tutorial, commentary, study resources, characters, and plot

Bleak House was first published in nineteen monthly instalments between March 1852 and September 1853, the final instalment being a double issue, as was common practice. On completion it was then produced as a single volume novel by Bradbury and Evans in the UK, and a two-volume version was issued in the USA by Harper and Brothers. The novel was a great favourite with the reading public immediately on its first appearance.

a monthly instalment

Bleak House – critical commentary

The title

Dickens took great care in choosing the titles for his novels – as well as the names for his characters. He drew up lists of possibilities, and for quite some time during the composition of Bleak House his choice for the title was the much more suitable In Chancery.

This term ‘In Chancery’ sums up the central issue of the legal process that is at the heart of events in the narrative. The Court of Chancery pervades the entire story, and characters caught up in the legal proceedings of Jarndyce and Jarndyce recognise each other as if they were inhabitants of a parallel universe. They even refer to each other as ‘claimants’, ‘parties’, ‘suitors’, ‘creditors’, and ‘wards in Chancery’. [In the early twentieth century the novelist John Galsworthy used the term for In Chancery (1920), the second novel in his Forsyte Saga trilogy.]

The house that gives the novel its title is anything but ‘bleak’. It is in fact an elegant mansion with many of the features of a country house. The building is ‘pretty’ with trellises for ‘roses and honey-suckle’. Its interior is pleasant; there are fires in all the rooms; there’s a library; and the salons look out onto gardens which are ‘delightful’. It is also a place of comfort and refuge for Esther, Ada, and Richard, thanks to the hospitality and generosity of John Jarndyce.

This architectural pleasantness is reinforced when Jarndyce chooses and furnishes a country house for Allan Woodcourt’s medical practice in Yorkshire. He not only reproduces the style and decorative features of his home in St Albans, but he even calls it ‘Bleak House’ .

So the eponymous house might well be called ‘Bleak House’, but it isn’t bleak at all and it does not summarise or symbolise the novel as a whole. The elements of ‘bleakness’ in the novel arise more from the Court of Chancery itself, the poverty of the surrounding districts of London; and the moral bankruptcy of the Dedlock household at Chesney Wold.

All those editions of the novel which are illustrated by jacket covers depicting grim mansions in gothic settings are quite inaccurate and misleading – though it may well be that they summarise the negative and all-pervasive influence of the legal ‘proceedings’ that brought the original family dispute of Jarndyce and Jarndyce to trial in the first place.

The narrative

The events of the novel are recounted in two parts which run parallel to each other — the chapters in which Dickens writes as a third person omniscient narrator, and those designated as ‘Esther’s Narrative’ in which Ester Summerson records her part in the events of the story – in first person narrative mode.

This is a simplified description of the narrative. The actual presentation of the story is much more complex. The chapters narrated by Dickens are a mixture of omniscient third person narrative mode, and Dickens himself as an undeclared first-person commentator on events. He offers long and satirical tirades against the law and the upper class in quite an oblique manner – using sentences with no subject, no verb, and an implied contract of outraged agreement between author and reader, as in the death scene of Jo, the child crossing sweeper:

Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts, And dying thus around us, every day.

Now a purist might wish to argue that we cannot assume that the third person narrator is Dickens himself, and that we must therefore designate the narrator as ‘anonymous’. Some would even claim that he is not even omniscient, because he occasionally tells that there are things he does not know. This does not seem a persuasive argument to me, on three grounds.

First, there is no evidence that Dickens was constructing an independent narrator – that is, someone with a personality or a particular point of view which we could regard almost as a participating character in the novel as a whole, as he does in the case of Esther. Second, as already mentioned, the narrative in these chapters is actually cast in a mixture of first and third person modes.

But third, and it seems to me most persuasive reason of all, these chapters are presented to us in exactly the same manner and with the same ‘voice’ as most of Dickens’s other novels. Indeed, that is what makes them so distinctively ‘Dickensian’. He creates narratives that are a mixture of detached observation, scenes alternatively comic, grotesque, and full of pathos, and plots full of tension and mystery. These elements are stitched together with the control of something like a circus ringmaster, commenting on his own creation, and offering satirical and sometimes bitterly ironic analyses of society and its ills.

This is exactly what gives his novels such a powerful appeal to readers of all kinds. It is almost impossible to read Bleak House or most of Dickens’s other works without feeling the enormous presence of his personality as an author present in the works themselves.

Esther’s narrative

Esther’s narrative is cast in a fairly straightforward first person mode which also includes a sometimes naive and unselfconscious point of view. For instance it will be clear to most readers that she is romantically smitten by Allan Woodcourt – which is obvious from the fact that she avoids talking about him, but is flustered in a way she cannot understand whenever she has met him. In this case the reader knows more than she knows herself.

But the inclusion of her narrative chapters raises two problems in terms of the ‘logic’ of story telling. The first of these is that Dickens provides no explanation for the relationship between these two parts of the story. There is certainly no mention of Esther or her account of events in the chapters relayed by the third person narrator. Conversely (and fortunately) Esther makes no reference to the ‘outer narrative’ in which her own account is embedded.

There is simply no reason or justification given in the chapters related by Dickens of how Esther’s narrative comes into being (via the discovery of a diary or letters for instance). In other words, no satisfactory account is provided for the co-existence or the relationship between these two separate parts of the novel. Esther herself gives no convincing reason for the existence of her narrative: she merely claims to be writing for an ‘unknown friend’. This seems distinctly unpersuasive.

First, it is more than slightly improbable that someone like Esther would compile such a comprehensive ‘narrative’ for a reader whose identity she did not know. Why would she write at such length and in such detail if she did not know who would read her account? This is clearly a fictional sleight-of-hand on Dickens’s part. But it is one which most readers will be prepared to accept on the principle of ‘suspension of disbelief”.

The ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ is a term coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817 which suggests that if a writer can provide sufficient reasons for doing so, readers would be prepared to overlook or suspend judgement concerning any implausibilities in the story.

But a more significant weakness is that Esther at some points begins to manipulate the novel’s dramatic suspense in a manner that does not fit logically with someone making a record of events. For instance, when Lady Dedlock reveals that she is Esther’s mother, she gives Esther a letter explaining her origins. But Esther only records part of the letter’s contents, remarking that “What more the letter told me, needs not to be repeated here. It has its own times and places in my story”.

Esther is supposed to be a character in the novel, but here she is behaving as an agent in the manner of its composition. In other words she is acting as an author, manipulating the revelation of information to create dramatic interest and tension. This takes her outside the limitations of a character participating in the events of the novel, to that of a contributing author of events. There is no other reason why she should withhold this information.

When a first person narrator takes up an imaginary pen to record the events of a drama, they are normally already in possession of all the facts in the case – so there can be no excuse for concealing any of them from the reader. The only exception to this convention of fictionality is if the first person account is in the form of a diary – where the reader is prepared to believe that the first person diarist only knows about events up to the point of their being recorded.

Bleak House falls between these two modes of narration. Esther creates for the most part a ‘diary’ of events in which she participates. But when she witholds information she has been given for what is clearly a purpose of creating dramatic suspense – this is Dickens rupturing the pact of ‘suspended disbelief’ between the reader and the author.

For a fictional character to suddenly become conscious of the narrative in which they play a part is not a permissible device on the part of the author. It is breaking the conventions of fictional narratives. However, Bleak House is such a huge novel, packed with characters, dramatic events, and serious topics, that many readers are likely to overlook this weakness. However, it has to be said that ‘Esther’s Narrative’ has given rise to enormous amounts of comment in the critical comment on the novel.

Dickens also seems to get the two modes of narration mixed up at times. At one point there is a scene in Vholes’ office [Ch.51] where only he and Woodcourt are present. Their thoughts and feelings, and even the tone of their voices are accurately presented in typical omniscient third person narrative mode. Yet the scene turns out to be part of Esther’s narrative. She is giving an account of events at which she was not present and could not possibly know in such detail.

The Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov (in his Lectures on Literature) observes that Esther’s literary style starts in a girlish manner, but then gradually incorporates a number of Dickens’s own stylistic mannerisms:

Esther and the author more or less grow accustomed to their different points of view as reflected in their styles. Dickens with all kinds of musical, humorous, metaphorical, oratorical, booming effects and breaks in style on the one hand, and Esther, on the other, starting chapters with flowing conservative phrases. But … when the whole estate is found to have been absorbed by the costs, Dickens at last merges almost completely with Esther. Stylistically the whole book is a gradual sliding into the matrimonial state between the two. And when they insert word pictures or render conversations, there is no difference between them.

Money and Labour

There is a sub theme in the novel of selfishness and gross egotism coupled with either acquisitiveness or living off other people’s labour – in other words a dysfunctional connection with the world of labour and capital. This extends to individuals, to families, to society in general, and even to populations overseas.

The elder Turveydrop, master of ‘Deportment’, is completely idle and sponges off his own son. When the younger ‘Prince’ Turveydrop wishes to marry Caddy Jellyby, his father only reluctantly consents with the sophistry that he will make no claim upon them except to be housed, dressed, and fed for the rest of his life at their expense.

