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Bleak House

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Bleak House

By: Charles Dickens
Narrated by: Hugh Dickson
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Summary
 The case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce has ground its way through the courts for generations. At its heart are Ada Clare and Richard Carstone, who find love - and terrible loss - through their involvement in the endless battle.

Meanwhile, her friend Esther Summeson, who believes she is an orphan, gradually discovers the truth of her identity. The court case throws out a web ensnaring all who come near it, including Lady Dedlock, the menacing lawyer Tulkingham, detective Bucket and tragic little waif Jo.

Secrets emerge, crimes are committed and love affairs bloom. But will anyone ever benefit from the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce?

©2008 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Classics Heartfelt
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This a beautiful book - Dickens at his wittiest and most ironic. The narrator Hugh Dickson is brilliant and the book came alive with his acutely drawn characterisations. Some of the descriptive passages came close to poetry in his interpretation.

Sheer enjoyment

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This is a superb reading by Hugh Dickson. The character portrayal is staggeringly good, the dramatic passages are full of excitement and the emotion is sensitively expressed. I cannot praise this reading highly enough. It should not be missed.

An enchanting audio experience

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A truly fantastic reading, Mr Dickson is superb at bringing the characters and narrative to life. I wish that all audios were so well read.

Outstanding

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Before I go into my review let me say up front that this recording by Hugh Dickson is brilliant and I hugely recommend it.

There is some absolutely beautiful writing in this novel reputed to be one of, if not the best of Dickens novels. It helped bring about about judicial reform in the British legal system. It is an important work in history and in literature.

The trouble is that Dickens gets mesmerized by his own genius for rambling. The story is told by two narrators, Esther narrates in the past tense and the omniscient narrator narrates in the present tense. The opening description of fog and using it as a metaphor for the law is inspired and you settle back for a good tale. The story is well plotted and there are the usual cast of Dickens grotesques. The story stretches in the middle until you are sure it is so thin it has disappeared.

I first bought the lauded Sean Barrett/Teresa Gallagher recording, Being very fond of Mr Barrett's work I struggled on when with another narrator I would have thrown in the towel. I got about a third of the way in and I could not avoid the conclusion that it had become torture. I was actively dreading listening to it. As a keen fan of Dickens this distressed me. I had left the book for a number of years as something I was looking forward to getting around to.

I did not want to admit that I was having such problems with the Barrett Gallagher recording but it was just boring and had no sparkle. In the end I gave in and had another nose around Audible. Thanks to its "listen to an extract" capability I found this Dickson recording. I took a chance and downloaded it. The whole experience of Bleak House changed completely. Mr Dickson adds just the right amount of zing. Where Esther's goodness had been cloying it was now quite sweet and charming and the cast of characters came alive. I switched over in the middle of one character's monologue that had been threatening to damage my brain and suddenly I was laughing at the character I had found mind numbingly tedious.

Although Dickens still manages to lose himself in his own meanderings and clear hate of lawyers and the Chancery there are real gems to be mined in here. Joe's story is heartbreaking and in it we find Dickens at his most compassionate for the conditions of the poor and dispossessed. George's nobility is inspiring. Bagnet and his "old girl" are people you would like to know. Apparently Nabokov called John Jarndyce "one of the best and kindest human beings ever described in a novel" (according to Wikipedia).

Still I come back to the marvelous performance of Hugh Dickson, made all the more marvelous by holding my attention when the great Sean Barrett could not. He gets under the skin of the book and drags you in with him. He gets it and shares it. I would certainly like to buy the man a brandy and hot water.

Dickson makes this Dickens sing - he drags you in

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Narrated brilliantly and the story is so satisfying on every level. Language to die for

Such a wonderful story

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