Bleak House is a novel by the English author Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853. The novel has many characters and several subplots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by an omniscient narrator. At the centre of Bleak House is a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which comes about because a testator has written several conflicting wills. In a preface to the 1853 first edition, Dickens said there were many actual precedents for his fictional case. One such was probably Thellusson v Woodford, in which a will read in 1797Constantine, Alison. The Restoration of Brodsworth Hall & Gardens, February 2007 historical address, at Tickhill & District Local History Society was contested and not determined until 1859. Though many in the legal profession criticised Dickens's satire as exaggerated, Bleak House helped support a judicial reform movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s.
Some scholars debate when Bleak House is set. The English legal historian Sir William Holdsworth sets the action in 1827; however, reference to preparation for the building of a railway in Chapter LV suggests the 1830s. A work of Gothic fiction depicting London as a murky city swathed in fog, Bleak House is credited with introducing urban fog to the novel, which would become a frequent characteristic of urban Gothic literature and film.Mighall, Robert (2007). "Gothic Cities", in C. Spooner and E. McEvoy, eds, The Routledge Companion to Gothic, London: Routledge, pp. 54–72. Released in 1901, the Bleak House-inspired The Death of Poor Joe is the earliest filmed adaptation of a Dickens work.
Synopsis
Jarndyce and Jarndyce is an interminable probate case in the Court of Chancery concerning two or more wills and their beneficiaries. Lady Honoria Dedlock, the beneficiary of one of the wills, lives with her husband, Sir Leicester Dedlock, at his estate at Chesney Wold. While listening to the reading by Mr Tulkinghorn, the family solicitor, of an affidavit, Lady Dedlock recognises the handwriting on the copy. The sight affects her so much she almost faints, which Mr Tulkinghorn notices and investigates. He traces the copyist, a pauper known only as "Nemo", in London. Nemo has recently died, and the only person to identify him is a street-sweeper, a poor homeless boy named Jo, who lives in a particularly grim and poverty-stricken part of the city known as Tom-All-Alone's.
Esther Summerson is raised by the harsh Miss Barbary, who tells her, "Your mother, Esther, is your disgrace, and you were hers." After Miss Barbary dies, John Jarndyce becomes Esther's guardian and assigns "Conversation" Kenge, a Chancery lawyer, to take charge of her future. After attending school for six years, Esther moves in with Jarndyce at his home, Bleak House. Jarndyce simultaneously assumes custody of two other wards, his cousins Richard Carstone and Ada Clare. They are beneficiaries in one of the wills at issue in Jarndyce and Jarndyce; their guardian is a beneficiary under another will, and the two wills conflict.
Richard and Ada soon fall in love, but though Jarndyce does not oppose the match, he stipulates that Richard must first choose a profession. Richard first tries a career in medicine, and Esther meets Allan Woodcourt, a physician, at the house of Richard's tutor. When Richard mentions the prospect of gaining from the resolution of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, Jarndyce beseeches him never to put faith in what he calls "the family curse." Richard decides to change his career to law, then later switches again and spends the remainder of his funds to buy a commission as a military officer.
Lady Dedlockdisguised as her maid, Mademoiselle Hortensepays Jo to take her to Nemo's grave. Meanwhile, Mr Tulkinghorn is concerned Lady Dedlock has a secret which could threaten the interests of Sir Leicester and watches her constantly, even enlisting the real Hortense to spy on her. He also enlists Inspector Bucket to run Jo out of town, to eliminate anything that might connect Nemo to the Dedlocks. Esther sees Lady Dedlock at church and later talks with her at Chesney Wold.
Lady Dedlock discovers that Esther is her own child: unknown to Sir Leicester, before she married, Honoria had had a lover, Captain Hawdon (Nemo), and bore a daughter by him, who she had believed was dead. The daughter, Esther, was brought up by Honoria's sister, Miss Barbary. Esther becomes ill (possibly with smallpox, since it severely disfigures her) from Jo. Lady Dedlock waits until she has recovered before telling her the truth. Though the two women are happy to be reunited, Lady Dedlock tells Esther they must never acknowledge their connection again.
Upon recovery, Esther finds that Richard, having failed at several professions, has ignored Jarndyce's advice and is trying to push Jarndyce and Jarndyce to conclusion in his and Ada's favour, and as a result has fallen out with Jarndyce. In the process, Richard loses all his money and declines in health. He and Ada have secretly married, and Ada is pregnant. Esther has her own romance when Mr Woodcourt returns to England, having survived a shipwreck, and he continues to seek her company despite her disfigurement. However, Esther has already agreed to marry her guardian, the much older Jarndyce.