Horace Skimpole elevates idleness and self-interested sponging off others into a solipsistic philosophy. He even claims that the debts he accrues are a positive example of keeping debt-collectors in work. Indeed, it is one of the mysteries of the novel why John Jarndyce should tolerate this social parasite to the extent that he does. For the majority of the novel Jarndyce makes excuses for him, explains away his irresponsibility, and treats him at his own word as a ‘child’.

Even the slightly macabre Smallweeds are motivated by a combination of meanness and acquisition. They are money-lenders who hide behind the pretence that the exorbitant rates they charge are determined by ‘higher powers’ for whom they are acting in the City.

Richard Carstone is also linked to this theme. He is mesmerised by the prospects of an inheritance-to-come from the Jarndyce case. He cannot settle and apply himself to a career, because he imagines he will become very rich ‘any day soon’. So he is lured into moral decline by the promise of unearned wealth. And he not only lives on the kindness of John Jarndyce, but he also runs up debts he cannot pay because of his self-indulgent way of life. Even when he marries Ada, it is her money he squanders shortly before his death at the end of the court case.

John Jarndyce is also related to this theme – but only in the sense that he represents its opposite. He is exceptionally generous to everybody. He takes on the role of guardian to Esther when she is regarded as an orphan; he supports his two cousins, Ada and Richard; and he even provides a house for Allan Woodcourt when he marries Esther. His generosity of spirit is undiminished even when people such as Skimpole and Richard are frittering away the financial support he has provided for them.

But therein lies a problem – because we are not told the source of his lavish income. He is a party to the contested will in the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, though he chooses to disattend to the Chancery proceedings, and he does not appear to be affected by its outcome. He must therefore have a source of income separate from inherited wealth which is at the root of the dispute – but we are not told what this is.

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Bleak House – study resources

Bleak House – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

Bleak House – Oxford World Classics – Amazon US

Bleak House – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

Bleak House – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US

Bleak House – eBook formats at Project Gutenberg

The Complete Works of Charles Dickens – Kindle edition

Charles Dickens – biographical notes

The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens – Amazon UK

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Bleak House – plot summary

Ch. 1 – In Chancery   Late autumn in the Court of Chancery in London: the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce has been going on so long that nobody even understands what it is all about any more.

Ch. 2 – In Fashion   The fashionable Lady Dedlock has become bored on her Lincolnshire estate and is in London prior to her departure to Paris. Mr Tulkinghorn calls to report that Jarndyce versus Jarndyce has been in court. He reads from reports to Sir Leicester Dedlock, but Lady Deadlock feels ill land has to retire.

Ch. 3 – A Progress   Esther’s narrative recounts her being raised by a severe godmother, and her knowing nothing of her parents. On her godmother’s death Kenge arranges for her transfer to Miss Donny’s finishing school. Six years later Jarndyce arranges for her to become a companion to Ada Clare.

Ch. 4 – Telescopic Philanthropy   Esther, Ada, and Richard Carstone go to the ‘philanthropist’ Mrs Jellyby’s house where everything is in a state of dirt and disorder. Esther comforts some of Mrs Jellyby’s neglected children, especially the disaffected elder daughter Caroline (Caddy).

Ch. 5 – A Morning Adventure   On a walk next morning Esther, Ada, and Richard meet the old lady from the Court. She takes them to meet the rag and bone collector Krook, who is her landlord, who recounts the suicide of Tom Jarndyce and writes mysteriously on the wall.

Ch. 6 – Quite at Home   Esther, Ada, and Richard then travel to Bleak House, where they are welcomed by their friendly benefactor John Jarndyce, who quizzes them about the Jellyby family. He then introduces them to the self-deceiving sponger Horace Skimpole, who when he is about to be arrested allows Esther and Richard to pay off his debts.

Ch. 7 – The Ghost’s Walk   The housekeeper Mrs Rouncewell is at Chesney Wold with her grandson Watt when Guppy arrives to look over the house (on behalf of Kenge and Carboy)). He seems to recognise Lady Dedlock in a portrait painting. Mrs Rouncewell tells the story of the Civil War differences in the family and a previous Lady Dedlock who put a curse on the house.

Ch. 8 – Concerning a Multitude of Sins   John Jarndyce confides in Esther, giving her a (rather vague) account of the great court case and putting his trust in her. Esther learns that he is besieged by charitable ladies seeking funds for their enthusiasms. They are visited by the officious Mrs Pardiggle who takes them on an intrusive visit to a brickmaker’s cottage. When Mrs Pardiggle is dismissed, they discover a child is dead.

Ch. 9 – Signs and Tokens   Bleak House is visited by the boisterous Lawrence Boythorn, who relates his boundary dispute with Sir Leicester Dedlock. Mr Guppy arrives as clerk to Kenge and Carboy, and makes a comic proposal to Esther, with whom he has become smitten after a single meeting. She is ambiguously flustered by the event.

Ch. 10 – The Law-Writer   Lawyer Tulkinghorn visits legal stationer Snagsby to identify the copyist of a legal document in the Jarndyce case. Snagsby takes him to meet ‘Nemo’ who is lodging at Krook’s rag and bottle shop. Nemo lives in utter destitution and is an opium addict

Mr Guppy proposes

Ch. 11 – Our Dear Brother   When Tulkinghorn enters his room, Nemo turns out to be dead from an opium overdose. Nobody knows anything about him, but it seems he might be from a cultivated background. Tulkinghorn keeps a close eye on events. A coroner’s inquest is held in a local ale house. The evidence of the only person who knew him (Jo, a crossing sweeper) is not admitted as acceptable.

Ch. 12 – On the Watch   The Dedlocks leave Paris, bored. Sir Leicester receives a letter from Tulkinghorn mentioning Nemo’s affidavit – which discomforts Lady Dedlock. At Chesney Wold rivalry springs up between Hortense and Rosa, the pretty new lady’s maid. Tulkinghorn arrives to discuss the boundary dispute with Boythorn, but he also reveals the news regarding Nemo.

Ch. 13 – Esther’s Narrative   Richard is a dilettante who cannot make up his mind about a future profession. He is also living in the hope of inheriting from the great Jarndyce case and his wards go to London, where Esther is again embarrassed by Guppy’s unwanted attentions.. Richard is finally apprenticed to medical man Bayham Badger, whose wife has been married twice before.Ada and Richard make their love known to Esther, then to Jarndyce, who gives them his blessing.

Ch. 14 – Deportment   Richard is still hoping to inherit money. Esther is visited by Caddy Jellyby, who complains that her family is almost bankrupt. She reveals that she is engaged to Prince Turveydrop. They visit the dancing school, run by his vain and idle father. They visit Miss Flite, who believes the money she receives each week is forward payment from the Chancellor himself. Krook arrives and takes an unpleasantly close interest in Jarndyce.

Ch. 15 – Bell Yard   Skimpole arrives with the news that Coavinces has died. Jarndyce and his entourage visit a garret where Coavinces’ three small children are barely surviving. They meet a neighbour Gridley (‘the man from Shropshire’) whose entire legacy has been swallowed up in legal costs. In the face of all this poverty and injustice Skimpole argues that everything is for the best, and that because of his own unpaid debts he has provided employment for a debt collector.

Ch. 16 – Tom-all-alone’s   Crossing sweeper Jo exists in a state of abject poverty and animal-like ignorance in the slum at Tom-all-alone’s. Lady Deadlock visits Tulkinghorn, then asks Jo to show her all the places associated with Nemo, including where he is buried.

Ch. 17 – Esther’s Narrative   Mr and Mrs Badger warn Esther that Richard is not taking his training seriously. When challenged Richard says he wants to take up law. Jarndyce reveals to Esther how he adopted her from her godmother. Allan Woodcourt leaves for India and China.

Ch. 18 – Lady Dedlock   Richard moves to lodgings in London, spending extravagantly. Skimpole has his furniture confiscated, and sends the bill to Jarndyce. There is a visit to Lawrence Boythorn at Chesney Wold. Esther sees Lady Dedlock in church and feels disturbed. She meets her again in the park whilst sheltering from a storm and cannot explain a sense of recognition she feels.

Ch. 19 – Moving on   The Snagsbys put on tea for the pompous Reverend and Mrs Chadband. Whilst there Jo is cautioned by a constable and reveals his contact with Lady Dedlock. Guppy recognises Mrs Chadband, who brought Esther to Kenge and Carboy’s office.

Ch. 20 – A New Lodger   Guppy feels rivalry at having Richard articled at Kenge and Carboy. Guppy and Smallweed take down-and-out Tony Jobling for lunch. Guppy persuades him to become a lodger at Krook’s (in Nemo’s old room) and he finds him a job as a copyist at Snagsby’s.

Ch. 21 – The Smallweed Family   The Smallweeds are an eccentric family of undeveloped mean-minded money lenders. Mr George comes to make a repayment. They try to persuade him to take out further loans, and they pretend to be acting as intermediaries for someone more powerful. Mr George goes back to his unprofitable shooting gallery.

Ch. 22 – Mr Bucket   Snagsby tells Tulkinghorn about Jo’s story, then goes with Inspector Bucket to Tom-all-alone’s where they encounter scenes of squalor and pestilence. When they bring Jo back to Tulkinghorn’s office, Hortense is dressed as her mistress Lady Dedlock, but Jo’s evidence reveals that this was not the woman he took to Nemo’s grave.

