First entry: 1/29/25
Edited: 5/28/26
After reading the first three chapters, my observations, thoughts: Charles Dickens is incredibly easy to read. High school students should have no problem reading this novel, and even middle school students would be able to read it and understand it. It's very, very easy reading. I did not know that. It was always my understanding that because of his reputation, Dickens was very, very challenging to read. Not at all.
It's just daunting to see a 1000-page book set before you and being told to read it. If I was a high school teacher I know exactly how I would teach reading.
Reading is definitely stair case. When I first started reading "good"literature I had trouble understanding what I was reading. But the more I read, the better I got.
Cocktail chatter: with reading, the staircase of authors goes like this.
Charles Dickens is the easiest.
Then, Jane Austen becomes more challenging.
The Brontës are much more challenging -- exhibit A? Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
George Eliot is probably easier than Jane Austen, slightly more difficult than Charles Dickens, but really, for the most part, much like Charles Dickens.
After the Brontës, maybe Mary Shelley with Frankenstein.
From there to Virginia Woolf is a huge, huge jump. Very, very difficult.
Gertrude Stein would be even more difficult but for the most part she is unreadable and should probably not even be on this list.
Finally, from Virginia Woolf to James Joyce, and incredibly huge jump and should not even be attempted until one feels very comfortable with Virginia Woolf, and then best to do some preparation of James Joyce / Ulysses before actually reading the latter.
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Bleak House, Charles Dickens, Barnes and Noble Classics, 1852 - 1853.
Bleak House, Charles Dickens, Norton Critical Edition, 1853; c. 1977
Setting:
Who is telling the story?
In Bleak House the story is told by two narrators: Esther Summerson, who narrates in first-person, and an omniscient third-person narrator, who provides broader context and insights not accessible to Esther; essentially, the story is split between Esther's perspective and a more detached, overarching viewpoint.
- Esther Summerson:The main character who shares her personal experiences and thoughts in a first-person narrative.
- Omniscient Narrator:A nameless, third-person narrator who can access information about all characters and situations, often providing social commentary
When the narrative is in the present tense: the nameless, third-person narrator.
When the narrative is in the past tense: Esther Summerson - an orphan who is absorbed looking for the identities of her parents.
Things work out for Esther in the end. There are a few tricky chapters when it seems that she might marry John Jarndyce, who she loves platonically as a dear friend and father-figure, and to whom she is totally indebted, but a 'fairy-tale' ending prevails and she marries Alan.
Never Quit Reading
Pay Attention To Everything
Norton Critical Edition:
- page x, introduction
- St Stephens: metonym for House of Commons
- Westminster: metonym for UK government and specifically US Parliament
Charles Dickens:
- concern for the poor, especially the children and actors
- pollution
- Court of Chancery
- government itself
Doodle-Foodle parliamentary shuffles of 1852-53
Crimean War, 1854 - 1854
Bleak House: at least 24 households named by Dickens
Dickens: outstanding legal historian --
Preface
Spontaneous Human Combustion: Dickens versus Lewes.
Setting
1830s
Chapter 1: In Chancery.
Chancery: essentially civil cases to determine "fairness." Contracts, divorces, etc. Quora does a good job of explaining this. [Delaware Chancery court for deciding business cases; Delaware where most big corporations are incorporated.]
Sets the stage.
Anonymous narrator lets us know that the court case has been going on for a very, very long time, and involves generations of people who get swallowed up in the case, many having no idea why they ended up in the legal proceedings.
Jarndyce and Jarndyce, or, I suppose, Jarndyce vs Jarndyce.
Chapter 2: In Fashion.
We are introduced to 67 y/o Sir Leicester, a baronet, the lowest rank in hereditary royalty; and his, beautiful 47 y/o Lady Dedlock. The latter is childless and without a family; Sir Leicester has a huge family.
My Lady Dedlock, childless, is in town for a few days, has just returned from "her place" in Lincolnshire, and is soon to go to Paris for a few weeks. Rain-soaked Leicester; bored to death.
Sir Leicester Dedlock is a baronet, age 66. Not peerage. Not called "Lord." Not a member of the House of Lords. Simply a commoner at the end of the day. A hereditary knight, addressed as "sir."
In passing, a family friend, financially poor, lazy lover of horses, the Honourable Bob Stables, who depends on the Dedlocks for financial security (why?). Is this part of the detective story?
An attorney, Mr Tulkinghorn, visits Lady Dedlock and Sir Leicester with regard to the court case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce.
