2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Bleak House by Charles Dickens.

Pages: 1017 pages

Length: 1 month (March)

Participants: Rachael, Rebecca, Anna

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I love this book, I hope you enjoy it!

I'm starting this one today. I'm going to be honest and say that I may need April for this one as well because 1017 pages is a whole lot of Dickens!

I will be starting this in a few days

Have read the first six chapters. (view spoiler)[There's a lot of detail. I know Charles Dickens was sometimes paid by the word but I think it's cleverly done here to be a comparison between the long winded Jarndyce court case. Would love to know what the court case is about as it's all a bit vague at the moment.
Also, I got a bit excited seeing my name in print! The Rachael in Bleak House is not that nice though. (hide spoiler)]

I’ve read the first four chapters and am happy to find that the first person narration reads easily.

Also, I understand about seeing your name in literature. I avoided the book Rebecca for years because I knew from the plot summary that the book was named after the dead first wife, and I felt kind of cringe about that with my name being Rebecca. Then, of course, I loved the novel when I finally read it.

I can back to this one and read through chapter 6 tonight. I feel like I don’t have a firm footing on the characters yet, but (view spoiler)[ the whole incident with Skimpile and the money was pretty entertaining, and I think it’s interesting that whenever Jarndyce feels upset or stressed, he seems to feel the pain he associates with windy days. (hide spoiler)]

Up to Chapter 31. (view spoiler)[There are a lot of characters to keep track of, some have nicknames which makes it trickier. I think I prefer the chapters from Esther's perspective or those about the Dedlocks as the others seem to be full of detail, some of which I really don't think is necessary. For example we really did not need that big paragraph about Mr Boodle, Mr Doodle, Mr Noodle, Mr Poodle etc (hide spoiler)]