Bleak House
Bleak House is the ninth novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly parts from March, 1852 through September, 1853. The plot concerns a long-running legal dispute (Jarndyce and Jarndyce) which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. Dickens's 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.
In Bleak House Dickens experimented with the device of dual narrators: an unnamed third-person narrator and the orphan Esther takes turn to tell the story. 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. The novel is also remarkable for the character of Mr. Bucket, one of the first detectives to appear in English fiction.
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 James Henry Leigh Hunt but this was always denied by Dickens.
Some critics, including George Gissing and G. K. Chesterton, take this to be Dickens's best novel.
