Bleak House Study Guide

Bleak House Summary

The term "Bleak House" refers to two different houses -- the one owned originally by John Jarndyce, to which Ada, Esther, and Richard come to live with him, and to the second Bleak House, built for Esther and her husband at the end of the book. That said, the Bleak Houses in Bleak House are not bleak at all. They are happy houses. The title of the book is more indicative of the social ills and hypocrisy that Dickens addresses in it.

Sir Leicester Dedlock is introduced as the height of British Aristocracy. He has a home in rural Lincolnshire called Chesney Wold. His beautiful wife lives with him, and is the apex of the fashionable world. She hides a terrible secret -- before she met Sir Leicester she bore an illegitimate child with her lover…

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Posted By sandra g #226627 at Jan 24, 2012 7:55 PM

Why do some of Charles Dickens' works have no publishing dates.

I have The works of Charles Dickens (for forty years) in Thirty volumes, missing 6 and none have publishing dates.

Bleak House | Answers: 2

Posted By terrie a #171611 at Feb 28, 2011 9:56 PM

Could one compare Austen's Sense and Sensibility to Bleak House with regard to the decisions that young adults make based soley upon money and position of their respective societies?

The sisters in Austen's novel are waiting for some a possible husband to marry them so that they will have a "life". The male ward of Mr. Jarndyce seeks his and Ada's rightful inheritance in order to have their "life" determined without any thought of any type of employment. the money seems to be theonly goal of life for him.

Bleak House | Answers: 0

Posted By basit r #64261 at Sep 27, 2008 2:37 AM

relation b/w john jarndyce and tom jarndyce

hello everybody if u can solve this problem i will be obliged
it is posted here that tom jarndyce is the uncle of john jarndyce then is the chancery suit fought b/w them or when tom commits suicide john carries the case on for him? who is the other party in suit if they are relations ?
secondly dickens never told us the name of person who provides the final will and thus the case ends who is he?

Bleak House | Answers: 1