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Bleak House
Dickens in general• When he was 12, his father was imprisoned for debt. • While his father was in prison, Dickens was sent to work
in a boot-blacking factory. • Even when his father came out of prison, Dickens'
mother made him continue working in the factory – for which he never forgave her.
• In 1830, he fell in love with Maria Beadnell, but she rejected him.
• In 1857, Dickens, now 45, fell in love with an actress – the 18-year-old Ellen Ternan – although he never dared tell the public about her.
• In 1858, Dickens set up his own weekly magazine – All Year Round. In 1860, sales were falling because the novel the magazine was running did not have enough action to keep people interested.
The origins of the book
• Published by the firm of Bradbury & Evans, the work first appeared monthly in twenty numbers.
• Written during the middle of his career as a novelist, Bleak House marks a turning point in Dickens' vision. While his earlier books are renowned for their ebullience and haphazard comedy, this work sees a shift to a more sombre tone.
• As always, Dickens is vehemently critical of social inequalities and is sympathetic to the plight of the poor. While the fog of the opening personifies the whole state of society as he sees it, his main target for satire is the Court of Chancery which in its outmoded and labyrinthine practices caused misery and ruin for thousands of its victims in the nineteenth century.
• The Court of Chancery deals with disputes over legacies, wills and trusts. By the 1840s its modus operandi had become a national scandal. Dickens had had first hand experience of the system in 1844.
• After his work, A Christmas Carol, appeared in a plagiarised edition, he was advised to seek legal redress. The subsequent proceeding involved him in no less than five Chancery suits; although he ultimately won his case, when the fraudulent publishers claimed bankruptcy, Dickens had to pay all the costs.
The literary contextBy 1860, although most people in Britain could read and write, books
were well beyond the income of ordinary people. Because of this, Dickens' novels were serialised.
Five main kinds of novel were popular in the mid-19th century. As befits a novel trying to win back readers, Dickens crammed elements of all of these genres of Victorian writing into one book:
• The 'Silver Fork' novel – stories about rich people fascinated poor people.
• The 'Newgate' novel – people were enthralled by stories about jail, crime, the criminal underworld and gruesome murders.
• The 'Gothic' novel – horror stories, such as Frankenstein, set in bleak locations or scary mansions.
• The ‘Romantic' novel – love stories such as Jane Eyre (especially where the lovers were socially mismatched).
• The 'Social-purpose' novel – stories such as Oliver Twist, written to bring social issues to the notice of the general public.
The style of writing Dickens was once a newspaper reporter; his descriptions show a wonderful eye
for detail. His stories often had to fill ten columns of All Year Round each week, for 36
weeks. Dickens’ style of writing therefore 'filled space', and included lots of repetition and long lists.
Dickens loved words, and liked to produce a 'pretty piece of writing' in different styles. He included lots of powerful adjectives, and is famous for his use of metaphors and similes. His descriptions often present people, their surroundings, and even the weather, in ways which reinforce each other, so that a certain 'feel' is built up through the passage.
From the early 1850s, Dickens gave public readings of his novels. His writing is rhythmic and designed to be read out loud. He loved to make young women in his audience laugh or weep, so many of his characters are either hilariously comic or heart-breakingly sentimental.
Dickens was a master of dialect and used what is called 'substandard' speech to add to the picture of a character he was building up.
Dickens is famous for his exaggeration, which critics have linked to his love of the stage.
The 19th-century social, historical and cultural setting
The key social and cultural influences of the time were: • Ambition
In 1859, Samuel Smiles published his book Self-Help, which told people that if they worked hard they could improve their station in life. The 19th century was the age of the 'self-made man'.
• Social classIn Victorian times, society was strictly layered – not only into rich and poor, or even upper, middle and lower class, but hundreds of 'grades'. People were expected to 'know their place', and the Church taught them to be content in their 'station'. Dickens did not like the effects of social class.
• Social problemsAt the time, many people were becoming aware of the need to improve the condition in which the poor found themselves. Dickens was a great supporter of social reform – especially in education and prisons.
• Church and religionIn Victorian times, Britain was overwhelmingly Christian. The Church dominated religion and the morals of the time. Dickens, however, disapproved of the power the Church had over people's lives.
• FamilyFamily was at the centre of Victorian society. People had large, extended families – although Dickens was aware that not all families were happy families.
Looking at the opening of Bleak House
Bleak House (1852-53) is a powerful critique of the legal system.
Characters waiting to gain their inheritance from a will which is the subject of a long-running court case are ruined when the delays and costs of the case swallow up the whole estate.
At the same time, Ester Summerson, one of Dickens' most saintly heroines, is surrounded by mystery regarding her parentage and pressure to marry a man she respects but does not love. Unraveling the mystery results in scandal and deaths.
Many memorable characters, including ace sleuth Inspector Bucket; Horace Skimpole a criminally irresponsible house guest; and Krook - the 'chancellor' of the rag and bone department, who dies from spontaneous combustion - something in which Dickens actually believed could happen.
Reading the text
Key Vocabulary
Michaelmas - The traditional name for the Christmas term at British Universities.
Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court. The Inns of Court are ancient unincorporated bodies of lawyers which for five centuries and more have had the power to call to the Bar those of their members who have duly qualified for the rank or degree of Barrister-at-Law. With the power of call goes a power to disbar or otherwise punish for misconduct, a power which has had to be exercised only infrequently.
Megalosaurus was the first ever recognised dinosaur
Temple Bar was one of the ancient gates of the City of London, at the western end where Fleet Street becomes the Strand. It is the ceremonial boundary where the Sovereign enters the City and is greeted by the Lord Mayor. For most of the last seven hundred years the Bar was an arched building across the street, and one of its uses was to display the heads of traitors.
The post of Lord Chancellor was one of the oldest in the British state, dating back perhaps 1,000 years. It is a peculiar one in that the Lord Chancellor was a member of the executive, judiciary and legislature. Historically he kept the Great Seal of England, which he used from the Chancery to issue all manner of Royal writs and proclamations (the Chancery became a corporate body in the reign of King Edward I).
Court of Chancery = A former court of equity in England and Wales, linked to the Lord Chancellor and merged with other courts in 1873.
