Bleak House by Charles Dickens - February Book Club Online

[JoanK]

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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.

Attorney and Client Fortitude and Patience  (click to enlarge)

INSTALMENT XIII XIV

DATE of PUBLICATION    Mar. 1853 Apr. 1853

CHAPTERS 39-42  43-45

DISCUSSION DATES April 16--Apr.20  April 21-Apr.25

Sunset in the Long Drawing Room  at Chesney Wold (click to enlarge)

               Some Topics to Consider

Chapter  XXXIX  Attorney and Client 1. What descriptions of Mr. Vholes do you find especially appropriate? 2. What descriptions of the "new" Richard in this chapter do you find poignant? 3. Has your opinion of Mr. Guppy changed in any way at the end of this chapter?   Chapter XL  National and Domestic 1. What do you think of Dicken's descriptions of what is happening on the national front? 2. How does Dicken's describe Bleak House to foreshadow what's to come in this chapter and, perhaps, beyond? 3. What impression do you have of Mr. Tulkinghorn and how he handles the information he has about Lady Dedlock? Chapter XLI  In Mr. Tulkinghorn's Room 1. What questions does Lady Dedlock ask of Mr. Tulkinghorn? What are her concerns? 2. What does Mr. Tulkinghorn want? Chapter XLII  In Mr. Tulkinghorn's Chambers    1. What has Hortense been doing? What does she want? 2. How do Hortense and Mr. Tulkinghorn react to one another?

 

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  

[JoanK]

Where is the evil coming from? All from Mr. Tulkinghorn? Somehow, I feel that there's someone else behind him, pulling his strings. More is being done here than just collecting secrets. What do you all think? Is that just my mystery story background again, where whodunnit isn't revealed until the end?

[JoanP]

PatH, I don't see how the meeting between mother and daughter could have been any less dramatic than as Dickens portrayed - given the situation.  As Jude points out, the initial reaction was powerful,  but then they both did seem to get past their joy rather quickly - and on to the need for future secrecy.  That seemed to be the main concern.  Maybe it was supposed to show their deep concern for one another - but Lady Dedlock seemed to be more concerned about herself than for Esther's well-being.  Whereas Esther, being Esther, was more concerned for her mother - more ashamed that she might be the cause of her mother's disgrace.

So, how many mysteries have been cleared up now?  It is certain that Lady D is Esther's mother, but is it a fact that Captain Hawdon/Nemo, fathered her?  I'm not so sure.  Did Lady D tell Esther who he was in the letter?  I can't think of what other secret she might have told her. Whatever it was, it really got the usually imperturbable Esther down, wishing she'd never been born.

Did you notice that Lady D asked Esther if  John Jarndyce suspects?  Suspects what?  That she is Esther's mother?  That seems to indicate that he was not involved in whatever happened at the time Esther was born.  She gives Esther permission to tell Jarndyce - unless an emergency arises.  I have the feeling that an emergency will arise, don't you?

[JoanP]

JoanK, didn't Lady D indicate that Mr. Tulkinghorn was the enemy?

Esther: "Is the secret safe?"

Lady Dedlock: "No, very near discovery - saved by an accident."

Esther:  "Do you dread a particular person?"

Lady Dedlock: "Very much."

Esther:  "An enemy?"

Lady Dedlock: "Not a friend.  One is too passionless to be either."

This sounds as if it's M. Tulkinghorn, but I'll admit, Dickens leaves room for it to be someone else  "pulling the strings," Joank - someone like Sir Leicester, for example.  I keep remembering this is Charles Dickens - and Tulkinghorn is too obviously the evil one.  Often Dickens turns the tables at the end.  Is Tulikinghorn too obvious?

[PatH]

The enemy is surely Tulkinghorn, since Lady D says it is Sir Leicester's lawyer.

[JoanP]

Hmmm, maybe Lady Dedlock sees Tulkinghorn as her enemy, but the source of  evil might be someone else - forcing Tulkinghorn to stalk Lady D...

I'm not so sure Nemo and Krook weren't murdered, are you?  Where's Bucket?

[JoanK]

Yes, where is Bucket when you need him.

We were going to go on to the next section tomorrow, but a lot of people haven't posted in this one yet, so we'll give it an extra day, and move on on Monday. Now's the time to get in last thoughts or tell us if your behind.

