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Bleak House by Charles Dickens
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Reading Guide

Bleak House

Introduction by Barbara Hardy

By Charles Dickens
Introduction by Barbara Hardy

By Charles Dickens
Introduction by Barbara Hardy

By Charles Dickens

By Charles Dickens

By Charles Dickens

By Charles Dickens

Best Seller

Part of Everyman's Library Classics Series

Part of Vintage Classics

Hardcover $32.00

Oct 15, 1991 | ISBN 9780679405689

Ebook $4.99

Jan 17, 2012 | ISBN 9780307950529

Ebook $5.99

Oct 31, 2006 | ISBN 9780553903065

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    Bleak House by Charles Dickens
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    Jan 17, 2012 | ISBN 9780307950529

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    • $32.00

      Oct 15, 1991 | ISBN 9780679405689

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Jan 17, 2012 | ISBN 9780307950529

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Oct 31, 2006 | ISBN 9780553903065

      Buy from Other Retailers:

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    About Bleak House

    The complex story of a notorious law-suit in which love and inheritance are set against the classic urban background of 19th-century London, where fog on the river, seeping into the very bones of the characters, symbolizes the corruption of the legal system and the society which supports it.

    “Jarndyce and Jarndyce” is an infamous lawsuit that has been in process for generations. Nobody can remember exactly how the case started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught up in it. Esther Summerson watches as her friends and neighbours are consumed by their hopes and disappointments with the proceedings. But while the intricate puzzles of the lawsuit are being debated by lawyers, other more dramatic mysteries are unfolding that involve heartbreak, lost children, blackmail and murder.

    The fog and cold that permeate Bleak House mirror a Victorian England mired in spiritual insolvency. Dickens brought all his passion, brilliance, and narrative verve to this huge novel of lives entangled in a multi-generational lawsuit—and through it, he achieved, at age 41, a stature almost Shakespearean.

    Introduction by Barbara Hardy

    About Bleak House

    Widely regarded as Dickens’s masterpiece, Bleak House centers on the generations-long lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, through which “whole families have inherited legendary hatreds.” Focusing on Esther Summerson, a ward of John Jarndyce, the novel traces Esther’s romantic coming-of-age and, in classic Dickensian style, the gradual revelation of long-buried secrets, all set against the foggy backdrop of the Court of Chancery. Mixing romance, mystery, comedy, and satire, Bleak House limns the suffering caused by the intricate inefficiency of the law.

    The text of this Modern Library Paperback Classic was set from the first single-volume edition, published by Bradbury & Evans in 1853, and reproduces thirty-nine of H. K. Browne’s original illustrations for the book.

    About Bleak House

    Widely regarded as Dickens’s masterpiece, Bleak House centers on the generations-long lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, through which “whole families have inherited legendary hatreds.” Focusing on Esther Summerson, a ward of John Jarndyce, the novel traces Esther’s romantic coming-of-age and, in classic Dickensian style, the gradual revelation of long-buried secrets, all set against the foggy backdrop of the Court of Chancery. Mixing romance, mystery, comedy, and satire, Bleak House limns the suffering caused by the intricate inefficiency of the law.

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    Also in Everyman’s Library Classics Series

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    See all books by Charles Dickens

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    See all books by Charles Dickens

    About Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in a little house in Landport, Portsea, England, on February 7, 1812. The second of eight children, he grew up in a family frequently beset by financial insecurity. When the family fortunes improved, Charles went back to… More about Charles Dickens

    About Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in a little house in Landport, Portsea, England, on February 7, 1812. The second of eight children, he grew up in a family frequently beset by financial insecurity. When the family fortunes improved, Charles went back to… More about Charles Dickens

    About Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in a little house in Landport, Portsea, England, on February 7, 1812. The second of eight children, he grew up in a family frequently beset by financial insecurity. When the family fortunes improved, Charles went back to… More about Charles Dickens

    Product Details

    Category: Classic Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Hardcover | $32.00
    Published by Everyman’s Library
    Oct 15, 1991 | 1032 Pages | 5 x 8 | ISBN 9780679405689

    Category: Classic Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $4.99
    Published by Vintage
    Jan 17, 2012 | 960 Pages | ISBN 9780307950529

    Category: Classic Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $5.99
    Published by Bantam Classics
    Oct 31, 2006 | 976 Pages | ISBN 9780553903065

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    Praise

    “Perhaps Bleak House is his best novel. . . . When Dickens wrote Bleak House he had grown up.” —G. K. Chesterton

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