Bleak House

Dickens's Bleak House, with an Introduction and Notes by Doreen Roberts, is a unique experiment that combines elements of black comedy, cosmic farce, and tragic ruin in telling a detective story involving an abused young woman and the wealthy man who attempts to save her. It is not just any detective story though; it is a complex mystery story that fully engages the reader in the work of detection. Unveiling corruption and delay within the law and Dickens's personal knowledge and experience as a magistrate, Bleak House reveals his fiction as an indictment of an indifferent society that cannot see what is right in front of its eyes. The work may be seen as a symbolic art project through which Dickens weaves psychological truth with social criticism so that his characters' personalities become more than mere types.