Have we lost anyone to income tax struggles? I swore this was the last year I'd do it myself -- that next year I'd hire someone and relax. But all my friends who hire someone are stressed because the people they hired haven't gotten back to them yet. I guess there's no easy way.

[JoanK]

What about Chapter 38, with Esther using her changed appearance to blackmail Guppy. Is that funny, pathetic, or both? (Good for Esther-- I like it when she shows spirit).

[JoanP]

I'm interested in what was in the letter from Lady Dedlock that prompted Esther to go to London to have that little visit with Mr. Guppy.  Quite a humorous scene, following the dramatic ones before.  But Esther felt it necessary to go to him and dissuade him from his promise to make discoveries about her past and advance her interests...

We're back to the question of what Lady Dedlock told Esther in that letter - something that she didn't tell her during their talk in the Wood.  It seems to me that it must have been something that Esther felt Guppy might discover if he did searching in Kenge and Carboy's files...

And judging from "the struggle in Mr. Guppy's breast"  I'm guessing that Mr. Guppy already has some information about Esther that he doesn't know what to do with now that he has promised her not to go further.  I'm afraid for him, afraid that another person knows that he is on to something and will try to force him into breaking his promise to Esther.

So far, Guppy is the only one who reacted to Esther's altered appearance, isn't he?  

[pedln]

“If you hear of Lady Dedlock, brilliant, prosperous, and flattered, think of your wretched mother, conscience-stricken, underneath that mask! .   .    .    .     . And then forgive her if you can, and cry to Heaven to forgive her, which it never can!"

   

Why does Lady Dedlock need to be forgiven.  Why is she wretched?  Does she tell about this in her letter?

The chapters with Caddy Turveydrop and the visit to Mr. Guppy were  much needed to relieve the stress of Esther’s illness and her discovery about her mother.  Poor Mr.Guppy, ha ha. He deserved to be embarrassed.  Yes, JoanP, I think he’s the only one who has reacted to Esther’s changed appearance.  I felt a little sorry for his mother who was no doubt thinking her son was going to make a good match. 

I loved hearing Caddy talk about her FIL – how he and her father get along so well.  Not surprising.  Mr. Turveydrop loves to talk, and Mr. Jellyby has had a lot of practice in listening.  Probably a little lopsided relationship, but it works.  And Peepy – he’s become important to someone and Mr T gets lots of attention.

I’ve been trying to catch up with the DVD, and think Jonathan hit the nail right when he suggested that Skimpole helped Jo leave.  In the scene when they discover that Jo has gone there is one brief flash of Skimpole alone, with his perpetual smirk, looking out the window.

 

[PatH]

It's good to have you back with us, pedln.  An action-packed section.

Even without whatever Lady D said in the letter, Esther would have reason to need to stop Guppy's sleuthing.  He had hinted that he might know something to her advantage concerning an illustrious family.  With her new knowledge, that would be enough for Esther.

[JoanK]

Pedlin: "Why does Lady Dedlock need to be forgiven."

Good question. For "abandoning" Esther? (Which she didn't really do since she thought E was dead)? For having Esther out of wedlock? For something we don't know about yet?

I hope the letter tells Esther who her father is. But is there more? Again, I'll bet there's money involved.

I missed Skimpole and his smirk. I'm getting reeeeaaally tired of Skimpole!

And any sympathy I had for Guppy is gone

[JoanP]

I never saw Guppy as a match for Esther.  Something about his hair...

Pedln, Skimpole smirked in the film, right?  Not in the book... That was an adaptation, I think.

[Laura]

I’m glad you waited an extra day to move on.  I have a chance to give a few thoughts on things before I read the next section.

I didn’t find Chapter 36 to be too melodramatic.  Honestly, a mother and child being reunited after so many years should be melodramatic.  I liked this chapter a lot.  I wonder who will be able to keep their secret the longest --- Lady Dedlock or Esther? 

Chapter 37 was interesting.  Richard is falling further away from where he should be in life.  Now Mr. Skimpole has been persuaded to introduce Mr. Vholes to Richard.  Obviously, word is out that Richard is “easy pickings.”  Maybe, in Richard, Dickens is providing us an example of how the legal case Jarndyce and Jarndyce sneaks in and then eats away at someone, eventually consuming him.  Dickens is also allowing us to see how those around Richard are affected by his being consumed by the legal case too.

