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ARTICLES IN THE BOOK

  1. A Christmas Carol
  2. Adam Bede
  3. Alice in Wonderland
  4. All's Well That Ends Well
  5. A Midsummer Night's Dream
  6. A Modest Proposal
  7. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
  8. An Ideal Husband
  9. Antony and Cleopatra
  10. A Passage to India
  11. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  12. Arms and the Man
  13. A Room With A View
  14. A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy
  15. A Study in Scarlet
  16. As You Like It
  17. A Tale of a Tub
  18. A Tale of Two Cities
  19. A Woman of No Importance
  20. Barnaby Rudge
  21. Beowulf
  22. Bleak House
  23. Book of Common Prayer
  24. Candida
  25. Captains Courageous
  26. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
  27. Clarissa
  28. Coriolanus
  29. Daniel Deronda
  30. David Copperfield
  31. Dombey and Son
  32. Don Juan
  33. Emma
  34. Finnegans Wake
  35. Four Quartets
  36. Frankenstein
  37. Great Expectations
  38. Gulliver's Travels
  39. Hamlet
  40. Hard Times
  41. Howards End
  42. Ivanhoe
  43. Jane Eyre
  44. Julius Caesar
  45. Kim
  46. King James Version of the Bible
  47. King Lear
  48. King Solomon's Mines
  49. Lady Chatterley's Lover
  50. Lady Windermere's Fan
  51. Leviathan
  52. Little Dorrit
  53. Love's Labour's Lost
  54. Macbeth
  55. Major Barbara
  56. Mansfield Park
  57. Martin Chuzzlewit
  58. Measure for Measure
  59. Middlemarch
  60. Moll Flanders
  61. Mrs. Dalloway
  62. Mrs. Warren's Profession
  63. Much Ado About Nothing
  64. Murder in the Cathedral
  65. Nicholas Nickleby
  66. Northanger Abbey
  67. Nostromo
  68. Ode on a Grecian Urn
  69. Oliver Twist
  70. Othello
  71. Our Mutual Friend
  72. Pamela or Virtue Rewarded
  73. Paradise Lost
  74. Paradise Regained
  75. Peregrine Pickle
  76. Persuasion
  77. Peter Pan
  78. Pride and Prejudice
  79. Pygmalion
  80. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
  81. Robinson Crusoe
  82. Rob Roy
  83. Roderick Random
  84. Romeo and Juliet
  85. Saint Joan
  86. Salomé
  87. Sense and Sensibility
  88. She Stoops to Conquer
  89. Silas Marner
  90. Sons and Lovers
  91. The Alchemist
  92. The Beggar's Opera
  93. The Canterbury Tales
  94. The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes
  95. The Castle of Otranto
  96. The Comedy of Errors
  97. The Dunciad
  98. The Elder Statesman
  99. The Faerie Queene
  100. The Happy Prince and Other Tales
  101. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
  102. The Hound of the Baskervilles
  103. The Importance of Being Earnest
  104. The Jungle Book
  105. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
  106. The Man Who Would Be King
  107. The Master of Ballantrae
  108. The Merchant of Venice
  109. The Merry Wives of Windsor
  110. The Mill on the Floss
  111. The Mystery of Edwin Drood
  112. The Nigger of the Narcissus
  113. The Old Curiosity Shop
  114. The Pickwick Papers
  115. The Picture of Dorian Gray
  116. The Pilgrim's Progress
  117. The Rape of the Lock
  118. The Second Jungle Book
  119. The Secret Agent
  120. The Sign of Four
  121. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  122. The Tempest
  123. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
  124. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  125. The Vicar of Wakefield
  126. The Waste Land
  127. The Winter's Tale
  128. Timon of Athens
  129. Titus Andronicus
  130. To the Lighthouse
  131. Treasure Island
  132. Troilus and Cressida
  133. Twelfth Night, or What You Will
  134. Typhoon
  135. Ulysses
  136. Vanity Fair
  137. Volpone
  138. Wuthering Heights

 

 
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LITERARY MASTERPIECES
This article is from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleak_House

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License 

Bleak House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly parts between March 1852 and September 1853. The plot concerns a long-running legal dispute (Jarndyce and Jarndyce) which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk. His harsh characterization of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave voice to widespread frustration with the system, helping to set the stage for its eventual reform in the 1870s.

Characters in Bleak House

As usual, Dickens drew upon many real people and places but was not constrained by the realities. The character Mrs. Jellyby, always involved in good causes but with a chaotic family, is based upon Caroline Chisholm. Many people saw the character of Harold Skimpole as a portrait of Leigh Hunt but this was always denied by Dickens. Mr Jarndyce's friend Mr Boythorn is based on the writer Walter Savage Landor. The novel also includes one of the first detectives to appear in English fiction, Mr Bucket. This character is probably based on Inspector Charles Frederick Field of the recently formed Detective Department at Scotland Yard.[1] Dickens wrote several journalistic pieces about the Inspector and the work of the detectives in Household Words.

