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 Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 11:51 am
How does Dickens do it?
I hate Esther, really--she is so meek & obedient & it is made quite clear that this is the way women are supposed to be, rather than like Mrs. Jellyby who tries to run things & ruins everyone around her.
And the legal world of Lond on is so depressing. Deliberately depressing.
But--I've read this book more than once, and each time I get sucked into the world.
This happens to me with a lot of Dickens. Even making allowence for his century, I find his idea of the "good" woman grating. But, his books are so busy and full of life, that I inevitably get caught up in the story in no time flat.
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Posted: Thu May 03, 2007 9:35 pm
I have always wondered if Dickens was trying to say something about what type of woman that he wanted in life. Almost all the women in his books are either very meek and mild or they are fallen women. "Bleak House" is one of his that I haven't read as the title just sent me into cold sweats after reading others of his works. I did recently watch a BBC production of it that was showing on PBS Masterpeice Theater and it was quite good.
I too find his books rich and full of realism as that this the genre that they fall into, though a couple fit into the Bildungsroman style, its mostly the treatment of women that tend to rankle me and make me argue with the book. So maybe that is a good thing, I don't hate the author just how he portrays women. I know that it is partly the time period but I can't believe that every woman was that meek and mild.
However now that I have finished my last final for the semester I get to read a book for fun this summer.
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Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:21 pm
On the surface, I don't think his works can be categorized under realism, especially this book - Bleak House. His character descriptions are comical exaggerations of stereotypes. The many vignettes and long descriptions are so unrealistic and so full of purpose that almost all of them are allegories. However, interestingly, he manages to make many of stereotypes in this artificial world have very realistic behavior. It’s almost as if a human element is struggling to break through the formal allegory/satire that the book imposes. I find this struggle very compelling and very modern.
Overall, I did not enjoy the plot of Bleak House – which is mainly episodic and very predictable. On the other hand, his style is incredible here – with amazing descriptive passages and very clever use of rhetorical devices. Although again, these rhetorical devices are mainly from old comedy and satire, from which many of the characters struggle to escape.
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