Ch. 23 – Esther’s Narrative   Hortense has left Lady Dedlock and wants Esther to take her on as maid, but Esther refuses. Richard has become infatuated with the Jarndyce case, but wants to leave the law and join the Army. He has also amassed debts. Esther helps Caddy Jellyby break the news of her engagement to Mr Turveydrop and Mrs Jellyby.

Ch. 24 – An Appeal Case   When it is time for Richard to join the army, Mr Jarndyce insists that it is his last chance at choosing a profession and that he and Ada must break off their engagement. Mr George thinks he recognises Esther, and he reveals that Gridley is one of his customers – and is hiding in the shooting gallery. Esther visits the Court and is dismayed by its procedures. Mr George comes to the Court for Miss Flite. They all assemble at the shooting gallery, and Bucket arrives (disguised as a doctor) to arrest Gridley. But Gridley dies, worn out by his struggles with the Court.

Ch. 25 – Mrs Snagsby sees it all   Snagsby is worried that something is wrong, but he does not know what it is. Meanwhile, Mrs Snagsby is also suspicious of him, thinking Jo might be his illegitimate son. Jo is brought before ‘Reverend’ Chadband , who delivers a meaningless catechism upon him.

Krook

Ch. 26 – Sharpshooters   Mr George and Phil Squod are visited by Smallweed who reveals that Richard has been borrowing money. He has come in search of a sample of writing by Captain Hawdon. Mr George is suspicious, but agrees to go to Tulkinghorn’s office for further information.

Ch. 27 – More Old Soldiers than one   Tulkinghorn wants the sample to compare the writing with another document in his possession, but George refuses to co-operate. George goes to seek advice from his old colleague Matthew Bagnet, but the advice (given by his wife) is to steer clear of anything that makes him feel uncomfortable. George returns to Tulkinghorn, who curses him for not producing the evidence.

Ch. 28 – The Ironmaster   Volumina Dedlock and other minor ‘cousins’ are at Chesney Wold. Mrs Rouncewell’s son (the Ironmaster) asks Sir Leicester and Lady Dedlock for permission to remove Rosa from Chesney Wold in the event of her marrying his son Matt Rouncewell. Sir Leicester is outraged at the very idea.

Ch. 29 – The Young Man   Guppy arrives at Dedlock’s London house to see Lady Dedlock. He recounts the list of connections he has established – Esther’s similarity to her; Jo’s connection with her; Nemo’s and Esther’s real name being Hawdon. He has some new documents coming, and his objective is to impress Esther. Lady Dedlock reluctantly agrees to see him again

Ch. 30 – Esther’s Narrative   Esther is visited by Mrs Woodcourt who bores everyone about her famous Welsh ancestors and her son Allan, who must not marry beneath his true social station. Esther helps Caddy Jellyby prepare for her wedding, which goes off without incident.

Ch. 31 – Nurse and Patient   Charley reports to Esther that Jo is in the neighbourhood. He is on the run, and has some sort of fever. Esther houses him for the night, but in the morning he has disappeared. Charley develops smallpox which she has caught from Jo. Esther nurses her back to health, then contracts the disease herself.

Ch. 32 – The Appointed Time   Tony Jobling (aka Weevle) is feeling depressed in Nemo’s old room at Krook’s. He is visited first by Snagsby then by Guppy, who is due to receive Nemo’s letters for copying from Krook (who cannot read) – but not until midnight. The room fills with soot and foul vapours. At midnight they go down and find that Krook is no longer there, having died from ‘spontaneous combustion’.

Ch. 33 – Interlopers   There is an inquest at Sol’s Arms. Snagsby appears and wonders if he is guilty of anything, but he is taken away by the ever-suspicious Mrs Snagsby. Old Smallweed appears and reveals that Krook was his wife’s brother. Smallweed has come to ‘secure the property’, with Tulkinghorn as his solicitor. Guppy reports to Lady Dedlock that he no longer has the letters he promised – and he is dismissed out of hand.

Ch. 34 – A Turn of the Screw   Mr George receives a demand from Smallweed on a debt in his friend Bagnet’s name. Mr and Mrs Bagnet arrive at the shooting gallery. She reproaches George, who apologises. George and Bagnet go to see Smallweed, asking for leniency in payment. Smallweed throws them out. They then go to Tulkinghorn, where the reception is hostile. But George trades the letter he has in Hawdon’s handwriting for a letter of exemption on Bagnet for the debt.

Ch. 35 – Esther’s Narrative   Esther gradually recovers from the smallpox but is left badly disfigured. Richard turns against his guardian Jarndyce. Miss Flite visits and reports on a lady in a veil making enquiries about Esther. She recounts how her family were drawn into the Jarndyce case and all perished. She also recounts news of Allan Woodcourt who has distinguished himself in an Eastern shipwreck.

Ch. 36 – Chesney Wold   Esther stays at Chesney Wold at the invitation of Boythorn. She confronts her own disfigurement in the mirror. Walking in the park she meets Lady Dedlock, who reveals that she is her mother. She gives Esther an explanatory letter, only part of which Esther reveals in her narrative.

Ch. 37 – Jarndyce and Jarndyce   Richard visits Chesney Wold with Horace Skimpole to plead his case with Esther. He is now indifferent to the Army and still builds all his hopes on the Court case. He believes that Jarndyce should not be trusted. He is also in debt again. His solicitor Vholes arrives and they immediately set off to drive to the Court next day where the Jarndyce case is being heard.

Ch. 38 – A Struggle   Esther returns to live at Bleak House. She visits Caddy Jellyby who is assisting her husband and his apprentices at the dancing school. She then consults Guppy, asking him not to look into her background. He agrees, but makes a comical retraction in exaggerated legal terms of his previous proposal of marriage to her (because she is now disfigured).

The Smallweeds

Ch. 39 – Attorney and Client   Richard complains to his solicitor Mr Vholes about the lack of progress in the Jarndyce case. Vholes replies with sophistical excuses and claims that he is ever-vigilant on his client’s behalf. Guppy accompanies Tony Jobling to the Krook house where he is recovering his effects. There is speculation that Nemo’s papers might have escaped the spontaneous combustion fire.

Ch. 40 – National and Domestic   The long recess is over. Preparations are under way at Chesney Wold for national elections. Lady Dedlock has not been well. Voters are being bribed and bought off. Tulkinghorn arrives with news of political setbacks for Dedlock, and the housekeeper Mrs Rouncewell’s son and grandson are involved. Tulkinghorn then delivers a thinly disguised story of Lady Dedlock and her child by a former captain lover.

Ch. 41 – In Mr Tulkinghorn’s Room   Lady Dedlock immediately visits Tulkinghorn in his room at Chesney World to challenge him regarding his disclosure. She plans to leave Chesney Wold the same night. Tulkinghorn argues that she should consider her husband’s honour and social reputation. He promises to keep her secret for a while longer, and persuades her to stay.

Ch. 42 – In Mr Tulkinghorn’s Chambers   Back at his Lincoln’s Inn chambers, Tulkinghorn is met by Snagsby, who complains about being harassed by Hortense. She then appears to complain that Tulkinghorn has not been fair to her. He threatens to report her to the police if she comes anywhere near him or Snagsby again.

Ch. 43 – Esther’s Narrative   Esther is oppressed by the need to keep her mother’s identity a secret. She quizzes Jarndyce about Herbert Skimpole, but he defends him. They then visit Skimpole’s house where Jarndyce makes a feeble attempt to talk sense to him about money and responsibility. Skimpole introduces his three vacuous daughters, then leaves with Jarndyce to escape someone whose chairs he has borrowed and ruined. At Bleak House they are visited by Sir Leicester Dedlock, who invites everybody to visit Chesney Wold. Esther reveals to Jarndyce that Lady Dedlock is her mother, and he reveals that Boythorn was engaged to Lady Dedlock’s sister.

Ch. 44 – The Letter and the Answer   Next day Jarndyce agrees to support her, then he writes her a letter proposing marriage. Esther feels conflicted by the news. Allan Woodcourt comes back into her thoughts. She plans to write a letter to Jarndyce in reply, but doesn’t. Instead, she tells him that she will marry him.

Ch. 45 – In Trust   Vholes arrives with news of Richard’s unpaid debts. Esther goes to visit Richard in Deal. He has just resigned his commission and continues to nurture hopes for success in Court. He receives a letter from Ada offering him her inheritance to pay off his debts. He says he will refuse it. Whilst there Esther meets Allan Woodcourt, recently back from India, and asks him to befriend and help Richard.

Ch. 46 – Stop him!   Allan Woodcourt meets Jenny the brickmaker’s wife in Tom-all-alone’s in the early morning. He tends her matrimonial wounds, then chases down Jo who suddenly appears. Jo reveals that he was taken away when in Esther’s care by someone [Bucket] and put into hospital, then given money to stay away.

Ch. 47 – Jo’s Will   Woodcourt takes the homeless Jo to Miss Flite, who recommends Mr George as a source of refuge for the boy. Mr George agrees to give him shelter, fuelled by his dislike of Bucket and Tulkinghorn. The penniless Jo asks Snagsby to write his will, and then he dies.

