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William2's Reviews > Bleak House

Bleak House by Charles Dickens
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it was amazing
bookshelves: 19-ce, fiction, uk
Read 2 times. Last read October 5, 2024 to November 9, 2024.

Read this 25 years ago. Notes as I reread.

Bleak House on the whole is astonishing. Is it conventionally Victorian? Oh yes, but there are pages and pages here of drop-dead writing.

— It reminds me, in its deft use of characters high and low, of the novels of Martin Amis — particularly Money, London Fields and The Information. Both writers also possess a keen grasp of the slang of their respective periods. Whereas Amis can be sparing in dialogue, Dickens is voluble almost to a fault.

— Surprising how readable the novel is after 171 years.

— Mr Skimpole is a sponge; Mr Jarndyce knows it but allows this drain on his resources since he finds Skimpole amusing. Later, we understand Skimpole’s con and how well it pays him. That he’s a child, doesn’t understand money— well, the fellow “doth protest too much, methinks.” These endless self-justifications become tiresome.

— Dickens use of patterning is often a pleasure. If it ever seems careworn though, I think it’s because he was writing this novel in serial to be published over a period of more than two years. So he’s creating mnemonic devices for his readers.

Henry de Montherlant's famous saying "happiness writes white" seems undermined by Dickens's capacity to make happiness — and kindness — fairly sing on the page. Consider Mr Jarndyce, who is a doer of good works, and Miss Esther Summerson, whose very name radiates delight. But when Dickens pushes this pedal too hard — as he does in the scene between Mrs. Rouncewell and her son George — the result can be cloying.

— Preacher Chadband is vile with his halting oratory of pious hooey. Poor Jo, the little orphan, is blamed for being a victim, hounded for witnessing a key piece of the book’s core scandal.

"All this time, Jo . . . feels that it is in his nature to be an unimprovable reprobate . . . Though it may be, Jo, that . . . if the Chadbands, removing their own persons from the light, would but show it thee in simple reverence, would but leave it unimproved, would but regard it as being eloquent enough without their modest aid — it might hold thee awake, and thou might learn from it yet!" (p. 414)

Thus we move toward redemption. But not for Jo! His death from neglect is hideous.

Later, Jo, in a fever, is rescued by Miss Summerson, who puts him up at Bleak House, only to find he has mysteriously disappeared come morning.

——Young Richard Carstone is such a pigheaded twit. He can't be told anything. He must make his own mistakes— by taking Jarndyce & Jarndyce seriously — and he must suffer. Sad to watch, like an addict toward the end, pushed on his course by the despicable Vholes. The speaker here is Richard:

“‘Mr Vholes! If any man had told me, when I first went to John Jarndyce's house, that he was anything but the disinterested friend he seemed — that he was what he has gradually turned out to be — I could have found no words strong enough to repel the slander; I could not have defended him too ardently. So little did I know of the world! Whereas, now, I do declare to you that he becomes to me the embodiment of the suit; that, in place of its being an abstraction, it is John Jarndyce; that the more I suffer, the more indignant I am with him; that every new delay, and every new disappointment, is only a new injury from John Jarndyce's hand.'” (p. 626)

Truly, no good deed goes unpunished!

—Interesting, for all its concern about the dysfunction of Chancery, there’s almost no mention of how the great 19th century families (Dedlock et al.) made their fortunes. There is Mrs Jellyby’s colonialist monomania for Borrioboola-Gha, Africa. Then on page 699 a passing reference is made to a “large Indiaman” trading vessel. See Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea as a kind of fictional corrective.

— Mr Bucket is a detective and the soul of discretion. The last third of the novel is effected through him. He’s the narrative glue tying virtually all the characters together. Indeed, he seems almost oracular toward the close, which is suspenseful.
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Reading Progress

March 29, 2024 – Started Reading
April 27, 2024 – Finished Reading
September 28, 2024 – Shelved
September 28, 2024 – Shelved as: to-read
September 28, 2024 – Shelved as: uk
September 28, 2024 – Shelved as: fiction
September 28, 2024 – Shelved as: 19-ce
October 5, 2024 – Started Reading
October 15, 2024 –
page 500
48.22%
October 27, 2024 –
page 600
57.86%
November 9, 2024 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)

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Asaf Bartov Skimpole (a spectacular character!) is not just a sponge: he is an impostor, a false child; and also a villain: note how it is he who turns Jo away, he who scorns the blameless Neckett children, and he who hastens Richard's downfall by introducing him to Mr. Vholes.


Asaf Bartov (An argument can also be made that Jarndyce, portrayed as saintly to a fault, is indeed at fault on at least two counts: that of enabling Skimpole (and thus, enabling his villainy), and deceiving Esther about his [non-]romantic intentions.)


message 3: by Charlee (new) - added it

Charlee This has been on my bookshelf for ages but I keep putting it off as I believe it'll take an age to read it. Your review encourages me.


William2 It’s rewarding, Charlee.


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