Major characters

  • Esther Summerson — an orphan, the hero of the complex story. The discovery of her true identity provides for much of the drama in the book. It is later discovered that she is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock.
  • Richard Carstone — a ward of court in Jarndyce v Jarndyce. A fairly simple but inconstant character who falls under the malign spell of the Jarndyce v Jarndyce case. At the end of the book he dies, tormented by his inability to make any progress in the case at the cost of all his money.
  • Ada Clare — a ward of court in Jarndyce v Jarndyce. A good girl who falls in love with Richard Carstone. They later marry (in secret).
  • John Jarndyce — a party in Jarndyce, guardian of Richard, Ada and Esther, and owner of Bleak House. A good man who falls in love with Esther and proposes that they marry. She agrees but it becomes increasingly clear that the marriage would not suit her. He also realizes this but finds it very hard to give her up.
  • Harold Skimpole — a friend of Jarndyce and "in the habit of sponging his friends" (Nuttall); supposedly based on Leigh Hunt. A thoroughly despicable character, amoral, and without remorse.
  • Sir Leicester Dedlock — a crusty baronet, very much older than his wife and very "out of place" in the England of the 1830s.
  • Honoria, Lady Dedlock — the haughty mistress of Chesney Wold. Her past drives much of the plot as it turns out she had an affair with another man and gave birth to his child. She discovers the child's identity (it's Esther) and then she has to fend off the manipulations of Mr. Tulkinghorn. At the end, she dies, disgraced in her own mind, convinced her aristocratic husband could never forgive her moral failings.
  • Mr. Tulkinghorn — the Dedlock family lawyer. A scheming, manipulative monster of a man. He learns of Lady Dedlock's past and tries to blackmail her. He is murdered and the last part of the book turns into a murder investigation as several characters have good reason to want Tulkinghorn dead.
  • Nemo — a law writer. A mysterious man who dies early in the story. He is later revealed to have been a Captain in the British Army, the lover of Lady Dedlock, and the father of Esther.
  • Miss Flite — an elderly eccentric obsessed with Chancery. She is a party in Jarndyce v Jarndyce.
  • Mr. Guppy — a law clerk. He becomes very taken with Esther and plays a role in unearthing her true past. He proposes marriage to Esther, then withdraws the offer, then re-proposes. Esther politely refuses both his proposals.
  • Inspector Bucket — a detective. He is the key player in the murder investigation of Mr. Tulkinghorn and he does solve the case.
  • Mr. George — a former soldier. He is a trainer in the martial arts (swords and pistols mostly). Richard Carstone, before he joins the army, trains under him. Later we learn that Mr. George served under the command of "Nemo". He was the prime suspect in the death of Mr. Tulkinghorn and was arrested.
  • Caddy Jellyby — a friend of Esther.
  • Krook — a rag and bottle merchant and collector of papers. He dies from a case of Spontaneous human combustion, something that Dickens believed could, in fact, happen.
  • Jo — a young boy who tries to make a living as a crossing sweeper. He dies from a disease (smallpox?) which Esther also catches (and is nearly killed by).
  • Allan Woodcourt — a physician. A good man who likes Esther. She in turn likes him a great deal but feels unable to respond to his overtures because of her prior commitment to John Jarndyce. All is resolved happily at the end.
  • Grandfather Smallweed — a money lender. An evil man who enjoys inflicting emotional pain on other people. He drives Mr. George into bankruptcy (by calling in debts).

Minor characters

  • Mr Kenge — a lawyer of Kenge and Carboys
  • Mr Vholes — a lawyer
  • Mr Gridley — an involuntary party to a suit in Chancery (based on a real case, according to Dickens' preface)
  • Mr Snagsby — the proprietor of a law-stationery business
  • Mrs Snagsby — his wife
  • Guster — the Snagsbys' maidservant, prone to fits
  • Neckett — aka Coavinses — a debt collector
  • Charley — Coavinses' daughter
  • Tom — Coavinses' young son
  • Emma — Coavinses' baby daughter
  • Mrs Jellyby — Caddy's mother, a philanthropist with little regard to the notion of charity beginning at home
  • Mr Jellyby — Mrs Jellyby's husband
  • Peepy Jellyby — the Jellybys' young son
  • Prince Turveydrop — a dancing master
  • Old Mr Turveydrop — a master of deportment
  • Jenny — a brickmaker's wife
  • Rosa — a favourite of Lady Dedlock
  • Hortense — lady's maid to Lady Dedlock (based on murderess Maria Manning)[2]
  • Mrs Rouncewell — housekeeper to the Dedlocks at Chesney Wold
  • Mr Rouncewell — son of Mrs Rouncewell and a prosperous ironmaster
  • Watt Rouncewell — his son
  • Volumnia — a Dedlock cousin
  • Boythorn — an old friend of John Jarndyce and neighbour of Sir Leicester Dedlock; based on Walter Savage Landor
  • Miss Barbary — Esther's godmother and severe guardian in childhood
  • Mrs Rachael Chadband — a former servant of Miss Barbary
  • Mr Chadband — an oleaginous preacher, husband of Mrs Chadband
  • Mrs Smallweed — wife of Mr Smallweed senior
  • Young Mr (Bartholemew) Smallweed — grandson of the senior Smallweeds and friend of Mr Guppy
  • Judy Smallweed — granddaughter of the senior Smallweeds
  • Tony Jobling — aka Mr Weevle — a friend of Mr Guppy
  • Mrs Guppy — Mr Guppy's aged mother
  • Phil Squod — Mr George's assistant
  • Captain Hawdon — is the same person as Nemo. an officer under whom Mr George once served
  • Matthew Bagnet — military friend of Mr George and dealer in musical instruments
  • Mrs Bagnet — wife of Matthew Bagnet
  • Mrs Woodcourt — Allan Woodcourt's widowed mother

