I fought the law

So far the biggest thing I have tackled this year, and not to be confused with a doorstop, is Charles Dickens' mammoth novel, Bleak House. Like many pre-20th century works considered to be part of the canon, it's one that I'm not familiar with. Indeed, my knowledge of pre-20th century literature is pretty poor, probably through both a personal ambivalence towards some of what I've read and an inability to connect with it, and the lack of a classical education in English literature. I have actually read a few of Dickens' works – and largely enjoyed them – so I figured that I'd give another one a spin and Bleak House was suggested to me as one his finest.

Undoubtedly Dickens is a fine writer, though I can appreciate his style isn't for everyone. That said, I don't know how anyone can fail to be impressed by the detail and ability to bring people and places to life in his vivid descriptions. Be they the city of London, that he shows up in all its many faces – rich surface and poverty-stricken underbelly, or the many, many characters he breathed life into. Bleak House does both, picking the law and court proceedings as the centre to hang his novel on, and creating a quite impressively large cast of memorable characters to fill it with. It's definitely the characters that stand out for me, so often richly drawn, larger than life, whether grotesque and cruel, or tender-hearted and loving. The full range of human experience is portrayed, often comically exaggerated. His names are also wonderfully suggestive of each character's personality, including Skimpole, Smallweed and Dedlock to name but three.

I must confess that it took quite a while to get into, so I'm pleased that I tend to persevere with books (indeed, I'm stubborn enough to finish everything I start as a matter of principle), and while sometimes they don't improve, I know that it can sometimes take a while to get into things and I'm prepared to give them a chance. And weighing in at nearly 900 pages, this was clearly one that was going to demand a lot of time. Fortunately it was worth it. Once I had begun to get my head around the huge cast, the numerous plots and subplots, the language and the legal aspects, the story came to life very nicely. Interspersed with humour, it tells tales of intrigue, murder, social conditions (at the top and bottom of the Victorian ladder) and love. Oh, and spontaneous human combustion. So when you put it like that, I suppose you could ask what else could you really ask for from a novel? I won't be reading him monthly, but I did enjoy it and will undoubtedly pick up another Dickens at some point down the line. And I'm certainly curious to check out the BBC series adaptation of a few years ago. Another one for 'the list', I suppose.

Book number: 42
Title: Bleak House
Author: Charles Dickens
Category: Pre-20th century literature