Ch. 48 – Closing in   Lady Deadlock reassures Rosa that she likes her but is dismissing her from service at Chesney Wold (to protect her reputation). Mr Rouncewell is summoned and agreement eventually reached with Sir Leicester on Rosa’s dismissal. Tulkinghorn then claims Lady Dedlock has broken their agreement, and threatens to expose her secret to her husband. Following this, Tulkinghorn is shot through the heart by someone unknown.

Ch. 49 – Dutiful Friendship   Mr Bagnet is celebrating his wife’s birthday with the family. He cooks a dinner which is almost inedible. Mr George arrives in low spirits after the death of Jo. Then Mr Bucket arrives, flatters Mrs Bagnet, and makes a big fuss of the children. But when Bucket and Mr George leave, the detective arrests him as a suspect for the murder of Tulkinghorn.

Ch. 50 – Esther’s Narrative   Caddy Jellyby falls ill and is nursed devotedly by Esther. Jarndyce recommends Woodcourt as a doctor for her. Esther feels that these events cast something of a shadow over her relationship with Ada.

Spontaneous combustion

Ch. 51 – Enlightened   Woodcourt goes to see Richard who is still in thrall to Vholes and the Chancery case. He claims he is acting for Ada’s interests in the case, as well as for his own. Esther and Ada go to visit Richard, where Ada reveals the she has been secretly married to him for the last two months. Esther returns to tell Jarndyce, who has already guessed as much.

Ch. 52 – Obstinacy   Woodcourt brings news of Mr George’s arrest to Bleak House. They all visit the jail and try to persuade Mr George to defend himself. But he stubbornly refuses to do so, and is particularly critical of lawyers. Mr Bagnet arrives with his wife, who reproaches Mr George for being so stubborn. Esther feels uncomfortable because of her connection with Lady Dedlock. Afterwards Mrs Bagnet discloses that Mr George has an elderly mother still alive, and she sets off for Lincolnshire to retrieve her.

Ch. 53 – The Track   Mr Bucket attends the funeral of Tulkinghorn, then goes to the Dedlock town house. He is interviewed by Sir Leicester, who offers him financial support in pursuit of the crime. Bucket is meanwhile in receipt of letters pointing suspicion at Lady Dedlock. Bucket also quizzes a footman on Lady Dedlock’s habits and her behaviour on the night of the murder.

Ch. 54 – Springing a Mine   Next morning Bucket confronts Sir Leicester and reveals the secret history of Lady Deadlock’s lover and the fact that Tulkinghorn had been spying on her. Suddenly Grandfather Smallweed and the Chadbands arrive, trying to extort money for their knowledge of the ‘secret’ and in search of Lady Dedlock’s letters, which are in Bucket’s possession. They are dismissed, and Bucket produces the culprit – Hortense – and spells out the case against her, based on what he claims is her hatred of Lady Dedlock.

Ch. 55 – Flight   Mrs Bagnet returns from Lincolnshire with Mrs Rouncewell, who turns out to be Mr George’s mother. They visit him in prison where he begs his mother’s forgiveness for his wayward past and filial neglect. Mrs Rouncewell then goes to Lady Dedlock and asks her to do anything she can to help her son. She also gives her a letter which contains an account of the murder, followed by Lady Dedlock’s name and the charge ‘Murderess’. Guppy calls to warn her about Smallweed and the still-extant letters. Lady Dedlock writes her husband a letter claiming her innocence, then escapes from the house.

Ch. 56 – Pursuit   Sir Leicester has a stroke brought on by the shock of all these revelations. When he recovers he cannot speak, but sets Bucket in pursuit of his wife. Bucket seeks out Esther to accompany him, fearing that Lady Dedlock might be contemplating suicide.

Ch. 57 – Esther’s Narrative   Esther is collected by Bucket, and they go in search of Lady Dedlock. First to Limehouse, then along the river, and then to St Albans and Bleak House. They go to the brickmakers’ cottage where they discover that she has passed through the night before. They press on, but find nothing – so Bucket suddenly decides to backtrack to London.

Mr Turveydrop

Ch. 58 – A Wintry Day and Night   News of Lady Dedlock’s disappearance spreads through fashionable society. Sir Leicester is still recuperating. He asks Mrs Rouncewell to produce her prodigal son George – and the meeting seems to be beneficial to him, since he knew George as a child. He declares to the household that he has no quarrel at all with Lady Dedlock, who still does not appear, even though the house is being prepared for her return.

Ch. 59 – Esther’s Narrative   Esther and Bucket arrive back in London in the early hours of the morning. They meet Woodcourt and go to Snagsby’s where a letter written by Lady Dedlock is recovered from Gusta, who has had a fit. She recounts how Lady Dedlock has asked for directions to the Burial Ground. When they get there Esther finds her mother dead at the gates, dressed in poor Jenny’s clothes.

Ch. 60 – Perspective   Jarndyce engineers more contact with Woodcourt, who has prospects of a modest position in Yorkshire. Richard is ever more enmeshed with the Court, and is spending Ada’s money. Vholes confirms that Richard is in a bad way. Ada confesses her fears to Esther, and reveals that she is having a baby.

Ch. 61 – A Discovery   Esther pleads with Skimpole to stay away from Richard and Ada, to which he agrees. But he breaks his promise and is cut off by Jarndyce. At this point he disappears from the story and is said to die five years later. Woodcourt gets his job in Yorkshire and declares his undying love to Esther, who does not tell him that she is supposed to be marrying Jarndyce.

Ch. 62 – Another Discovery   Next day Esther renews her promise to marry Jarndyce. Bucket arrives with Smallweed who has found a Jarndyce will amongst Krook’s old papers. They take the will to Kenge, who tells them it gives Jarndyce less money and Richard and Ada more. Jarndyce continues to want nothing to do with the matter.

Ch. 63 – Steel and Iron   Mr George travels north and searches out his brother the successful Ironmaster. He is very well received, but wishes to be written out of his mother’s will because of his previous behaviour. He brother suggests he should not offend their mother, but will the inheritance to someone else – which he does. He turns down the offer of a job, preferring to work as a groom to Sir Leicester Dedlock.

Ch. 64 – Esther’s Narrative   Esther is preparing for her marriage when she is summoned to Yorkshire by Jarndyce. He has organised a cottage home for Woodcourt modelled on Bleak House, and renounces his claim on Esther in favour of the doctor. Back in St Albans, Guppy calls with his mother and renews his proposal of marriage to Esther (now that he thinks she will be rich). Mrs Guppy is vigorously offended when it is refused.

Ch. 65 – Beginning the World   The Jarndyce case finally comes to court. Esther and Woodcourt attend, finding all the lawyers and court attendants laughing at the outcome. It turns out that the whole estate has been swallowed up in costs. Richard is devastated and falls ill, but vows to start a new life. However, he dies amongst his friends.

Ch. 66 – Down in Lincolnshire   At Chesney Wold, Sir Leicester is an invalid who has retreated from life in the care of Mr George. The house is largely closed up, and Lady Dedlock’s ashes are in the family mausoleum in the grounds.

Ch. 67 – The Close of Esther’s Narrative   Ada has a baby boy who is given his father’s name. She is invited to live with Jarndyce. Esther has two children, and Woodcourt is a well-respected local doctor.

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Bleak House – characters

Sir Leicester Dedlock	a baronet, but not a peer (67)
Lady Honoria Dedlock	his very fashionable wife (47)
Tulkinghorn	a ruthless and single-minded lawyer
Esther Summerson	an ‘orphan’
‘Conversation’ Kenge	a Chancery lawyer who likes to hear himself talk
Miss Barbary	Esther’s severe godmother (actually her aunt)
John Jarndyce	Esther’s guardian, Ada’s cousin
Ada Clare	an orphan, cousin to John Jarndyce (17)
Richard Carstone	an orphan, Ada’s cousin (19)
Mrs Jellyby	a ‘philanthropist’ obsessed with Africa
Mr Jellyby	her husband, a nonentity
Mr Quale	an acolyte to Mrs Jellyby
Caroline (Caddy) Jellyby	their eldest daughter, befriended by Esther
Miss Flite	eccentric elderly ‘suitor’ in Jarndyce case
Horace Skimpole	a professional layabout and sponger
Krook	rag and bottle shop owner, and landlord
Mrs Rouncewell	housekeeper to the Dedlocks
Mr George (Rouncewell)	her son, an ex-soldier and vagabond, keeper of the shooting gallery
Mrs Pardiggle	an imperious charity scrounger
Lawrence Boythorn	outspoken school friend of Jarndyce, neighbour of Dedlock
Mr Snagsby	a mild law stationer
Mrs Snagsby	his wife, a jealous termagant
Augusta (Gusta)	their assistant, given to fits
Rosa	pretty trainee at the Dedlock house
Hortense	acerbic French lady’s maid to Lady Dedlock
Bayham Badger	a medical man
Mrs Badger	his wife, who lives through her two previous husbands
Mr Turveydrop	an idle, pompous model of ‘deportment’
Prince Turveydrop	his son, a dancing instructor
Allan Woodcourt	a young doctor
Inspector Bucket	a detective with a flattering and sardonic manner
Phil Squod	Mr George’s disfigured assistant
‘Nemo’	a law copyist and opium addict, (actually Captain Hawdon, Lady Dedlock’s lover and Esther’s father)
William Guppy	clerk at Kenge and Carboy, suitor to Esther
Mr Gridley	‘the man from Shropshire’, and suitor in the Jarndyce case who dies

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Criticism

Susan Shatto, The Companion to ‘Bleak House’, London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.