Analysis and criticism

In Bleak House Dickens experimented with the device of dual narrators: an unnamed third-person narrator and the orphan Esther take turns to tell the story. The style is also remarkable: a hypnotic opening of three paragraphs without a complete sentence. The scope is probably the broadest Dickens ever attempted, ranging from the filthy slums to the landed aristocracy, in a narrative that is in equal parts satire and comedy. One character, Krook, smells of brimstone and eventually dies of spontaneous human combustion, attributed to his evil nature.

Using spontaneous human combustion to dispose of Krook in the story was controversial. The nineteenth century was part of the age of reason, people during the nineteenth century considered scientific and medical endeavor highly admirable. Spontaneous human combustion is rejected by medical doctors and scientists and was also rejected by medical doctors and scientists during the nineteenth century. When the installment of Bleak House containing Krook's demise appeared, the literary critic George Henry Lewes criticized Dickens, saying that he had perpetuated a vulgar and unscientific superstition. Dickens vigorously defended the reality of spontaneous human combustion and cited many documented cases such as those of Mme. Millet of Rheims and of the Countess di Bandi, as well as his own memories of coroners' inquests that he had attended when he had been a journalist/reporter. In the preface of the book edition of Bleak House Dickens wrote:

"I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable Spontaneous Combustion of the testimony on which human occurrences are usually received."

Clearly these cases of human bodies being mysteriously consumed by fire will inevitably be joined by a case or cases that simply cannot be ignored by the medical and scientific community.

Ironically, Bleak House (the house not the novel) is not, in fact, bleak. The house is owned by one of Dickens' good characters, John Jarndyce and, in general, it represents a place of refuge from the other - often depressing - locales described in the story.

Some literature critics, including George Gissing and G. K. Chesterton, consider Bleak House to be the best novel that Charles Dickens wrote. To quote from Chesterton's Introduction from the 1960 reprint of the Everyman's Library edition: "'Bleak House' is not certainly Dickens's best book; but perhaps it is his best novel."

It is a measure of Dickens' talent that Nemo is never actually "seen" alive in the novel. He is always described by others or is presumed to be on the other side of something. The epitome of this is when Esther goes up a flight of stairs in Krook's house, passing the door of Nemo's room, with a heavy presumption that Nemo is on the other side of it.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The BBC has produced three television adaptations of Bleak House. The first version was broadcast in 1959 in eleven half-hour episodes;[3] the second, starring Diana Rigg and Denholm Elliott, was broadcast as an eight-part series in 1985;[4] and the third was broadcast in fifteen episodes in 2005.[5] The last version starred Gillian Anderson, Anna Maxwell-Martin, and Charles Dance, among others.

Original publication

Like most Dickens novels, Bleak House was published in 19 monthly installments, each containing 32 pages of text and two illustrations by Phiz. Each cost one shilling, except for the last, which was a double issue and cost two.

See also

  • Detective fiction. Warning: this article includes a plot spoiler for Bleak House

References

  1. ^ Site of Dr Russell Potter, Rhode Island College Biography of Inspector Field
  2. ^ Dickens' London map
  3. ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0224837/
  4. ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0088485/
  5. ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0442632/
  • Crafts, Hannah; Gates, Jr, Henry Louis (Ed), 2002. The Bondswoman's Narrative. Warner Books. ISBN 0-7628-7682-4

(5) Calkins, Carroll C. (Project Editor), 1982. Mysteries of the Unexplained. The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. Pleasantville, New York/Montreal.

External links

Online editions

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Bleak House
  • Bleak House, available freely at Project Gutenberg
  • Bleak House – complete book in HTML one page for each chapter.
  • Bleak House — HTML Searchable HTML version.
  • Bleak House — Easy to read HTML version.
  • Free Internet Cliffnotes on Bleak House.
  • Bleak House Annotated On-line Resources for Bleak House
  • Reprinted Pieces, available freely at Project Gutenberg "The Detective Police", "Three Detective Anecdotes", "On Duty with Inspector Field". Last piece first publ (June 1841) Household Words

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopaedia.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleak_House"