Day Twenty-Six

4/26

The Book: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

ISBN: 978-1-59308-311-3

Suggested By: Rebecca Mitchell

Where: Home

When: 8:45-9:30P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 532- 589 (57)

The Lead In: Having been consumed all day with writing a paper on Huckleberry Finn, I am having trouble bringing my mind from the American South to Victorian England. Both societies were full of hypocrisy though. Eh, well

The 411 on the 55: Lady Dedlock is confronted by the lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn, with her infidelity and daughter. She wants to leave and desert her husband, but he blackmails her with her husband’s health and standing in society. She is forced to remain in her position. After the meeting, Dedlock’s old maid comes to Tulkinghorn to threaten her ex-boss and, in turn, he threatens her with prison.

Mr. Jarndyce, though he is old enough to be her father, gives a letter to Esther, asking her to be his wife. She creepily accepts. A bit disgusting.

Mr. Vohles, Richard’s lawyer, shows up and informs them that he is having a tough time and is in debt up to his ears. They are all sad and Esther goes to see him. They try to give him money, but he assumes it to be an attempt to buy him off of the suit. He refuses.

Line of the Day: “the law is despotic here” pg 556

 

The Fact on the Fiction: No note today, just a neat article on a ship from that period, preserved in Portsmith, England. The type of ship Richard would have served on. Wikipedia