Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Bleak House, Chapters 47-53

Readalong hosted by Amanda at The Zen Leaf.

Chapter 47: Jo and Dr Woodcourt are looking for a safe place for Jo to stay in order to hide out from Mr Bucket.  They go to Miss Flite and General George for assistance. Now Miss Flite is not exactly the first person I'd turn to when I needed help but it comes out all right.  Jo will stay with George. Then Mr Snagsby is enlisted in another secret to keep from Mrs Snagsby.  When Woodcourt returns to visit Jo, he ends up dying. There are a lot of characters in this chapter!

Chapter 48: Lady Dedlock decides that Rosa needs to leave her service, preparing for the day when Mr Tulkinghorn reveals her secret and disgraces all.  He is displeased that she has violated their agreement (at least to his lawyer mind).  At some point he will tell Sir Leicester and she will receive no further notice.  The chapter ends with Tulkinghorn being shot-now that was surprising to me!

Chapter 49: Dickens even gets his own creations confused: he calls Matthew Bagnet, Joseph at the beginning of this chapter.  Anyway they are celebrating Mrs Bagnet's birthday with some good comic scenes. George stops by and then Mr Bucket joins them for a lovely evening.  As George and Bucket leave, Bucket arrests George for murdering Tulkinghorn-what a cliffhanger as this is the end of the serial!

Chapter 50: We return to Esther. Caddy is now a mother of a little girl named Esther but is faring poorly.  So Esther, Ada, and Jarndyce are going to stay in London to take care of her; they will also call in Dr Woodcourt to examine Caddy.  Ada and Esther have some distance between them now.  Esther thinks it's because she's going to marry Jarndyce; I think it's because Ada has taken up with Richard again now that she's of age.  Woodcourt seems disappointed about something-I guess he liked Esther after all.

Chapter 51: Woodcourt visits Vholes in order to obtain Richard's address that he might renew their acquaintance as requested by Esther.  Later Esther and Ada go to visit.  Richard looks in a bad way, being paler and thinner. It turns out that Ada married Richard (stupid woman as he's going to drag her down although I don't really like her anyway so I don't really care).

Chapter 52: Esther and Jarndyce learns of Tulkinghorn's murder and George's arrest from Woodcourt. I'm starting to wonder if Lady Dedlock could have killed Tulkinghorn-she had motive but did she have the chance? They all go to visit George which seems to please him.  The Bagnets also come to visit at the same time.  George will rather die innocent than be represented by a lawyer who thinks he's guilty.  Then Esther turns as she's leaving and George thinks she looks like a figure he saw the night of the murder which I think means that I am right in guessing Lady D as the murderer-go me!  Mrs Bagnet says that George has relatives despite his thinking he has none and she sets off to get his mother.

Chapter 53: It is Tulkinghorn's funeral.  Bucket has almost figured everything out; he has received letters saying only "Lady Dedlock."  He visits Sir Leicester to assure him of progress, meets Lady Dedlock and she asks how the case is coming, and then gets confirmation from their servant on her clothing the night of the murder.

1 comment:

  1. Oh, yes, the murder. That was definitely a good twist and it will resolve nicely. I mean, I liked it.
    As for mixing up his characters, I hardly find it surprising. Dickens simply created too many characters per novel, if you ask me. I'm watching Little Dorrit on DVD and I have to really pay attention. Mental.:)

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