I assume that something Esther read in Lady Dedlock’s letter to her caused Esther to contact Mr. Guppy and request that he not work to determine her personal history anymore.  I was glad for this lighter chapter after the prior one.

Onward!

[JoanK]

LAURA: " I was glad for this lighter chapter after the prior one." yes, I was too. Dickens knows how to change the mood, doesn't he.

Off to read the next section!

[JoanK]

And to check if "Edwin Drood" is on tonight on PBS.

[PatH]

I never saw Guppy as a match for Esther.  Something about his hair...

Right.  His hair, those striped pants in the pictures, other comic touches.

And besides, Dickens wouldn't have a heroine marry someone of a lower social class than herself.  Guppy even drops his aitches sometimes.  (Horrors!)

[marcie]

We can continue to talk about past chapters as we move now to the next instalment XIII.

In chapter 13 we're confronted with the seemingly still and buttoned-up Mr. Vholes and a "new" Richard. We also see Mr. Guppy at the end of the chapter, perhaps in a different light. Any thoughts about those characters and how they are described in this chapter?

[JoanP]

 "The great principle of the English law - to make business for itself at the expense of the laity.  Changes in legal practices would be death to a man like Vholes."

Mr. Vholes seems to stand for everything that's wrong with the British legal system in Dickens' time.  Do you think it's any better today?

"Vholes looks at Richard as if he were making a lingering meal of him with his eyes as well as his professional appetite..."

Poor Richard, completely at the mercy of this man - and now he owes HIM money too!  Vholes sees Richard as a cash cow!

- The question in the back of my mind - Will Dickens see his downfall, make an example of him -  or will he have pity on him - save him from himself?  I'm betting on the latter...

[Laura]

I have to say, the more Dickens stressed that “Mr. Vholes is a very respectable man,” the less I believed it!  LOL!  If someone is so respectable, there should be no need to say so over and over again.  Respect is earned, not a label one can place upon oneself, or a label that an author can put on a character for the reader.

It sounds as though Richard is paying Mr. Vholes for doing next to nothing.  Mr. Vholes claims “we wake it [the Jarndyce suit] up, we air it, we walk it about.”  Sounds like paper shuffling to me.

The chapter ends with Mr. Tulkinghorn hinting to Guppy that he knows Guppy has been working with Lady Dedlock.  Hmmm…The more I know about Mr. Tulkinghorn, the less I trust him.

[PatH]

The scene between Richard and Vholes is really frustrating to read.  Vholes is the master of evasion, saying things that mean nothing, especially when asked what has actually been DONE.  At the same time, he is playing Richard like a fish on a line, has him just where he wants him.  Aaarrgghh.

By the way, in the drawing you can see the patient cat Judy mentioned, sitting in front of the mousehole.

[marcie]

I agree with all of you re Vholes. It's torture to see how he has Richard completely fooled and that part of the ruse is to divide him from the only person who is involved with the case who sees it as a dead end, Mr. Jarndyce. Vholes says, "'This desk is your rock sir!' Mr. Vholes gives it a rap, and it sounds hollow as a coffin. Not to Richard though. There is encouragement in the sound to him. Perhaps, Mr. Vholes knows there is."

That Vholes knows how to play Richard because of Richard's need to have faith that his case will be resolved and that he will get his inheritance. And, as one of you mentioned earlier, it was that weasel, Skimpole, who put Vholes together with Richard!

[JoanP]

Glad you pointed us to that cat, PatH!  You know, there are many cats and their prey, birds and mice, in this novel.  Too many to be an accident, don't you think?  The patient cat, just waiting for the right moment to pounce.
The patient Mr. Vholes, slowwly taking off those black gloves as if he were skinning a cat his hand - he knows he's got Richard just where he wants him.
Why is Richard so impatient?  In such a hurry?

Marcie, I thought the kicker was when M. Vholes asks Richard for 20 pounds to cover recent expenses...and Richard writes the draft for it! "All the while, Vholes official cat watches the mouse's hole..."

Do you think Mr. Vholes wants the case to come to an end any time soon when he can keep Richard as a cash cow indefinitely?

[marcie]

Yes, Joan, that was a great metaphor with the cat watching the mouse's hole. It doesn't seem in the service of any of the lawyers or clerks to end this case.

