Bleak House

Charles Dickens

• Publisher: Start Classics
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781627933834
• Subtopic: Crime & Mystery Literature
• Index: Literature

With an Introduction and Notes by Doreen Roberts, University of Kent at Canterbury Bleak House is one of Dickens' finest achievements, establishing his reputation as a serious and mature novelist, as well as a brilliant comic writer. It is at once a complex mystery story that fully engages the reader in the work of detection, and an unforgettable indictment of an indifferent society. Its representations of a great city's underworld, and of the law's corruption and delay, draw upon the author's personal knowledge and experience. But it is his symbolic art that projects these things in a vision that embraces black comedy, cosmic farce, and tragic ruin. In a unique creative experiment, Dickens divides the narrative between his heroine, Esther Summerson, who is psychologically interesting in her own right, and an unnamed narrator whose perspective both complements and challenges hers.

Table of contents

• TITLE PAGE
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I In Chancery
• CHAPTER II In Fashion
• CHAPTER III A Progress
• CHAPTER IV Telescopic Philanthropy
• CHAPTER V A Morning Adventure
• CHAPTER VI Quite at Home
• CHAPTER VII The Ghost's Walk
• CHAPTER VIII Covering a Multitude of Sins
• CHAPTER IX Signs and Tokens
• CHAPTER X The Law-Writer
• CHAPTER XI Our Dear Brother
• CHAPTER XII On the Watch
• CHAPTER XIII Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER XIV Deportment
• CHAPTER XV Bell Yard
• CHAPTER XVI Tom-all-Alone's
• CHAPTER XVII Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER XVIII Lady Dedlock
• CHAPTER XIX Moving On
• CHAPTER XX A New Lodger
• CHAPTER XXI The Smallweed Family
• CHAPTER XXII Mr. Bucket
• CHAPTER XXIII Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER XXIX An Appeal Case
• CHAPTER XXV Mrs. Snagsby Sees It All
• CHAPTER XXVI Sharpshooters
• CHAPTER XXVII More Old Soldiers Than One
• CHAPTER XXVIII The Ironmaster
• CHAPTER XXIX The Young Man
• CHAPTER XXX Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER XXXI Nurse and Patient
• CHAPTER XXXII The Appointed Time
• CHAPTER XXXIII Interlopers
• CHAPTER XXXIV A Turn of the Screw
• CHAPTER XXXV Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER XXXVI Chesney Wold
• CHAPTER XXXVII Jarndyce and Jarndyce
• CHAPTER XXXVIII A Struggle
• CHAPTER XXXIX Attorney and Client
• CHAPTER XL National and Domestic
• CHAPTER XLI In Mr. Tulkinghorn's Room
• CHAPTER XLII In Mr. Tulkinghorn's Chambers
• CHAPTER XLIII Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER XLIV The Letter and the Answer
• CHAPTER XLV In Trust
• CHAPTER XLVI Stop Him!
• CHAPTER XLVII Jo's Will
• CHAPTER XLVIII Closing In
• CHAPTER XLIX Dutiful Friendship
• CHAPTER L Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER LI Enlightened
• CHAPTER LII Obstinacy
• CHAPTER LIII The Track
• CHAPTER LIV Springing a Mine
• CHAPTER LV Flight
• CHAPTER LVI Pursuit
• CHAPTER LVII Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER LVIII A Wintry Day and Night
• CHAPTER LIX Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER LX Perspective
• CHAPTER LXI A Discovery
• CHAPTER LXII Another Discovery
• CHAPTER LXIII Steel and Iron
• CHAPTER LXIV Esther's Narrative
• CHAPTER LXV Beginning the World
• CHAPTER LXVI Down in Lincolnshire
• CHAPTER LXVII The Close of Esther's Narrative