| "Bleak House" (1853) is one of Dickens' most ambitious works and established his reputation as a mature novelist capable of writing about the most serious issues while maintaining a talent for the blackest humour and comic farce. Narrated in turns by ward of court, Esther Summerson and an unnamed narrator whose outlook both compliments Esther's and challenges it, the stories of Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually depleted under the burden of legal costs, Tulkinghorn the lawyer, Inspector Bucket and Esther herself, are brought together in a complex tale of corruption and the heartlessness and inefficiency of the legal system. Based on the world-famous "Nonesuch Press" edition of 1937, the text is taken from the 1867 "Chapman and Hall" edition, which became known as the "Charles Dickens" edition, and was the last edition to be corrected by the author himself."The Nonesuch" edition contains illustrations selected by Dickens himself, by artists including Hablot Knight Browne ('Phiz'), George Cruikshank, John Leech, Robert Seymour and George Cattermole. |
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