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Bleak House  By  cover art

Bleak House

By: Charles Dickens
Narrated by: David Case
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Publisher's summary

Published in 1853, Bleak House is one of Dickens' most mature and ambitious novels. From London's slums to the Court of Chancery, where the endless case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce devours the future of several generations, the author's canvas of Victorian society vividly conveys an indictment of legal corruption, a riveting tale of detection, and a compelling emotional drama.
Not a little Dickens: peruse our full list of Charles Dickens titles.
(P)2006 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Vigorous satire....[with] a host of interesting minor characters." (The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature.)

What listeners say about Bleak House

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Bravo!

In my estimation, Charles Dickens' finest! Humor, character description, vocabulary - all simply sensational! David Case is fabulous as the reader. I will cherish this book for all of my life!

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

So good!

What a great story and wonderful adventure to read. This novel is truly Dickens at his best (and his most "Dickens like" if you know what I mean). The book won't let go of you, and at times you actually wonder why it's so fascinating. I'd listen for hours non-stop and be amazed that I'm I so into the story. The reason is that it's simply Dickens as only he can be. It's the equivalent of a modern day soap opera (in a good way... it was originally published in 20 monthly sections, and was written as to keep the reader begging for the next installment.) There are twist and turns and love and death. Each section ends with some twist that leaves you unable not to continue on to the next right away.
The narration is superb. I have listened to numerous Dickens novels, and David Case seems to bring the characters alive better than any other. And that is the most amazing and memorable aspect of Bleak House.... the characters. LOTS of characters, and each developed so fully, with there own history and story lines and mysteries. I was worried going into this book that the vast number of characters would clutter up the novel and confuse the reader, but that was not the case at all. In fact, it does just the opposite, with each character and story line coming alive individually, but working together so well. This is the true genius of Dickens.
I highly recommend this novel and this audio production of it.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Dickens done right

This is great fun. One of Dickens' greatest works. I can't imagine anyone reading Dickens better than David Case. The recording is excellent. Snap it up.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

not a bleak listen

Bleak House contains some of the most sentimental melodrama ever written by Dickens. However, unlike most modern novels, Dickens' storytelling and prose, combined with great narration, drew me into the world of the novel and left me wanting more at the end, no matter how incredible the plot coincidences or how larger than life the heroes and villains. I enjoyed every minute of the listen, even the most overly sentimental, drawn-out death scene of one of Dickens' most pathetic characters. I can't explain the power of Dickens (especially Dickens read aloud) to do this; I can only give him and the narrator five stars for it.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent reading of a classic novel

I have to give full marks to David Case for the excellent job he does as narrator of Bleak House. He manages to create believable distinctive voices for many characters of all classes and both sexes, and this made the novel an excellent listen. My only reservation is with Dickens himself, who is at his best when writing satire but who really lays it on thick when he delves into sentimentality. Dickens' characters tend to be one-dimensional, which works fine when he is satirizing their quirks and bad habits, such as the ludicrous Mr. Chadband, whose manner of delivering sermons is to ask absurd rhetorical questions over and over and then refute them. Yet Dickens' sentimentality doesn't really spoil how entertaining the book is in the final analysis, and I suspect the fact that Dickens is a little obvious and heavy-handed in his moralizing is also why he remains a very popular writer to this day.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

This is how to read a book!

I am delighted with the narration in my recently purchased "Bleak House" ( David Case). I am amazed how clearly he is able to define the many characters and how perfect is his gentle edge of irony when Dickens makes those telling side comments along the way. Wonderful. A great novel, well presented . Works well along with the BBC video series, which we are re-watching at the same time.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Victorian Prolixity

Well, yes -- Dickens does go on, doesn't he? At least by today's standards. The same story written by a modern author would have taken half as many pages and half as many hours. But, if you can suspend your modern standards a bit while you listen to "Bleak House," it will reward your patience. With "Bleak House," Dickens composed a masterpiece of literary fiction, by any standard. For its time -- 1852 -- "Bleak House" ventured into daring territory: for example by having part of the narrative written in the present tense, and part written in the past tense by one of the main characters. It does contain an abundance of characters, which might confuse the listener at first. If you have never before read "Bleak House," I would suggest first watching the excellent B.B.C. 2006 cinematic dramatization (not the 1985 version with Diana Rigg). You might find it at your local library on D.V.D., as I did. This movie simultaneously simplifies Dickens' complex plot, while remaining true to the story, and helps the viewer to sort out the characters. Having first watched this movie helped me a lot when I tackled the audiobook version of "Bleak House." The audiobook's narrator -- David Case -- is a consummate actor, with an abundance of voices and accents to distinguish the characters from one another. I highly recommend this audiobook to anyone with any interest in Victorian England, the legal profession, or Charles Dickens.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Wrong type of narration

I ordered this audio book on the basis of the reviews about the wonderful narration. I couldn't disagree more. Perhaps this story lends itself to a dramatization. Even so, for me the narrator's tired, pinched, snobby voice made Bleak House impossible to listen to.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A few blips.

Any additional comments?

Overall very good. There are a few times when the recording loops back and repeats a minute or two. Once (chap 29), it didn't continue after the repeat, but skipped ahead in the middle of an important spot.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Frustrating

If you could sum up Bleak House in three words, what would they be?

Cunningly woven tale

What did you like best about this story?

Charles Dickens has a delightful and subtle wit. I find I need to listen closely to understand just what he means, but it's well worth the effort. It was worth the work to follow the characters set up in their individual lives and then watch as Dickens drew them together. I felt I had "aha!" moments when I remembered where I heard a character's name from an earlier chapter.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of David Case?

I am not familiar enough with narrators to make a suggestion, but anyone else could have been better. I realize there are LOTS of characters, but Mr. Case often started reading a character in one voice and then switched to another character's voice while in midstream. It often made an intricate story very confusing.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Nope.

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1 person found this helpful