Algernon’s Comments (group member since Feb 12, 2013)

Algernon’s comments from the Bleak House group.

Finally put some thoughts down.
href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... review

It's a little rambling, frankly the book was too for most of the journey, but what I found remarcable is how vivid the characters still are a few weeks and a few books after I finished reading.

Bucket and George the soldier kind of grew on me towards the end of the story, probably because they are less predictable, having more than one tune in their repertoire. I'm not sure what other detectives predate Bucket, it would make an interesting research. I think Sherlock came later, and even Javert would make an entrance 10 years later. Maybe Edgar Allan Poe could take precedence. For me, I had drawn some paralels with Colombo, for the playing dumb, pretending not to know what he is about.

It comes out towards the end, when he black mouths his benefactor.

the passage is in one of the last chapters, and I didn't want to put spoilers in

Finished at last. What a journey. For a couple of chapters I was afraid Dickens was going to write a happy resolution to the Jarndyce & Jarndyce suit, I'm so glad he went for the ironic fizzle out.

I seem to be in agreement with others about Ada as the most useless character in the book, she's practically a piece a beautiful furniture, but seeing some notes about the dead cousin makes some sense of her presence as an ideal of youth and innocence.
In general I had a better time with the nasty characters than with the goody two shoes, with the exception of George and Woodcourt.

I got a different reading of Jarndyce proposal: it comes right after Esther confesses about her mother, and I see the proposal as his effort to protect her in case the truth comes out in society. A later chapter reveals he had indeed romantic feelings towards her. The age difference wasn't much of an issue at the times, and probably we shouldn't apply our modern atitudes to the situation.

Skimpole is one of the few ambiguous characters in the novel. I'll be curious to see what other readers make of him: fake or genuine ? for me he is definiely a crook, play acting and profiting from the kindness of his friends. Yet Dickens often leaves the impression he is an honest scatterbrained innocent and the endnotes say he is based on a real friend of the author.

Guppy is so venal, he is actually funny in his squirming.

I confess I found the position of Lady Dedlock very hard to support. Why is her name and the reputation of her husbands family more important than quality time with her daughter? I guess I thought she would give up her social life completely, disappear in a cottage somewhere where she could live anonymously and see Esther from time to time.

thanks, these titbits make it easier to understand why there are a lot of 'harpy' women characters in the book. He had a source of inspiration close by.

I got one of Leicester, too. He is so easy to make fun of:

His family is as old as the hills, and infinitely more respectable. He has a general opinion that the world might get on without hills, but would be done up without Dedlocks.

Very satisfying sequence, the plot gets a serious push forward and the scope clearer. I felt in the beginning a lack of focus and a concentration on apparently unrelated scenes of city and country life, but now things are coming together. Lady Deadlock angle I have already guessed, I believe it is a familiar type of twist in 19 century books, about orphans and didden identities. I would say it is still overused in some fantasy epics amd in TV soap operas. Esther illness comes as more of a surprise though.

Most surprising revelation for me comes in the scene of Caddy's marriage, and it has to do with the accusations of mysoginism towards Dickens, whick I find very hard to refute. Mrs Jelliby abandonment of household responsibilities is no longer an isolated case. A second liberated woman is gravely lampooned in this scene, and I become painfully aware of the ideal of feminity personified by the sappy Esther with her busy hands sewing and cleaning and taking care of the home. It appears mr. Dickens, the social crusader, has no patience for women lib. I would like to see somebody contradicting me who knows his views better.

Lots of funny new characters introduced, very entertaining to make fun of reverend Chadband, or the Smallweeds, or Mr. Guppy sappy romance, Snagsby, and all the rest. The East wind seems mostly related to the Chancery.

I'm making progress, still at a slower pace than I like, but my respect for Dickens grows as I become aware of how much of an activist on social issues he was, using his popularity to promote the causes he believed in. Also admire him for his erudition: browsing through the endnotes, I see references to Shakespeare, biblical texts, Greek mythology, literary contemporaries and classics of the world letters, current events in politics and arts. It makes think about how we like to think of ourselves as superior in terms of culture and education in our modern days, but the truth may be we have regressed and our own baggage of knowledge is rather thin when we exclude pop culture staples.

As for characters, I still find Esther unappealing and prefer the more exotic portraits. I'm growing cold about Skimpole pretty fast. George the ex army man seems all right. The cast is getting awfully big though, and I'm beginning to consult the appendix more to identify who's who.

Hello,
I'm playing catch up on you guys. Started the book on time a month ago, but I can only read it in the evenings, after hard days at work, and frankly, it puts me to sleep more often than not.

I love it though, the more so as I get used to the characters and to Dickens elaborate phrasing. Favorite scenes in 1-8 are the Krook Curiosity Shop visit and the introduction of Skimpole. Esther seems a little bland and too sugary in her good thoughts and her good manners. I like Dickens better at his most acidic satire.
I was baffled a little about the housekeeoping keys: it seemed abrupt to give her so much responsibility on her very first day in the house. Aslo abrupt I found her reaction to Ada.

I got the Barnes & Nobles Classic edition. It is a tad big to download, but it appears to ahve a lot of notes and some of the original illustrations ebook

thanks, I was actually planning to read A Tale of Two Cities after seeing a mention it has the most sales of a single novel. Bleak House will do nicely, I think as a replacement. I can't believe it's been about 30 years since I read my last Dickens (Pickwick Papers)