George Ford and Sylvere Monod (eds) Bleak House, Norton Critical Editions, 1977.

A.E.Dyson (ed), Bleak House: A Casebook, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1969.

Harold Bloom (ed), Modern Critical Interpretations of Bleak House, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.

Jeremy Hawthorn, Bleak House, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1987.

Grahame Smith, Charles Dickens: Bleak House, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1974.

Graham Storey, Bleak House, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Jakob Korg (ed), Twentieth Century Interpretations of Bleak House, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1968.

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Mont Blanc – Charles Dickens special edition

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Further reading

Biography

Peter Ackroyd, Dickens, London: Mandarin, 1991.

John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens, Forgotten Books, 2009.

Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph, Little Brown, 1952.

Fred Kaplan, Dickens: A Biography, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Frederick G. Kitton, The Life of Charles Dickens: His Life, Writings and Personality, Lexden Publishing Limited, 2004.

Michael Slater, Charles Dickens, Yale University Press, 2009.

Criticism

G.H. Ford, Dickens and His Readers, Norton, 1965.

P.A.W. Collins, Dickens and Crime, London: Palgrave, 1995.

Philip Collins (ed), Dickens: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge, 1982.

Jenny Hartley, Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women, London: Methuen, 2009.

Andrew Sanders, Authors in Context: Charles Dickens, Oxford University Press, 2009.

Jeremy Tambling, Going Astray: Dickens and London, London: Longman, 2008.

Donald Hawes, Who’s Who in Dickens, London: Routledge, 2001.

 

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Other works by Charles Dickens

Pickwick Papers (1836-37) was Dickens’ first big success. It was issued in twenty monthly parts and is not so much a novel as a series of loosely linked sketches and changing characters featured in reports to the Pickwick Club. These recount comic excursions to Rochester, Dingley Dell, and Bath; duels and elopements; Christmas festivities; Mr Pickwick inadvertently entering the bedroom of a middle-aged lady at night; and in the end a happy marriage. Much light-hearted fun, and a host of memorable characters.
Buy the book here

 

Oliver Twist (1837-38) expresses Dickens’ sense of the vulnerability of children. Oliver is a foundling, raised in a workhouse, who escapes suffering by running off to London. There he falls into the hands of a gang of thieves controlled by the infamous Fagin. He is pursued by the sinister figure of Monks who has secret information about him. The plot centres on the twin issues of personal identity and a secret inheritance (which surface again in Great Expectations). Emigration, prison, and violent death punctuate a cascade of dramatic events. This is the early Victorian novel in fine melodramatic form. Recommended for beginners to Dickens.
Buy the book here

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Charles Dickens – web links

Charles Dickens at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, tutorials and study guides, free eTexts, videos, adaptations for cinema and television, further web links.

Charles Dickens at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary techniques, his influence and legacy, extensive bibliography, and further web links.

Charles Dickens at Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the major works in a variety of formats.

Dickens on the Web
Major jumpstation including plots and characters from the novels, illustrations, Dickens on film and in the theatre, maps, bibliographies, and links to other Dickens sites.

The Dickens Page
Chronology, eTexts available, maps, filmography, letters, speeches, biographies, criticism, and a hyper-concordance.
Charles Dickens at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of the major novels and stories for the cinema and television – in various languages

A Charles Dickens Journal
An old HTML website with detailed year-by-year (and sometimes day-by-day) chronology of events, plus pictures.

Hyper-Concordance to Dickens
Locate any word or phrase in the major works – find that quotation or saying, in its original context.

Dickens at the Victorian Web
Biography, political and social history, themes, settings, book reviews, articles, essays, bibliographies, and related study resources.

Charles Dickens – Gad’s Hill Place
Something of an amateur fan site with ‘fun’ items such as quotes, greetings cards, quizzes, and even a crossword puzzle.

© Roy Johnson 2015

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More on Charles Dickens
More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

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a selection of web-based archives and resources

This short selection of Charles Dickens web links offers quick connections to resources for further study. It’s not comprehensive, and if you have any ideas for additional resources, please use the ‘Comments’ box below to make suggestions.

Charles Dickens – web links

Charles Dickens at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, tutorials and study guides, free eTexts, videos, adaptations for cinema and television, further web links.

Charles Dickens at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary techniques, his influence and legacy, extensive bibliography, and further web links.

Charles Dickens at Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the major works in a variety of formats.

Dickens on the Web
Major jumpstation including plots and characters from the novels, illustrations, Dickens on film and in the theatre, maps, bibliographies, and links to other Dickens sites.

The Dickens Page
Chronology, eTexts available, maps, filmography, letters, speeches, biographies, criticism, and a hyper-concordance.

Charles Dickens at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of the major novels and stories for the cinema and television – in various languages

A Charles Dickens Journal
An old HTML website with detailed year-by-year (and sometimes day-by-day) chronology of events, plus pictures.

Hyper-Concordance to Dickens
Locate any word or phrase in the major works – find that quotation or saying, in its original context.

Dickens at the Victorian Web
Biography, political and social history, themes, settings, book reviews, articles, essays, bibliographies, and related study resources.

Charles Dickens – Gad’s Hill Place
Something of an amateur fan site with ‘fun’ items such as quotes, greetings cards, quizzes, and even a crossword puzzle.

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The Oxford Companion to Dickens offers in one volume a lively and authoritative compendium of information about Dickens: his life, his works, his reputation and his cultural context. In addition to entries on his works, his characters, his friends and places mentioned in his works, it includes extensive information about the age in which he lived and worked: the people, events and institutions which provided the context for his work; the houses in which he lived; the countries he visited; the ideas he satirized; the circumstances he responded to; and the culture he participated in. The companion thus provides a synthesis of Dickens studies and an accessible range of information.

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Mont Blanc pen – Charles Dickens special edition

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The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens contains fourteen essays which cover the whole range of Dickens’s writing, from Sketches by Boz through to The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Some address important thematic topics: childhood, the city, and domestic ideology. Others consider the serial publication and Dickens’s distinctive use of language. Three final chapters examine Dickens in relation to work in other media: illustration, theatre, and film. The volume as a whole offers a valuable introduction to Dickens for students and general readers, as well as fresh insights, informed by recent critical theory.

© Roy Johnson 2010

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More on Charles Dickens
More on literature
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

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tutorial, commentary, study resources, plot, and web links

Dombey and Son was first issued in monthly instalments by Bradbury & Evans between October 1846 and April 1848. It was then published in a single volume with original illustrations by Hablot Knight Brown (‘Phiz’). The full description on the title page reads Dealings with the firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation.

monthly serial cover

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Dombey and Son – critical commentary

Title

The title of this novel is particularly apt, because it incorporates principal aspects of its two major themes. The term ‘Dombey and Son’ is obviously the name of a commercial firm. It conveys the notion of a business enterprise which has passed through at least two generations and is therefore effective and reliable.

But in fact the enterprise has this name before the birth of his son. He already has a daughter, but he does not consider her adequate to represent his dynastic ambitions. So all his hopes are pinned on his son Paul

But he has put so much of his energy and enterprise into his commercial endeavours, he has lost the ability to love even his own offspring. So the term ‘Dombey and Son’ also encompasses the second major theme of the novel – which is the gulf that separates parent from child.

Dickens’ primary meaning in his title is the commercial establishment. This is signalled by his full description of the novel on its title page – Dealings with the firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail, and for Exportation.. But the secondary meaning coexists without any doubt.

Educating the child

Much of the first part of the novel is about the poor raising, the neglect, and the false education of children. Paul Dombey (senior) has his expectations set on a son who will inherit the commercial success of Dombey and Son and promote its good name into the future. The father ignores and neglects his firstborn child Florence because she is female. He sees her as insignificant in the paternalistic dynasty of business and inheritance. As he says to her: “Girls … have nothing to do with Dombey and Son”.

Yet when his wife bears him a male child (Paul junior) the son is immediately removed from his primary sources of emotional comfort – first of all from his mother because she dies, then from his beloved nurse, Polly Toodles, because Dombey fires her. Dombey then submits his son to the dubious care of his stupid sister Mrs Chick and her friend Miss Tox. Even worse, he subsequently sends Paul to the appalling establishment run by the fraudulent Mrs Pipchin in Brighton. She neglects the children placed in her care to an almost criminal extent.

Following this ruinous beginning, Paul is sent to a boarding school owned by Dr Blimber, who is obsessed with teaching ‘classics’ (Latin and Greek language and history). Blimber runs the establishment on the Spartan and cheerless lines of an English public school (that is, a fee-paying, private school) where Paul is miserably unhappy. It is significant that the only real learning he imbibes is delivered to him by his elder sister Florence, whom he loves dearly and acts as a substitute mother to him.

