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Bleak House

Charles Dickens

Published1850
Pages799
Open Library3.8 / 5
Club average—

Excerpt

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.

Literary origin

Country whose literature this title belongs to, based on author tradition —not necessarily where the story is set.

  • United Kingdom

Topics from Open Library

Subjects

  • Fiction
  • Guardian and ward
  • Young women
  • Illegitimate children
  • Inheritance and succession
  • Social problems
  • Translations into French
  • Social life and customs
  • Social conditions
  • English Christmas stories

Times & places

  • 19th century
  • Jin dai
Added to BBRC

Oct 6, 2026

Catalog slug

bleak_house

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