Free Kindle Bleak House ebooks Download
[Read by Simon Vance (-aka- Robert Whitfield)] Charles Dickens, at the height of his creative powers in this great work, pursues two great themes: the murky institutional fog that darkens and cripples all of England, symbolized by the endless litigation of the Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce case in the High Court of Chancery (which is slowly devouring an inheritance in legal costs), and the familiar Dickensian concern with the capricious treatment and maltreatment of children as exemplified by the pitiful castoff Jo and the overindulged Harold Skimkpole. Dickens' rich tapestry of a novel weaves together the fortunes and desires of several characters whose fates are tied to the case: Ada and Richard, two young orphans who stand to inherit and wish to marry when they do; the worthy John Jarndyce, their voluntary guardian while the case is pending; and Esther Summerson, Jarndyce's protegee, whose romance is complicated by torn loyalties and whose heritage is shrouded in mystery and scandal. Bleak House takes the form of a compelling mystery, a romantic tangle of trails followed by three vivid sleuths: the opportunistic Guppy, the sinister Tulkinghorn, and the benevolent Bucket. Only through the skill of Dickens can artfully constructed mystery so intensify and illuminate stringent social commentary. This portrait of London society is often regarded as Dickens' best.
Audio CD
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged edition (February 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786161434
ISBN-13: 978-0786161430
Product Dimensions: 5 x 2 x 5.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (475 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,345,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #17 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Dickens, Charles #353 in Books > Books on CD > Literature & Fiction > Classics #3445 in Books > Books on CD > Literature & Fiction > Unabridged
It's a monster of a book, and that's not really a reference to the length necessarily (although at 900+ pages, you can't help but be a little daunted). Bleak House has big plans for you, it wants to grab you and shout at you and whisper at you and tell you ten thousand things all at once in dozens of different accents. It's a book, really it is, with a mission, and an appropriately large dollop of missionary zeal.Dickens was already a household name when he wrote it. He'd already cast his net far and wide over an increasingly eager audience (Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby had all garnered great praise for him, and Martin Chuzzlewit's extensive American episode - after his trip there in 1842 - had helped his popularity no end in the US). He was world famous. He had also just begun editing the weekly journal Household Words, a publication he hoped would help highlight the social injustices of the age. Bleak House is confident and furiously angry in many respects addressing, as it does, much of the same agenda that Household Words railed against week in week out.The plot centres on the interminable case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce, a years-old law suit creaking its way through Chancery (a reference to two cases: Day v Croft, a suit begun in 1838 and still being heard in 1854; and Jennings v Jennings, begun in 1798 and finally settled in, wait for it, 1878, although, as Dickens says in his Preface, 'if I wanted [more]...I could rain them on these pages, to the shame of a parsimonious public')."Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in the course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means.
This book is without a doubt as relevant now as it was when Dickens wrote it. In fact, its probably more so. As G.K. Chesterton said, when Dickens wrote this book, he had grown up. We have the civil courtroom as it really is, a grinding machine that breaks lives underneath it every day. We see the lawyers who feed off of all this human misery, and encourage their clients to wreck their lives while piously portraying themselves as upholders of the law. Of course, this book is about a lot more than just the law. One of the most amusing subplots involves various women involved in charity. As the character Mr. Jarndyce says, there are two kinds of people who do charitable work. Some accomplish a great deal, and make very little noise, and some make a great deal of noise, and accomplish nothing. Of course, most of the ones in this book are of the second catagory. The most memorable by far is Mrs. Jellybee, who obsesses over a colony in Africa while her own family falls apart around her. It's exactly like people today, who want to save the whales or free Tibet while people in their own neighborhoods starve. The characters in this book are excellent, and far more realistic than in most of Dickens's works. Mr. Jarndyce is the heroic father figure, but he is a real one, who tried to be kind and guide his family but can only watch helplessly while his nephew slowly destroys himself trying to overcome the court, which of course is impossible. Many people have had trouble with the character of Esther Summerson, and her relentless goodness and self-effacement. I think she is a fantastic character, and is Dickens's way of reinforcing the message of the book, that you need to find happiness in your own life, and things like lawsuits do nothing but destroy happiness and should be avoided.
This is the second book by Dickens I have read so far, but it will not be the last. "Bleak House" is long, tightly plotted, wonderfully descriptive, and full of memorable characters. Dickens has written a vast story centered on the Jarndyce inheritance, and masterly manages the switches between third person omniscient narrator and first person limited narrator. His main character Esther never quite convinces me of her all-around goodness, but the novel is so well-written that I just took Esther as she was described and ran along with the story. In this book a poor boy (Jo) will be literally chased from places of refuge and thus provide Dickens with one of his most powerful ways to indict a system that was particularly cruel to children. Mr. Skimpole, pretending not to be interested in money; Mr. Jarndyce, generous and good; Richard, stupid and blind; the memorable Dedlocks, and My Lady Dedlock's secret being uncovered by the sinister Mr. Tulkinghorn; Mrs. Jellyby and her telescopic philanthropy; the Ironmaster described in Chapter 28, presenting quite a different view of industralization than that shown by Dickens in his next work, "Hard Times." Here is a veritable cosmos of people, neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, rivals, sinners, and saints, and Dickens proves himself a true master at describing their lives and the environment they dwell in. There are landmark chapters: Chapter One must be the best description of a dismal city under attack by dismal weather and tightly tied by perfectly dismal laws, where the Lord Chancellor sits eternally in Lincoln's Inn Hall. Chapter 32 has one of the eeriest scenes ever written, with suspicious smoke, greasy and reeking, as a prelude to a grisly discovery. Chapter 47 is when Jo cannot "move along" anymore.
Bleak House Bleak House Unabridged Compact Disc Tiny Houses: Tiny House Plans, Woodworking on a Tiny House and Living Mortgage Free (Tiny Houses, Tiny House Living, Tiny House Plans, Small Homes, Woodworking Book 1) My Little House Crafts Book: 18 Projects from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Stories (Little House Nonfiction) Magic Tricks from the Tree House: A Fun Companion to Magic Tree House #50: Hurry Up, Houdini! (Magic Tree House (R)) Tiny Houses: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide! : 20 Space Hacks for Living Big in Your Tiny House (Tiny Homes, Small Home, Tiny House Plans, Tiny House Living) Tiny Houses: Everything You Need to Know before Buying a Tiny House (Tiny Houses, Tiny House Living, Tiny Homes, Tiny House) Tiny Houses: Constructing A Tiny House On A Budget And Living Mortgage Free (REVISED & UPDATED) (Tiny Houses,Tiny House Living,Tiny House, Small Home) Little House 5-Book Collection: Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prairie, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake The House by the Lake: One House, Five Families, and a Hundred Years of German History Lincoln's White House: The People's House in Wartime Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-in House House Beautiful The Home Book: Creating a Beautiful Home of Your Own (House Beautiful Series) Mies van der Rohe: Farnsworth House-Weekend House (Mies Van Der Rohe Archive) Art Deco House Style: An Architectural and Interior Design Source Book (House style series) Dune: House Corrino: House Trilogy, Book 3 Games and Puzzles from the Tree House (Magic Tree House) Sharks and Other Predators: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #53: Shadow of the Shark (Magic Tree House (R) Fact Tracker) Dolphins and Sharks: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #9: Dolphins at Daybreak (Magic Tree House (R) Fact Tracker) Mini House: Old MacDonald's Barn (Mini House Book)
