Bleak House
Ranked #13 in Victorian, Ranked #24 in London — see more rankings.
Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs, the romance of Esther Summerson and the secrets of her origin, the sleuthing of Detective Inspector Bucket and the fate of Jo the crossing-sweeper, these are some of the lives Dickens invokes to portray London society, rich and poor, as no other novelist has done. Bleak House, in its atmosphere, symbolism and magnificent bleak comedy, is often regarded as the best of Dickens.... more
Reviews and Recommendations
We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Bleak House from the world's leading experts.
Peter Ackroyd Bleak House is the work which most powerfully suggests the darkness of London. It conveys a haunted city, half pantomime-half graveyard. (Source)
Trevor Phillips Bleak House tells us not to rely on the courts for justice. In the end, a just society can’t be delivered by people in a courtroom. (Source)
Rankings by Category
Bleak House is ranked in the following categories:
- #60 in Folio Society
- #43 in Law
- #45 in Penguin Classics
- #63 in Project Gutenberg
- #81 in Public Domain
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