Audiobook · read by volunteers
Bleak House
Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
Read by Cynthia Lyons (1946-2011) · 67 chapters · 43 h 30
About the book
A court case that has dragged on for generations. A foggy London, a house called Bleak and a remarkable young woman, Esther Summerson, who is asked to tell part of the story herself. Around her gather an extraordinary crowd: the proud Lady Dedlock, the dutiful and impatient wards of the court, a lawyer who knows everyone’s secrets, a kindly guardian, a crossing-sweeper, a grasping moneylender and many more besides.
Dickens weaves together comedy, mystery and fierce social criticism in one of his richest novels. Its sprawling cast and its interlocking plots reward a patient listener, and there is a great deal to enjoy along the way: sharp jokes, unforgettable portraits, a dark and thrilling detective strand. Over sixty-seven chapters and more than forty hours, you are invited to settle into a very large book indeed, and to discover how lives that seem unconnected turn out to be bound together by secrets, debts and chance.
Introduction
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was the most popular English novelist of his time and remains one of the most widely read. Bleak House is his ninth novel. It appeared in twenty monthly parts between March 1852 and September 1853, the usual way of publishing a Dickens novel at that date: readers bought an instalment each month and discussed it in between, so the plot had to keep them waiting and wondering.
The novel is often counted among his finest and most complete works. It is known for its enormous cast of minor characters and its many sub-plots, which are gradually drawn together. At its centre stands the long-running lawsuit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a satire on the slowness and cost of the Court of Chancery. Dickens had a keen interest in how institutions affect ordinary lives, and the book returns again and again to neglect, delay and the way people can be swallowed by systems that were meant to serve them. It is also notable for sharing its narration between an omniscient voice in the present tense and the first-person account of Esther Summerson.
The recording presents the novel in 67 sections and runs for about forty-three and a half hours. It was read by LibriVox volunteers, so you will hear a succession of voices rather than a single narrator, each bringing something different to Dickens’s many characters.
Why listen now? Because the book is both a gripping story and a lasting picture of a society struggling with its own conscience. The fog, the courts, the poverty and the wit are all still vivid, and a long novel is a pleasure when you can listen to it while doing something else.
Public domain
Charles Dickens died in 1870: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text