Bleak House (1853)

Abandoning in the short term because I'm all Dickens-ed out. Or, I'm all orphan-ed out. Also, can't find a great Librivox version.

Not worth the slog ( )

The first part of pretty dry but the last few hundred pages more than make up for it ( )

Dickens' 17th important work, his 9th novel, his 1st utter masterpiece. Bleak House is gorgeous, powerful, and diffuse in a way that signals we're on to the author's third act, in which the vibrant characters and internal examination he had been trialling begin to come together. Apparently, as he got to the end of this novel, Dickens was finding his life and its burdensome pile of commitments to be a little much, but perhaps it was because he was giving more than ever to his work. Lady Dedlock and Esther both provide dimensional (well, at least bordering on two-dimensions, which is something for this guy) portraits into this maudlin world. The social satire of the Jarndyce case is barbed in a different way to Dickens' anger on the treatment of the poor: it is a more tongue-in-cheek satire about the inanities of humankind. Richard and Ada aren't exactly fountains of great depth, but their actions still contribute their detail to the many facets that make up this unified whole. While I think that Dorrit and Great Expectations are also masterpieces (and I haven't yet read Our Mutual Friend), Bleak House is absolutely the most Dickensian of CD's achievements. ( )

A long, rambling novel with tons of characters that pivots around a court case decades long. There's romance and humor and mysteries aplenty and I enjoyed it a great deal. I think I would have outright loved it, but it took me too long to get through it and details were long forgotten in the process. Entirely my own fault and not at all the fault of dear Charles. ( )