Bleak House by Charles Dickens - February Book Club Online

[JoanP]

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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.

Mr. Guppy's Desolation  (click to enlarge)

INSTALMENT IV V

DATE of PUBLICATION    June 1852 July 1852

CHAPTERS 11-13 14-16

DISCUSSION DATES Mar.1-5  Mar.6-10

The Family Portraits at Bayham Badger's (click to enlarge)

               Some Topics to Consider

In this section Dickens sets up a lot of puzzles and throws out a lot of hints, without giving any answers, but we can have a lot of fun speculating.  If you've read ahead, please don't give away anything for those of us who haven't.  You can just chuckle with your superior knowledge. Chapter XI 1.  Why are we introduced to a character who has just died, yet seems to be of importance   to  Mr. Tulkinghorn?      Do you have any ideas about his possible role in the story? 2.  Have you ever attended an inquest?   Of course, you will have read about many of them.       Was Mrs. Piper’s testimony relevant?   And why was Jo’s testimony unacceptable? 3. What does Jo’s testimony reveal about the life of a homeless orphan? 4. What does Mr. Snagsby’s interview with Jo reveal about him. 5  What further prejudices, either Dickensian or English,  do you find in this section?  (Hint: ‘Caffre’ apparently is a corruption of Kaffir.) 6.  What is your first impression of Lady Dedlock?     7. Having met Mlle. Hortense, what do you think of her?  What do you expect from someone like her? Chapter XII 8.  What did you think of Dickens’ dissertation on the fashionable ‘dandyism’ of the day? Does any of it remind you of attitudes today?   9. What is Mr. Tulkinghorn’s status at Chesney Wold?  What does it say about his  relationship with the present Lord? 10. What changes in the relationship of Mr. Tulkinghorn and Lady Dedlock on the occasion of this visit?  What do you think it portends for the future?  Chapter XIII 11.  What are we learning about Richard Carstone’s character?   12.  What do you think of the boisterous Mr. Boythorn?  Do you like him? Dislike him?  Why? 13.  Esther appears at a disadvantage here, in coping with Mr. Guppy.  Is this typical for a young lady of her times, or is it the result of her personal history?   How  does it compare with the way a modern young woman would have handled the situation? 14.  Share your impression of Mr. and Mrs. Badger. Have you ever known any couple like this?  Could you even have imagined a couple like this?   15.  Can you compare Mr. Jarndyce’s attitude toward his wards with Sir Leicester Dedlock’s attitude toward his dependents?

 

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  

[Babi]

 Oh, thank you for those links, ROSEMARY. None of my research turned up a current
official 'beadle'.  Event coordinators now, eh?  Even the second link discussion of
beadles refers to them in the past tense, with the information gained from 'records'.

 I'm glad you made that point, JOANK. I've wondered which of the houses Dickens really
meant when he chose the title "Bleak House". But that's pure Dickens, too. Tantalize
his readers, make us think!

 We get some more insights into the attitudes of the times. What do you make of this?
 The dead man’s burial place is a 'beastly scrap of ground’.  “...which a Turk would reject as a savage abomination, and a Caffre would shudder at.”   It would appear that Turks are regarded as savages, and Kaffirs (Caffres) as hardened in their sensibilities. 
    Is this another strong cue to the upper class attitudes of the times?  Lord Dedlock says: “If I go further, and observe that I cannot really conceive how any right of mine can be a minor point,  I speak not so much in reference to myself as to the family position I have it in charge to maintain.”

[JoanP]

"The dead man’s burial place is a 'beastly scrap of ground’.  “...which a Turk would reject as a savage abomination, and a Caffre would shudder at.”  

Babi - I'm reading the Norton's Critical edition of the book - heavily footnoted - and had planned to mention these footnotes today.

There's a note defining  a Caffre as "a South African native of the Bantu family."  I think that Nemo's burial plot is such that the most primitive peoples would not consider it.   He's only buried one - two feet deep.  I'm wondering if Dickens will use that bit of information in later chapters...

There are so many footnotes that you may not be aware of - if your book or etext does not have such information.  I'll give you an example which shows how much Dickens has put into his writing which may not be obvious without these notes.

From  the same paragraph describing Nemo's burial plot -

"...they lower our dear brother down a foot or two, sow him in corruption, to be raised in corruption (6);an avenging ghost at many a sick bedside; a shameful testimony to future ages, how civilization and barbarism walked this beautiful island together."