At end of chapter, a very white Lady Dedlock has fainted -- tuberculosis? She is taken to her room and the lawyer, Mr Tulkinghorn and Sir Dedlock are now alone with the new briefs.
Seems like a boring chapter but law-hand --> fainting spell --> hidden past --> kicks off a detective story.
Comments up to this point:
needs to be read as it was first published; serial installments; perhaps one chapter monthly.
read slowly; no hurry to finish; enjoy the writing
now that I know the background -- internet search -- has made it so much more interesting and already leading to questions
one of the two narrators is Esther, an orphan, looking for the identity of her parents
a romance story
a ward of The Chancery court (very similar to A Tale of Two Cities, when Tellson's Bank takes care of the Manette family -- Lucie, and her father)
how does she get involved with the court?
Already the modern-day American reader is learning a lot about US law and English law.
Chapter 3: A Progress
We now switch to the first-person narrator. It switches abruptly: to Esther Summerson.
In Bleak House the story is told by two narrators: Esther Summerson,
who narrates in first-person, and an omniscient third-person narrator,
who provides broader context and insights not accessible to Esther; essentially, the story is split between Esther's perspective and a more detached, overarching viewpoint.
My Lady Dedlock -- is "My Lady" simply a "way of addressing someone" or is it possible the narrator is somehow in service to Ms Dedlock. Ms Dedlock, herself, is childless; no family, was she also an orphan.
Now being narrated / the story told by a woman. It's interesting how Dickens makes the switch. See p. 30. [Page 17 in the Norton critical edition.]
Esther was brought up by her godmother.
Mrs Rachel: her (our) only servant.
Hogarth: Dickens' sister-in-law, Georgina Hogarth (1827 - 1917) who was his housekeeper and his confidante. She was also the model for Agnes Wickfield in David Copperfield (1849 - 1850).
Wow.
Godmother dies/buried, p. 34, when Esther was 14. We learn her name was Ms Barbary.
Kenge returns after godmother dies; Kenge and Carboy, Lincoln's Inn.
Esther was 14 years old; had met him once before when she was 12 years old.
We learn that her "godmother" was in fact, her aunt. "Aunt i fact, though not in law." p. 21.
In Charles Dickens's Bleak House, the phrase describes Miss Barbary, who acts as a strict, maternal guardian to her niece, Esther Summerson. She is an "aunt in fact" because she is Esther’s blood-related mother's sister, but "not in law" because Esther was born out of wedlock, making her the illegitimate child of Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon.
To avoid the social stigma and legal implications of illegitimacy, Miss Barbary took Esther in and raised her secretly as a ward and aunt, rather than publicly acknowledging her as a grandmother/mother would. This hidden identity is the inciting secret of the novel's central mystery.
And now, we will learn how this fits into Jarndyce and Jarndyce, of which the 14 y/o Esther has heard nothing. Jarndyce and jarndyce, one of the greatest Chancery suits known -- p. 22. Costs so far, 60, 000 to 70,000 pounds
Kenge represents Jarndyce.
Jarndyce arranges for Esther to be removed from Windsor (and Mrs Rachel) and moved to Reading.
Esther leaves her Dolly behind; leaves only with her pet bird in its cage.
There was another gentleman in the carriage with Esther, but paid no attention to here.
That gentleman leaves, never to be heard of again, when they reach Reading.
Esther meets Ms Donny and the maid, and three drive off. Or just the two and Donny is the maid?
We learn that Esther's guardian is Jarndyce -- p. 38. [Page 25 in Norton Critical Edition.]
Arrive at Greenleaf, Miss Donny's house.
Boarding school for training governesses ... twelve there, twelve boarders. There were two Ms Donny's. Miss Donny was a twin.
Apparently Esther was the best student.
Was at Greenleaf for six years. Arrived when she was 14 to 15 years of age. So, now, about 20 years old.
Wow, Jarndyce through his lawyer told Esther she was not Jarndyce's governess -- p. 40. Esther was thrilled.
The new home was 10+ miles away
She loved Greenleaf.
Receives a letter from "Old Square, Lincoln's Inn" -- the legal office.
Sounds like she has a job.
To the law offices of Kenge and Carboy.
She meets man and wife (Ada Clare), who will be her new employer. Richard Carstone: Ada's distant cousin.
At 19, he was two years older than Ada.
Both were orphans and had not met before that day.
The Lord Chancellor: "The Jarndyce of Bleak House is the Jarndyce in question. Page 31.
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