I've come to appreciate Charles Dickens' novels, not for their plots which, in general, are pretty silly and formulaic, but for his rich cast of characters and his vivid picture of life in Victorian England. And while many people think Great Expectations is his best effort, I have to cast my vote for Bleak House with its perfect skewering of the legal profession and in Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, a cautionary warning against betting one's financial future on the outcome of a law suit

This book is very long (almost 1000 pages) and the conventions used in a serialized novel are all to evident, but it also makes it possible to read the book in doses, just as readers in the 19th Century would have done.

This book needs to be savored for it's riich variety of characters, it's colorful dialogue and it's vivid picture of Victorian society at all levels of the income scale. ( )

A young orphan girl grows up and becomes a housekeeper for an older man. He has 2 young cousins who are the principles in a long running legal dispute about some money. There is mystery surrounding the orphan girl and various characters all tie in to her past and present and are attempting to influence her future. Good stuff. Making me realize that without a solid Bible background, many of Dicken's allusions would be meaningless. ( )