(6)Cf. I Corinthians 15-42:  "So also in the resurrection of the dead.  It is sown in corruption, is is raised in incorruption."

My copy has Dickens misquoting Corinthians...to be raised "in corruption."  Did he do it on purpose, or is this a printer error.  There's a big difference...
You don't suppose that Nemo will be raised up - dug up from this shallow grave in the same state of corruption he was buried, do you?

This whole chapter is loaded with footnoted  quotes from the Book of Common Prayer, gospel of St. Matthew, Genesis, Psalms, MacBeth, Midsummer Night's Dream...  I can't begin to imagine how much time he put into research for this book.
Just thought you should know...

[Laura]

"The dead man’s burial place is a 'beastly scrap of ground’.  “...which a Turk would reject as a savage abomination, and a Caffre would shudder at.” 

Babi - I'm reading the Norton's Critical edition of the book - heavily footnoted - and had planned to mention these footnotes today.

There's a note defining  a Caffre as "a South African native of the Bantu family."  I think that Nemo's burial plot is such that the most primitive peoples would not consider it.   He's only buried one - two feet deep.  I'm wondering if Dickens will use that bit of information in later chapters...

My note says:  Variant of Kaffir, a southern African Bantu tribe; here meaning "infidel."

From Dictionary.com
in·fi·del 
noun
1.
Religion
a.  a person who does not accept a particular faith, especially Christianity.
b.  (in Christian use) an unbeliever, especially a Muslim.
c.  (in Muslim use) a person who does not accept the Islamic faith; kaffir.

I am not sure if an unbeliever or a Muslim is meant here.  I guess it doesn't really matter.  The point is that the burial place was unfit for anyone.

[Laura]

Speaking of footnotes and class distinctions, I was interested in another footnote in my book regarding the position of the dark young surgeon who mysteriously appears at Nemo’s bedside:

As a surgeon, this doctor treated bodily ills and injuries.  Because surgeons performed a form of manual labor, they ranked below physicians.

From another earlier footnote:

Within the medical profession, one of the traditional four professions in Britain, physicians were the most prestigiously ranked.  They treated mainly internal disorders and prescribed various types of “physic,” as Skimpole had been trained to do.

Contemplating these footnotes in conjunction with comments made recently in the discussion, I find myself pondering two things.

Esther, being of neither upper nor lower class, would be a good match, society-wise, for the dark young surgeon, whose name we don’t know yet.  Chapter 13 definitely included some of the romance promised in the book!  I’m anxious to see what kind of relationship develops between Esther and the dark young surgeon.

On a different note, one of unsolved mysteries, why would the dark young surgeon have been selling opium to Nemo in the first place?  It seems from the descriptions in the footnotes that another doctor, a physician, should have been doing that.  Hmmm…..

[JudeS]

This morning some doggerel came to mind as I pondered yet another  mystery:

Oh, poor Guppy
Loves like a puppy.
His suite rejected
His motives suspected.
Who, on Esther's hand
Will put the wedding band?

Sorry for being silly but sometimes I must. The mystery I suggest interests me. As each young man appears in the story I wonder will he be the one to woo the lady succesfully?
Usually Dickens ties up his books with a pretty bow so a beau for Esther is inevetible.
(I promise to be more serious in my next post.)

[JoanK]

Jude: "Usually Dickens ties up his books with a pretty bow so a beau for Esther is inevetible".

I hope you're right. I have an awful feeling she'll be left taking care of everyone else, and being grateful for the chance to do it.

"(I promise to be more serious in my next post.)" Please don't be. I love your little poem!

[JoanP]

I agree, JoanK - and I think Dickens would like it too!  He seems to be having a good time with his Guppy character.  Is this comic relief?  It sisn't serious, or is it?  We seem to go from dark to light to comic in each instalment.

What do you make of Guppy?  What's going on with his hair, plasterd down like that?  Does he think that Eshter would like it that way.  Turning up at the theatre and staring at her is one thing...but he's turning up every night - and standing outside her window.  Obviously this isn't going over too big with Esther.  I'd call it stalking.  Why didn't she tell her Guardian?

[JoanK]

" Why didn't she tell her Guardian?"Partly because she doesn't want to get Guppy into trouble. But also because this would cause people to have to do something for her (of which she feels she's not worthy) instead of her doing something for someone else. GRRRR.(Sorry, but Dickens' portrayal of Esther is getting on my nerves!)

