I didn’t enjoy this half as much as I enjoyed A Tale of Two Cities. I felt there was far too much going on, and too many characters. I did enjoy what was known as ‘Esther’s Narrative’, Esther being one of two narrators, the other narrator is unknown telling a parallel story which Esther’s briefly intersects.
Esther’s Narrative is told in the past, whilst the other is told in the present. Esther is a little sickly sweet, and Jarndyce her Guardian is one of those benevolent Dicken’s characters who are too good to be true. The back story of the disputed wills in the Court of Chancery has provided interesting reading outside of the novel with regards to the legal system of that time. Dickens had his own experience in Chancery as a Law Clerk, and when trying to enforce copyright on his earlier work.
Bleak House includes those awful Dicken’s character names such as Mr Turveydrop, Mrs Jellyby etc and also includes a scene where one of the characters spontaneously combusts—something Dickens, at the time, believed could happen.
Considered to be a Dickens masterpiece, I beg to differ.
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