[PatH]

Jude was the original noticer of the cat; I only noticed it was also in the picture.

[Jonathan]

'Mr Vholes is a very respectable man.' Dickens. To which Laura adds: 'LOL!  If someone is so respectable, there should be no need to say so over and over again..

Right on. Doesn't the refrain and the sarcasm sound familiar? Straight out of Shakespeare. Mark Antony and his oration over Caesar's dead body, about his assassins: 'but they are all honorable men.' But Dickens does want the reader to see Vholes as a predator and Richard as his prey.

For the life of me I don't see why Dickens is so hard on the lawyers. And it gets worse. As a profession they are dedicated to unscrambling the complexities  of human affairs. Just trying to be helpful. And when the occasion arises, Dickens does acknowledge their help.

The many points of view are a great feature of Dickens's style. Gwyneth Hughes has a few good comments on that in her Guardian article. In the link provided by Marcie in the Drood affair. Many endings were possible.

I can't agree with you, Marcie, when you say that Mr Vholes has Richard completely fooled. Richard did spend many hours in the offices of Kenge and Carboys digging around in the files, reading the documents, getting a handle on things. He found information, presumably, that convinced him his interests were not those of Mr Jarndyce. He needs his own lawyer. Mr Skimpole knows of one. And the rest is history. It's beginning to seem like a replay of the nasty Gridley family legal squable.

We were wondering about Mr Bucket's absence in a law and order matter a few days ago. It turns out he was otherwise occupied in the Drood case, as Mr Grewgious, the guardian of  Rosa and Edwin. We can expect him back, surely, for the next crisis.

I thought Hughes did a splendid thing with the Drood mystery. It was fascinating.

[JudeS]

I found chapter 40, National & Domestic, one of the best so far. Especially these two descriptions:

Over Lady Dedlocks picture "a weird shade falls from an old tree, that turns it pale and flutters it,and looks as if a great arm held a veil or hand, watching for an opportunity to draw it over her".

"Sir Dedlock moves among the company, a magnificent refrigerator.."

We find out that Lady D. wishes Tulkinghorn was dead.
And that Mrs. Rouncewells son is running for office against Sir D.
Tulkinghorn tells the story of Esther, without names, and that Esther's Father was a Captain in the Army.

The tension is ratcheting up. Lady D. is under so much pressure that she may snap. Who could blame her?
 Hortense joins the other villains with her belly full of hate and almost uncontrollable temper.
Something very bad should happen soon.
 

[Laura]

The tension is ratcheting up. Lady D. is under so much pressure that she may snap. Who could blame her?
 Hortense joins the other villains with her belly full of hate and almost uncontrollable temper.
Something very bad should happen soon.
 

I think something bad has already happened, but we, as readers, have not been told of it yet.  In Chapter 40, while people are in Chesney Wold's sitting room, "Everybody starts.  For a gun is fired close by." 

[PatH]

Question: "What do you think of Dicken's descriptions of what is happening on the national front?"

I had trouble sorting it all out.  Here's what I made of the local scene.  Can someone tell me if I've got it right?

Sir Leicester is on the side of the Doodlites, against the Coodlites.  (This was the hardest for me to be sure of.)  Sir L. himself has control over three seats in the House of Commons.  One is his own, which is safe.  He usually manages to put people of his choice in the other two.  The opposing candidates for these are being effectively aided by the campaigning of the Ironmaster, Rouncewell, and his son, and they win three to one.  During the election there has been massive bribery by Sir L.'s side, maybe the other side too.

I like the way Dickens describes the bribery:

"Brittannia being much occupied in pocketing Doodle in the form of soverigns, and swallowing Doodle in the form of beer, and swearing herself black in the face that she does neither...."

"...parts of the country on which Doodle is...throwing himself in an auriferous and malty shower...."

It reminds me of a description I read once in the Portland Oregonian about elections in the early days there.  On election day you would go into a bar, where there would be a row of shots of whiskey and a stack of silver dollars.  You would drink your shot, pick up your coin, and walk out.  Nothing was said, but you knew what you were supposed to do.  (Don't ask me how you knew which candidate.)

[PatH]

I think something bad has already happened, but we, as readers, have not been told of it yet.  In Chapter 40, while people are in Chesney Wold's sitting room, "Everybody starts.  For a gun is fired close by." 