[rosemarykaye]

Joan, I agree.  So far, Esther and Ada are both a bit wet.

[Babi]

 JOAN, do share some more of those Biblical quotes. I missed them, or didn't give
them a second thought. I think the writers of that day were much more likely to
quote scripture or refer to it.  Attitudes toward religion were quite conventional
in those days and most readers would have found the references entirely appropriate.

 Good catch, LAURA. I was struck by Esther's casual--- in passing--- of no special
importance, of course----of the dark young surgeon. Much too casual, IMO. I
think Esther is taken with him.

 Ah, me, GUPPY. By their standards, Guppy would not have been stalking. He was
being the love-sick swain in the romantic tradition of the day. I'm sure he
thought he was impressing Esther with his devotion. And appealing to her tender
nature. He wouldn't be the first, or last, man in pursuit of a girl but without a clue.

Have you noticed how Dickens conveys the mood of  pending events?  In his
description of Chesney Wold, he describes Lady Dedlock’s portrait.  “Athwart the picture of
my Lady, over the great chimney-piece, it [the sunshine] throws a broad bend-sinister of light that strikes down crookedly into the hearth, and seems to rend it.”
 Is there any doubt that grief is coming to Lady Dedlock?
 

[PatH]

Don't forget that in heraldry the bend sinister is supposedly a mark of illegitimacy.

[rosemarykaye]

Wow Pat - well spotted!  I'd never have picked that one up.

[JoanP]

"So far, Esther and Ada are both a bit wet"

I've been wondering if this reticence was a sign of a lady in Dickens' time.  I mean, is Dickens portraying these two as virtuous?  We're talking about the mid nineteenth century.  Do you get the idea that Esther is smarter than she lets on - that she knows when to hold her tongue, and when to speak up - in other words, how to get her way?  Sometimes I think so, but at other times, I sense her surprise that her opinion is taken seriously.  Maybe this character will grow in the course of the novel - heaven knows, we have quite a way to go yet - there's plenty of time for Esther to come into her own.  Not too much is known about Ada yet - except she is so taken with Richard - who is also a bit "wet"  in my estimation.

PatH - thanks for the translation - the bend sinister a mark of illegitimacy.  I'm wondering to whom the mark applies?  Lady Dedlock?  or...

Babi, I'll bring a few of the biblical quotes here...and leave the Shakespeare behind.  Where did Dickens get this rich literary - and Biblical background?   I stand in awe -

[Jonathan]

Keep us smiling, Jude. Bring on your happy jingles. 'Bit wet', too, offers some relief in perusing this, as Lady D puts it, 'chamber of horrors.' They have served to relieve her boredom however.

Very interesting, Jude, that you should mention Dostoyevsky. Dickens is murky enough to allow the comparison. I'll have to be convinced. At this point I feel that we're getting a lot of English eccentricity and English gothic rather than Russian psycholigical abnormalities.

Getting back to 'bit wet', don't you think, Rosemary, that represents sanity in Dickens' crazy world? I'm not sure, it applies to Esther. She is anything but casual, as Babi suggests. She is on her own very high moral plateau. I think Dickens is being kind to her in giving her such an ardent lover as Guppy. She is a bit hard to love. Very useful on the other hand. And cuts through any cobweb. Perhaps  it will be her role to bring an end to the Jarndyce and Jarndyce 'cause'. Strang that she should reject love.

Could surgeons prescribe opium? Good point Laura. Perhaps in setting up another link between characters, Dickens outsmarted himself.

It seems to me I remember reading about an early romantic infatuation in Dickens life. Wasn't it also an incident. a  character who shows up in Little Dorrit? A faded beauty shows up, who had rejected a lover years earlier. There must be a bit of Dickens in everything he wrote.

Spare us the scriptures, Dickens. This prophesy that the dead will come back to haunt the guilty is so heathenish. Or is he simply saying that we will hear more of Nemo?

[Jonathan]

Just read your post, JoanP. Of course, help us with these scriptural allusions. I was just kidding, not suggesting that Dickens, like the Devil, quoted  scripture, to sell his books.

