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    Bleak House
    Bleak House
    Bleak House
    Audiobook39 hours

    Bleak House

    Written by Charles Dickens

    Narrated by David Case

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Widely regarded as Dickens's masterpiece, Bleak House centers on the generations-long lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, through which "whole families have inherited legendary hatreds." Focusing on Esther Summerson, a ward of John Jarndyce, the novel traces Esther's romantic coming-of-age and, in classic Dickensian style, the gradual revelation of long-buried secrets, all set against the foggy backdrop of the Court of Chancery. Mixing romance, mystery, comedy, and satire, Bleak House limits the suffering caused by the intricate inefficiency of the law.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 2, 2009
    ISBN9781400179084
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is the most popular and, many believe, the greatest English author. He wrote many classic novels, including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and A Christmas Carol. Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities are available from Brilliance Audio.

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    Reviews for Bleak House

    4.5/5

    148 ratings127 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I had to read this one as part of my required reading for a history of publishing class that I took in college. The history of this book itself and how it was published was incredibly interesting, aside from the fact that the book is great. It's crazy to think that Dickens wrote the majority of his well known works in increments and adapted his writing according to the reactions of the audiences. Bleak House was beautifully atmospheric and, in classic Dickensian style, has all sorts of characters that are intertwined in ways that they don't realize until all loose ends gets tied. Highly recommend (even though the page count is incredibly intimidating).

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Wow. Does this book EVER end? It's occasionally humorous, but none of it really reached out to me or made me invested in the characters or events.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Bleak House takes place in 19th century England at a time when the chancery court system was full of controversy. The courts were criticized and mocked for the delays within the litigations and the story is based on one such litigation.Esther Summerson was raised by her aunt, unbeknownst to her, and is treated as a worthless burden. Upon her aunts death she is given to John Jarndyce and eventually moves in to Bleak house with him and his wards, Richard and Ada. The two are beneficiaries in an ongoing litigation that is caught up in the chancery court system because of conflicting wills. Lady Dedlock is also a beneficiary in one of the wills and is married to Sir Leicester Dedlock. She is the mother of Esther although the two are unaware of their connection since Lady Dedlock was told that her child died upon birth. Sir Leicester is unaware of his wife’s past love affair which was with a sailor by the name of Captain Hawdon or “Nemo”. Nemo dies as a pauper and Lady Dedlock hears of his death and travels to see his grave paying Jo, a homeless boy to show her to his gravesite. Richard and Ada fall in love and are secretly married but Richard’s health declines because of his obsession over the court case. Dr. Woodcourt who knows Richard from an internship, is taking care of Richard. Dr. Woodcourt secretly loves Esther and the feelings are mutual but Esther is promised to John Jarndyce her guardian and does not pursue a relationship. Lady Dedlock and Esther come to realize their connection but keep it secret. As the story progresses Hortense, Lady Declock’s maid and Tulkinghorn, Sir Leicester’s lawyer,discover Lady Declock’s past. They confront her and she flees, leaving her husband a note apologizing for her misdeeds. However, Hortense after being dismissed by Tulkinghorn feels betrayed and murders him and sets it up to appear that Lady Dedlock has done the deed. Sir Leicester upon hearing the news of his wife’s departure and death of his lawyer has a stroke yet survives. He enlists inspector Bucket to search for his wife and bring her back to him because he forgives her for any wrong doing. Inspector Bucket and Esther set on a search for Lady Dedlock only to find that she has gone to the grave of Nemo her ex-lover and died. Esther is devastated but Dr. Woodcourt comes to her aid. The chancery case takes a turn when a new will comes to the surface that postdates any of the other wills and leaves the bulk of the inheritance to Richard and Ada. However, because of the costs involved they are left with nothing which is too much for Richard to bare and he succumbs to his illness and dies, leaving Ada a widow and pregnant. John Jarndyc e realizes the mutual attraction of Dr. Woodcourt and Esther and renounces his ties to her and gives his blessing that they should be married providing them with a small estate. Ada with her child eventually returns to Bleak house to live once again with John Jarndyce.The story is filled with many minor plots and characters and takes some adjusting to follow each