Lady Dedlock, believing her daughter is dead, has chosen to live out her days 'bored to death' as a fashionable lady of the world.Įsther is raised by Miss Barbary, Lady Dedlock's spartan sister, who instills a sense of worthlessness in her that Esther will battle throughout the novel. Unknown to Sir Leicester, Lady Dedlock had a lover, Captain Hawdon, before she married Sir Leicester - and had a child by him, Esther Summerson.

Sir Leicester Dedlock and Honoria, Lady Dedlock (his junior by more than 20 years) live at his estate of Chesney Wold. The great English legal historian Sir William Holdsworth (see below) set the action in 1827. However, there is some question as to whether this timeframe is consistent with some of the themes of the novel. Technically it must be before 1842, and at least some of his readers at the time would have been aware of this. These facts raise an issue as to when Bleak House is actually set. In fact, Dickens was writing just as Chancery was reforming itself, with the Six Clerks and Masters mentioned in Chapter One abolished in 18 respectively: the need for further reform was being widely debated. Though Chancery lawyers and judges criticized Dickens's portrait of Chancery as exaggerated and unmerited, his novel helped to spur an ongoing movement that culminated in enactment of the legal reform in the 1870s. His harsh characterisation of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave memorable form to pre-existing widespread frustration with the system. Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk, and in part on his experiences as a Chancery litigant seeking to enforce his copyright on his earlier books. The litigation, which already has consumed years and between £60,000 and £70,000 in court costs, is emblematic of the failure of Chancery. This case revolves around a testator who apparently made several wills. Memorable characters include the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, the friendly, but depressive John Jarndyce, and the childish and disingenuous Harold Skimpole, as well as the likeable but imprudent Richard Carstone.Īt the novel's core is long-running litigation in England's Court of Chancery, Jarndyce v Jarndyce, which has far-reaching consequences for all involved.

The story is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by a mostly omniscient narrator.

It is held to be one of Dickens' finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon.

Illustration from the New York Public Library Berg Collectionīleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly instalments between March 1852 and September 1853.

Bleak house penguin english library