[JoanP]

Footnote information from passages in Chapter XI Our Dear Brother:

"Then the active and intelligent, who has got into the moring papers as such, comes with his pauper company to Mr. Krook's, and bears off the body of our dear brother departed." 4

4 in the Book of Common Prayer: "Foreasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God...to take unto himslf the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground."
"Though a rejected witness who "can't exactly say " what will be done to him in greater hands than men's, thou are not quite in outer darkness."8

Footnote information from passages in Chapter XII On the Watch:


8 Matthew 22:13  "Then said the king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot, and ...cast him into outer darkness."
It has also found out that they will entertain a brilliant and distinguished circle of the elite of the beau monde (th fashional intelligence is  weak in English, but a giant refreshed 1 in French), at the ancient and hospitable family seat in Lincolnshire."

1Psalms 78:66:  So the Lord awaked as one out of sleep: and like a giant refreshed with wine."

There's another reference to Nimrod here - which may or may not have bearing in the story later on...

This one is for you, Jonathan-
Remember  Mrs. Snagsby's propensity for not getting names right?  She mistakenly called Nemo, "Nimrod"? Well here in Chapter XII Dickens writes:

"...the entire collection of faces that have come to pass a January week or two at Chesney Wold and which the fashionable intelligence, a mighty hunter before the Lord, 1, hunts with a keen scent for their breaking cover at the Court of St. James...."

1 Nimrod.  See Genesis 10:8-9

"And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD"

Perhaps it is just a coincidence that Mrs. Snagsby calls Nemo, Nimrod -   Do you think it's worth keeping in mind - that Nemo/Nimrod was a mighty hunter "with a keen scent" - on the trail for something that would eventually get him killed?

[PatH]

The presence of so many quotations, some of them cleverly changed, tells us something about Dickens' readers.  He wouldn't have put them in unless he expected at least some of his audience to recognize them.

[JudeS]

PatH
Thank you for informing us that "Bend-sinister" means illegitimate!
That solves one mystery (At least for me).

When I quoted that sentence :
Athwart the picture of my Lady,over the great chimney. it throws a broad BENT-SINISTER of light that strikes down crookedly into the hearth and seems to rend it."

I knew it had a double or triple meaning.  Dickens is ostensibly talking of the sunlight but he tells us that when  we become ENLIGHTENED we will see the HEARTH RENT .  This can only mean that the home will be broken because of the illegitimate child of Lady Dedlock.

So, if Esther is Lady Dedlocks daughter, will she become wealthy?

And here is the last of my silly verses:

Note: Shvester is Yiddish for sister. Couldn't find another rhyme for Esther.

An orphan child is Esther
She has no shvester.
Lady D. is her mother.
It can't be another!
Dickens threw us a bone.
Still, her Father is unknown.

[PatH]

I hope it isn't really the last, Jude.

[Laura]

Your verses are fun, Jude!  Please throw them in as your mood strikes!

[rosemarykaye]

Oooh yes Jude - no stopping now, they're great!

[JoanK]

Bravo!!

My knowledge of scripture being weak, I couldn't place any of the quotes above (I did get "bent sinister"). But I can tell that Dickens is quoting: the sound of it tells you it's the King James Bible.

((By the way, I always thought the music of the King James Version came from the 17th century English, until I learned a little Hebrew and read some of it in the original. The music is in the Hebrew!)

[pedln]

Jude, you are really good.  I hope you're keeping all these verses in one place, so we can go and read them all easily.

So Cousin Jarndyce is concerned that Esther may end up doing too much "caring."  Is that why the young surgeon was invited to dinner?

Poor Richard, a sweet boy, but does he really want to be a "maydickle" person?  Does he have the ability?

Yes, JOanP, you did borrow my Bleak House, but I think just for a year.  I liked it when I saw it, but have forgotten  just about everything from first watch, and this week saw only the 1st (of 15) episodes. Two thoughts -- how do people know what's going on if they haven't read the book, and "eeewww, I don't like Mr. Guppy."

[marcie]

Jude, I love your clever rhymes. Keep them coming!

On Esther being "wet," I think she has convinced herself (surely because of her upbringing) that the only way she will be loved is if she nurtures everyone else. And she seems skilled in doing that. She nurses Peepy Jellyby, and seems to know what to do with the dead baby. She takes initiative and doesn't recoil from sickness or injury. I would say she is both skilled and couragous. A comparison of Esther Summerson and Anne Elliot of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" comes to mind.

[JoanP]

"Is Esther's behavior typical for a young lady of her times, or is it the result of her personal history?"

