Finally Finished Bleak House, Whew!

The Bleak House Readalong
The Bleak House Readalong

It took me almost one and a half months to finally complete my reading of Bleak House. Really, it feels like such an accomplishment!

I would have ended up taking much more time, however thanks to the unexpected long weekend in India, and absolutely vegetating at home for almost 4 days helped me complete almost a quarter of this novel, and make up for my earlier slowness.

Anyway, in this post, I try to combine all the notes I made during my reading into one coherent post…

Unlike some other participants in the readalong, I had never seen any movies, or TV shows based on the book. So, I pretty much entered my reading blind so to speak. And, I think that’s what actually kept me going through these 900 odd pages – the need to know what was going to happen.

As I mentioned earlier, the courts of Chancery and the endless Jarndyce vs Jarndyce case set the scene for all the many characters to play out their lives. The main character (and one of the narrators) is Esther Summerson. Unfortunately, she is also one of the most boring people in the book. Her self-effacing nature and her goodness sometimes made me want to gag. Although she tries to come across as self-effacing, I found her constant rambling about how much people loved her quite nauseating. For all her humility, she does not hesitate to recount the many compliments that are paid to her.

Esther’s background is rather mysterious. By mysterious, it just means that nobody knows who exactly her parents are. In today’s day and age, such a plot device would seem very outdated. And when so much of this chunky book is devoted to this mystery, it did drag the book down a little. However, the other characters and story lines make up for this lack. Dickens has written this book in a typical soap-opera style – dragging things out just a bit longer, and just when you are starting to get restless, things happen! In fact, a lot of things happen in the second part of the book – spontaneous human combustions (something I heard of only after reading this book), murder, secret marriages, melodrama, wild-goose chase, and a final resolution of the wretched court case – it all happens at a breakneck speed (as compared to the snail’s pace of the 1st 300 pages or so). The second part of the book has hardly any superfluous writing…it is just plot, plot, and more plot…and I enjoyed quite a bit of it.

That said, there are some aspects of this book that fell flat for me. I found myself quite uncomfortable with his portrayal of women in the novel. Although, I have no sympathy with his characterization of Mrs.Jellyby (a woman who neglects her family because she is involved in charity work related to Africa), I did wonder if this was his thoughts/opinions on working women in general. His ideal woman seems to be one who is focussed on home and family, self-sacrificing, suffers without complaint the various injustices she has to face (think Ada). While it is nice for a woman to be all these things, I can imagine the toll it might take on her, and it makes me FURIOUS, MAD when men idealize such angelic women without acknowledging how much of herself she might be losing out in the process.

Another aspect I absolutely HATED SPOILER ALERT!!

Once Esther’s mother’s past is exposed, she runs away from home in the middle of winter snowstorm, and walks from London to Lincolnshire!! I am not sure about these distances, but surely that is not walkable – especially considering she is an aristocrat who is only used to pleasure walking. Then, she comes to visit her lover’s grave in London (still walking) – a man whom she had not seen in more than 20 years and then she proceeds to die there. Waves of melodrama leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Especially when her actions turn out to be totally meaningless. Her husband dotes on her, and is only too willing to forgive all her sins and take her back. I find it hard to condone such a cowardly act on her part. Such a foolish thing to run away causing so much harm to herself, her daughter, and the husband who adores her. I really did not have much patience with this part of the story. It’s so predictable, and so boring. Every classic book I read has the fallen woman committing suicide, or dying some miserable death. I hate that UGHH!!!

Other than that, overall I like the book, I like the perspectives that Dickens brings to Victorian England, and how he brings that period so remarkably to life. I also love his humane way of writing about the more unfortunate characters in his book. I plan to go back and refer my notes for my favorite quotes. I may even post them here 🙂

Thanks to Amanda of The Zen Leaf for conducting this readalong.

17 comments

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  1. Trish

    I so wanted to join this readalong but I’m *still* reading Brothers Karamazov (have your 1.5 months beat, for sure).

    Dickens doesn’t seem to write any of his women really favorably, does he? But I agree that he colors his characters so well–really breathes life into his London. Glad you mostly enjoyed this. Hopefully one day I’ll get to it!

    • Nish

      @Trish: If and when you do, I would love to read about it.

      And all the best with the Karamazovs, it is a hefty read!

  2. Vaishnavi

    Congratulations on finishing the challenge! I am daunted by the thought of Bleak House right now. Will try and read sometime next year though!

  3. The cost of enterprise mobility solutions

    Hearty congratulations to you,wishes for more achievements..

  4. Elizabeth

    Congrats dear…. You can now cut off another book from your currently reading list …sometimes doing just that is such a source of joy !!!

  5. Prema

    I have read many of Dickens’ books in the original version: David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Pickwick Papers, but I don’t think I’ll ever get to read this book. It takes a lot of patience to read such books in these times. Anyway, congratulations for completing Bleak House!

  6. tvnewssearch.com » Blog Archive » bleak house

    […] Finally Finished Bleak House, Whew! | Nishita's Rants and Raves It took me almost one and a half months to finally complete my reading of Bleak House. Really, it feels like such an accomplishment! I would have ended up taking much more time, however thanks to the unexpected long weekend in India, … Jan 01, 1970 12:00am […]

  7. Ava

    Dickens was the master of the serial-novel. It is the equivalent of Saas bhi kabhi something the, with the story long and rambling to suit the leisure reading of the people of that era. His characterisations are awesome, but need to be viewed in context of the period. We have to do the same with Jane Austen, I can’t stand Fanny Price, but we have to realise she was the ‘ideal’ of her time.

    It is hard to read Dickens in these modern, time chomping, mad times, but he is a master no doubt. Just read a couple of paragraphs and his writing just wows you.

  8. givingreadingachance

    I definitely hate that portrayal of woman… I am not any of that, and I am glad.
    i know I am not going to read this anytime soon 😉
    But you did great 🙂 Good work!

  9. Steph

    Congrats! I’m still a Dickens virgin with no plans to change that any time soon… I’m very impressed by your perseverance. You should certainly be proud!

  10. Amanda

    I finished Bleak House up about two weeks ago and I agree, some parts were good and others just fell flat. I hadn’t thought about Lady Dedlock and the walking though. You’re so right about that!

    I went into this book blind, b ut in all honesty, I wish I’d watched the BBC mini-series version of it, which is about 8 hours long and probably all the time I’d ever want to spend on this book. It was definitely not my favorite, and disappointed me a little because I’d heard it was Dickens’ best.

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