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Adam Dalva's Reviews > Bleak House
Bleak House
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Incredible - blows away any other Dickens that I have read (although it has been a couple of years). Now, there are issues with it: it FEELS long in a way that some great long books don't, which I think is due to the varying narrative stakes of the subplots; Esther Summerson, though delightfully written, is perhaps the most consistently GOOD character in the history of literature - you root for her but it is the rooting of a manipulated reader; and the absurdity of the coincidences is just downright staggering.
But, it's a huge achievement on 5 fronts.
1. On the line level, it's gorgeous. Dickens was on a roll for 800 pages. I am often guilty of skimming through landscape descriptions but not here.
2. The plot should seem Byzantine, but there are confluences of subplots and A plot that are massively satisfying, the love stuff is mostly juicy and good, there is a 70 page sequence toward the end that is so suspenseful that you'll read it in 2 seconds, and it is varied enough in voice that you mostly sail along with it. (A lot of the criticism I've read focuses on the alternating 1st and 3rd person - I really dug that and thought it was an accomplishment.)
3. I think a great book needs to have at least one completely unique scene that just sears itself into memory (e.g. the flood sequence in the Makioka Sisters). This book has it - the spontaneous combustion section is as good and creepy as anything.
4. The most important part for me; This is (even beyond Gaddis) the most generous book with tertiary characters that I have EVER read. 40-50 characters deep, and they are all unique, and well drawn, and quirky, and hilarious. A few favorites are Detective Bucket, who is a mixture of Gene Parmesan and Marlowe; the woman who loves her two ex-husbands more than her current husband; Mr Chadband, a preacher who "runs on train oil"; and the foppish Mr. Turveydrop. Throw in the exceptionally likable main supporting characters and it's a helluva cast.
5. it's really, really, really funny.
Bleak House is, I think, not quite as good as East of Eden, but it slots in with it nicely. It's epic, familially inclined, socially critical, has some great evil characters, and, as far as I have read, is an accomplishment beyond the rest of the author's oeuvre. Recommended, if you can spare it the time and the occasional eyeroll.
But, it's a huge achievement on 5 fronts.
1. On the line level, it's gorgeous. Dickens was on a roll for 800 pages. I am often guilty of skimming through landscape descriptions but not here.
2. The plot should seem Byzantine, but there are confluences of subplots and A plot that are massively satisfying, the love stuff is mostly juicy and good, there is a 70 page sequence toward the end that is so suspenseful that you'll read it in 2 seconds, and it is varied enough in voice that you mostly sail along with it. (A lot of the criticism I've read focuses on the alternating 1st and 3rd person - I really dug that and thought it was an accomplishment.)
3. I think a great book needs to have at least one completely unique scene that just sears itself into memory (e.g. the flood sequence in the Makioka Sisters). This book has it - the spontaneous combustion section is as good and creepy as anything.
4. The most important part for me; This is (even beyond Gaddis) the most generous book with tertiary characters that I have EVER read. 40-50 characters deep, and they are all unique, and well drawn, and quirky, and hilarious. A few favorites are Detective Bucket, who is a mixture of Gene Parmesan and Marlowe; the woman who loves her two ex-husbands more than her current husband; Mr Chadband, a preacher who "runs on train oil"; and the foppish Mr. Turveydrop. Throw in the exceptionally likable main supporting characters and it's a helluva cast.
5. it's really, really, really funny.
Bleak House is, I think, not quite as good as East of Eden, but it slots in with it nicely. It's epic, familially inclined, socially critical, has some great evil characters, and, as far as I have read, is an accomplishment beyond the rest of the author's oeuvre. Recommended, if you can spare it the time and the occasional eyeroll.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
November 19, 2013
– Shelved
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