Dombey péreis a cold, unloving and distant father who wants a son who will continue the commercial enterprise he has created – but he has no love for that child as a human being. He is more interested in the idea of Dynasty than his own flesh and blood.

Paul is intensely aware that he has lost his mother, and he clings to his sister Florence as a means of emotional support.

Point of view

Dickens often appears in his own novels commenting on events, characters, and the situations he has created. But in terms of ‘point of view’ he does something very interesting in the case of young Paul Dombey. It is quite clear to the reader that Paul is a weak and sickly child. He is fragile and enervated; he has been emotionally neglected; and he leads an intense inner life frequently immersed in thoughts about his mother – of whom he has no conscious recollection, since she died immediately following his birth. These thoughts are often bound up with images of the sea and the stars.

The actual nature of his disability is never made clear. [Given Paul’s precocious and philosophic turn of mind, we might today think he was autistic] But Dickens’s masterstroke is that he gives an account of Paul’s demise and eventual death – entirely from the boy’s own point of view. Paul does not want to be a trouble to anybody, and keeps repeating ‘Tell my papa I am quite well’ (this to the father who has essentially neglected him). Paul merely wishes to be surrounded by the people he loves and who have been kind to him – his sister ‘Floy’, his old nurse Polly, and his friend Walter Gay.

Given that Dickens is often accused of being sentimental, his rendering of Paul’s death is wonderful piece of pathos – because Paul feels that he is quite happy to be drifting in and out of fantasies of his mother and the sea, whilst it is clear to the reader that the child is dying:

Sister and brother wound their arms around each other, and the golden light came streaming in, and fell upon them, locked together.
“How fast the river runs, between its green banks and the rushes, Floy! But it’s very near the sea. I hear the waves! They always said so.”
Presently he told her that the motion of the boat upon the stream was lulling him to rest. How green the banks were now, how bright the flowers growing on them, and how tall the rushes! Now the boat was out at sea, but gliding smoothly on. And now there was a shore before him. Who stood on the bank! —

As Dickens wrote in his own notes for the novel: ‘His illness only expressed in the child’s own feelings – Not otherwise described’.

The main theme

Unlike the other major novels of Dickens’ mature period – Bleak House (1852-53), Great Expectations (1860-61), and Little Dorrit (1855-57)- Dombey and Son is mainly focused on family and personal matters, even though there are similarly larger political and financial issues in the background to the events of the narrative.

Dombey is the head of a commercial enterprise, and he invests his trust in his villainous manager Carker – who betrays him by bad business practices and attempting to steal his beautiful wife. But the actual mechanisms of commercial deceit are never examined in any detail.

Dombey is rich and powerful. He is proud, emotionally guarded to the point of being a psychopath towards his own daughter (and others). His empire eventually collapses, and he realises that he has no friends and no family as comforts against the catastrophic nature of his downfall. He is psychologically injured by the shock of events, but he recovers, supported by the unstinting devotion of his daughter, and he ends in a tranquil old age devoted to his two grandchildren.

Characterisation

Two major issues of characterisation haunt the novel. Florence’s devotion to her father and her endless search for his love are stretched almost to breaking point. She has been neglected, ignored, and even beaten by him – yet after her marriage to Walter she comes back to Dombey to beg his forgiveness for deserting him. This is virtue, patience, and devotion taken to an almost masochistic level.

The other major problem is Dombey himself. He spends nine tenths of the novel as a ruthless, cruel, and heartless businessman and father, but when his company collapses we are asked to believe that he suddenly realises the error of his ways and regrets a lifetime of bad parenting to the extent of becoming a devoted father and grandfather. Dickens is clever enough to plant thoughts of Florence into Dombey’s mind even before this spiritual transformation, but this transformation of character takes place too rapidly to be really credible.

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Dombey and Son – study resources

Dombey and Son – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

Dombey and Son – Oxford World Classics – Amazon US

Dombey and Son – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

Dombey and Son – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

Dombey and Son – eBook formats at Project Gutenberg

The Complete Works of Charles Dickens – Kindle edition

Charles Dickens – biographical notes

The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens – Amazon UK

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Dombey and Son – plot summary

Ch. I.   Mr Paul Dombey (senior) is a proud and severe businessman who thinks his long-awaited and newly born son will fulfil the destiny of the firm Dombey and Son. His sister Mrs Chick gushes with family pride at the event, but Mrs Dombey dies following the birth.

Ch. II   Mr and Mrs Chick argue about the provision of a nurse for young Paul. Their friend Miss Tox arrives with the Toodles family. Dombey reluctantly and suspiciously hires Polly Toodle as a nurse, re-naming her Richards.

Ch. III   Polly comforts Florence Dombey, who has been ignored by her father because he has been waiting for a son who will inherit the firm. Polly tries to bring Dombey and his daughter closer together, and in doing so she encounters the waspish Susan Nipper, Florence’s maid.

Ch. IV   Ship’s instrument maker Solomon Gills questions his nephew Walter about his new job as a clerk at Dombey and Son. His own trade has been failing and he wants to provide Walter with a good start in life. They are joined by Captain Cuttle, with whom they share a bottle of Madeira.

Ch. V   Miss Tox assumes more significance in Paul’s upbringing. Paul is christened on a cold and grim day, an event followed by an unappetising and cheerless lunch given by Dombey, who establishes a scholarship for Polly’s eldest son Robin.

Ch. VI   Polly and Susan take Paul and Florence to the Toodle’s house in Camden Town. The two groups mingle affectionately, but on returning Florence gets lost and is abducted by an old hag Mrs Brown. Florence eventually finds her way to the river and meets Walter Gay, who returns her to the Dombey house. Polly is immediately sacked from her job as Paul’s nurse.

Ch.VII   Miss Tox takes up active supervision of young Paul’s welfare and spurns the attentions of her would-be suitor and neighbour Major Bagstock.

Ch.VIII   Paul gets a new nurse Mrs Wickam. He is a sickly and strangely precocious boy who asks his father difficult questions on morbid subjects. Dombey decides to send him to Brighton for the sea air. Paul is placed with Mrs Pipchin, a fraudulent ‘child developer’ who mistreats her charges. Paul is fascinated by her ugliness.

Paul and Mrs Pipchin

Ch. IX   Walter has romantically cultivated his connection with Florence Dombey and is worried that his uncle Solomon Grills seems depressed. The reason is that he is in debt after honouring payments to Walter’s dead father. Walter brings in Captain Cuttle who hasn’t enough money to help his friend, but who suggests an appeal to Mr Dombey.

Ch. X   Major Bagstock goes to Brighton and inveigles himself into acquaintance with Dombey, with whom he begins to socialise. Whilst there, they are visited by Walter and Captain Cuttle who make an appeal to Dombey for financial help for Gills. Dombey is reluctant, but he puts the appeal to his son Paul, who approves it

Ch. XI   After a year at Mrs Pipchin’s, Dombey sends Paul as a boarder to Doctor Blimber’s prep school. The establishment is cheerless, uncomfortable, and entirely centred on classical studies. Paul is very unhappy at the prospect of remaining there.

Ch. XII   Paul is supervised by the astringent Cornelia Blimber — that is, given a pile of books and expected to teach himself. The school follows a strict regime imposed by Doctor Blimber. Florence buys copies of Paul’s text books and coaches him privately during their weekend meetings. Paul is a wistful, dreamy, and introspective boy

Ch. XIII   Dombey and Son needs a junior clerk for its Barbados office. Walter is appointed. James Carker the manager humiliates his elder brother John in front of Walter and Dombey. Afterwards John Carker reveals the cause of his shame to Walter (he stole from the firm) and gives him his support and blessing.

Ch. XIV   Cornelia Blimber gives Paul a quasi-mathematical ‘annalysis’ of his character, and concludes that he is ‘too old-fashioned’. Paul merely wants to be liked by others. He hopes they will think kindly of him when he ‘goes away’. He is befriended by the head boy Toots and his tutor Mr Feeder. He has a serious illness which other people seem to regard as terminal. There is a dancing party at the end of term where everyone is kind and conciliatory to him.

Ch. XV Walter seeks advice from Captain Cuttle regarding his concern for his uncle and the new job in Barbados that he feels he cannot refuse. Captain Cuttle is perplexed and decides to appeal directly to Mr Dombey in secret. Paul meets Susan Nipper who is searching for Polly Toodles at Paul’s request. They locate her and hasten to the Dombey House.

Ch. XVI   Paul has been unwell for some time. He drifts in and out of sleep, dreams, and waking fantasies. Finally he calls for Polly and Walter, commends them to his father, then dies.

Ch. XVII   Captain Cuttle’s plan to see Dombey fails, and he is forced to reveal Walter’s West Indian job to his uncle. Then he sounds out his manager Carker instead, but Carker deceives him by pretending to agree with everything he says.

Ch, XVIII   Paul’s funeral and its gloomy aftermath. Dombey retreats into solitude. Florence enviously watches children in a neighbouring house who have a loving father. Mr Toots arrives and presents her with Diogenes, the dog from Blimber’s school. Florence reaches out to her father for some sign of affection, but he rebuffs her.

Ch. XIX   Walter is sadly preparing to leave his uncle when Florence and Susan Nipper appear at the shop. Florence proposes to befriend uncle Solomon during Walter’s absence, and wants to befriend Walter himself – but as a substitute brother. John Carker arrives to say goodbye, and Walter sets sail on the >Son and Heir for Barbados.