If nothing has happened, it's good foreshadowing.  Lady D. says "A rat.  And they have shot him".  The footnote in my book compares this to the killing of Polonius in Hamlet.

[marcie]

LOL, Jonathan. You may be right, that Detective Bucket has been occupied in the Drood case, as Mr Grewgious. He does get around, and in disguise too!

You also may be right in thinking that Richard came to the conclusion on his own that his interests are not aligned with Mr. Jarndyce's interests. But I believe that Mr. Vholes has been working on the seeds of that thought and expanding on them so that there is no possibility that Richard will be influenced by Jarndyce to drop the case (and deprive Vholes of his steady income from Richard). Vholes definitely has a hold on Richard.

Jude, I too was very struck with Dicken's language describing the house. Your examples are powerful. Also: "But the fire of the sun is dying. Even now the floor is dusky, and shadow slowly mounts the walls, bringing the Dedlocks down like age and death."

Pat, yes. I also was going to remark on Laura's image of the gunshot being heard and Lady Dedlock saying it's "A rat... And they have shot him."

Death is foreshadowed in this chapter.

Pat, I too had trouble with the ins and outs of the national campaigns and elections. What I think I understood from what Tulkinghorn reported is what you have discerned: That Sir Leicester has kept his seat but that the seats for two other candidates that he usually has behind him have gone the "other way" by a 3 to 1 margin, thanks to the campaigning of Rouncewell and his son.

[Laura]

Pat, yes. I also was going to remark on Laura's image of the gunshot being heard and Lady Dedlock saying it's "A rat... And they have shot him."

Here's doubting Laura again.  I don't believe it was a rat that was shot.  Maybe I am wrong, but at the least, a rat was shot and it foreshadows a rat-like person being shot.

[JoanP]

Laura...the first person I thought of  when I heard the gunshot was Hortense.  Remember the French woman who spent time practicing at Mr. George's shooting range?   I'm not sure if something bad has happened  - yet - but yes, there are omens that something is coming soon.  The action is "ratchetting up" several notches, isn't it, Jude?  Do you find yourself getting into the plot to the extent that you forget to notice the quality of the writing?  Can you imagine writing one of these Installments of three or four chapters each month?  (With 10 children underfoot!)  While it's true that Dickens is a master at constructing plots, there is so much more going on - the descriptions, the references - Biblical, Shakespearean and of course the history, the social issues, the politics!

PatH, thank you for addressing the question of the elections.  I tried to do some research - came out more confused than when I went in.  I'll share something from an article that I read - by Karl Marx, no less...  It was more complicated than first meets the eye...but what was very clear, the election results  did not please Sir Leicester who had spent much money bribing voters.  This was not uncommon at the time, but Sir Leicester had spent a lot of money and was not successful getting the other seats.  If I'm understanding all this correctly, he was a Tory.  "Tories were the guardians of the traditions of Old England.  They were suspected of admiring in the British Constitution the eighth wonder of the world; to be laudatores temporis acti,[2] enthusiasts for the throne, the High Church, the privileges and liberties of the British subject."

"They strive to retain forcibly institutions and a political power which are condemned from the very moment at which the rural population found itself outnumbered three times by the population of the towns. And such an attempt must necessarily end with their destruction; it must accelerate and make more acute the social development of England."

The "other side - (the Whigs?) stands in opposition - want  reform...social, economic and the court system.

See how the plot is  coming together?  The question in my mind - how deeply involved is Sir Leicester - other than the obvious?  What is his interest in the Jarndyce case - if any?  He's against reform - is he content with the slow-moving justice system?

[PatH]

In Mr. Tulkinghorn's Chambers: Wow! What a battle of giants!  Equally matched, worthy of each other's steel, except Tulkinghorn holds all the good cards.  (Yes, I know, that's an awful mixed metaphor, but it says what I mean.)

It's interesting to speculate on Tulkinghorn's feelings, if any.  He has a certain amount of admiration for Lady Dedlock.  "What power this woman has to keep those raging passions down!" he thinks.  "The power and force of this woman are astonishing."

But I think maybe he has a bit of protective fondness for Sir Leicester.  He says his only interest is the professional one of looking out for Sir L.'s interests, but something about his realization of the importance of Lady D. to sir L. and his willingness to respect it suggests a sympathetic feeling for the man.