subplot through. In the end it was worth the read and quite enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      I decided to read this book because the back cover of "The Nine Tailors" by Dorothy Sayers put it in the top 4 mystery novels ever written. Those who try out Bleak House from the same motivation should be warned in advance that it takes about 600 pages to get to the mystery, and it is solved within another 100 pages, and doesn't quite follow the proper conventions for mystery. Of course, this is no real surprise, since Bleak House may actually be the first ever mystery novel (vying with Edgar Allen Poe's short story about the gorilla for first detective-story ever), so a few missteps are to be assumed. I also have to say that it took me till about p. 370 to get really interested--I kept at it that long out of sheer stubbornness, plus the number of friends who told me they'd given up--and the vast cast of characters left me a bit hazy about the plots. All these caveats in place, ultimately, I loved it and was sorry when it ended. The two narrator lines, one by self-reflective Esther and one by an omniscient unidentified narrator, were extremely effective. The characters are in good Dickensian fashion larger than life. In a day when we are really into sensationalism, I was struck by how possible it is to tell a really satisfying story of basically decent people (the villains are all minor characters). In a day of rampant moralism, I was impressed that Dickens could manage social critique without descending to that level, and was even capable of mocking social reforming gone amok as in the case of Mrs. Jellyby. If only he hadn't been paid by the word and made it just a trifle shorter and more efficient... say, 550 pages instead of 700+. That's my only quibble.
    • 4/5
      Long but fun, and not as bleak as expected. There's as usual a massive cast, but there's all intertwined eventually, so it's worthwhile to pay attention to them. The story is more intriguing as I work in the legal field, so I was able to make comparisons, but you don't need legal expertise to get the story. I could read Smallweed's insulting tirades to his "brimstone chatterer" of a wife over and over again! Some issues resolved themselves in predictably unrealistic ways, and there were a good deal of mysterious deaths (spontaneous combustion being the most fascinating and crazy). I didn't know Dickens was a pioneer in detective fiction until I saw his handling of Inspector Bucket. I would say this is an essential Dickens, if you are willing to invest the time.
    • 5/5
      One of the best books I've ever read, and my favorite Dickens. With his gift for detail and small characters that would never even make it into other novels, this sprawling tale is perfectly suited to his talents.
    • 5/5
      1999, Blackstone Audiobooks, Read by Robert Whitfield Bleak House is a long, sweeping novel (I don’t think Dickens writes another kind), which took me considerable time to get through but was entirely worth the effort. I needed to remember that Dickens, for me, is always a long, slow, quiet read; that established, I settled in comfortably for the long haul. I part-read and part-listened to Bleak House; shout out goes to Robert Whitfield who does an exemplary job of this Blackstone audiobook – he reads Dickens’ host of characters flawlessly, from homeless, illiterate urchin to arrogant lawyer.The first chapters introduce a profusion of characters, and keeping them straight sent me to CliffsNotes on more than one occasion. However, true to form, Dickens introduces not a single one of them needlessly; all play a role in spinning the tale that is Bleak House. The characters are as varied as they are numerous; and the intricate web that eventually ties them all one to the other is impressive.The main plot of the novel is a scathing social criticism of the ineffectiveness and ineptitude of England’s Chancery Court. Dickens declares the legal system to have failed utterly and completely in bringing justice; exhaustive court costs and legal fees have ruined the lives of many. Fast forward to present day, and I needed to ask myself what, if anything, has changed. Tom Jarndyce explains: “’The lawyers have twisted it into such a state of bedevilment that the original merits of the case have long disappeared from the face of the earth. It’s about a will and the trusts under a will – or it was once. It’s about nothing but costs now. We are always appearing, and disappearing, and swearing, and interrogating, and filing, and cross-filing, and arguing, and sealing, and motioning, and referring, and reporting, and revolving about the Lord Chancelor and all his satellites, and equitably waltzing ourselves off to dusty death, about costs.’” (ch 8)Of course, Bleak House is about much more than the failed Chancery. Dickens masterfully uses his cast to inform of, among other things, the inequities of social class: poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, domestic abuse – to name but a few. Indeed, I think he could not have nailed the inadequacies of our modern society any better supposing he’d had a crystal ball. Timeless, a true classic – highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I love Dickens and this one has so many characters that its length is a bonus for the reader.
