Esther is the main character, since she narrates is the best argument, I suppose,. Well, for the sake of clarity, she is. The book is told by her and a third person narrator. The third person is very cynical and judgemental, the voice of Dickens, and the other is very innocent and well-meaning.
In London, the Chancery has had a case called Jarndyce and Jarndyce going on for over 70 years. It rules the book mostly, since it sucks everyone into it's influence. The case makes no sense, but there's a fortune to be one. It doesn't help that everyone in the court is useless though. There are two people always at court: a mad old woman (Later to be known as Miss Flite) who nobody cares about but can be seen with a bunch of documents; and Mr. Gridley, who is always very angry because of what Chancery has done to his life by his obsession with it, but to everyone else, he is entertainment only. The judge is very lazy and doesn't do anything. There are two wards of Jarndyce (to be known as Ada and Richard) who are involved with the case and are orphans, and also are cousins of Mr. Jarndyce. They are to come under his responsibility.
Esther's childhood is terrible. She doesn't know her parents at all, and is raised by her godmother. She says the godmother is nice, but that seems only to be because she is very religious. She is actually very cold, raises Esther in complete secrecy, and thus, lonely misery. Her best friend is a doll, and it's all very pathetic. A mysterious man (Mr. Kenge) comes once to examine Esther, and then, after her godmother has a fit, reciting lines from the Bible to wait for the second coming, she dies, and Mr. Kenge returns. He reveals that the godmother is her aunt and that she is to go to Greenleaf school to learn to be a governess, funded by Mr. JArndyce. Her caregiver, Ms. Rachel, feels no sadness in the parting, and from this, Esther resolves to be as good as possible so as to win love someday. After being in Greenleaf a while, she has to leave at Mr. Jarndyce's wish. The parting is sad for the children loved her. She gets to Chancery, meets the Chancellor, and is told she'll go to Mr. Jarndyce's place: Bleak House, with Ada and Richard, distant cousins. She immediately hits it off with Ada, who is absolutely beautiful and three years younger than her (20 now) and Richard is 19. No one knows who Jarndyce is.
Before going to Bleak House, they go to Mrs. Jellyby's at Jarndyce's wish, because Bleak House is far. Mrs. Jellyby is apparently an amazing hard-working philanthropist (a huge theme in this book) who does a lot for the made-up (by Dickens) country in Africa. However, the three younguns find that she completely neglects her house and is absolutely indifferent of her many children, uses her oldest daughter Cady as a writer, and is doing really superfluous stuff in Africa. Her husband hardly talks and seems eternally depressed by the war zone of a house. Esther quickly befriends Cady as Cady comes to see her miserable.
When they get to Bleak House, JArndyce is super affectionate, immediately likeable, and a bit too well-meaning, but wonderful generally. They quickly discover that he can't stand being thanked. Esther becomes housekeeper, which is a huge honour and she feels as though she belongs. They meet Harold Skimpole, a freeloader of Jardyce's who poses at being a man-child that doesn't understand money and responsibility. He asks Richard and Esther to lend him money to settle the debt he owes, collected by Mr. Coavinses. They help but Jarndyce settles it later. Esther quickly realises that Richard does not actually have a sensible understanding of money. Esther is told to call Jarndyce Guardian. She is called little woman, old woman, Dame Durden, and a multitude of other things.
This goes thus well for a while and nothing really happens except that Ada and Richard quickly fall in love. They visit Cady occasionally, which is nice, and other philanthropists who are also terrible domineering women doing no good in sacrifice for their families. This leads them to meet Jenny and Liz, some Brickmaker's wives. Jenny's baby had just died and Liz is very affectionate and helpful. Both are beaten by their husbands and living in extreme poverty. Esther leaves her handkerchief to cover the dead baby. The gang also, in a similar way, meet Miss Flite (Ada, Richard Esther Cady) and go to her apartment. She is very polite towards Ada and Richard, who she calls the Wards of Chancery, and to everything in general. She believes that the judgement of the case J&J will come simultaneously with the Last Judgement. In her apartment building, they meet Krook, a store-owner, in the bottom floor who is illiterate and a hoarder, but can only write the words Jarndyce & J and Bleak House. On the second floor, they are told a copier lives, and on the third, they see Miss Flite's poor bare room and cage of birds to be finally released onthe day of judgement. These birds are named things like Life and Hope and YOuth, things caged in by the Chancery. Many birds have died waiting to be released. They leave her money. Finally, a clerk called Mr. Guppy at one point asks Esther, out of the blue, to marry her, and then stalks her with puppy-dog pity expressions. It's very weird.
