the main characters, John Jarndyce. (This is the stuffy part, but stick with me.) The Court of Chancery mostly heard cases involving wills and inheritances and such, and these cases could drag on for-ev-er. In the Preface to Bleak House, in addition to defending dubious science, Dickens relates that the case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce was based on a real-life case that dragged on before the Court for more than 70 years. At the beginning of Bleak House, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce has already been going on so long that nobody can even remember the details. The original members of the claim are all dead at this point (at least one person having killed himself in despair), and their children and grandchildren are now the subjects. Wise individuals like our Mr. J. know well enough not to count on any money coming out of this claim.
The case sets us up to meet some of the key players in the story. In addition to being a named individual in Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, Mr. J. is also a stand-up fellow and a philanthropist (the only admirable philanthropist in the novel). He invites his two distant cousins, Ada and Richard (also involved with the suit), to live with him, along with a young woman named Esther, who had the saddest childhood in the novel.
Okay, not quite the saddest. Probably not even in the top 5.
Esther grew up with a godmother who treated her miserably, but somehow this formed her into the sweetest, kindest person ever to walk the earth. She’s a goddamn saint. Mr. Jarndyce paid for her education with the understanding that she would eventually work for him. It’s not clear why, other than he is a nice guy who uses his money to help people. (Jarndyce is so nice that he even lets his useless friend Harold Skimpole sponge off of him to a disgraceful degree. He insists Skimpole is a good fellow and the life of the party even when it becomes clear to Esther that he’s toxic. But that comes much later.) Part of Esther’s job is to be a companion to the slightly younger Ada, and the two immediately become besties. It’s sweet.
While all this is happening, we meet Lady Dedlock (classic Dickens name!), who is also involved with the suit, though somewhat peripherally. She’s married to Sir Leicester, who owns Chesney Wold. You know what, I think we could use a little chart about now to keep track of the characters.
You might notice I’ve also thrown Inspector Bucket into the mix above. Best to learn his name early, because he’s all over this novel. He’s not a bad fellow and a damn fine police detective. Bleak House is, after all a mystery. . . kind of.
At any rate, Lady Dedlock comes off as cold and distant (also “bored”), but she shows a sudden interest in the handwriting on one of the legal documents her husband’s lawyer shows her. That’s right, where there are Chancery cases, there must be lawyers.
The lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn, a suspicious and dangerous type, immediately becomes curious about why she’s so interested in the handwriting.
As you can probably guess, these two storylines are connected, and the deeper we get into the novel, the more secrets are revealed. But first we have to meet a whole bunch of additional characters. Tulkinghorn goes to Mr. Snagsby, his stationer (law stationers were services that copied out legal documents) and says, “Yo, who wrote out this document?” Mr. Snagsby looks it up and sends Tulkinghorn to some guy named Nemo, who’s living over at Krook’s Shop along with Miss Flite, who is a sweet but slightly off-balance lady who goes to court every day to see whether anything is happening with the Jarndyce suit. Unfortunately, Nemo is dying when they get there and even the presence of the doctors can’t save him.
Also, since Dickens was a fierce defender of the poor, we have sad stories of unfortunate people living in squalor in London, as well as “philanthropists,” whose idea of helping the poor is yelling at them to go to church. These aren’t just side stories–the orphan Jo, for example, is connected to several characters through happenstance. He appears frequently throughout the tale, at times almost seeming like the heart of the big, interconnected map of characters. You might not want to get too attached.
But wait, we’re not done. There are money lenders (because where would the not-quite-destitute be without people to prey upon their hopes and dreams), friends of friends, and other adjacents who have their own roles to play.
It’s not all sad. Some love connections are formed.
I am used to coincidences and connections between distant characters in Dickens, but this novel was crazy with them! I would routinely finish a chapter and excitedly get my husband up to speed on what was happening with Lady Dedlock, or Esther, or Richard and Ada, as if I were hooked on the latest Netflix series.
Not only action packed, Bleak House is a finely crafted work, if that even needs to be said. The two “halves” of the story are told with different narration. Roughly half the chapters are narrated by Esther, and she’s a kind, generous soul, who nevertheless is not a fool. She can see trouble brewing, especially as pertains to Richard, who is completely delusional about becoming wealthy one day from the Chancery suit. (Didn’t Jarvis tell you guys NOT to count on that money!) The other half of the novel is told through a third-person omniscient narrator. This is the voice that allows Dickens to be cynical and express his disgust with hypocritical philanthropists, the poor laws, and the Chancery.
Inspector Bucket, whom literary historians believe to be based on real-life Scotland Yard inspector Charles Frederick Field, has been lauded as one of the first police detectives in literature. Not only is he there to help untangle the mysteries, he also demonstrates what good police work looks like. During the later chapters, Dickens dedicates extended passages to Bucket’s process of tracking down Lady Dedlock’s movements. This type of “procedural” approach was unknown in fiction before Bleak House.
This novel, a tragic tale in many ways, also has some of the best comic relief I’ve seen in Victorian literature. Some is the standard “Wife wearing the pants of the family” variety. Some is satirical, as when the philanthropist Mrs. Jellyby neglects her children while touting how much she’s done for Africa. What really surprised me, though, was the cringe comedy. The scene where Mr. Guppy, a young law clerk for Kenge and Carboy and the George Costanza of the Victorian dating scene, retracts his (rejected) proposal to Esther (totally not because her face was scarred due to scarlet fever, mind you) gave me more second-hand embarrassment than I thought possible from the written word. Finally, the ultimate outcome of the Jarndyce v. Jarndyce case illustrates dark comedy at its finest.
I couldn’t get enough of Bleak House. Mapping the characters (and I know I’ve missed some connections) has helped me revisit these personalities and relationships and was almost as much fun as reading the novel. I highly recommend reading Bleak House, but if you’d rather take a shortcut, see below (definitely spoilers)!