    • 4/5
      Robert Whitfield is a good reader, but some of the women's and children's voices sound a bit unnatural (particularly Caddy and Charley). The novel Bleak House of course gets 5 stars.
    • 5/5
      I listened to this very long audiobook. I believe there were 34 parts, most of which were over an hour long. That's a lot of listening but I never found it tedious. In fact I could hardly wait until I had the next opportunity to listen to it. Simon Vance, the narrator, did a terrific job of all the different characters.Dickens was no fan of the legal system and that shows clearly in this book which revolves around a case in Chancery court, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. I never did figure out what the dispute was but I am not alone in this. None of the many solicitors involved understood the case but that didn't stop them from representing some interest. John Jarndyce, one of the primary litigants, never went to court and he had no belief that it would ever be settled. John became guardian to a young woman, Esther Summerson, who had previously been raised by her aunt. When the aunt died Jarndyce took over care of Esther, sending her to school and then bringing her to Bleak House to help him raise two orphaned relatives, Ada and Richard. Ada and Richard are also parties in the litigation but Jarndyce never allows this fact to impair his treatment of them. As Ada and Richard grow up they fall in love. Richard cannot settle to any occupation having tried medicine, the law and the military in turn. Then he devotes himself to the lawsuit and turns agains John Jarndyce. These are only the main characters in the book. There are a host of other characters who interact with Ada and Richard and Esther and Mr. Jarndyce. Some of them are comical, like the perennially broke Mr. Skimpole; some of them are tragic like Lady Deadlock who bore an illegititmate child that she thought had died at birth. One of my favourite minor characters was Mr. George, formerly a military man, who runs a shooting gallery in London. George is in debt to a money-lender and, although he works hard and lives meagrely, he seems to have no way of paying off his debt. When he was charged with murdering the lawyer who represented the money-lender I was sure he couldn't be responsible.As always Dickens' portraits of the poor are heart-wrenching. There are a lot of deaths in this book, more than I remember in other Dickens' novels. So it certainly is not a light-hearted book. However, I very much enjoyed listening to it.
    • 4/5
      Not the strongest of his plots, but still a very good book. A good condemnation of the civil justice system. I absolutely saw the ending coming though. The spontaneous combustion was a little weird -- what it had to with anything, I'm not sure. What it boils down to, though, is that I really liked Esther and her scenes carried the book. Richard should have been slapped around and Ada needed a mega dose of reality, but many of the other characters were pure Dickensian classics, whether you loved them, hated them or cried with them.
    • 3/5
      I have read a lot of Dickens, and this was by far the most difficult for me. So many characters and storylines t keep track of throughout. However, after five months of sugging my through it I conclude that it was worth the effort. Excellent overview of the British legal system and its flaws during the time period of the novel. Many intriguing characters were developed by Dickens in this one, with all their faults and virtues, reminding me of many people that have been in my life over a century after Bleak House was written. Unlike other DIckens novels, I'm not sure I'll make the effort to read this again but it is worth reading at least once.
    • 5/5
      Picked this up in London - had been promising myself to spend a bit of time on Dickens over the next few months.
