Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.

What is the first line of Bleak House?

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city.

What is the significance of the title Bleak House?

ABOUT THE TITLE Bleak House is named after the home of John Jarndyce, who takes in the orphans Richard Carstone and Ada Clare—two of the many heirs named in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce probate case—and hires Esther Summerson as Ada’s companion. Despite its name, the large house is warm and inviting.

Is Bleak House a true story?

At the centre of Bleak House is the long-running legal case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, inspired by a real-life Chancery case, which came about because someone wrote several conflicting wills, which than led to numerous family feuds, schemes and murder. Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English writer and social critic.

Is Bleak House a hard read?

Bleak House Its elaborate story is filled with plots and subplots aplenty, and revolves around a complicated and seemingly intractable court case – which can certainly prove dry reading for many who attempt to approach the gargantuan tome, clocking in at around 900 pages long.

What is Bleak House about?

Bleak House is the story of the Jarndyce family, who wait in vain to inherit money from a disputed fortune in the settlement of the extremely long-running lawsuit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.

How many words are in a Bleak House?

Charles Dickens’ longest book is Bleak House if you go by page number (928), David Copperfield if you go by word count (358,000).

Why did Charles Dickens write Bleak House?

Dickens felt the opposite. The world he created in Bleak House arose from his enmeshment in the city of London and his familiarity with the streets on which he walked as many as 20 miles a day. From its first word—“LONDON”—Bleak House announces itself as a study of contemporary urban life.

What is Bleak House based on?

Dickens locates the fictional Bleak House in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he wrote some of the book. An 18th-century house in Folly Lane, St Albans, has been identified as a possible inspiration for the titular house in the story since the time of the book’s publication and was known as Bleak House for many years.

Who actually is Nemo in Bleak House?

A shadowy figure; a law-writer, up to his eyes in debt and addicted to opium, who lodges with Mr Krook. His true identity is not known, but it’s clear to many that he is a gentleman who has fallen on hard times.

Did Charles Dickens go crazy writing a Christmas carol?

Charles Dickens suffered not only a personal-finance crisis but a creative one, as well, in the fall of 1843, when, in a sort of literary Hail Mary pass, he committed to writing a Christmas book in an impossible six weeks.

Why Is Bleak House so good?

Bleak House, in its atmosphere, symbolism and magnificent bleak comedy, is often regarded as the best of Dickens. A ‘great Victorian novel’, it is so inventive in its competing plots and styles that it eludes interpretation.

Is Bleak House boring?

But a few pages into Bleak House, we realized that not all the Great Books have aged well. Some are racist and some are sexist, but most are just really, really boring.

What happens to Mr Smallweed in Bleak House?

However, Mr. Smallweed’s obsessive greed backfires, and the documents are seized by the policeman, Mr. Bucket, who gives him only a tiny sum for the papers. The Bleak House quotes below are all either spoken by Mr. Smallweed or refer to Mr. Smallweed.

What did Mr Smallweed’s grandfather put away in his mind?

“Everything that Mr Smallweed’s grandfather ever put away in his mind was a grub at first, and is a grub at last. In all his life he has never bred a single butterfly.”

What kind of Man is Mr Smallweed?

Mr. Smallweed is an elderly miser, the husband of Mrs. Smallweed, and the grandfather of Bart Smallweed and Judy Smallweed. He is an invalid and is carried everywhere in a chair from his living room. He comes from a long line of men who worked as moneylenders and accountants and who were obsessed with wealth.

Why does the ex-soldier owe money to Mr Smallweed?

The ex-soldier, George, owes money to Mr. Smallweed for a loan on which he has paid back more than double in interest to the old man.