By Charles Dickens
I was flipping through the pages of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School
by Caroline Taggart and I read this regarding Charles Dickens: the plot of Bleak House centers around the ongoing case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce, which eventually eats up all the money that is being disputed.That sentence lead to me reading this tome. Here are some thoughts that I wrote down while reading the book.
Originally released in 20 monthly installments, I can't for the life of me see why anyone read installment two. There wasn't much gripping about the first couple of chapters that would have made me pick up next months chapters. Alas I have been sucked into the book and can't stop reading.
At 200 pages in, I still wasn't really sure what the point of the story was. I mean the court case J vs J looms over everything but it's like each chapter is a separate episode in the lives of the characters. Right now Ada, Richard, Miss Sommerson aka Ester. And Mr. Jarndace.
It's like I just KNOW something will happen so I keep reading. And the other characters they meet; Krook, the distrustful illiterate bottle and rag shop owner, Mrs Jellyby and Mr Turveydrop (he of deportment) who are cruel to their offspring and care only for themselves and how they look to others. Oh I could say a lot about Mrs. Jellyby (a certain Thanksgiving comes to mind) her of Boolaboola-Gha.
Yet I keep reading.
In Cady Jellyby's wedding, all the people there on her side all are pushing their mission, eg. her mom and Africa and it's all they talk about. But they don't want to listen to anyone else talk about their mission.
Esther to marry Mr. Jarndyce but he transfers it to Mr. Woodcot. What??? You can do that? And Esther? She is excited to now be marring Mr. Woodcot. Oh it's giving me a headache. Then Mr. Guppy asks again to marry Esther. When Mr. Jarndyce says no for her to Mr. Guppy and his mom get furious. Again. What!? Upset? They are only the most casual of acquaintances.
Yeah if the above train of thought didn't make much sense, it's okay. You're getting the idea of Bleak House. It was hundreds of pages into the book, it's 850ish pages long, before I really had an idea of the overall story and how all the separate threads were supposed to connect. It had a lot of help from online summaries to keep everything straight. The book is also slow reading and took me almost a month to finish.
Would I recommend Bleak House? No. Though it was strangely gripping and kept me turning the pages. If you want to read it for free you can. Here's a site. Also there have been many TV versions made. Yeah I don't think I'll be trying any of those.
Oh and the case? Yeah it was settled. I guess I should have expected it to be a let down but I felt really dissatisfied at the conclusion of the court case. I see, looking back, that Dickens ended the case as he did to further his criticism for the Chancery courts. It was kind of hard for me to take. All that time and reading for nothing...