Marcie's post just reminded me of Esther's personal history - her childhood.  Raised in an emtional vacuum, completely devoid of love and caring.  Remember wondering what she would be like as an adult coming from such beginnings?  I think we need to take that into consideration now.  
And if her behavior is not typical for a young lady of her times - then I find myself asking - which of Dickens'  ladies are typical?  Do we need to sort them by class?

How about Ada Clare? Typical?  Do you sometimes see her regarding Richard's lack of...oomph with alarm?.  I can't think of another way to put it - but I'd like to see Ada "grow"  in future chapters.  What's wrong with Richard?  Maybe he's spending too much time listening to Mr. Skimpole.  Is Richard a typical young man of the time?  Do Dickens' readers recognize him?

[Babi]

 Some interesting questions there, JOANP. You got me to thinking. Considering that
Esther's early childhood was full of recriminations and blame, I would think she
must have learned early that her opinion wasn't wanted. And she would have learned
to hold her tongue.
  Still, she is very capable and intelligent. Look how well she manages a large
household. Servants, budget, accounts, personal tastes and preferences of all those
who live there. Today she would be earning good money as an administrator.
 
 I think it likely that we will be hearing more of Nemo, Jonathan. And the guilty
are haunted by their own conscience if they have one at all. It's their memories of
the dead that haunt them, not the dead. As for referring to scripture, I doubt if
Dickens gave it a second thought. Religious references were quite the norm then.
Poetry was full of it. Look at Wordsworth, Tennyson, Rosetti...

 Thanks so much for those quotes and references, JoanP. I recognized the familiar
phrases, but didn't give them a second thought. And think of all the biblical and
liturgical references we use, and hear, in ordinary conversation.

 Have any thoughts on the questions suggested for this section?  Pat posted them for
us up in the heading, as usual, bless her!

[pedln]

JoanP, I don't know if Richard is typical of his times.  His elders, Jarndyce and Kenge, seem to think that  his upbringing, with its lack of postive male role models, has not shown him a need to assess himself or to even consider a career.  Apparently he's still in "school boy" status.

Ada is kind of vapid, isn't she.  Has she expressed any opinions or original thoughts?  Esther certainly cares for her, but seems to treat her more like a little pet.  Has she ever confided in Ada or talked to her about her background?

Esther spent six years at the school with the Misses Donnys, both learning and helping others to learn, and as she admits, the latter helped make the other students fond of her. I think she feels that she must do for others in order to be loved, never just for herself alone.

[marcie]

I'm wondering if Dickens might be satirizing the education of the day when Esther reflects that Richard is very good with his drilled Latin verses (? --can't find the exact quote) but that he was never provided personal guidance by anyone--no individualized learning that helped to shape his character.

[PatH]

I'm sure he is.  And he says that while Richard was studying, no one ever studied him enough to find if there was anything he was good at or cared about.  He doesn't seem to have had to be serious or take responsibility for anything, and he assumes that eventually the lawsuit will be settled and he'll be rich.  (That's pretty optimistic, considering how it's going.)

Ada seems to be mostly sweet and pretty, and we don't really see what she's like.

Esther surely suffers from low self esteem.  She could hardly help it, given her childhood.  She claims not to be clever, though she shows a lot of competence.  I suspect she has become unobtrusive as a sort of protective coloration.

[JoanK]

Thinking about it, Esther is very important to the structure of the book. She is kind of a center, with all these characters flying around. Without her holding things down, so to speak, thee book (and our thoughts) would be a jumble.

[Jonathan]

Jude, that's inspired rhyming. Shvester (sister) is just perfect for Esther. She is trying so hard to live down those terrible words she got from her godmother: better if you had never been born. She's helpful to everyone. Lady Dedlock can't be her mother. They are too unlike.

I've got my bible out. In fact I went for it after reading about Miss Flyte's preoccupation with the Book of Revelations. She's looking for auguries, isn't she? Or omens? Like Mrs. Snagsby. She took a strange interest in Nemo. Saw something in him, that made him stand out. Got him the copying jobs. I can't get over the interlocking of everything in this book.

[Jonathan]

Right on, JoanK. Esther is used by everyone, even as a mouthpiece for the author.

[JoanP]

What is Mr. Tulkinghorn’s status at Chesney Wold?  What does it say about his  relationship with the present Lord?

