ABSTRACT
How long is it since we actually read a novel by Dickens? His more colourful characters, like Mr Pickwick, Oliver Twist and Ebenezer Scrooge are so well known to us that they seem to lead an existence quite independent of the books. Then there are the films, the musicals, the cartoon strips. We seem to know all about Dickens. His world is already so familiar that we wonder if we really need to read the books. After all, they are quite formidablelooking when we run an eye along a shelf full of them. But once we have prised one out and taken it away with us, we are in for a special treat of the kind which only reading can provide. But which one to choose? I could have gone for a straightforward bio graphical story like David Copperfield or Great Expectations. Instead, some powerful force led me back to a strange, murky, very mysteri ous, very atmospheric Dickens masterpiece called Bleak House. The very name can induce a chill feeling down the spine. But what is it about and what do its 900 pages and 67 chapters have waiting for us?
