ABSTRACT
‘What do you think of Bleak House?’ is a question which everybody has heard propounded within the last few weeks, when this serial was drawing towards its conclusion; and which, when the work was actually closed, formed, for its own season, as regular a portion of miscellaneous chat as ‘How are you?’ One obvious distinction is, that a great number of people who ask you how you do, make a practice of neither waiting for, nor listening to, your reply; they pay no attention to the meaning of their own interrogatory. But, on the contrary, those who inquire for your ideas about Bleak House, think of Bleak House; and, if they do not really want to know your opinion, want you at least to know theirs….
