Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Author: Charles Dickens

Published: March 1852 - September 1853, as a serial

Novel.

Sir Leicester Dedlock and Lady Honoria Dedlock live in the estate of Chesney Wold. Lady Dedlock is a haughty and reserved woman, and her husband's junior by more than twenty years. Her good looks, fine clothes, and regal bearing garner her admiration in society. 

Unknown to Sir Leicester, Lady Dedlock had a lover, Captain Hawdon, before she married, and had a child with him, Esther Summerson. 

Lady Dedlock, who believes her daughter is dead, has chosen to live out her days bored to death as a fashionable lady of the world. 

Esther, Lady Dedlock's daughter, is raised by Miss Barbary, her godmother and Lady Dedlock's spartan sister. Miss Barbary instils a sense of inferiority in Esther, holding macabre vigil on Esther's birthday each year. Miss Barbary explains that her birth is no cause for celebration, because she is her mother's disgrace. 

Esther does not know that Miss Barbary is her aunt. 

After Miss Barbary dies, the Chancery Lawyer Conversation Kenge takes charge of Esther's future on the instruction of his client, John Jarndyce. 

Jarndyce becomes Esther's guardian, and after attending school in Reading for six years, she moves in with him at Bleak House. 

Jarndyce simultaneously assumes custody of two other wards, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare. 

Esther soon befriends both Ada and Richard. They are beneficiaries in one of the wills at issue in Jarndcye and Jarndyce; their guardian is a beneficiary under another will, and in some undefined way the two wills conflict. No one realizes that Esther is also connected to Jarndcye and Jarndyce. 

Richard and Ada soon fall in love, but though Mr. Jarnduce doesn't oppose the match, he stipulated that Richard must first choose a profession. Richard first tries the medical profession. 

Lady Deadlock is also beneficiary under one of the wills in Jarndyce and Jarndyce. 

Esther meets her mother at church and talks with her at Chesney World; though, at first, neither woman recognized their connection. Though Esther and Lady Dedlock are happy to be reunited, Lady Dedlock tells Esther that they must never acknowledge their connection again. 

Richard, having failed at several professions, has elected to disobey his guardian and is wasting his resources pushing Jarndyce and Jarndyce to conclusion. In the process of becoming an active litigant, Richard loses all his money and declines in health. In further defiance, he and Ada have secretly married and she is carrying Richard's child. 

Esther experiences romance when meeting Dr. Woodcourt one more time,  having first met him at the house of Richard's prospective tutor, Mr. Bauynham Badger; after he returns to England, after surviving a shipwreck. Unfortunately, Esther has already agreed to marry her guardian. 

Developments in Jarndyce and Jarndyce seem to take a turn for the better when a later will is found which revokes all previous wills and leaves the bulk of the estate to Richard and Ada. Meanwhile, John Jarndyce cancels his engagement to Esther, who becomes engaged to Dr. Woodcourt. 

Characters:

Esther Summerson

Honoria, Lady Dedlock

Captain Hawdon / Nemo

John Jarndyce

Richard Carstone

Ada Clare

Harold Skimpole

Lawrence Boythorn

Sir Leicester Dedlock

Mr. Tulkinghorn

Mr. Snagsby

Miss Flite. 

Mr. William Guppy

Inspector Bucket

Mr. George

Caddy Jellyby

Krook

Jo

Allan Woodcourt

Grandfather Smallweed

Mr. Vholes

Conversation Kenge

Mr. Gridley

Mrs. Snagsby

Guster

Neckett

Charley

Tom

Emma

Mrs. Jellyby

Mr. Jellyby

Peepy Jellyby

Hortense

Miss Barbary