    • 5/5
      I have to admit that I read this after I saw the series starring Gillian Anderson. This helped me follow the plotline a little better. It is true that there is an amazingly large cast of characters and many twists and turns throughout this complex story. But the heavy detail made everyone so real and alive. I wanted to live at Bleak House! As usual, the book is much better than the T.V. series as good as that was.
    • 5/5
      This monumental novel is well worth the difficulties involved in reading a book which has a very complicated plot, is very, very long and has many characters. Dicken's writing is so wonderfully descriptive that often I would have to reread a passage just to relish again the language he used. The device of the two narratives, one in the present the other in the past, works very well and allows both an objective and subjective depiction of a society which Dickens so brilliantly portrays in all its class-obsessed inequalities. After a rather slow start, where many characters and sub-plots are introduced, the novel suddenly takes off and all the loose ends are drawn together as characters are reconciled, secrets discovered, loose ends drawn together up to the end. This was the only thing that made me a little uncomfortable as I felt it was just TOO happy, but then who am I to deny happiness to characters who have been through so much? Thank you, Mr. Dickens, for a fabulous novel.
    • 5/5
      I knocked off a half star because of that absurdity concerning spontaneous combustion.
    • 3/5
      Oh my god, this took me forever. I started it as a book club read-a-long but I got so far behind, I had to drop out. I habitually struggle with Dickens as an author - I loved Great Expectations but didn't enjoy A Tale of Two Cities. I'm half and half on this book. I enjoyed the storyline bones, but really missed a lot of main points without supplementing my reading with SparkNotes (mainly because I never fully immersed myself in it, so I skimmed). I'm glad to mark this behemoth as read and plan on watching the BBC television movie. Bleak House, you were my Everest.
    • 2/5
      Before reading any works by Charles Dickens, I really wanted to like everything he’d penned. I expected to, in fact, because of his reputation. Alas! “Bleak House” is yet another of this highly-acclaimed and super-successful author’s novels that failed to engage me.Too many characters, too many adverbs, and too much rambling on with no purpose equals a slow and unengaging narrative.I see most others reviewers have high praise for both book and author, but sadly I can’t concur.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant both times I've read it.
    • 2/5
      OK, let's be honest. As much as I love Dickens, I have to admit he wrote a lot of maudlin junk. This book is probably one of his worst. The heroine, Esther, is the most obnoxious, mealy-mouthed grateful little orphan since Jane Austen's Fanny Price. Dickens can't seem to write realistic, compelling young women -- they are always tragic waifs, or legless angels. This is a shame, because he writes older women so well. The book's satirical look at the world of lawsuits is fantastic, and almost, but not quite, makes up for Esther's cloying sweetness.
    • 5/5
      A must read for Dickens lovers. In this story of Pip, Dickens makes yet another scathing social commentary on English life and "proper" behavior. Also excoriates the legal system, the Church, and the childcare welfare system of 19th Century England.
