Bleak House

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. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums.

Set in

• ★
  Chancery Lane · United Kingdom

  Heart of the legal district and High Court of Chancery
  ★ primary
• ★
  Lincoln's Inn · United Kingdom

  Chancery Court proceedings
  ★ primary
• St Albans · United Kingdom

  Bleak House estate