Meanwhile, nothing goes on with the case but we learn that the rich baronet Sir Leicester Dedlock and his wide Lady Dedlock are involved in J&J. Mr. Tulkinghorn is their lawyer and he is a very one-missioned, determined, intelligent man awith no emotions. He knows all the family secrets and regularly waltzes into their mansion to report things. Lady Dedlock is perpetually bored, being the highed of fashion in London but having nothing to interest her. Until one day, she exciedly asks of the handwriting on a paper of Tulkinghorn's, which she recognisess. Tulkinghorn investigates secretly by asking Mr. Snagsby, who works as a law stationer cross from Krook. Mr. Snagbsy is a very good person, nervous, soft-spoken, and kind. His wife is a jealous, less intelligent type. He directs Tulkinghorn to the copier with the handwriting to match Tulkinghorn's inquiry. The copier is the guy on the second floor of Krooks. He is found dead, overdosed on opium.
The copier is named Nemo, meaning no one in Latin. Miss Flite is sent to get a doctor. She gets two, one who confirms death and leaves immediately, and another who investigates, comforts, instructs, and takes care of traumatised Miss Flite afterwards. An inquest is held to identify Nemo, but there is no one but a street boy named Jo, who sweeps crap off the road for tips. He doesn't speakk well and doesn't understand fully christianity, which is enough reason for the Chancellor to disconsider him, so Nemo is dumped in a very poor cemetery, only a foot from the ground. Jo is a heartbreaking character as he comments softly on how only Nemo was good to him, and he sweeps he step leading to the graveyard often. At the inquest, mr. Snagsby pities him and gives him a half-crown, secretly.
Back at Bleak House, Ada and Richard have become engaged. They star to try to find jobs for Richard but whatever he tries fails because he hasn't a mind for work. The kind doctor turns out to be Mr. Woodcourt and comes over often. His mother is annoying. She only speaks of status and how her son cannot marry beneath him. Mr. Woodcourt is lovely, as Esther thinks also. The gang already met Mr. Boythorn, who visited Bleak House, neighbor of the Dedlocks and old friend of Jarndyce. He is very nice, funny, and owns an adorable bird. He mysteriously was detained from being married a long while back.
Back with the Dedlocks, they move occasionaly to stay boredom but are rather uneventful. Lady Dedlock gets close to her very loyal housekeeper Mrs. Rouncewell's apprentice, Rosa. Rosa is very pretty, and though Lady D is usually cold, she is motherly to Rosa. She finds that Rosa is in love with Walt, who is Mrs. ROuncewell's godson. Mrs. Rouncewell has two sons, one who disappeared in war and another who is very successful upstairs in the iron business and is called the Ironmaster. Sir Dedlock tends to be described very sarcastically about how posh he is. Mr. Tulkinghorn, on the other hand stays very active. He is always working in his office with a paining on the ceiling of a Roman guy pointing a finger downwards. May be the third person narrator, may be accusatory, may be Dickens, may be Tulkinghorn.
Jo, meanwhile in his miserable lifestyle, goes on knowing nothing about anything. He is visited by a mysterious woman in a black gown and veil. She asks him to take him to where Nemo lived and where he is buried, which Jo does. She gives him a sovereign (huge) with a small, white, bejewelled hand. Most of this is stolen away though, because with the little money he earns every day, Jo pays the meagre rent at Tom-all-alone's the slums. Being a godforsaken slum, most of what he earns is gone quickly.
On visiting Cady next, Esther finds that she is helping Miss Flite a lot so as to learn how to keep house. She's engaged! We find out later that this is to Prince Turvydrop, names so by Mr. Turvydrop, who is respectable only because of his very magnificent deportment, whilst he actually depends entirely on his son financially, as he did on his wife until she worked herself to death. Prince is a very good hard-working dance-instructor and in love with Cady.
Skimpole announces that his nemesis Coanvinses has died. Hooray! Well, no. Coavinses was just doing his debt collecting job and had three children to support and was a widower. So hearing this, Jardnyce sets off with Esther to check how the kids are. They're doing terribly, though all cheerful, disgustingly mature, and surviving. Charley (13) is the oldest and goes about working as a laundress to support Tom and Emma, the baby. They are disliked by many because of their father's job, but are taken pity on by others, like their landlady and Mr. Gridley. They meet Mr. Gridley here, who goes into a rage about chancery , and then after that's done with, kindly invites the kids to have ginger cookies at his place and we immediately like him. Jarndyce starts supporting them.
Also an issue at Bleak House is that first Richard quit being a doctor, then quick being a lawyer, and now is in the army, having bought a commission. He seems in danger of never settling down with a job, but instead, getting obsessed with Chancery and ruining his life. The Chancery is like the casino. There is no chance of winning but you believe in it enough that you let it drain you of everything whilst you insist on loving gambling. For these reasons, Jarndyce advises Richard and Ada to break off the engagement for now. They do, but they are clearly still in love.
