Read this when
Bleak House
When someone told you as a kid that you were a mistake, and you've been apologising for existing ever since. Esther gets it.
Who it's for
Esther Summerson narrates half the novel, and her voice carries the mark of a childhood in which her godmother told her she was her mother's disgrace: she constantly downplays herself, apologises for her own good qualities and puts everyone else first.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Bleak House is Charles Dickens's novel, serialized in 20 parts from March 1852 to September 1853. It centers on Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a long-running inheritance dispute in the Court of Chancery that draws in the wards Richard Carstone and Ada Clare. Half the story is narrated by Esther Summerson, raised by a godmother who tells her she is her mother's disgrace, and the rest by an omniscient narrator.
Where to find it
Public domain in the US; free on Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks, with free LibriVox audiobooks. Also widely in print (Penguin Classics, Oxford World's Classics and others), in libraries (Libby/.
Before you start
Heads up: Child abuse and a child's death.
Age: Ages 14+
She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness;Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