    • 4/5
      Bleak House is Dickens’ satire on the British legal system via the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which is generations old and mired in beuracracy. This is a very long read (850+ pages) with a large number of major and minor characters; the back cover was filled with my notes to try to keep it all straight. Many think it’s one of his best works, for some reason for me it didn’t resonate quite as much.Quotes:On charity:“…he had remarked that there were two classes of charitable people; one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all.”On lawyers:“Here, in a large house, formerly a house of state, lives Mr. Tulkinghorn. It is let off in sets of chambers now; and in those shrunken fragments of its greatness, lawyers lie like maggots in nuts.”“’It won’t do to have truth and justice on his side; he must have law and lawyers,’ exclaims the old girl, apparently persuaded that the latter form a separate establishment, and have dissolved partnership with truth and justice for ever and a day.”On marriage:“My experience teaches me, Lady Dedlock, that most of the people I know would do far better to leave marriage alone. It is at the bottom of three-fourths of their troubles.”On mothers:“The time will come, my boy,” pursues the trooper, “when this hair of your mother’s will be grey, and this forehead all crossed and re-crossed with wrinkles – and a fine old lady she’ll be then. Take care, while you are young, that you can think in those days, ‘I never whitened a hair of her dear head, I never marked a sorrowful line in her face!’”And:“…and wondering toward evening what his poor old mother is thinking about it, - a subject of infinite speculation, and rendered so by his mother having departed this life, twenty years. Some men rarely revert to their father, but seem, in the bank-books of their remembrance, to have transferred all their stock of filial affection into their mother’s name.”On the poor:“It is said that the children of the very poor are not brought up, but dragged up.”On railroads, the “internet” of the 19th century:“Railroads shall soon traverse all this country, and with a rattle and a glare the engine and train shall shoot like a meteor over the wide night-landscape, turning the moon paler; but, as yet, such things are nonexistent in these parts, though not wholly unexpected.”On staying up late:“It was late before we separated: for when Ada was going at eleven o’clock, Mr. Skimpole went to the piano, and rattled, hilariously, that the best of all ways, to lengthen our days, was to steal a few hours from Night, my dear!”On the transience of life:“’Rooms get an awful look about them when they are fitted up, like these, for one person you are used to see in them, and that person is away under any shadow: let alone being God knows where.’He is not far out. As all parts foreshadow the great final one, - so, empty rooms, bereft of a familiar presence, mournfully whisper what your room and what mine must one day be.”On virtue:“…Mrs. Bagnet serves out the meal in the same way, and seasons it with the best of temper: being that rare sort of old girl that she receives Good to her arms without a hint that it might be Better; and catches light from any little spot of darkness near her.”Lastly, this description of the Smallweed family, in a chapter I loved:“During the whole time consumed in the slow growth of this family tree, the house of Smallweed, always early to go out and late to marry, has strengthened itself in its practical character, has discarded all amusements, discountenanced all story-books, fairy tales, fictions, and fables, and banished all levities whatsoever. Hence the gratifying fact, that it has had no child born to it, and that the complete little men and women whom it has produced, have been observed to bear a likeness to old monkeys with something depressing on their minds.”
    • 4/5
      Fun read and much better than I anticipated from the title or jacket blurb. I thought it would be really depressing because it dealt with a court case and injustice. Turned out to be pretty typical Dickens: Wordy, sentimental, large cast and, finally a happy ending. I give it four stars because it was so engrossing that it left a Bleak House shaped hole in my reader's heart. I feel some regret that I'm done.
    • 5/5
      Bleak House is a book that has it all: murder, adultery, romance, blackmail, and a touch of the gothic. I have to admit to a bit of a tear at the end, to which my husband says "what? Crying over a book?" My response: you've got no soul. I think it would be difficult not to be moved by this book even a little. My edition also had reproductions of the original artist illustrations. I very highly recommend this one!I can't even begin to summarize because of the complexities of the plot and many subplots, but there are a number of very good analyses available on the internet should you be so inclined. The barebones outline is this: the books starts and ends with the case of Jarndyce & Jarndyce, a lawsuit which has been going on for so long that most of the principals involved have long since passed on. It has become somewhat of a joke in the court of Chancery, an institution that Dickens strongly criticizes by painting a vivid picture of the court's ineptitude, of lawyers whose sole job is to create business for themselves, and of those who find their interests tied up completely in the hands of lawyers & of the courts. Because of this lawsuit, two cousins are taken under the care of one John Jarndyce, who also brings along Esther Summerson as his ward. The story focuses on the fortunes and misfortunes of this group of people, along with several supporting characters and their stories. To go beyond this would be to give the show away, but I can say that this book's strong suit is (as is usual in a Dickens novel) the characterizations. The imagery in this novel is also a part of the story as is the commentary on existing social conditions and his critique of such things as the chancery courts, lawyers, old institutions that should have long passed out of existence, the missionary & do-gooder zeal, and the various types of dandies, fops and leeches that lived off of others.I very highly recommend this book to anyone who may be interested; it is long and it can get complicated, but it is a sterling example of the work of Charles Dickens, and should not be missed.