Jo gets bullied by a sheriff to move on. Then, a sheriff could just pick any homeless guy, say he's dangerous, and say move on, though Jo has no where to move on to. This is when the Snagsbys were waiting for the Chadbands to come for tea. Mr. Chadband is a self-proclaimed preacher that is absolutely idiotic but people, like Mrs. Chadband and Mrs. Snagsby are fooled to admire him by his grand way of speaking. They show up, and the Jo commotion happens right outside so they come in and Snagsby says that Jo isn't dangerous. The officer said he found a bunch of money on Jo that a guy like him shouldn't have unless he's a criminal. Jo explains the veiled woman story, and seems so miserable now that it ever happened. No one seems to believe him, and Mrs. Snagsby, a normal, cold, Dickensian Londoner, tries to kick him out. Guppy enters, who heard the commotion, and the officer leaves Jo with Guppy, who hears the veil story and then, upon saying he works for Kenge (law firm) Mrs. Chadband says she knows him. Turns out Mrs. Chadband is Mrs. Rachel Chadband, former cold governess of Esther who raised her in isolation. Guppy is astounded and all the closer to the Lady Dedlock mystery. meanwhile Jo is subjected to Chadband's terrible speech, made to promise to return, and then leaves with whatever food Snagsby managed to sneak to him. The maid Guster (suffers from epilepsy) pities him.
Mr. Guppy looks into the Dedlock case and meanwhile is visited by his friend Tony who just got fired for stealing, so he sets him up with Nemo's old job, living where Nemo lived. To escape the consequences of stealing, he takes on the name of Mr. Weavle. He immediately befriends Krook and we find out that there's a rumour that Krook is actually incredibly rich and has no one to bequeath it to, so Weavle may get it. When the two visit Nemo's place, he sees a portrait of the famous Lady Dedlock hanging in Nemo's room. This gives him a jolt and he is the first to realise that Lady Dedlock looks like his beloved Esther. He starts enquiring about her and shows that he knows that Esther's real last name is Hawdon and that they look alike and that Nemo's real name was Hawdon and that he has some of Hawdon's letters if she'd like them. She says yes, Tulkinghorn walks in and is as suspicious as ever. Guppy goes to Nemos to pick them up. He doesn't actually have them, but Weavle is supposed to get them from Krook that night. However, when they go downstairs, at midnight, they find that he's not there but the whole place is oily. Then they see Krook;s evil cat eating his carcass. He died of spontaneous human combustion.
The Bleak House folks go to vacation at Boythorn's place, which is very fun, and a strange thing happens. When visiting him, they met Miss Dedlock in a rainy place, an Esther finds her very intimidating for some unknown reason, and who brought old memories to mind, like the face of her aunt, who looks like Lady Dedlock. Lady D treats Ada and Esther like children and is friendly with Jarndyce, though it seems he was closer to her sister. When Lady D's ordered ride comes, Hortense (her tempered French maid) and Rosa (her lovely sorta adopted girl) come out. She sent for the usual maid and they didn't know which. It was Rosa and the Rosa and Lady D leave in the two-person carriage and Hortense, enraged, takes off her shoes and stalks off in the rain, at which everyone is at a loss for words. Hortense is fired and enraged, comes to Esther's at one point to aggressively beg for work, and is extremely enraged constantly, especially when Esther refuses.
Tulkinghorn, always suspicious with Lady D and how her secret may harm Sir D, continues investigations. He has Jo brought in, as the only person who knew Hawdon, and he uses a Detective Bucket to find Jo. Bucket is very skilled and intelligent, but through his work, we see that he is a pretty decent, emotionally intelligent guy too. Bucket gets Snagsby to help him find Jo (street name Toughey) at Tome-all-alone's. Finally they find Jenny and Liz, the brickmaker's wives. We see Jenny holding a baby. It's Liz's but she thinks of him as her own, and she says that Jo went out to get medicine for Liz, who is sick. So they catch Jo, bring him to Tulkinghorn's and there reveal a veiled gowned woman. Jo freaks out and says it's the veiled woman, the exact clothing, but on seeing her hands, sees that it isn't actually her. Tulkinghorn deduces from this that the veiled woman (who is currently Hortense) is actually Lady D in Hortense's clothes. Jo is very worries by all this, insists that he'd rather be left alone, and he gets more money, which really doesn't compensate for all the trauma. Snagsby feels guilty for no reason, since all this is so suspicious, and he so unaware, and he becomes very paranoid.
