Day Eighteen

4/18

The Book: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

ISBN: 978-1-59308-311-3

Suggested By: Rebecca Mitchell

Where: Home

When:10:30-11:15p

Music: None

Company: Family

Pages: 79 - 135 (56)

The Lead In:  Ok, clarification, yesterday I described Ada and Richard as as siblings. Wrong. They aren’t related, just good friends. One tough thing about Dickens is his constant addition of characters. Its hard to tell which ones are important and which ones aren’t. Needless to say, as romance seems to be in the air between Ada and Richard, I needed to point out that I was mistaken as to the state of their relation.

The 411 on the 55: Everyone is happily living with Mr. Jarndyce and Esther has been appointed housekeeper. There are several characters which make appearances at the house, and the primary purpose for everyone’s visit or correspondence is money. People want it, Jarndyce has it.

A courier for one of the lawyers proposes to Esther which freaks her out. She tosses him out but later cries about it.

Two interludes I must reference:

an old woman tells a ghost story which was interesting, yet at this point has no connection to the main story as I can tell, though there is some foreshadowing about shame coming to a family. Lots of orphans...maybe someone screwed the maid? I’m not sure just yet.

a visit by a do-goer visitor to Mr. Jarndyce leads the girls (Ada and Esther) to a brickmaker’s house. They live in squalor and there is sickness, abuse, and malnourishment. However, the man of the house is, from a literary point of view, amusing. I think also, it raises questions about how the poor view handouts.

Line of the Day: An’t my place dirty? Yes, it is dirty - nat’rally dirty, and it’s nat’rally onwholesome; and we’ve had five dirty and onwholesome children, as is all dead infants, and so much the better for them and for us besides.” pg 116

The Fact on the Fiction: Outside of 4 years of education, Dickens was entirely self-taught. Dickens Page