I can't tell whether Tulkinghorn's close relationship is with Sir Leicester or with his Lady.  Yesterday I was doing a crossword puzzle - the clue was something like - "one kept as a retainor" - and the answer turned out to be "an attorney."  Turkinghorn seems more than a retainor, doesn't he?  He has his own room at the Dedlock home!  He shares some sort of a secret with Lady Dedlock, but I can't tell whether his loyalties lie with her - or with Sir Leicster.  He passes on the information regarding the death of the  man whose handwriting the lady  recognized - in a way that indicated they both knew the importance of this man...
but we leave them out in Chesney Wold begging the question -

"what each would give to know how much the other knows - all this is hidden for the time, in their own hearts."

The title Dickens gives to this chapter - "On the Watch"  suggests to me, that Tulkinghorn is watching Lady Dedlock.  I'm beginning to think that Tulkinghorn is a long-time friend of Sir Lecister's family - and that his primary interest is to make sure that this family is well represented.

"For the time being?"  This indicates that we will hear more of their relationship in future installments, I think.  Has Mr. Tulkinghorn emerged as a leading character in the plot?

What do we know of Lady Dedlock?  Except for the fact that she is very bored and secretive too, don't you think?  What was the meaning of her interest in the young maid, Rosa?  Do you think the French maid Hortense has anything to worry about?  Clearly she's jealous.  Goodness, new characters!  I thought we  had met the full cast by now.  How can we connect these two to Esther, JoanK?  If we don't come up with some sort of connexion to Esther soon - you will get into "a jumble."

[marcie]

JoanP, I agree with your assessment that Tulkinghorn is "a long-time friend of Sir Lecister's family - and that his primary interest is to make sure that this family is well represented." He's carrying out Sir Lecister's wishes in every detail (even though I get the impression that he might not agree with him totally on his stance re the  property dispute).

 I think Tulkinghorn realizes that Lady Dedlock doesn't care for him and is almost always bored with anything he has to say. I think that he is watching Lady Dedlock (maybe in order to protect Sir Lecister). He notices everything and he noted Lady Dedlock's interest in the  handwriting on one of the documents he brought to the house. She usually is not interested so that especially caught his eye. He looks into it and brings the info back to Lady Dedlock about the author of the  handwriting and tries to judge her reaction and see what she is going to do.

Re what we know about Lady Dedlock: I think we know that Lady Dedlock was not from as high level of society as Sir L. She is beautiful and reserved.

[marcie]

I looked it up. In Chapter 2, we got our first description of Lady Dedlock. Sir Leicester is 20 years older than she and he is in his late 60s. He married her for love. She didn't have a family. "But she had beauty, pride, ambition, insolent resolve, and sense enough to portion out a legion of fine ladies. Wealth and station [from marrying Sir L], added to these, soon floated her upward; and for years now my Lady has been at the centre of the fashionable intelligence, and at the top of the fashionable tree....."

"My Lady Dedlock, having conquered her world, fell, not into the melting, but rather into the freezing mood."

She and Sir L are perfectly polite to one another and he seems to hold her in high regard but I don't sense passion.

[marcie]

On March 6, we're moving into the next installment, V. We're almost near the bottom of the page so I'm posting a few messages so that we can put our heading for installment V on a new page. 

[marcie]

In Chapter 14, DEPORTMENT, Richard leaves to study medicine and Caddy Jellby re-enters the picture with a couple of new characters and we learn about what's been happening with her. We also see more of Miss Flite and learn the names of her birds. The "medical gentleman" Woodcourt, who attended to the dead body of Nemo, also reappears.

In this chapter, aptly named Deportment,  Dickens takes the opportunity again to satirize show over substance.

[BarbStAubrey]

Had to take a few day Hiatus - Income Tax and of course, regardless how many promises over the years the receipts are unsorted in a plastic bin -  

Then I am in the middle of my own Jarndyce versus Jarndyce - lesson - read all email regardless if you recognize the sender or not - I usually trashed without opening what appeared to me to be an ad - well during the holidays some company that said that for a monthly fee I could each month receive as many credit reports as I wanted and further it said that I had 7 days to OK or cancel the service -

Never ordered the service - Never received anything by either snail mail or email - but for a  couple of months there was this strange bill that I finally saw this weekend when I took time to scour my credit card activity - Being out of town for the holidays I just paid and then just paid in January and February -

Well they have been charging me and rang up on my credit card a total of $106 - so a weekend with lots of calls - Did cancel the ahum service but, no satisfaction getting money back - reported them to our Attorney General who is going after them and still trying to get it worked out with my credit card company to go after them and return my money.

