Day Twenty-Two

4/22

The Book: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

ISBN: 978-1-59308-311-3

Suggested By: Rebecca Mitchell

Where: Home

When:12A-1:00A

Music: None

Company: Family

Pages: 306 - 361 (55)

The Lead In: I had neglected my reading all day, and, after getting out of work, finally got to it. I am drowsy but will complete it.

The 411 on the 55: An inspector is looking into the matter with Joe and the woman who wanted to see where Nemo was buried. Mr. Tulkhinghorn was involved with the inquest.

The french maid comes to Esther for employment but she turns her down. Soon after, Richard comes and discusses his money woes, and is debating joining the army. Caddy asks her to help Prince tell his father they are engaged, and she does. But when Mrs. Jellyby hears the news she blows it off and continues writing letter for Africa.

Richard gets himself a commission in the Army, but because of his instability, Ada calls off her love with him. Snagsby’s wife suspects he might be the father of Jo (the beggar kid), due to his constant charity towards the boy.

Mr. Smallweed visits George’s shooting gallery.

Side note: This style of 411 has got to change, its too damn boring. I will try and not just list what happened, but rather focus on interesting aspects of the reading.

Line of the Day: “Behind dingy blind and curtain, in upper story and garret, skulking more or less under false names, false hair, false titles, false jewellery, and false histories, a colony of brigands lie in their first sleep.” pg. 352

The Fact on the Fiction: Heavy, persistent fog is not something that tends to lift spirits and brighten faces. In a story, such a fog may even serve as a symbol of institutional oppression and human confusion and misery. The fog that Dickens creates for Bleak House serves him in exactly that way. And yet it is not, after all, a real-life fog, but a verbal description of the real-life thing. How that depiction is managed—in other words, "expression"—becomes the crucial point, the real issue. Cliffsnotes