- Paperback: 1024 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classic; New edition edition (Sep 16 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140434968
- ISBN-13: 978-0140434965
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 640 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,919,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Bleak House is a satirical look at the Byzantine legal system in London as it consumes the minds and talents of the greedy and nearly destroys the lives of innocents--a contemporary tale indeed. Dickens's tale takes us from the foggy dank streets of London and the maze of the Inns of Court to the peaceful countryside of England. Likewise, the characters run from murderous villains to virtuous girls, from a devoted lover to a "fallen woman," all of whom are affected by a legal suit in which there will, of course, be no winner. The first-person narrative related by the orphan Esther is particularly sweet. The articulate reading by the acclaimed British actor Paul Scofield, whose distinctive broad English accent lends just the right degree of sonority and humor to the text, brings out the color in this classic social commentary disguised as a Victorian drama. However, to abridge Dickens is, well, a Dickensian task, the results of which make for a story in which the author's convoluted plot lines and twists of fate play out in what seems to be a fast-forward format. Listeners must pay close attention in order to keep up with the multiple narratives and cast of curious characters, including the memorable Inspector Bucket and Mr. Guppy. Fortunately, the publisher provides a partial list of characters on the inside jacket. (Running time: 3 hours; 2 cassettes)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Bleak House is such a natural for audio that it comes as no surprise to read in Peter Ackroyd's biography of Dickens that he himself read it aloud to Wilkie Collins and his own family. No matter how good he was as a readerAand he did go on to present public readings regularly after thisADickens could not have performed better than Robert Whitfield does here. With a motley cast of characters to challenge the skill of any narrator, his brilliant dramatizations range from a homeless street urchin to an arrogant barrister, from a canny old windbag to a high-minded heroine who deserves the happy ending Dickens affords her. Whitfield is also as persuasive as the indignant voice of the author himself, attacking both the injustice of the law and the cruel indifference of society. This may be one of the most Dickensian novels Dickens ever wrote. Highly recommended.AJo Carr, Sarasota, FL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
LONDON. MICHAELMAS TERM LATELY OVER, AND THE LORD Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
LONDON. MICHAELMAS TERM LATELY OVER, AND THE LORD Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dickens at his greatest.,
By Ken Greenwood (NELSON BC ( Canada)) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Penguin Classics Bleak House (Paperback)
Nothing in Dickens prepares us for the greatness of Bleak House, asserts Norrie Epstein in the superb Penguin book, The Friendly Dickens. I couldn't agree with Epstein more. That writer even goes on, amazingly, to describe this novel as "the jewel in the crown of 19th century English literature." Wow! I guess that's liking something!My own opinion is that, if Dickens had never written anything else, he would still have deserved his final resting place beneath the floor of Westminster Abbey. I returned to Dickens at a stage in my life when I have time now to do so, having read nothing by him since the three required novels of my high-school days. It's an understatement to say that I enjoyed it hugely. Bleak House, while not a very well-known Dickens novel, is frequently described as his greatest. Now in his early 40s, he seems to me to have reached the height of his creative genius, the peak of his writing and imaginative power. Time and again throughout Bleak House, I found myself stopping, backing up, and re-reading a sentence or a paragraph, and reveling in delight at the almost miraculous language, the imagery and the command and the brilliance of a first-class craftsman. In a book of almost 1000 pages, we meet a large number of characters, from the pathetic to the unbearable, to the elevated and the admirable. As elsewhere, Dickens has characters' names do much of his work for him--names such as Lady Dedlock, Mr Smallweed and Mr Krook are a treat. The Penguin Classics version I bought from Amazon is clean and readable, with notes at the back for difficult or unusual references. This edition includes the original 1852/53 sketches as illustrations throughout the text, and we are even shown where Dickens started and ended the installments to be mailed to those lucky subscribers each month. Pages of Dickens's working and planning notes are thrown in at the back for good measure. So read it and enjoy it; the 19th Century novel doesn't come any better than this--rank heresy, I know, from someone who grew up only two miles from Haworth Parsonage. As expected from Dickens, we are treated to a social and economic history lesson as part of the ride--again a treat for someone who specialized in economic history at the London School of Economics--in a novel apparently set in the late 1830s, and mostly in London (but only mostly). (If the book isn't enough for you, a DVD version of the Bleak House serial that has just run on BBC television in the UK will be available after Feb28/06 at an attractive Amazon price, and can be pre-ordered already--I know it because I've done it.)
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Be warned, you have to pay attention,
By
This review is from: Penguin Classics Bleak House (Paperback)
I loved this book, for the following reasons. First, in Dicken's usual fashion, he makes his characters memorable. There is no character that Dickens does not take the time to make an intricate work of art. The criticism that these characters are "stock" seems ridiculous to me, since very few authors could create "stock" characters as memorable and lively as what Dickens does.Secondly, this book has an amazingly intricate plot that Dickens somehow manages to keep under control. In some of Dickens' novels he loses control of the narrative and has to introduce last-minute characters and wildly hilarious coincidences in order to resolve the plot. Not the case here. Dickens does not have to resort to any desperate last-minute tricks to tie his plot strands together. However, there is so many plot strands to track, that if you read this book lazily, you will surely be lost already in the first 200 pages. So pay attention! Thirdly, Dickens' satire of the court of Chancery and human foibles in general remains timeless, as it is in most of his novels I have read. Even though this novel is firmly set in the 19th century, I found myself recognizing today's situations in it. Not so much has changed, after all. So why only four stars? Ultimately, I think Dickens could have served his purpose better with a less complex novel. Some of the stories which are told serve only as filler, and are a little tiring to work through. Also, sometimes Dickens' characters' behaviour is a little unbelievable, thinking especially of some characters' insane affection for one another. However, I highly recommend this book. Dickens' style takes some getting used to, but it's well worth the effort.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bleak Read!,
This review is from: Bleak House (Paperback)
I've read other Dickens novels and found them -- even with their inevitable digressions -- to hang together much better than this one. The introduction of comical but irrelevant characters really becomes wearing after a while. And Esther Summerson has got to be one of the sappiest characters of world literature. Although she narrates half the novel, she seems to have no desires of her own but has in mind only the welfare of everyone else. I think she must represent Dickens' ideal of what a Victorian woman should be: self-effacing, subservient, and endowed with endless patience.Your patience, though, will be sorely tested if you decide to wade through the novel's 850-some pages. However, the first chapter IS wonderful and worth reading if you read nothing else in this novel. His skewering of the legal system is priceless.
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