One of Dickens’ most complicated stories with a village full of interrelated characters, Bleak House takes as its theme a long mismanaged suit in the English courts of chancery, weaving that suit around each of its protagonists in far-reaching coils.
Bleak House is a long book, there’s no denying. I think it’s a little shorter than The Count of Monte Cristo, but longer than Little Dorrit, and probably longer than War and Peace.
The plot and character relationships are incredibly complex and intertwined. Besides, its length requires a good attention span—though the plot is interesting enough to keep you going. I suppose a dedicated young teenager could get through it, but 17+ is the age I recommend it for.
Jump to the bottom for a brief conclusion—or just read straight on for a more in-depth evaluation of Bleak House.
The Plot [spoiler alert!]
If you’ve read any of Dickens’ books, you know that his characters frequently have complicated relationships to each other that are only divulged very gradually. In order to keep this summary as brief as possible, I’ll explain the plot in the most straightforward way I can—giving away some relationships that are kept secret for a while in the book.
One more note before I begin: Bleak House is notorious for its huge quantity of characters. Only the most important will make it into this summary!
Esther Summerson (actually Esther Hawdon) is first person for a lot of the book, with occasional breaks for a third person narration. She is the illegitimate daughter of Honoria Barbary and—well, and Hawdon, whose first name I do not happen to remember. He went by Nemo (no one) for most of the book anyway, so no wonder. Esther has a loveless childhood, reared by the strictest of aunts who sees her as a disgrace. She takes everything in a meek spirit however. As a result of her training, she has the semi-conscious motive operandi of having to earn love and good treatment (rather than considering it a right), and since she also has a healthy sense of her own shortcomings, she is always surprised and humbled by the amount of love she receives.
There was some small connection between Mr. John Jarndyce and Esther’s aunt, which led to Mr. Jarndyce assuming the care of Esther’s education and livelihood after her aunt died. Having grown up, Esther moves to Mr. Jarndyce’s home, Bleak House, where she keeps house for him and his two wards, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare.
Mr. Jarndyce is famous for his share in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a notorious case of disputed wills that has been in the court of Chancery for decades. John Jarndyce has seen his uncle commit suicide in despair induced by the suit, and he himself is resolved never to become personally involved. He encourages his wards (distant relatives, and therefore involved in the suit) to do the same.
There are essentially two stories here that go hand in hand. One is the story of the lawsuit, with Richard and Ada, the other is Esther’s story of finding her mother. Through a small army of secondary characters, these are blended very well. But they will not be well blended in my summary!
Esther’s mother (who thought Esther had died shortly after being born) married Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet. This struck me as a bit of a plot hole, unusual for Dickens. At least, he didn’t really explain how or why she married him after having an illegitimate child—and she certainly did marry him afterwards. Both those questions are puzzling to me, especially because Lady Dedlock evidently does feel disgraced and afraid of discovery. Perhaps that sense was a later development. Still, the question is unresolved.
Anyways, Lady Dedlock’s side of the story starts (very near the beginning of the book itself) when she recognizes Hawdon’s handwriting on a piece of paper having something to do with Jarndyce and Jarndyce (to which suit she is a distantly connected party). This affects her so much that the lawyer notices, and sets himself to find out what secret Lady Dedlock is hiding.
Lady Dedlock eventually discovers that Esther Summerson (who visits the area where Lady Dedlock’s country house is several times, staying with an old friend of Mr. Jarndyce’s) is her daughter, and reveals her own identity to Esther, who is thereby rendered always anxious for her mother’s ability to retain the secret. In the end, the lawyer uncovers it, and Lady Dedlock, goaded by the lawyer’s impassive use of the secret, runs away (though contrary to his desire).
Her husband suffers a stroke of some kind when he learns about her past, but finds a way to communicate his forgiveness as soon as he can, by writing it. But it’s already too late; Lady Dedlock is gone. Mr. Bucket, a detective, sets off in pursuit of Lady Dedlock and takes Esther with him. Eventually they find her at her old lover (Esther’s father)’s grave—dead.
