Bleak House - Charles Dickens - Book 11, Part 4

Bleak House - Charles Dickens - Book 11, Part 4

Title: Bleak House

Overview: Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by an omniscient narrator. At the center 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 claimed there were many actual precedents for his fictional case. One such was probably the Thellusson v Woodford case in which a will read in 1797 was contested and not determined until 1859. Though many in the legal profession criticized Dickens's satire as exaggerated, this novel helped support a judicial reform movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s. There is some debate among scholars as to when Bleak House is set. The English legal historian Sir William Holdsworth sets the action in 1827; however, reference to preparation for the building of a railway in Chapter LV suggests the 1830s.

Published: 1853

List: 100 Classic Book Collection

Author: Charles Dickens

Genre: Novel, Serial Novel, Social Criticism Novel, Novella, Bildungsroman, Fiction Novel

Episode: Bleak House - Charles Dickens - Book 11, Part 4

Part: 4 of 7

Length Part: 6:40:53

Book: 11

Length Book: 39:24:50

Episodes: 31 - 40 of 68

Narrator: Mil Nicholson

Language: English

Edition: Unabridged Audiobook

Keywords: determination, persistence, kindness, human spirit, morality play, perception, discovery, hope, betrayal, deceit, social classes, reconciliation, growth, change, social ascent, class structure, criminal justice, women status, first-person narrative, legal reform, court case, satire, justice

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