We meet Mr. George, who was in the army, is handsome, and is always army-ish in a good way. He has a long debt from Mr. Smallweed, a bitter old man who hates everyone and is paralysed from waist-down. We find that his house of weird and bitter people uses and extorts Charley, the Coavinses girl. George, who runs a somewhat failed shooting range, comes to Smallweed on paying day to pay interest, on which day they smoke together. Mr. George is a very principled person and is generally very good. We see that with his friendship with his assistant in the shooting range, Phil. Phil is deformed and probably wouldn't have found a life anywhere else. Because he knows Richard, since as part of his army training he goes to the shooting range, Mr. George later comes to Bleak House, as most characters tend to, and is taken aback by the sight of Esther, who reminds him of someone.
As it's Richards last day before army stuff, Esther and he go to Chancery to see the J&J case that Richard is by now stupidly certain will make him and Ada rich soon. Esther is shocked at how nothing gets done and Richard looks really worn out but insists that he believes everything will be fine. At court, they meet Mr. George, who is psyched to see them and asks if they know Miss Flite. They introduce her and he takes them all to his shooting range because Gridley, who he'd been housing, is there dying of illness (caused by stress with J&J) and needs to see Miss Flite. When they get there, a really nice doctor is waiting outside, but once they're in, turns out to be Bucket. He'd been looking for him concerning debts, but is again very decent about it all. Jarndyce shows up since Esther left a note, and they all watch Gridley die, Bucket encouraging him to live, and miss Flite holding his hand. Miss Flite and Gridley are very alike in their craziness from the J&J and he says she is his last friend, and dies.
This is what happens a bit later with Mr, George. He is friends with the Bagnet family, who is the only perfect family in the book, with a strong, kind, good wife, a loving husband, though somewhat shy, and three adorable children. they run a music shop, to which George goes regularly. Going on with the George story, though it comes in intervals, he gets called in by Tulkinghorn concerning a sample of the handwriting of his old Captain Hawdon. George says Hawdon's dead and wouldn't give the sample anyways since Tulkinghorn refuses to explain why he wants it. We are very proud of George's principles. Thus very sad when he has to fold them because he is manipulated by Tulkinghorn. Tulkinghorn is in alliance with Smallweed and they send George an out-of-the-blue notice that he expects all payment for the next day, which George can't do. As it's paying day tomorrow, the Bagnets come to cosign the loan, and George is faced to tell them that as he cannot pay, they'll be hounded for all they have now. This, George can't allow, so he and Mr. Bagnet go to Smallweed's to beg, and are directed to Tulkinghorn's next. There they meet Mrs. Rouncewell, who salutes them and talks of her military son. George is very awkward. At Tulkinghorn's he trades hawdon's letters for an extension and the promise of Bagnet immunity. He is very aware of the painting above him. That night, he goes to the Bagnets very depressed and speaks to the son of never worrying his mother, as George had done to his, and how that is the most important thing.
Richard is by this point lost to J&J, obsessed with it, though still in the army. He is in debt because he spends all his money dealing with the case through the evil lawyer Mr. Vholes, who is sponging him. Also, Skimpole is sponging off Richard, making Jarndyce cut him off. Vholes turned Richard against Jarndyce and there is nothing anyone can do. Mr. Woodcourt goes abroad because he is poor from helping all the poor people and finds a job as a sea doctor. Before leaving, he gives Esther flowers, which she dries and saves. They're in love, obviously.
Charley was given to Esther as a maid by Jarndyce, which is great, and they become best buds. Charley tells Esther about her friend Jenny needing Esther's help. Esther goes with Charley to Tom-all-alone's to find Jo sick, being nursed by Liz and Jenny, as he helped them before. Jo freaks and is scared of Esther because she wears a veil. He realises she's different but is delusional from illness. The brickmakers are coming home, so they need everyone out, and Esther and Charley take Jo to Bleak House. He is very weak. They keep him in the outside cottage, not understanding germ theory yet, after some opposition from Skimpole. When they check the next morning, he is gone. However, Charley has gotten the disease (I think smallpox, since it's disfiguring)and Esther nurses her in isolation. Charley gets better, but then Esther gets sick and asks Charley to nurse her in isolation. Esther goes blind for a bit but gets eventually all better, except that when she wakes there are no mirrors in the room and Charley weeps. Turns out her face is disfigured and she's lost all her beauty. Drat. Esther pulls herself together and everyone is just so happy she's fine.
When she wakes, she goes to Boythorns for a while with Charley to fully recover. It's nice there and she grows confident, but she meets Lady D, who knew of her illness and was awaiting until recovery to meet her. She, since Guppy's revelation had known that Esther is her daughter, who she thought was stillborn, but that her sister raised Esther in isolation to save her image, as it was out of wedlock with Hawdon. We find out that Esther's aunt, then, is Lady D's sister. She tells Esther everything and Esther has forgiven her, and says to Lady D that she'll keep the secret for her sake. Esther is now an illegitimate child. Lady D says they shall never meet again.