While some form of poetical justice is undoubtedly served by Lady Dedlock’s death, both my gut reaction and my thought-out conclusion is that she ought to have lived. It’s too miserable of an end for Sir Leicester, who deserved better. And although Lady Dedlock herself deserved no better, metaphorical coals of fire on her head could have been heaped up in order to make the final result just as poignant as her death—and a level of repentance added to her regret would have been nice too. Besides, it could have brought Esther and Sir Leicester together. I think they would have gotten along well—as it is, Esther never meets Sir Leicester and the poor fellow wears out his days in a lonely old age.
Now for the other half. Again, bear in mind that these two aspects of the plot are seamlessly intertwined in the book; I have separated them artificially for brevity’s sake.
Richard and Ada fall in love with each other (as expected), but unfortunately, Richard is unable to take his mind off the fatal lawsuit. Hoping for a moderate fortune from it, he’s unable to settle down to any profession. Eventually Ada, who has a small fortune of her own, marries him. Then, after a complex series of events including cats, old misers, spontaneous combustion, and the ubiquitous Mr. Bucket, detective, a new Jarndyce will is brought to light. This will resolves all the disputes… but it comes too late. The entire wealth of the property has been consumed in law costs. This blow proves too much for Richard, who has already been wasting away under the anxieties of the case. He dies, and Ada, widowed and soon to have a child, returns to live with her guardian John Jarndyce.
But after all, this is only incidental to the plot of Esther’s own life. She starts off unloved and unwanted, and although it does not make her bitter, she does struggle to find a way to be really useful—wanted. This is more or less fulfilled as she is housekeeper for Mr. Jarndyce—but her anxiety for her mother makes her question whether her existence is worthwhile. The young physician Allan Woodcourt certainly seems to be glad she exists; but he is poor and accepts a job as ship’s surgeon on a long voyage, and Esther contracts an illness which leaves her permanently disfigured. She’s a little too quick to jump at this as a reason to forever despair of Allan, but so she does, and when Mr. Jarndyce (despite his age) proposes to her, she accepts.
Everyone around Esther loves her and relies on her to an extent which is fully justified by her character to everyone but herself; so, in general, she is happy and contented. But it does appear, when Mr. Woodcourt returns, that after all he isn’t so fazed by her scars. Nevertheless Esther refuses him—being already engaged to Mr. Jarndyce. But Mr. Jarndyce, guessing at the state of affairs, brings them together and establishes them in a new “Bleak House” of their own.
Now this is all very awkward, and being told in first person makes it even more awkward. Esther writes as already Mrs. Woodcourt, so of course she is in love with Allan; and it rather sounds as though she was, all through. But in that case it would hardly have been right for her to marry Mr. Jarndyce as she intended. In any case, she clearly could not have felt quite the right kind of love for Mr. Jarndyce, seeing how calmly she accepted his determination to retire in favor of Allan. Well—altogether it hurts my opinion of Esther slightly and is just an awkward triangle.
Now to look at the plot as a whole—it is certainly complicated enough. If you’re not going to read the book intensely over a short time frame, you may find yourself forgetting characters or scenes.
Dickens’ style is such that he builds up to his climaxes very thoroughly, so it’s hard to feel like there are tremendous plot twists or cliff hangers in his books—whatever happens falls into place so perfectly. This is good… mostly. But if edge-of-your-seat is what you look for in a novel, Bleak House probably won’t get you there.
Although there are a few things I question, as a whole the plot is masterfully put together and a pleasure to see unfold.
7/10
The Point
Many of Dickens’ works have an immediately obvious social critique as their main point. Bleak House’s point in that sense is a diatribe against the wasteful and harmful legal system surrounding wills; a system which evidently consumed property and destroyed lives with no tangible benefit other than the employment of a myriad of (vulturous) lawyers.
