Bleak HouseBleak House, Dickens's most daring experiment in the narration of a complex plot, challenges the reader to make connections - between the fashionable and the outcast, the beautiful and the ugly, the powerful and the victims. Nowhere in Dickens's later novels is his attack on an uncaring society more imaginatively embodied, but nowhere either is the mixture of comedy and angry satire more deftly managed. Bleak House defies a single description. It is a mystery story, in which Esther Summerson discovers the truth about her birth and her unknown mother's tragic life. It is a murder story, which comes to a climax in a thrilling chase, led by one of the earliest detectives in English fiction, Inspector Bucket. And it is a fable about redemption, in which a bleak house is transformed by the resilience of human love. |
Contents
In Chancery | 9 |
In Fashion | 18 |
A Progress | 28 |
Telescopic Philanthropy | 56 |
A Morning Adventure | 74 |
Quite at Home | 94 |
The Ghosts Walk | 125 |
Covering a Multitude of Sins | 140 |
Chesney Wold | 728 |
Jarndyce and Jarndyce | 751 |
A Struggle | 778 |
Attorney and Client | 793 |
National and Domestic | 816 |
In Mr Tulkinghorns Room | 834 |
In Mr Tulkinghorns Chambers | 846 |
Esthers Narrative | 856 |
Signs and Tokens | 169 |
The LawWriter | 191 |
Our Dear Brother | 206 |
On the Watch | 226 |
Esthers Narrative | 246 |
Deportment | 269 |
Bell Yard | 299 |
TomAllAlones | 321 |
Esthers Narrative | 334 |
Lady Dedlock | 355 |
Moving On | 380 |
A New Lodger | 399 |
The Smallweed Family | 421 |
Mr Bucket | 447 |
Esthers Narrative | 465 |
An Appeal Case | 492 |
Mrs Snagsby Sees It All | 517 |
Sharpshooters | 531 |
More Old Soldiers Than One | 550 |
The Ironmaster | 568 |
The Young Man | 584 |
Esthers Narrative | 599 |
Nurse and Patient | 621 |
The Appointed Time | 642 |
Interlopers | 662 |
A Turn of the Screw | 684 |
Esthers Narrative | 707 |
The Letter and the Answer | 879 |
In Trust | 889 |
Stop Him | 908 |
Jos Will | 920 |
Closing In | 940 |
Dutiful Friendship | 964 |
Esthers Narrative | 984 |
Enlightened | 998 |
Obstinacy | 1014 |
The Track | 1030 |
Springing a Mine | 1047 |
Flight | 1077 |
Pursuit | 1100 |
Esthers Narrative | 1112 |
A Wintry Day and Night | 1138 |
Esthers Narrative | 1157 |
Perspective | 1176 |
A Discovery | 1194 |
Another Discovery | 1208 |
Steel and Iron | 1221 |
Esthers Narrative | 1232 |
Beginning the World | 1249 |
The Close of Esthers Narrative | 1266 |
Afterword | 1273 |
Selected Bibliography | 1282 |
Biography | 1283 |
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Common terms and phrases
appeared asked Badger better Bleak House Boythorn Bucket Caddy Chadband chair Chancery Chancery Lane Charley Chesney Wold child Coavinses comes consider Court Court of Chancery cousin cried curtsey dear door Esther eyes face father fire gentleman Grandfather Smallweed guardian Guster guv'ner hand happy head hear heard heart honour hope Jarndyce and Jarndyce Jobling Judy Kenge knew Krook Lady Dedlock ladyship laughed Lincoln's Inn Fields Lincolnshire little woman looking Lord Lord Chancellor manner mean mind Miss Flite Miss Jellyby Miss Summerson morning never night Pardiggle Peepy Phil poor present replied returned Richard Rouncewell round says Mr George says Mr Guppy says Mr Snagsby says Mr Tulkinghorn seemed shaking Sir Leicester sitting Skimpole smile speak suppose sure tell thing thought tion told Tony trooper Turveydrop Vholes voice Volumnia walk Weevle window Woodcourt young