Meanwhile, (There's ALOT of meanwhile in all Dickens) Lady D is very attached and motherly to Rosa but Mr. Rouncewell, the one in the north 'The Ironmaster', comes and says that as his son Watt is in love with Rosa, he wants to let him marry her. However, that would require her getting an education, which means leaving Lady D. Sir D is offended that Mr. R think so low of their influence, and Lady D won't part with Rosa.
Esther comes back to Bleak House and doesn't tell anyone, though she eventually tells her Guardian. She takes the measure to go with Charley to see Guppy, since Guppy said he'd be looking in on her, and to confirm that he stop. He says alright, and seeing her face, ungraciously confirms that any form of engagement between them is dissolved. Jarndyce also proposes to her, as he says he'd wanted to do for so long, and she says yes, but it's weird in the sense that she has always thought of him as her father, and can't say no because she owes him so much.
She finds out how bad Richard's gotten and she goes to visit him at military place. He's planning on selling his commission to finance J&J. She tries to stop him and convince him or Jarndyce's goodness, but it doesn't work. Richard is in a terrible state mentally, bodily, financially. Ada has become the only good thing about him and he is failing her. When there, she runs into Woodcourt at the bay, returned from sea. She finds earlier, from Miss Flite, that he had become a hero because there was a ship wreck and he saved a lot of people and was very decent. Everyone' proud. He is no richer though. Woodcourt is sorry for her face and saddened, at which Esther is glad because it squashes any chance that he and she can ever have anything. She had already burnt his flowers. Woodcourt is very nice and happy to see her though, and at her wish, promises to befriend Richard, which he does loyally.
Esther only tells Ada about her engagement to Jarndyce, and finds her troubled. It's not because of the engagement though. Esther visits Richard again, and he is now living greatly in debt near Vholes, miserably and she finds that he and Ada had secretly marries and she had given all her inheritance to him. Richard is hopeless and Esther leaves Ada, sad though. Ada is to Esther as Rosa is to Lady D. Jarndyce is worried. Luckily, Woodcoourt seems to be the couple's only solace and Esther and Woodcourt visit them very often.
Meanwhile, Tulkinghorn had cracked the Lady D secret and told her he knows. Lady D had Esther with Captain Hawdon out of wedlock. Esther was raised in secret by Lady D's sister, and Captain Hawdon was said to have died, but obviously hadn't until the discovery of him at Krook's. Tulkinghorn says he'll tell Sir D when he wishes. Lady D is prepared to leave, but is told to stay as if nothing changed.
Meanwhile, Woodcourt walks about Tom-all-alone's at night, looking for people to save. He helps Jenny, who was beaten by her husband, and when leaving, passes Jo. Jenny yells Stop him! and Woodcourt, assuming he'd robbed her, chases and catches him. He recognises Jo from the inquisition, and JO is in a terrible state of agony, living in the street fearing always that Bucket is around the corner. Turns out that he was taken from the cottage that day at Bleak House and told to stay out of London. Jenny tells Jo what happened to Esther's face and Jo is very sad and remorseful. Woodcourt can hardly stomache it, but grows compassionate and gets Jo on his feet and through Miss Flite, to George's George houses Jo because Esther had liked Jo, and there Jo continues his illness. He tells of the veil again and again, still traumatised, and meets Snagsby as a sort of confessional, during which sentimental Snagsby gives him two crowns. Jo asks Snagsby to make his will, which should say in really big letters, that he is extremely sad to have caused Esther pain. Esther meets him too and is only smiles. When almost dead, Woodcourt is at his bed-side through the scene that made me sob. Near the end, Jo says he's moving on to the burying ground, the poor one, near Nemo. He teaches Jo the Our father, his first ever prayer, and Jo dies mid-prayer.
Meanwhile, Cady had gotten married and now has a kid named Esther who is very weak. She works hard and is happy to make a home for her father and siblings, husband and daughter. Woodcourt helps her through the post-birthing illness.
Lady D dismisses Rosa to try to spare her the shame of being employed by Lady D, the sinful woman. Tulkinghorn, angry at her being conspicuous, though it seems he's just looking for an excuse, announces that he will tell Sir D everything. That night, gunshots are heard, and next morning he is found dead beneath the pointing painting. George, who is a the Bagnet's for Mrs. Bagnet's birthday party, after a wonderfully nice scene, is interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Bucket who becomes the life of the party. George and Bucket leave together, and Bucket arrests him because he is suspected of the murder, as George had been going to Tulkinghorn and yelling at him all the time about his debt. This is done decently of course. The gang try to get him out of prison but he refuses to get a lawyer. At court, he realises that Lady D was outside Tulkinghorn's when he was that night of murder because he associates Esther's silhouette with Lady D's, and seeing Esther at prison, remembers. Esther is afraid her mom will be suspected.