The point may or may not be a bit relevant today—certainly not in the same way. So to a modern reader that part of the book’s moral, while possibly interesting, is not very meaningful.
But Esther is more or less a walking moral of how much solid happiness you can get out of life by being humble and kind. Whether her last name—Summerson—is meant to reflect all that, I’m not quite sure. At any rate, though she has no one but the summer to claim kinship to, she makes a bright home for herself wherever she goes, by working to make a home for others.
In the preface Dickens stated, “I have purposely dwelt upon the romantic side of familiar things.” Maybe this applies to the romantic side of the court of chancery; it surely applies to Esther’s after all rather ordinary life, which consists in keeping house, getting sick, helping her friends, and marrying a doctor. Oh right, and running up and down the country with a detective to find her mother—not so very ordinary, to be sure. But on the whole, I think Dickens brought out romantic sides of ordinary things pretty well.
8/10
The Style
Bleak House is written as a combination between first and third person narratives. Esther writes all the parts she could be expected to know about, but in order to achieve more suspense and also to wrap up some ends she couldn’t reasonably know anything about, quite a few chapters—maybe about a third of the book—are written in third person. The styles are a little different, as they should be, but the biggest difference is that Esther writes in past tense (the way narrative is usually written) while the third person is all in present tense. This works very well. Amateurs sometimes write in present tense and “amateur” glares at you from every present tense verb, but Dickens does it seamlessly and it makes the transitions from Esther’s narrative to third person easy to distinguish.
Third person present tense, when well done, has a bit of a movie vibe. It’s very immediate and puts you right on the scene. In Bleak House, this works very well to break up the more retrospective, everything-has-already-happened, first person sections. Also, these sections are flowery and literary, as one would expect from Dickens.
Esther’s sections are written more simply, though still with a good deal of description. Aside from the fact that no reason is assigned for why she is writing her life story, it makes sense and she does not have a bad persona. She does sound a little soppy, as frequently happens to first persons who aren’t sarcastic cynics. I think some of her apologies (I’m not clever—it’s so strange to write about myself!) could be dispensed with. It’s bad form to apologize for something you’re going to say, much less for everything; if you think it needs an apology, don’t say it.
On the whole, Esther’s narrative is interesting to read. Despite what she has to say about herself, she is a sharp girl who makes some profound reflections. For instance, on the subject of Richard’s schooling she wonders “whether Richard would not have profited by someone studying him a little, instead of his studying [Latin poems] quite so much.” Although disposed to look on everyone’s good side, Esther is a good observer of character and draws her own conclusions.
Also I have to point out one of the most brilliant things about Dickens’ style; he foreshadows in incredibly subtle ways. Passages that seem purely descriptive may contain a hidden meaning. “Athwart the picture of my Lady, over the great chimney-piece, it [the sun] throws a broad bend-sinister of light that strikes down crookedly into the hearth and seems to rend it.” Brilliantly subtle, definitely rewarding on a second reading. Naturally, this happens more in the third person narrative than in Esther’s first person. Foreshadowing in first person usually comes across as too self-conscious.
In retrospect I feel like I enjoyed the style of the third person narratives better than Esther’s style—but for whatever reason, while I was reading it I was always looking for when I’d get back to Esther’s narrative. So maybe I enjoyed that part better after all!
7/10
Conclusion
7/10
Bleak House isn’t my favorite of Dickens’ books, but it’s mid-tier, very good, and a worthwhile read. A few things about the plot left me unsatisfied, such as Lady Dedlock’s end, but it is still well-crafted and amazingly intricate. Dickens’ style is always fascinating, and while the main social point of the novel (a critique of the law system of his day) is a little outdated, the example of Esther’s humble, loving character will never expire.
You can download an ebook version of Bleak House for free at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1023
These other book reviews of mine might also interest you:
Geneva D 
What do you think?