Bleak House by Charles Dickens - February Book Club Online

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome to join in
 

Bleak House                           
by Charles Dickens

                     

Bleak House is the 10th novel by Charles Dickens, published in twenty monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon. The story is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by an omniscient narrator. The story revolves around the mystery of Esther Summerson's mother and it involves a murder story and one of English fiction's earliest detectives, Inspector Bucket. Most of all, though, the story is about love and how it can cut through human tangles and produce a happy ending. The house where Dickens lived spent summers with his family, beginning in 1850, is said to have inspired his novel of the same name.  Among others, he wrote David Copperfield in this house.

Magnanimus Conduct of Mr. Guppy (click to enlarge)

INSTALMENT XIX

DATE of PUBLICATION    Aug. 1853

CHAPTERS 60-67

DISCUSSION DATES May 16-20

The Mausoleum at Chesney Wold (click to enlarge)

                Some Topics to Consider

Here are some questions to start, but we'd really like to hear from you.
  What are some of your own questions and observations on these concluding chapters?  
 

Chapter LX  Perspective 1. Was it any surprise to learn  Miss Flite was a daily visitor to Esther's sick room?  Or that she has appointed Richard executor of her will? As it turned out, is there irony in this? 2. Do you see Richard and Ada's marriage surviving the strain of this case no matter the outcome? Chapter LXI  A Discovery 1. Can you explain the coolness between Mr. Skimpole and John Jarndyce, whom he referred to as "the Incarnation of Selfishness" in his diary?  What is Dickens implying with Skimpole's character? 2. Was Allan Woodcourt's confession to Esther expected?  What did you think of Esther's response?  Why does she consider her future path easier than his? Chapter LXII  Another Discovery 1.  Did Allan's confession precipitate Esther's desire to return as the mistress of Bleak House as soon as possible?   2. Do you think John Jarndyce recognizes the importance of the paper Smallweed has found among Krook's papers?  Do you think he's suspected all along  of the existence of a will that was not in his interest? Chapter LXIII  Steel and Iron 1. How does George Rouncewell's brother react to his request to remove his name from his mother's will?  Do you think Mrs. Rouncewell's will was of any importance? 2. Another letter, this one George will send to Esther, a letter addressed to George containing a letter from an unmarried woman.   What was the unfortunate timing of the  delivery of this letter?  What is in this letter? Chapter LXIV  Esther's Narrative 1.  Why did Esther's guardian furnish the gift house  to look just like his own home?     Was there  a reason why this sweet little cottage is also named "Bleak House"?  Why  do you think Dickens named this book Bleak House? 2. Was Guppy's new-found magnanimity  unbelievable?  Would his new house and his "'eart-felt feelings" for Esther tempt her to consider his proposal?  Was this scene strictly for comic relief or is Dickens making another point here? Chapter LXV  Beginning the World 1. What of the new will found among Krook's papers?  Too good to be true?  Would it have set things right, but for what followed?  2. What did you think of the ironic ending of the Jarndyce suit?  Was it predictable?  Can you find examples of the lighter mood throughout the Court House as bundles of papers and documents are dumped outside on the pavement? 3. How did Richard and Miss Flite handle the outcome of the case?  Were they able to pick up and begin life, once free from Jarndyce? Chapter LXVI  Down in Lincolnshire 1. Do the dull, static days at Chesney Wold suggest what life would have been like without Lady Dedlock's presence?  What makes it bearable for Sir Leicester?  For his cousin, Volumina? 2. Was it made clear why Mr. George chose to live out his life here? Chapter LXVII The Close of Esther's Narrative 1. What was revealed of Esther's life as Mrs. Allan Woodcourt? What did you think of Dickens' concluding chapter? Was it satisfying to you? 2.  Do you think that his readers were pleased to read of the other characters in the book before closing?

   

Related Links:
  Characters in Bleak House by Groups;  Map of London  1851 (double click); UNSOLVED MYSTERIES ; Interactive Map of London

 

                                                 

Bleak House  "A dreary name," said the Lord Chancellor. "But not a dreary place at present, my lord," said Mr. Kenge.

DLs:  JoanP, Marcie, PatH, Babi,  JoanK  

[JoanP]

Loose ends...

Thanks, Marcie - I marvel at the irony of the situation.  Can't imagine how I would have felt learning of my parents' love lost - and how different things might have been in my own life.  

I've read the letter George asked his brother to put in the mail for Esther. I can see that "the beautiful lady" had arrived in the West Indies, presumably to meet the ship, when word came that the letter writer had been officially drowned in an Irish harbor.    The letter was addressed to Mr. George with instructions  as to how, when where he was to deliver the letter to the lady.  Why did the captain hold on to this letter when he made it to shore?  Had he learned that the lady had already married Sir Leicester?
 
Don't you wonder how Esther reacted to the letter from Mr. George - his letter, and the enclosed letter from her father to her mother?  I can see where Dickens readers would have been expecting a follow-up installment.  He knew how to keep his readers wanting more.

We never did hear another word about Spontaneous Combustion, did we?  When Krook met his end, and Nemo died of an overdose, I suspected they were murdered.   Tulkinghorn's shooting suggested there was a single murderer loose...but when Hortense confessed, the deaths of the others were quickly forgotten.  Did Krook really die from Spontaneous Combustion as Dickens implied?

Do you have any other loose ends to report before we put this book back on the shelf?  Last chance...

[JudeS]

Well, as a humorous footnote, I will report on a different Bleak House.

In Knoxville Tenn., in 1858, a mansion, built by slave labor was christened "Bleak House" after the name of the novel.

Today, it belongs to the DAR and serves as a popular site for weddings!

No accounting for taste. Perhaps Marcie should send them a copy of that fascinating article she found.

I doubt they would read it.

[JoanP]

Jude, the article Marcie found broadened our understanding of  what Dickens intended with his Bleak House title - but  - a "Bleak House"  for weddings!  Dickens did include  a number of weddings, didn't he - including a few almosts.  Lady D almost married her captain, but did marry Sir Leicester, Esther almost married John Jarndyce, but did marry Allan Woodcourt, Ada married Richard, Rosa and Wat...

At the end, though he tackled the social issues of the day, included a murder or two, he really did write  quite a romantic  Victorian love story, didn't he?

[marcie]

LOL, Jude!

[Babi]

 I never thought either death, Krook or Hawdon, was murder.  Krook, with his drinking,
litter, and general oily, unwashed condition, was a walking invitation to disaster.
Captain Hawdon had been on the road to his final end for years. I don't believe the
suggestion that Krook died of spontaneous combustion, but that the oils (and fatty wax?)
on him caused an exceedingly intense heat once he got too close the the fire.

 From slave labor to weddings! Well, doesn't that, in a way, reflect the history of
Dickens' Bleak House,JUDE. serendipity, I call it. 

[JoanP]

The whole thing was serendipitous, wasn't it Babi?  Had we not been celebrating Dickens' 200th birthday, we probably wouldn't have chosen Bleak House for discussion.  I'm so glad we did.

Without you, Babi, Marcie, PatH and JoanK, we probably wouldn't have been able to stay with such a long book - and discussion.  Thank you, DLs!  And without the contributions and insights from all of our participants, we would not have learned so much!  Thanks everyone!  Let's do it again...More Dickens in July.  Can't wait.  Having a difficult time putting Bleak House back on the shelf - can you tell?