OK book - I am in awe that y'all got through and understood chapter 11 - thank goodness for Rosemary's links but I have not been able to figure out what is a salute of the skittles - first I thought skittles was something to eat - than a frying pan and finally a board game but no - it is like outdoor bowling and so next to the Alms is a 'bowling' skittles field or whatever it is called - after I finally figured that out by reading the chapter 3 times and researching I still cannot find anything that tells me what is the "salute of skittles" - anyone Know???

And another what does it mean when the pieman's "brandy-balls go off like smoke." I know what brandy-balls are unless, this has another meaning - we used to make them every year at Christmas time with Kentucky Bourbon - ours were not cooked so I am assuming if these are the same cookie made with brandy they are not cooked so what is the reference to smoke??

Didn't you just love Mrs. Piper's testimony - I love it - bringing up anything that seems unrelated with an unholy possible outcome till she gets around to what she wants to say - to think folks had the patience to listen to her dream, an attention getter for sure with a pick-ax and a child's head being split, not - oh my - I bet she was not alone using this descriptive way to express herself - what was it they said on TV the other night, we now have the attention span of I think they said 27 seconds - and 160 years ago folks listened to a Mrs. Piper - just love it!

Ahh and Mr. Snagsby has a good heart giving Jo a coin on the sly. And 20 seizures in one night for dear Guster - oh dear, although, I bet even if she was not a child of poverty there would be no help since medicine was only a knowledge of herbs and the use of various hallucinogenics.  Did you see that article in last weeks paper about the various famous people that used drugs from Ben Franklin to Pope Leo XIII, 1878 to 1903.

Interesting comparing childhood experiences - the Jellyby children, Mrs. Pardiggle's children, Mrs. Rouncewell's sons and Jo - needy, angry, sent away, abandoned to the streets.

Now what is a jack-towel neckcloth - a roller towle hung on the back of the door or in some old fashioned public restrooms is a jack-towel and a neckcloth I believe is what was fashionable before the modern tie but, I cannot picture what a Jack-towel neckcloth could look like.

A fun by-the-way blog on Dandyism - http://www.dandyism.net/trivial-pursuit-the-test-of-dandy-knowledge/

Lords - Boodle, Coodle, Foodle, Goodle, Hoodle, Joodle, Koodle, Moodle, Noodle, Poodle, Quoodle - a riot - and then Buffy, Cuffy, Duffy etc. - Oh my talk about Gothic - Tulkinghorn is assigned the turret chamber. Is that not descriptive,"walking before breakfast like a larger species of rook."

Their crowing is not a song but has often been described like the cry of a pack of hounds in hollow, echoing woods, or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, or the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly shore. They usually create communities which seems an anathema to Tulkinghorn however, their diet is the larvae of injurious insects, grubs and they do damage to corn fields.

And what does evindenfly mean - as in Guppy, "leaning against the post and evidenfly catching cold." The best I could find was, it is a word used by Shakespeare in Hamlet with another word that is used to describe evidenfly being "encomium" meaning: Warm, glowing praise. A formal expression of praise; a tribute - formal praise; an elaborate or ceremonial panegyric or eulogy.

I am thinking this is another of Dickens worthy attempt to use irony suggesting a ceremonious certainty decorated with a eulogy to ascribe that Guppy is indeed catching cold. What do y'all think?

Oh and what glee - wonderful Mr. Badger - I have heard of folks living vicariously through another but he takes Aristotle's "law of association by contiguity" to the extreme... intimate extreme...the past husbands seem to provide an endless topic of conversation with Mrs and Mr Badger each getting something from it and each other. A nice segue to Richard and Ada and now a dark gentleman - I guess if Nemo is no longer the secret, 'who is he?' now we have, I hope a worthy substitute in the dark gentleman - 'who is he?'.

[marcie]

I'm sorry, Barbara, about your own "Jarndyce" difficulties. I hope  you get your money back!

Those are all good questions about the meaning of terms. Let me take a stab at one of them. "The Sol's Arms does a brisk stroke of business all the morning. Even children so require sustaining under the general excitement that a pieman who has established himself for the occasion at the corner of the court says his brandy-balls go off like smoke. "

I think that the phrase his brandy-balls go off like smoke means that he sold them so quickley they disappeared like smoke.

Anyone know what the other terms mean?