Cover of first serial, March 1852
Illustration from the New York Public Library Berg Collection
Author
Charles Dickens
Illustrator
Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
Cover artist
Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
Language
English
Genre
Novel
Published
Serialised 12 March 1852– 12 September 1853; book form 12 September 1853
Publisher
Bradbury & Evans
Publication place
England
Preceded by
David Copperfield
Followed by
A Child's History of England
Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853. The novel has many characters and several subplots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by an omniscient narrator. At the centre of Bleak House is a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which comes about because a testator has written several conflicting wills. In a preface to the 1853 first edition, Dickens said there were many actual precedents for his fictional case.[1] One such was probably Thellusson v Woodford, in which a will read in 1797[2] was contested and not determined until 1859. Though many in the legal profession criticised Dickens's satire as exaggerated, Bleak House helped support a judicial reform movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s.[3]
Some scholars debate when Bleak House is set. The English legal historian Sir William Holdsworth sets the action in 1827;[4] however, reference to preparation for the building of a railway in Chapter LV suggests the 1830s.
^Dickens, Charles (1868) [1852]. "Preface". Bleak House. New York: Hurd and Houghton. p. viii. ISBN 1-60329-013-3.
^Constantine, Alison. The Restoration of Brodsworth Hall & Gardens, February 2007 historical address, at Tickhill & District Local History Society
^Oldham, James. "A Profusion of Chancery Reform". Law and History Review.
^Holdsworth, William S. (1928). Charles Dickens as a Legal Historian. The Storrs Lectures. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. p. 79. OCLC 771451208.
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