Description

‘Dickens’s chilling tale of murder and betrayal’ Sunday Times

‘The one great principle of the English law is, to make business for itself’

‘Jarndyce and Jardyce’ is an infamous lawsuit that has been in process for generations. Nobody can remember exactly how the case started but many different individuals have found their fortunes caught up in it. Esther Summerson watches as her friends and neighbours are consumed by their hopes and disappointments with the proceedings. But while the intricate puzzles of the lawsuit are being debated by lawyers, other more dramatic mysteries are unfolding that involve heartbreak, lost children, blackmail and murder.

Publisher Review

Bleak House is the literati's favourite Dickens. It's one of the few stories that has modern resonance: the tale of a never-ending court case can be seen -if you squint -as the precursor of Kafka and Orwell -- A.A. Gill Bleak House reads like an encyclopedia not only of its time and place but of us -- Elizabeth Kostova I keep on reading it in order to discover how to write a novel -- John Mortimer Kafka's favourite book, a tour de force that mixes grand scale and minutely-observed, perfectly-heard reality. Incomparable set-pieces (that opening! spontaneous combustion!) and dialogue -- James Hawes Dickens's chilling tale of murder and betrayal * Sunday Times *