Book description
Penguin Classics e-books give you the best possible editions of
Charles Dickens's novels, including all the original illustrations,
useful and informative introductions, the definitive, accurate text as
it was meant to be published, a chronology of Dickens's life and notes
that fill in the background to the book.
As the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way
through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of
people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being
devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose
parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer
Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the
destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but often comic,
indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House
is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels, with a range that extends
from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums.
Charles Dickens (1812-70) was a political reporter and journalist
before establishing his reputation as a novelist with PICKWICK PAPERS
(1836-7). His novels captured and held the public imagination over a
period of more than thirty years.
Nicola Bradbury is Lecturer in English at the University of Reading.
