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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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Classic Dickens

The last half of the story really picked up and saved this from being just a longwinded jumble of characters. It starts out introducing several of them in quick succession and I was drowning in a sea of names. I had a very hard time keeping them all separate and understanding the very complicated web of interaction among them. As the story went along, the minor characters fell away and I was able to identify the main players but it took a long time for that to happen. The plot and sub-plots are extremely complex and I must admit I needed help from Wikipedia to get me through. If you are better than I at listening closely you may have a better understanding of how it's all going but I was completely lost. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the book, I did. Just following along with the characters is an enjoyable ride but since I listen while I run or drive, I can't focus my attention close enough to capture all the fabulous nuances that Dickens has hidden in this one.

David Case was OK. There was some breathing, smacking and swallowing but not as bad as I have heard from other narrators. He did a very good job with the different voices especially the women's' voices considering his voice is rather deep. He did not make them all out to be ditzy or snobby sounding. At first I thought I'd have liked it to have been narrated by a woman but by the half way point, I had adjusted to it.

Overall, this was not my favorite Dickens novel but it wasn't terrible. A little too political for my taste but it was very poignant for it's time. If you have the time, give it a try.

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