Kelly's Thoughts & Ramblings

Classics Club book 58 (1853)

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

FROM AMAZON’S BOOK DESCRIPTION:

“As the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens’s most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums.”

FIRST SENTENCE:

“London.”

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:

(15%) “Here, in a large house, formerly a house of state, lives Mr. Tulkinghorn. It is let off in sets of chambers now, and in those shrunken fragments of its greatness, lawyers lie like maggots in nuts.”

(22%) “He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion, false teeth, false whiskers, and a wig. He had a fur collar, and he had a padded breast to his coat, which only wanted a star or a broad blue ribbon to be complete. He was pinched in, and swelled out, and got up, and strapped down, as much as he could possibly bear. He had such a neckcloth on (puffing his very eyes out of their natural shape), and his chin and even his ears so sunk into it, that it seemed as though be must inevitably double up if it were cast loose. He had under his arm a hat of great size and weight, shelving downward from the crown to the brim, and in his hand a pair of white gloves with which he flapped it as he stood poised on one leg in a high-shouldered, round-elbowed state of elegance not to be surpassed. He had a cane, he had an eye-glass, he had a snuff-box, he had rings, he had wristbands, he had everything but any touch of nature; he was not like youth, he was not like age, he was not like anything in the world but a model of deportment.”

(63%) “England has been in a dreadful state for some weeks. Lord Coodle would go out, Sir Thomas Doodle wouldn’t come in, and there being nobody in Great Britain (to speak of) except Coodle and Doodle, there has been no government.”

(93%) “Not go there? Certainly not, my dear Miss Summerson, most assuredly not. Why SHOULD I go there? When I go anywhere, I go for pleasure. I don’t go anywhere for pain, because I was made for pleasure. Pain comes to ME when it wants me.”

MY THOUGHTS:

I’m not surprised that this ended up being the last book on my Classics Club list. It’s not that I didn’t want to read it, I think I was a bit intimidated by it. Going in, I really knew nothing more than it was Dickens’ longest book and considered by many to be his best book. Although I have a copy on my shelf (it’s actually in two volumes), I decided to go with the Project Gutenberg version at my digital library. They always use the same boring covers (pictured above) and never include a blurb, so I’ve linked to a random version at Amazon to provide that. Honestly, though, it was the description that FF provided that got me fired up to read it. She’s what you could call a Dickens “superfan” and will soon be doing an audiobook re-read of Bleak House. When complaining about the blurb on her audiobook, she said:

Is this the worst blurb ever written? I’d say it’s a contender – it doesn’t exactly make the book sound tempting, does it? Mine would say something like “Murder! Forbidden love! Injustice! Mystery! Adventure! Suspense! Scandal! Humour! Drama! Fog! Betrayal! Tragedy! Spontaneous combustion!” Now, doesn’t that sound more exciting?

She had me at “spontaneous combustion”!

Now that I’ve turned swiped the final page, I can say yes, I enjoyed Bleak House. It totally lived up to all the promises FF made. (I know you’re relieved you don’t have to give up chocolate for a month, FF!) Dickens does his usual wonderful job of (over)describing people, places, and situations There are tons of memorable characters to love/hate and enough humor to counter the tragedy. My biggest complaint might be that there were too many characters. (the character list at Wiki contains spoilers!) I sometimes had trouble remembering who was who and how they fit into the story, so it was a plus being able to use the feature in Libby where I could search the book for a name, refreshing my memory when necessary.

So, that’s a wrap! I’ve completed my Classics Club list of 65 books! My next post will be to share my second Classics Club list which I plan to begin in January. I hope you’ll come back to see what I intend to read!