Mrs. Bagnet comes up with a plan to go find George's mother, who through a lot of stuff, she has deduced to be Mrs. Rouncewell. She goes off to get her, and when she comes, George agrees to get a lawyer and we find that he thought he was terrible because he didn't live up to his own dreams and was unsuccessful whilst his brother was Ironmaster, an so out of pride, had ended contact with her. She loves him dearly. Awww. Anyways, George is released though because Bucket found the real murderer.
He had been working out of the Dedlock house and had been intercepting letters accusing Lady D of murder. She was there that night, as confirmed by porters, but after some work with his amateur detective wife, at Tulkinghorn's funeral (where no one shows up but where he gets suspicious of Hortense by a certain look) he and his wife wait for her to incriminate herself, which she does a lot. They find her writing the accusing letters, find the gun she threw in a lake, and other things. When decently and gently revealing this to Sir D, Bucket is interrupted by Mrs. Snagsby, Mr. Chadband and Mr. Smallweed who had been investigating and suspecting Lady D. Bucket shoos them and says it was Hortense and she's arrested. However, earlier, Mrs. Rouncewell got Hortenses accusatory letter and asked Lady D to confess for George's sake. Thinking all will be revealed, as it was, Lady D leaves what seems to be a suicide note, and goes off on foot. Sir D forgives her everything and clearly loves her. He sends Bucket off in search to save her, but then has a stroke and is sick in bed. He stays so a while and is taken care of by George and his mother.
By the way, George goes up north to meet his brother. It goes really well. Yeah!!
Bucket gets Esther because she's the daughter and so may help in stopping Lady D from being rash when they find her. They trace her north, and when they get to Jenny's they go farther north because they said she did, and Lady D had Jenny go back to London, for some reason. They go north, lose the track, and Bucket has a revelation and races back to London. He traces her to Snagsby's and Guster, who is mid-epileptic shock, had gotten a letter from her about her travels, that she wanted to be sent to Esther. When walking to Snagsby's, Esther and Bucket meet Woodcourt, who stays with them and is a great comfort to Estehr. Guster reveals that she gave Lady D directions to the burying ground where Hawdon is. They go, and there find jenny on the step. Esther is restrained and Bucket gently tries to explain that Jenny and Lady D switched clothing, Jenny went north and then back home, whilst Lady D, dressed as Jenny, went back to London. This means nothing to he delirious Esther though, who goes to jenny and finds Lady D dead. She cries and Woodcourt comforts, and then in narration, Esther skips forward.
Mrs. Woodcourt had been staying at Bleak House a while. Woodcourt got a job in York in months. He isn't going back abroad, which makes Esther happy. He's as good to Richard as ever. Ada's pregnant. Oh no.
A development in J&J!!! Bucket runs into Bleak House with a document he'd seized from Smallweed, that he'd found at Krook's. The document is a will that outdates all other wills, making everything much clearer and leaving most the estate to Richard and Ada. As this is being processed Esther starts planning the wedding to Jarndyce, which will be in a month. He still isn't calling her his wife though, but just the mistress of Bleak House. On day, on the way back from Ada and Richard's Jarndyce doesn't show up to pick Esther up, so Woodcourt and Esther walk alone for the first time. At their residence in London, Woodcourt confesses his love to Esher, and she starts crying because she's happy, an sad that she can't return the love due to engagement. They decide to be friends an Woodcourt says he'll love her forever.
She pushes onwards but then Jarndyce takes her to the house he'd bought and made up in the style of Esther for Woodcourt. Esther loves it. Jarndyce calls it Bleak House. He then explains that he'd been selfish in asking her to marry him, since she had no choice. He says he loves her and knows she loves him, and knows he could make her happy, but can't go trhough with it if he so clearly sees that someone else could make her happier. So he dissolves the engagement and reveals that he'd been planning her and Woodcourt, and invited his mother to stay so she could get over her marrying upwards thing and grow to love Esther as all do. She did, and approves, and crying, Esther thanks Jarndyce, gets engaged to Woodcourt, marries him in a month, and becomes mistress of this new Bleak House.
However, when passing court together, they find out that J&J had ended, not because of the will, but because the entire sum of the estate had now been spent on court costs and there is nothing left to win. They immediately get Richard, go to Richard and Ada's house, and help him. Jarndyce shows up and Richard apologises and acknowledges that Jarndyce is an amazingly good person. Ada weeps and forgives him everything and prepared to star up again, Richard says he'll begin the world and dies.