Mr Tulkinghorn dismisses Hortense, who is no longer of any use to him. He tells Lady Dedlock he will soon reveal her secret to Sir Leicester. He returns to his chambers and is shot through the heart. Inspector Bucket initially suspects Lady Dedlock of the murder but later discovers Hortense's guilt.
Upon learning she is suspected of murder, Lady Dedlock flees her home, leaving a note apologising to Sir Leicester for her conduct. Inspector Bucket reveals the truth about Lady Dedlock's past to Sir Leicester. Following this, Sir Leicester discovers his wife's flight and suffers a catastrophic stroke, but he manages to communicate that he forgives his wife and wants her to return.
Inspector Bucket, who has previously investigated several matters related to Jarndyce and Jarndyce, accepts Sir Leicester's commission to find Lady Dedlock. He requests Esther's help to find her mother. Lady Dedlock has no way to know of her husband's forgiveness or that she has been cleared of suspicion, and she wanders the country in cold weather before dying at the cemetery of her former lover, Captain Hawdon. Esther and Inspector Bucket find her there.
Progress in Jarndyce and Jarndyce seems to take a turn for the better when a later will is found, which revokes all previous wills and leaves the bulk of the estate to Richard and Ada. Jarndyce cancels his engagement to Esther, who becomes engaged to Mr Woodcourt. They go to Chancery to find Richard. On their arrival, they learn that the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce is finally over, because the costs of litigation have entirely consumed the estate. Richard collapses, and blood in his mouth makes it evident he is in the last stages of tuberculosis. He apologises to Jarndyce and dies. Jarndyce takes in Ada and her child, a boy whom she names Richard. Esther and Mr Woodcourt marry and live in a Yorkshire house which Jarndyce gives to them. The couple later raise two daughters.
Many of the novel's subplots focus on minor characters. One such subplot is the hard life and happy, though difficult, marriage of Caddy Jellyby and Prince Turveydrop. Another plot focuses on George Rouncewell's rediscovery of his family, and his reunion with his mother and brother.
Characters Although not a character, Jarndyce and Jarndyce is a vital part of the novel. It is believed to have been inspired by a number of real-life Chancery cases involving wills, including those of Thellusson v Woodford, Charles Day and William Jennens,Dunstan, William. "The Real Jarndyce and Jarndyce". The Dickensian 93.441 (Spring 1997): 27. and of Charlotte Smith's father-in-law, Richard Smith.Labbe, Jacqueline M. (ed.). IN: Smith, Charlotte Turner. The Old Manor House. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, 2002 , Introduction, p. 17, note 3.
Major characters Esther Summerson is the heroine. She is Dickens's only female narrator. Esther is raised as an orphan by her godmother Miss Barbary, who is in fact her aunt. She does not know her parents' identity. Miss Barbary holds macabre vigils on Esther's birthday each year, telling her that her birth is no cause for celebration, because the girl is her mother's "disgrace". Because of her cruel upbringing she is self-effacing, self-deprecating and grateful for every trifle. The discovery of her true identity provides much of the drama in the book. Finally it is revealed that she is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock and Nemo, later learned to be Captain Hawdon. Honoria, Lady Dedlock is the haughty and beautiful mistress of Chesney Wold. The revelation of her past drives much of the plot. Before her marriage, Lady Dedlock had an affair with another man and bore his child. Her sister had told her at the time of the birth that the infant was stillborn. Years later, however, Lady Dedlock discovers that the child was born alive and is Esther Summerson. Because Lady Dedlock's reaction to the affidavit suggests that she harbours a secret predating her marriage, she has attracted the curiosity of Mr Tulkinghorn who feels bound by his ties to his client, Sir Leicester, to pry out this secret. At the end of the novel, Lady Dedlock dies, disgraced in her own mind and convinced that her husband could never forgive what she imagines to be her own moral failings. John Jarndyce is an unwilling party in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, guardian of Richard, Ada, and Esther, and owner of Bleak House. Vladimir Nabokov called him "one of the best and kindest human beings ever described in a novel". A wealthy man, he helps most of the other characters, motivated by a combination of goodness and guilt at the mischief and human misery caused by Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which he calls "the family curse". At first, it seems possible that he is Esther's father, but he makes clear he is her guardian shortly after she comes to live under his roof, explaining the letter he received asking him to take on that role a few years earlier. He falls in love with Esther and wishes to marry her, but he gives her up because she is in love with Mr Woodcourt. Richard Carstone is a ward of Chancery in Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Straightforward and likeable but irresponsible and inconstant, Richard falls under the spell of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. At the end of the book, just after Jarndyce and Jarndyce ends, he dies, worn out by his imprudence in trusting to the outcome of a Chancery suit.
Ada Clare is another young ward of Chancery in Jarndyce and Jarndyce. She falls in love with Richard Carstone, a distant cousin. They later marry in secret, and she has Richard's child. She is the dear friend of Esther's.