Of course, since he also feels that no one should marry because 3/4 of people's troubles result from marriage, I don't think feeling is going to overwhelm him.

[JoanP]

Did you wonder how he found that information about Lady Dedlock's background?  What was his source?  Was it matching the handwriting on the papers that he forced from M. George?  He also knows that Cuppy knows something, don't you think?  That could complicate Guppy's plans to drop his inquiry on Esther's behalf, he's already so deeply involved.

PatH, I sensed Mr. Tulkinghorn's admiration for Lady D. too.  I'm looking forward to learning more about how the marriage between Lady D. and Sir Leicester came about - and what part  Tulkinghorn played in that arrangement all those years ago.   How many people knew of Lady D's affair with the Captain - and her pregnancy?

[marcie]

Laura, I think you are right when you say that the gunshot foreshadows "a rat-like person" being shot, or killed in some way.

JoanP, thanks for doing that research into the Tories and Whigs. I'm confused too. A website at http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/9june.htm says that Dickens was a Tory. Does that make sense?

"Dickens work was essentially political. He was a Tory and stood for the old patriarchal society where benign employers cared for honest servants who knew their place. He detested the Whig party, with their doctrine of Laissez-faire, where spiritual values are ignored in an industrial society, where profit comes first and the abject poor are confined to the workhouse.  The gentle Mr Pickwick is a Tory. He supports the Buffs, the colour of the Tories and detests the Blues, the Whig Party. The detestable Scrooge is a forthright Whig. He supports the treadmill, the prisons and the union workhouses established by the Whigs. He would like those who cannot cope in a competitive society to ‘die and reduce the surplus population’. By contrast, the good employer is Mr Fezziwig who spends his spare profits on the care of his workforce. The name Fezziwig stands for ‘fuzzy wig’ as old-fashioned Tories continued to wear wigs well into the Nineteenth Century.  Loyal employees like Wemmick enjoy a comfortable life in a pleasant home, while upstarts like Uriah Heap, who try to advance themselves, come to a bad end."

[marcie]

Pat and JoanP, It seems to me that Tulkinghorn seems to respect the self control that Lady Dedlock has, practically in spite of himself. I got the impression that he was against the marriage. He's certainly putting Sir Leicester ahead of Lady Dedlock but he's retaining his own power over secrets above all. He could have said to Lady D, for Sir L's sake, that he'd do all he could to keep her secret forever, so that Sir L would not be hurt. Instead, he says that he could basically reveal the truth at any time. He's wielding power over Lady D and it's killing her.

[Jonathan]

What interesting thoughts on the dramatic developments in the plot. Especially on the adversarial relationship between Mr Tulkinghorn and Lady Dedlock, both heavily burdened with secrets.  She with the secrets of her past. He with the secrets of his aristocratic clients. His care is to keep scandal away from Chesney Wold. He's deep into damage control in the Dedlock situation.

Pat suggests it might be interesting 'to speculate on Tulkinghorn's feelings, if any.' He seems to be without feelings. Appropiate enough for a man in his position. Except, as we read long ago, for the  prejudices he has about women. How he came to them is a mystery. Disappointment in love? Like Guppy?

A shot has been heard. Is it going to turn into a murder mystery after all? Presumably we've met all the characters in the story. I can't think of one that I would like to see dead. That deserves to die. I can't see see anyone perpetrating such a crime. Will it be Vholes, who is contributing to the ruin of a young life? Not likely. The author has provided him with three daughters and a father as a shield against such a dire event. Many miserable lives in Bleak House, but none that could be seen as driven to that extreme.

[Babi]

 I'M BACK!  Thank goodness, and a pox on all greedy hackers!  We were so lucky to be able
to get that bug cleared out with our software intact.
  I've read all your posts, but I won't try to go back over any  of that.  You all have been doing
such a great job of pointing out all the goodies.  I'll pick up where we are now tomoorow.
 It's so good to be here again.  I've been in withdrawal!
 

[marcie]

Jonathan, it's so interesting that you bring up the point of who "deserves" to die and who might be shielded because of family attachments. We'll see how this plays out.

Babi, welcome back! I'm sorry that your computer was sick but glad that you were able to clean it out so quickly. We have a couple more days to talk about this installment and are looking forward to your thoughts.