Some writers focus on writing their own stories, while others write…
In essence, some books narrate the experiences of one or a few individuals as they go through a specific series of events, while other writers describe the history of life and death of an entire civilisation. For example, one could categorise Charles Dickens‘s Bleak House as belonging to the second type of book, which takes a long time to read.
The first publication of Bleak House was made known between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853 at Bradbury & Evans, a publishing house based in England. The book was developed in 20 volumes, but the special thing about the last volume is that the 19th and 20th parts come together rather than separately as required for general publications.
As for the book printed in a paper format, it was released on 12 September 1853. An illustrator named Hablot Knight Browne (known by his pen name Phiz) provided illustrations to the book.
The story starts in foggy London with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case, which some have forgotten about after so long. Around this unending case, Dickens assembles different groups of people who suffer silently due to the institutions that were supposed to help them. The story introduces us to a diverse cast of characters, including orphaned children, wealthy individuals, lawyers, and even detectives.
The main character and narrator of the story is Esther Summerson, who tells the story from her perspective, thus transforming her own story into an extremely successful literary experiment. The juxtaposition of the heroine’s perspective with the omniscient narrator’s one brings about a very important effect: Esther gives warmth and intimacy to the story, while the outside narrator creates an impression of a broad picture of Victorian society.
Even so, Bleak House isn’t just about criticising the legal system. The work also examines various systems’ problems and explains how they harm people. From the grandeur of the estate of Chesney Wold to the despair and destitution of Tom-all-Alone, from luxurious drawing rooms to crowded streets, and from respectable appearances to hidden corruption, a transition from one profound subject to another is effortlessly implemented by Dickens.
All of the elements, including the curious death of a law writer, the investigation of this event, Esther’s mysterious birth, and the relations between the characters, denote a gradual transformation of a legal satire to something deeper, which includes a reflection about identity problems, poverty, secrets, and the unresponsiveness of institutions.
The set-up of the novel is one of the novel’s intriguing features. Fog in Bleak House is more than just weather; it’s a character. The cloud of fog separates wealth from poverty, good from evil and individual sufferings from public obligations.
Charles Dickens is very good at making the readers feel surprised. One disturbing event in the story is the tale of Krook. His unusual life does not fit the Victorian style and resembles the Gothic one. At the same time, Phiz’s illustrations show the fact that London itself is ill.
The book was a hit with the public, as the first issue sold completely on the first day, and subsequent ones have seen up to about 40,000 copies per issue sold. However, what guarantees the life of Bleak House is not the sales figures or its memorable characters, but rather the question posed by Dickens: What happens when the justice takes so long that the injustice becomes the system?
This question has a degree of relevance even today, more than 170 years later.
