The lgal case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce has become a joke to some people. People are born, marry and die, and still the case continues. But will the lives of Ada and Richard be ruined, like so many before? And how will their friend Esther be affected by secrets from her past?
As the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper.
Bleak HouseA complex plot of love and inheritance is set against the English legal system of the mid-19th century, with all its tortuous avenues and disguised resolutions. Here is the firm, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, the young orphan and ward of court Ester Summerson (who tells much of the story). As always, it is the skilled pen of Dickens himself that creates the momentum with his acute eye for both individual characters and their traits, and the backdrop of Victorian London.