Ch. XX   Mr Dombey and Major Bagstock make a railway journey to visit Leamington. Backstock criticises Miss Tox as a wanton jade. Dombey vaingloriously credits himself with a monopoly on loss and suffering following Paul’s death. Thoughts of Florence enter his head for the first time.

Major Bagstock is delighted to have the opportunity

Ch. XXI   In Leamington they meet the aged coquette Mrs Skewton and her beautiful daughter, the widow Edith Granger. Bagstock flirts with Mrs Skewton, and Dombey takes an interest in Mrs Granger, who paints, sings, and plays the harp and piano. She too has lost a son.

Ch. XXII   James Carker refuses his brother John’s pleas on behalf of their sister Harriet. Carker does not act on Dombey’s written request to recall Walter, and then he places Rob the Grinder as a spy with Solomon Gill. Toots is in love with Florence but is held at bay by Susan Nipper and Diogenes.

Ch. XXIII   Florence lives alone in her father’s house whilst he is absent. She continues to wish he would love her, and wonders if she can eventually win his affection. There has been no news of Walter’s ship for a long time. Florence consults Captain Cuttle, who brings in his friend the ‘oracle’ and ‘philosopher’ Captain Bunsby, who turns out to be an empty windbag.

Ch. XXIV   Florence visits the Skettles at the same time as Dr and Mrs Blimber, and is also approached whilst out walking by James Carker, to whom she feels an instinctive aversion.

Ch. XXV   Solomon suddenly disappears, leaving Captain Cuttle his keys and a note expressing his final wishes. Cuttle searches for him, fearing he might have committed suicide. He moves out of his lodging with Mrs Mac Stinger and takes over Solomon’s place in the shop.

Ch. XXVI   Carker visits Dombey and Major Bagstock in Leamington. He tries to subtly poison Dombey’s mind against both Walter and Florence. Major Bagstock visits Mrs Skewton and they plot a marriage between Dombey and Edith Granger.

Ch. XXVII   Carker encounters Edith on his morning walk. He then joins Dombey and Bagstock for breakfast with Edith and her mother. They all go to Warwick Castle where Carker pursues Edith knowingly whilst she is obliged to demonstrate her artistic skills. Edith explodes with outrage to her mother for being used as a lure to catch Dombey, who will call the following day to propose marriage.

Mr Carker introduces himself

Ch. XXVIII   Florence is very suspicious of the attention being paid to her by Carker. Mr Toots continues to make comic visits to her. She and Susan Nipper return home to London where Dombey introduces her to Mrs Skewton and Edith who is to be her new mother. The two young women immediately feel a bond.

Ch.XXIX   Mrs Chick visits Miss Tox and reveals that her brother Dombey is going to take a second wife. Miss Tox faints at the shock of this news – at which Mrs Chick accuses her of secretly scheming to marry into her family. She excommunicates her friend as a result, but receives no sympathy from her husband.

Ch. XXX   Florence is befriended and comforted by Edith, who invites her to stay in her Brook Street house. Florence is apprehensive about meeting her father. Mrs Skewton wants Florence to stay with her during the forthcoming honeymoon, but Edith threatens to call off the marriage if this happens, fearing that Florence will be ‘contaminated’ by Mrs Skewton’s influence.

Ch. XXXI   All the major characters of the novel are involved on the day of the wedding. After the service there is a breakfast at which Cousin Feenix (MP) makes a rambling and incoherent speech and there is much drunkenness both above and below stairs.

Ch. XXXII   Captain Cuttle is hiding away in Sol’s shop , fearing that Mrs Mac Stinger might find him. He is visited by Toots and the Chicken who come from Susan Nipper in search of Solomon. They have news of the Son and Heir being wrecked at sea, with all hands lost. Cuttle checks the news with Carker, who insults him and throws him out of the office.

Ch. XXXIII   James Carker’s luxurious home is contrasted with the poorer dwelling of his sister Harriet and brother John. Harriet is visited by a mysterious stranger who knows John’s story and wishes to help them both. Harriet then helps a destitute and ex-convict woman (Alice) who is on her way to London.

Ch. XXXIV   Good Mrs Brown is living in abject poverty. Her daughter Alice returns from Australia. She has been hardened by the experience of ‘transportation’ and points out the lack of parental care in her upbringing. Her mother hints at some mysterious connections with the Dombey family and Carker. When it appears that there is also a connection with Carker’s sister Harriet, they go to her house, but she defiantly repudiates their offers of help.

Ch. XXXV   Dombey and Edith return home from honeymoon to their lavishly refurbished house. Dombey makes the first signs of recognising his own daughter Florence. Edith and Florence are reunited, but when Florence asks her for help in winning her father’s love, Edith explains that she cannot do so.

Florence and Edith

Ch. XXXVI   Dombey initiates a series of doom-laden dinners and soirees. Cousin Feenix tells an embarrassing anecdote about a rich man who marries a beautiful woman who does not love him. The soiree is a disaster, and Dombey reproaches Edith for her coldness to her guests in front of Carker.

Ch. XXXVII   Next day Carker menaces Edith by threatening to reveal Florence’s connections with Walter and Captain Cuttle to Dombey. Mrs Skewton has a stroke and becomes even more selfish and demanding towards Edith.

Ch. XXXVIII   Miss Tox visits the Toodles, where Rob the Grinder is under suspicion of being secretive. She ‘offers’ to become a friend of the family and a regular visitor – because she wants any news of the Dombey family.

Ch. XXXIX   Mr Toots requests a formal friendship with Captain Cuttle. Rob the Grinder announces that he is leaving the shop. Feeling alone, Captain Cuttle thinks of himself as Robinson Crusoe. He reads Solomon’s will with Commander Bunsby, then is invaded by Mrs Mac Stringer, who Bunsby charms away from the shop and takes back home.

Ch. XL   Dombey blames Florence for the lack of feeling that exists between them. He demands of Edith that she respect and obey him in a deferential manner. She offers to compromise with him for the sake of peace between them, but he scornfully refuses. Dombey orders the transfer of Florence, Edith, and her mother to Brighton, under the supervision of Mrs Pipchin. They encounter Good Mrs Brown and her daughter Alice, with whom Edith feels a strange instinctive kinship.

A Chance Meeting

Ch. XLI   Florence meets Mr Toots, who takes her to revisit Dr Blimber and their old school. Toots and Mr Feeder share romantic confidences. After her stroke, Mrs Skewton gets steadily worse, finally dies, and is buried in Brighton.

Ch. XLII   Rob the Grinder goes to work directly for James Carker. Dombey makes Carker his confidential agent in dealing with his wife. He demands that she obey him, and he forbids her to befriend his daughter Florence. Dombey falls off his horse, and Carker takes the news home to Florence and Edith.

Ch. XLIII   Florence feels increasingly conflicted because of the hostility between her father and her step-mother. She visits their rooms late at night. Edith is in a period of black despair, but she comforts Florence.

Ch. XLIV   Susan Nipper finally delivers a critical broadside to Dombey because of his appalling treatment of Florence. Mrs Pipchin is brought in to fire her. Susan leaves the house under the protective custody of Mr Toots.

Ch. XLV   Edith is confronted by Carker who flatters her, pretends to have her interests at heart, and presses his intimacy upon her. But he also warns her about Dombey’s threats regarding her obedience and her attitude to Florence.

Ch. XLVI   Rob the Grinder is accosted by Good Mrs Brown and interrogated regarding Carker and Dombey. Carker taunts and insults his brother John, and he feels conscious of having gained closer access to Edith.

Ch. XLVII   Florence is puzzled by Edith’s remoteness, but her stepmother (acting under orders from her husband) says the separation is necessary. On Dombey’s second wedding anniversary Edith refuses to attend a celebration party. Dombey instructs her via Carker whilst they are sitting at the same dinner table. Edith explodes and demands a separation. Carker intervenes (unsuccessfully) on her behalf. Later that night Edith leaves the house and elopes with Carker. Florence commiserates with her father, who responds by striking her in a rage – so she too runs away from home.

Ch. XLVIII   Florence escapes to Gills’ shop where Captain Cuttle looks after her and puts her to sleep upstairs. Mr Toots arrives with a garbled story that Cuttle is required at Brogley’s the Brokers, to which he immediately repairs.

Ch. XLIX   Captain Cuttle repeatedly alludes to Walter’s death at sea, and then eventually reveals that he was a survivor in the shipwreck. Walter enters and is reunited with Florence ‘in a brotherly way’.

Ch. L   Walter and Captain Cuttle discuss finding Susan as a companion to Florence. Toots appears and goes off in search of her. Florence and Walter engage in contorted discussions regarding their relationship, but in the end she proposes marriage to him.

‘Let him remember it in that room’

Ch. LI   Dombey is in a state of denial and does not want to discuss the scandal of his wife’s elopement. Feenix and Bagstock offer their services to challenge Carker – but nobody knows where he is.. The staff at Dombey and Son enjoy drunken celebrations.