The book ends with a seven years later. Esther and Woodcourt have two daughters. Cady's husband Prince is now lame so she works for him, but happily. Her daughter is deaf and dumb but she is an excellent mother. Ada gave birth and returned to Jarndyce. Her son is named Richard and he is lovely. In Bleak House, the new one, there is a room just for Jarndyce to stay at.
Read, folks. Read.
Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes - gone into mourning, one might imagine, or the death of the sun. (1)
Some say she really is, or was, a party of a suit; but no one knows for certain, because no one cares. (1)
He is an honourable, obstinate, truthful, high-spirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly unreasonable man. (2)
Submission, self-denial, diligent work, are the preparations for a life begun with such a shadow on it. (3)
'Watch ye therefore! lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch! (3)
while a milkman and a beadle, with the kindest intention possible, were endeavouring to drag him back by the legs, under a general impression that his skull was compressible by those means. (4)
'I wish I was dead!' she broke out. 'I wish we were all dead. It would be a great deal better for us.' (4) Cady
'"For," says he, "It's being ground to bits in a slow mill; it's being roasted at a slow fire; it's being stung to death by single bees; it's being drowned by drops; it's going mad by grains."' (5) Krook
'My head ached with wondering how it happened, if men were neither fools nor rascals; and my heart ached to think they could possibly be either.' (5) richard
'The wind's in the east.' (6) Jarndyce
'It is said that the children of the poor are not brought up, but dragged up.' (6) Jarndyce
'With that golden hair, those blue eyes, and that fresh bloom on her cheek, she is like the summer morning. he birds here will mistake her for it. We will not call such a lovely creature as that, who is a joy to all mankind, an orphan. She is the child of the universe.' (6) Skimpole
'It should be strewn with roses; it should lie through bowers, where there was no spring, autumn, nor winter, but perpetual summer. Age or change should never with it. The base word money should never be breathed near it!' (6) Skimpole
I thought it very touching to see these two women, coarse and shabby and beaten, so united; to see what they could be to one another; to see how they felt for one another; how the heart of each to each was softened by the hard trials of their lives. I think the best side of such people is almost hidden from us. What the poor are to the poor is little known, excepting to themselves and God. (8)
With houses looking on, on every side, save where a reeking little tunnel of a court gives access to the iron gate — with every villainy of life in action close on death, and every poisonous element of death in action close on life — here, they lower our dear brother down a foot or two: here, sow him in corruption, to be raised in corruption: an avenging ghost at many a sick-bedside: a shameful testimony to future ages, how civilization and barbarism walked this boastful island together.
Come night, come darkness, for you cannot come too soon, or stay too long, by such a place as this! Come, straggling lights into the windows of the ugly houses; and you who do iniquity therein, do it at least with this dread scene shut out! Come, flame of gas, burning so sullenly above the iron gate, on which the poisoned air deposits its witch-ointment slimy to the touch! It is well that you should call to every passer-by, “Look here!” With the night, comes a slouching figure through the tunnel-court, to the outside of the iron gate. It holds the gate with its hands, and looks in between the bars; stands looking in, for a little while. It then, with an old broom it carries, softly sweeps the step, and makes the archway clean. It does so, very busily and trimly; looks in again, a little while; and so departs. Jo, is it thou? Well, well! Though a rejected witness, who “can’t exactly say” what will be done to him in greater hands than men’s, thou art not quite in outer darkness. There is something like a distant ray of light in thy muttered reason for this: “He wos wery good to me, he wos!” (11)
Sir Leicester is generally in a complacent state, and rarely bored. When he has nothing else to do, he can always contemplate his own greatness. It is a considerable advantage to a man, to have so inexhaustible a subject. (12) 'Hope, Joy, Youth, Peace, Rest, Life, Dust, Ashes, Waste, Want, Ruin, Despair, Madness, Death, Cunning, Folly, Words, Wigs, Rags, Sheepskin, Plunder, Precedent, Jargon, Gammon, and Spinach.' (14) Krook
Jo lives - that is to say, Jo has not yet died - in a ruinous place (16)
“It may seem strange to you, sir,” returned Gridley; “I should not have liked to see you, if this had been the first time of our meeting. But, you know I made a fight for it, you know I stood up with my single hand against them all, you know I told them the truth to the last, and told them what they were, and what they had done to me; so I don’t mind your seeing me, this wreck.” (24)
“This ends it. Of all my old associations, of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this one poor soul alone comes natural to me, and I am fit for. There is a tie of many suffering years between us two, and it is the only tie I ever had on earth that Chancery has not broken.” “Accept my blessing, Gridley,” said Miss Flite, in tears. “Accept my blessing!” “I thought, boastfully, that they never could break my heart, Mr Jarndyce. I was resolved that they should not. I did believe that I could, and would, charge them with being the mockery they were, until I died of some bodily disorder. But I am worn out. How long I have been wearing out, I don’t know; I seemed to break down in an hour. I hope they may never come to hear of it. I hope everybody, here, will lead them to believe that I died defying them, consistently and perseveringly, as I did through so many years.” (24)