    • 4/5
      Another rich, full masterpiece by the "Great One" himself. The story follows Ada and Richard, two orphaned beneficiaries in the infamous Jarndyce & Jarndyce court case and their friend Esther as they grow to adulthood as wards of John jarndyce and choose different paths along the slippery and dangerous byways of the byzantine English chancery court. The novel, originally serilised, is rich in its description of Victorian London and its often unfortunate inhabitants, personified by the simple, tragic crossing sweep, Joe. Evil and villainy is embodied in the indomitable character of Mr. Tulkinghorn who weaves the many disparate threads of the story together as the lawyer to Sir Leicester and Lady Deadlock, both of whom figure prominently in Jarndyce & Jarndyce and Esther's life. However, humorous characters also populate the story, my personal favorite being the country squire, Lawrence Boythorn, an irascible, loud, warm-hearted friend of John Jarndyce, along with William Guppy, the sad, love-smitten and hilarious legal clerk at Kinge & Carboys, and the dogged and menacing police detective, Inspector Bucket, whose contributions, in the end, reveal a strong sense of ethics and a good heart!Dense and multi-layered, this book is not for readers with a short attention span and lust for action. However, if complexity, tragedy, comedy and subtleties in mood are your "cup of tea" than drink up, I say!
    • 4/5
      Long have I intended to attempt reading Dickens, since I felt judging solely off the much overdone A Christmas Carol was unfair. I chose Bleak House because the BBC miniseries is absolutely amazing. The book was quite enjoyable as well, if a bit slow to get through at times; the miniseries really captured the essence of the novel. The best parts of the book are always the ones told from the perspective of Esther Summerson; the other sections are told by an omniscient narrator and tend to focus on the subsidiary characters of less interest to me.
    • 5/5
      At All Ears, we often recommend that children both read along with a book as they listen to the audio version - it helps them comprehend and retain more from the book. Recently, some of our adult customers mentioned that they also do this. I decided to give this a try with Bleak House by Charles Dickens. One reason I chose this book is that I love reading Dickens - his books are funny and such wonderful social commentary. And they are incredibly long - I've heard that he was paid by the word (he must have been very wealthy). I had an audio version of Bleak House narrated by Robert Whitfield (aka Simon Vance), one of my favorite narrators. Since it was a dilemma which I would enjoy more, listening or reading this book and I wanted to finish it quickly (relatively), I decided to do both. What a great experience! Vance's wide variety of accents and voices made the characters come alive. And taking time to read chapters allowed me to better understand all of the intricate plot twists and numberous characters in this long (33 hours/889 pages) book. This is my favorite Dickens book (so far). It had just the right combination of satire, mystery, and epic novel. And hats off to Simon Vance - phenomenal narration!
    • 5/5
      Critics say this is Dickens' best and most complicated work. I would agree! There are so many sub plots and so many characters that one needs to be on their toes while reading this book. Was it worth it? YES! This Dickens novel tells of the injustices of the 19th century legal system in England. It has the makings of a great soap opera: drug use, affairs, illegitimate children, stalking, murder, and spontaneous combustion! [Bleak House] is told both by an unidentified, third-person narrator and a first-person narrator. The third person narrator tells the story in the present and Esther Summerson tells the story in the past, which may be confusing. [Bleak House] is a not an easy read, but well worth the effort.
    • 5/5
      One of the great man's finest novels. Enough said - read it!
    • 4/5
      The needless suffering caused by the bureaucracy of the Chancery Court in London permeates this book with its multitude of eccentric characters. Bleak House requires a generous time commitment and much patience in the beginning as the characters and their circumstances are introduced. However, after the stage is set, the action picks up and moves along quickly. As always with Dickens, there is a mixture of humor and satire along with the darker side of social conditions in Victorian England.