Reading 1001 discussion

Bleak House is a BIG book centered around a ridiculously long-running legal case in 1800s England. Doesn’t sound all that interesting... but oh my goodness it is. Satirical and witty, with a wide range of well-drawn characters, with a dash of mystery, intrigue, and love. I listened to a very good audio version.

I am late to Dickens—this was only my third, and I have a bunch more to read for the list. I missed out on the quarterly read the group did last year, but this was my TBR Takedown book for February. I gave it 5 stars.

Read 2017, Seasonal Read 2017.
Charles Dickens 9th novel, written as a serial was a bit slow on the upstart but over all an enjoyable book once into a bit. A lot of characters that slowly come to light and how they are interconnected. This is the story of Chancery (or equity law courts) which is part of the legal system. The court system is eating away at the inheritance of those who were to benefit. There are a lot of characters and a lot of subplots. This is supposedly the author's best book though I still hold A Tale of Two Cities as my favorite.
Uniqueness/Legacy of Bleak House: it is different than the other Dickens that I have read. It is told both by a third-person omniscient narrator and a first-person narrator (Esther Summerson). Some consider this a mistake.
Legacy: 3
Plot: 4
Characterization: (perhaps too many) but they all came together: 4. Esther is a bit over Victorian but appropriate to the time I guess. 4
Readability: 3
Achievement: 5
Style: 3
Rating: 3.625

4 stars.

At various times in my life I have owned or borrowed from the library most of the novels of Dickens. And with one exception, I have never been able to get through them. The one exception is Oliver Twist which I have read twice. Last year I had already determined to read another one and thought Bleak House would be my best bet as I had loved the TV drama that came out a few years ago. And then it turned up on my Randomizer list for 2018. I was not able to get to it last year but started on the 1st January this year - and have triumphed!

For most of the book I was going to give it 3 stars but the last 300 pages or so were really improved and I flew through them. The main target of Dicken's satire this time is the court of Chancery, in particular, and lawyers as a secondary target. Murder, intrigue, mystery and love follow as a wide range of characters interact to come together in the closing chapters as the various plotlines come together. A good read.

Next up (maybe in 2029!) Great Expectations or Hard Times?

I tried to read this one in 2017 for the quarterly read, and didn't finish even half of it in time to earn my points for it that year. I gave up and moved on. This summer though I happened across the Libraxox recordings of Dombey and Son, and it was actually really easy to listen to (at 1.25x the normal speed). So I continued with Bleak House when I finished Dombey and Son. If the same woman reads all the rest of the Dickens novela I have not read yet, I may finish Dickens this year. :)
Bleak House is actually rather funny at times. I think there are a few too many characters, and some of the names are too similar. It is not too hard to follow the story though. The main problem, that of the Chancery suit that has gone on for years with no end in sight, is also a reliable comic thread through the novel. The people involved in the suit have become minor celebrities, and there are fans who attend the court sessions for their sole entertainment, tracking everything the way kids track baseball stats.
Esther, the narrator and central character, is so selfless and 'good' that she would be intolerable, but there are enough less severely virtuous characters to balance her out a bit. Not much unexpected happens, but the story is well enough constructed and entertaining.

I gave this book 4 stars.