Ch. LII   Dombey arrives at the hovel where Mrs Brown and Alice have access to news of Carker and Edith’s whereabouts. They hide Dombey in an adjacent room then threaten Rob the Grinder, who reveals that Carker and Edith have arranged to meet in Dijon.

Ch. LIII   Dombey sacks John Carker because of his association with his brother. Mr Morfin arrives to explain the history of Carker’s secret mismanagement of the company and his own offer of help. Alice visits Harriet and explains her own grudge against Carker, which is that she has been ‘sold’ to Carker as his mistress by her own mother.

Ch. LIV   Edith is in a Dijon apartment where dinner is being served. Carker joins her, but she turns on him, unleashes a torrent of criticisms, and threatens to murder him. She runs off, and he tries to follow her as Dombey arrives at the front door.

Ch. LV   Carker suddenly panics and feels he will only be safe back in England where he can hide. He has a fear of being followed and has no plans or even purpose in his flight. He travels non-stop, and arriving back in England he travels by rail to a remote village. But he cannot escape from his tortured thoughts and fears. Finally, fearing that he has been tracked down by Dombey, he falls in front of an approaching train and is killed.

Ch. LVI   Florence is reunited with Susan Nipper, and Walter prepares for both marriage and a naval commission to sail to China. Toots attends the final reading of the banns. Solomon Gills suddenly reappears, and the Chicken dismisses himself as companion to Toots.

Ch. LVII   Florence and Walter get married in a small, dusty, and obscure church, then set off on their sea journey. Captain Cuttle and Solomon postpone celebrating with the last bottle of Madeira.

Ch. LVIII   A year later Dombey and Son crashes and goes bankrupt. Dombey ruins himself repaying his debts. Harriet and John Carker inherit their brother James’ wealth, but arrange with Morfin to secretly pay most of it back to Dombey. Harriet visits Alice who is dying and learns that she is the illegitimate daughter of Dombey’s brother.

Ch. LIX   The bailiffs and loss adjusters move into Dombey’s house; staff are paid off by Mrs Pinchin; and the contents of the house are sold at auction. Mrs Pinchin goes back to Brighton. Miss Tox lays siege to Dombey, who realises he has no friends or family. He wanders round the empty house late at night, bitterly regretting the loss of Florence – who then suddenly appears to beg his forgiveness and announce the birth of her son, Paul.

Ch. LX   Mr Feeder marries Cornelia Blimber and takes over the prep school. At the wedding. they are joined by Toots, who has married Susan Nipper. Commander Bunsby is reluctantly married to Mrs Mac Stinger.

Ch. LXI   Florence looks after her father, who is very ill and haunted by his past. Cousin Feenix arrives and takes Florence to meet Edith, who he has rescued from France and is taking to live in Italy. Tentative forgiveness is offered from Edith to Dombey, but she parts from Florence ‘forever’.

Ch. LXII   Dombey recovers and is devoted to his two grandchildren – Paul and Florence. Captain Cuttle joins Solomon in the business. Mrs Toots has another child, and Harriet marries Mr Morfin.

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Dombey and Son – principal characters

Mr Paul Dombey (senior)	a cold, proud, snobbish, and imperious business man
Paul Dombey (junior)	his frail and visionary son
Florence Dombey	his neglected daughter
Mrs Louisa Chick	Dombey’s foolish sister
Mr John Chick	her husband, a compulsive singer
Miss Lucretia Tox	friend to Louisa Chick
Mr Toodle	an engine fireman
Polly Toodle	his fecund wife, who becomes Paul’s nurse
Robin (Biler) Toodle	‘Rob the Grinder’, their wayward eldest son
Susan Nipper	caustic-tongued nurse to Florence Dombey
Solomon Gills	a ship’s instrument maker
Walter Gay	Solomon’s nephew, who works for Dombey and Son
Captain Edward (Ned) Cuttle	Solomon’s friend with a hook for a hand
John Carker	prematurely aged office ‘junior’ at Dombey and Son
James Carker	John’s brother, the malicious office Manager with white teeth
Mrs Pipchin	a fraudulent child ‘developer’
Major Jack Bagstock	windbag neighbour and suitor to Miss Tox
Doctor Blimber	prep school principal, obsessed with classics
Cornelia Blimber	his spinsterish and pedantic daughter
Mr Toots	head boy, who writes letters to himself from famous people
Mr Feeder B.A.	teacher who befriends Paul and Toots
Mrs Skewton	an ancient coquette who develops palsy
Edith Granger	Mrs Skewton’s daughter, a beautiful young widow
Commander Jack Bunsby	empty windbag ‘philosopher’ and friend of Cuttle
Sir Barnet Skettles	a social climber, who claims to know people but doesn’t
the Chicken	a low life bruiser and friend of Toots
Good Mrs Brown	a derelict who steals from children
Alice Marwood	her daughter, a former convict
Mr Morfin	an employee at Dombey and Son

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Mont Blanc – Charles Dickens special edition

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Further reading

Biography

Peter Ackroyd, Dickens, London: Mandarin, 1991.

John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens, Forgotten Books, 2009.

Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph, Little Brown, 1952.

Fred Kaplan, Dickens: A Biography, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

Frederick G. Kitton, The Life of Charles Dickens: His Life, Writings and Personality, Lexden Publishing Limited, 2004.

Michael Slater, Charles Dickens, Yale University Press, 2009.

Criticism

Malcolm Andrews. Dickens and the Grown-~Up Child London: Macmillan, 1994.

Philip Collins, Dickens and Education, London: Macmillan, 1965.

Philip Collins (ed), Dickens: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge & Keegan POaul, 1971.

Steven Connor, Charles Dickens, Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.

Peter Coveney, The Image of Childhood, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967.

G.H. Ford, Dickens and His Readers, New York: Norton, 1965.

Barbara Hardy, The Moral Art of Charles Dickens, London: Athlone Press, 1970.

Dirk den Hartog, Dickens and Romantic Psychology, London: Macmillan, 1987.

Donald Hawes, Who’s Who in Dickens, London: Routledge, 2001.

F.R. and Q.D. Leavis, Dickens the Novelist, London: Chatto and Windus, 1970.

John Lucas, Charles Dickens: The Major Novels, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992.

Steven Marcus, Dickens: From Pickwick to Dombey, London: Chatto and Windus, 1965

Amy Sadrin, Parentage and Inheritance in the Novels of Charles Dickens, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Andrew Sanders, Authors in Context: Charles Dickens, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Hilary M. Schor, Dickens and the Daughter of the House, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

F.S. Schwarzback, Dickens and the City, London: Athlone Press, 1979.

Alan Shelston (ed), Dickens: Dombey and Son and Little Dorrit, London: Macmillan, 1985.

Jeremy Tambling, Dickens: Violence and the Modern State, London: Macmillan, 1995.

Jeremy Tambling, Going Astray: Dickens and London, London: Longman, 2008.

Dennis Walder, Dickens and Religion, London: Allen and Unwin, 1981.

Raymond Williams, The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence, London: Paladin, 1974.

 

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Other works by Charles Dickens

Pickwick Papers (1836-37) was Dickens’ first big success. It was issued in twenty monthly parts and is not so much a novel as a series of loosely linked sketches and changing characters featured in reports to the Pickwick Club. These recount comic excursions to Rochester, Dingley Dell, and Bath; duels and elopements; Christmas festivities; Mr Pickwick inadvertently entering the bedroom of a middle-aged lady at night; and in the end a happy marriage. Much light-hearted fun, and a host of memorable characters.
Buy the book here

 

Oliver Twist (1837-38) expresses Dickens’ sense of the vulnerability of children. Oliver is a foundling, raised in a workhouse, who escapes suffering by running off to London. There he falls into the hands of a gang of thieves controlled by the infamous Fagin. He is pursued by the sinister figure of Monks who has secret information about him. The plot centres on the twin issues of personal identity and a secret inheritance (which surface again in Great Expectations). Emigration, prison, and violent death punctuate a cascade of dramatic events. This is the early Victorian novel in fine melodramatic form. Recommended for beginners to Dickens.
Buy the book here

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Charles Dickens – web links

Charles Dickens at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, tutorials and study guides, free eTexts, videos, adaptations for cinema and television, further web links.

Charles Dickens at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary techniques, his influence and legacy, extensive bibliography, and further web links.

Charles Dickens at Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts of the major works in a variety of formats.

Dickens on the Web
Major jumpstation including plots and characters from the novels, illustrations, Dickens on film and in the theatre, maps, bibliographies, and links to other Dickens sites.

The Dickens Page
Chronology, eTexts available, maps, filmography, letters, speeches, biographies, criticism, and a hyper-concordance.

Charles Dickens at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of the major novels and stories for the cinema and television – in various languages

A Charles Dickens Journal
An old HTML website with detailed year-by-year (and sometimes day-by-day) chronology of events, plus pictures.

Hyper-Concordance to Dickens
Locate any word or phrase in the major works – find that quotation or saying, in its original context.

Dickens at the Victorian Web
Biography, political and social history, themes, settings, book reviews, articles, essays, bibliographies, and related study resources.

Charles Dickens – Gad’s Hill Place
Something of an amateur fan site with ‘fun’ items such as quotes, greetings cards, quizzes, and even a crossword puzzle.

© Roy Johnson 2015

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