They said there could be no East wind where Somebody was; they said that wherever Dame Durden went, there was sunshine and summer air. (30)
“They dies everywheres,” said the boy. “They dies in their lodgings — she knows where; I showed her — and they dies down in Tom-all-Alone’s in heaps. They dies more than they lives, according to what I see.” Then he hoarsely whispered Charley, “If she ain’t the t’other one, she ain’t the forrenner. Is there three of ’em then?” (31) Jo
“See there, my boy,” says George, very gently smoothing the mother’s hair with his hand, “there’s a good loving forehead for you! All bright with love of you, my boy. A little touched by the sun and the weather through following your father about and taking care of you, but as fresh and wholesome as a ripe apple on a tree.” Mr Bagnet’s face expresses, so far as in its wooden material lies, the highest approbation and acquiescence. “The time will come, my boy,” pursues the trooper, “when this hair of your mother’s will be grey, and this forehead all crossed and re-crossed with wrinkles — and a fine old lady she’ll be then. Take care, while you are young, that you can think in those days, ‘I never whitened a hair of her dear head, I never marked a sorrowful line in her face!’ For of all the many things that you can think of when you are a man, you had better have that by you, Woolwich!” (34)
I repeated the old childish prayers in its old childish words, and found that its old peace had not departed from it. (35)
This was my first gain from my illness. How little I had lost, when the wide world was so full of delight for me. (36)
The bridegroom, to whom the pen was handed first, made a rude cross for his mark; the bride, who came next, did the same. Now, I had known the bride when I was last there, not only as the prettiest girl in the place, but as having quite distinguished herself in the school; and I could not help looking at her with some surprise. She came aside and whispered to me, while tears of honest love and admiration stood in her bright eyes, “He’s a dear good fellow, miss; but he can’t write, yet — he’s going to learn of me — and I wouldn’t shame him for the world!” Why, what had I to fear, I thought, when there was this nobility in the soul of a labouring man’s daughter! (36)
'Some pride is left in me, even yet.' (36) Lady Dedlock
how far beyond my deserts I am beloved, and how happy I ought to be. (36)
His digestion is impaired, which is highly respectable. (39)
'if you can find so much consideration for the woman under your foot as to remember that, she will be very sensible of your mercy.' (41) Lady Dedlock
Homely filth begrimes him, homely parasites devour him, homely sores are in him, homely rags are on him: native ignorance, the growth of English soil and climate, sinks his immortal nature lower than the beasts that perish. Stand forth, Jo, in uncompromising colours! From the sole of thy foot to the crown of thy head, there is nothing interesting about thee. (47)
Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us, every day. (47)
Take me as I am, and make the best of me.”
“A bargain,” said Mr Woodcourt. “Do as much by me in return.”
“Oh! You,” returned Richard, “you can pursue your art for its own sake; and can put your hand upon the plough, and never turn; and can strike a purpose out of anything. You, and I, are very different creatures.” (51)
It was right that all that had sustained me should give way at once and that I should die of terror and my conscience. (59) Lady Dedlock letter
I cannot use the expression that he looked old. There is a ruin of youth which is not like age; and into such a ruin, Richard’s youth and youthful beauty had all fallen away. (60)
His laugh had not quite left him either; but it was like the echo of a joyful sound, and that is always sorrowful. (60)
'I see him at his worst, every day. I watch him in his sleep. I know every change of his face. But when I married Richard I was quite determined, Esther, if Heaven would help me, never to show him that I grieved for what he did, and so to make him more unhappy. I want him, when he comes home, to find no trouble in my face. I want him, when he looks at me, to see what he loved in me. I married him to do this, and this supports me.' (60) Ada
'My dearest, Allan Woodcourt stood beside your father when he lay dead — stood beside your mother. This is Bleak House. This day I give this house its little mistress; and before God, it is the brightest day in all my life!' (64) Jarndyce
'I shall be found about here somewhere. It’s a West wind, little woman, due West! Let no one thank me any more; for I am going to revert to my bachelor habits, and if anybody disregards this warning, I’ll run away, and never come back!' (64) Jarndyce
'I am very weak, sir, but I hope I shall be stronger. I have to begin the world.' (65) Richard
“It was a troubled dream?” said Richard, clasping both my guardian‘s hands eagerly. “Nothing more, Rick; nothing more.” “And you, being a good man, can pass it as such, and forgive and pity the dreamer, and be lenient and encouraging when he wakes?” “Indeed I can. What am I but another dreamer, Rick?” “I will begin the world!” said Richard, with a light in his eyes. (65)
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