Charles Dickens Bleak House

Annotation

First published in the form of monthly installments between 1852 and 1853, Charles Dickens's Bleak House is one of the Victorian novelist's immortal classics. In fact, some biographers and critics even consider it to be his ultimate masterpiece. The story is mainly narrated by the protagonist Esther Summerson who has been raised as an orphan first by her aunt and then by her wealthy guardian John Jarndyce. Esther's mother is still alive, though Esther does not know about it and has to discover it later in the narrative. In Jarndyce's Bleak House, Esther lives with the man's two other wards Richard and Ada who gradually fall in love with each other while Esther develops a romantic relationship with Dr. Allan Woodcourt. Esther, Richard and Ada are all beneficiaries of a family will related to the Jarndyce and Jarndyce business. The legal situation of the will is complicated, however. Jarndyce advises Richard not to marry Ada before he finds a decent job. Nonetheless, Richard fails to find a job, wastes all his money and even marries Ada secretly and has a child from her. After further complications in the plot, the narrative ends with Richard's death after having learnt about the uselessness of the will due to the heavy costs of litigation. Jarndyce adopts both Ada and her child and Esther marries Dr. Woodcourt