Bleak House

Preface I. In Chancery II. In Fashion III. A Progress IV. Telescopic Philanthropy V. A Morning Adventure VI. Quite at Home VII. The Ghost’s Walk VIII. Covering a Multitude of Sins IX. Signs and Tokens X. The Law-Writer XI. Our Dear Brother XII. On the Watch XIII. Esther’s Narrative XIV. Deportment XV. Bell Yard XVI. Tom-all-Alone’s XVII. Esther’s Narrative XVIII. Lady Dedlock XIX. Moving On XX. A New Lodger XXI. The Smallweed Family XXII. Mr. Bucket XXIII. Esther’s Narrative XXIV. An Appeal Case XXV. Mrs. Snagsby Sees It All XXVI. Sharpshooters XXVII. More Old Soldiers Than One XXVIII. The Ironmaster XXIX. The Young Man XXX. Esther’s Narrative XXXI. Nurse and Patient XXXII. The Appointed Time XXXIII. Interlopers XXXIV. A Turn of the Screw XXXV. Esther’s Narrative XXXVI. Chesney Wold XXXVII. Jarndyce and Jarndyce XXXVIII. A Struggle XXXIX. Attorney and Client XL. National and Domestic XLI. In Mr. Tulkinghorn’s Room XLII. In Mr. Tulkinghorn’s Chambers XLIII. Esther’s Narrative XLIV. The Letter and the Answer XLV. In Trust XLVI. Stop Him! XLVII. Jo’s Will XLVIII. Closing In XLIX. Dutiful Friendship L. Esther’s Narrative LI. Enlightened LII. Obstinacy LIII. The Track LIV. Springing a Mine LV. Flight LVI. Pursuit LVII. Esther’s Narrative LVIII. A Wintry Day and Night LIX. Esther’s Narrative LX. Perspective LXI. A Discovery LXII. Another Discovery LXIII. Steel and Iron LXIV. Esther’s Narrative LXV. Beginning the World LXVI. Down in Lincolnshire LXVII. The Close of Esther’s Narrative

A Chancery judge once had the kindness to inform me, as one of a company of some hundred and fifty men and women not labouring under any suspicions of lunacy, that the Court of Chancery, though the shining subject of much popular prejudice (at which point I thought the judge’s eye had a cast in my direction), was almost immaculate. There had been, he admitted, a trivial blemish or so in its rate of progress, but this was exaggerated and had been entirely owing to the “parsimony of the public,” which guilty public, it appeared, had been until lately bent in the most determined manner on by no means enlarging the number of Chancery judges appointed—I believe by Richard the Second, but any other king will do as well.

This seemed to me too profound a joke to be inserted in the body of this book or I should have restored it to Conversation Kenge or to Mr. Vholes, with one or other of whom I think it must have originated. In such mouths I might have coupled it with an apt quotation from one of Shakespeare’s sonnets:

But as it is wholesome that the parsimonious public should know what has been doing, and still is doing, in this connexion, I mention here that everything set forth in these pages concerning the Court of Chancery is substantially true, and within the truth. The case of Gridley is in no essential altered from one of actual occurrence, made public by a disinterested person who was professionally acquainted with the whole of the monstrous wrong from beginning to end. At the present moment (August, 1853) there is a suit before the court which was commenced nearly twenty years ago, in which from thirty to forty counsel have been known to appear at one time, in which costs have been incurred to the amount of seventy thousand pounds, which is A FRIENDLY SUIT, and which is (I am assured) no nearer to its termination now than when it was begun. There is another well-known suit in Chancery, not yet decided, which was commenced before the close of the last century and in which more than double the amount of seventy thousand pounds has been swallowed up in costs. If I wanted other authorities for Jarndyce and Jarndyce, I could rain them on these pages, to the shame of—a parsimonious public.

There is only one other point on which I offer a word of remark. The possibility of what is called spontaneous combustion has been denied since the death of Mr. Krook; and my good friend Mr. Lewes (quite mistaken, as he soon found, in supposing the thing to have been abandoned by all authorities) published some ingenious letters to me at the time when that event was chronicled, arguing that spontaneous combustion could not possibly be. I have no need to observe that I do not wilfully or negligently mislead my readers and that before I wrote that description I took pains to investigate the subject. There are about thirty cases on record, of which the most famous, that of the Countess Cornelia de Baudi Cesenate, was minutely investigated and described by Giuseppe Bianchini, a prebendary of Verona, otherwise distinguished in letters, who published an account of it at Verona in 1731, which he afterwards republished at Rome. The appearances, beyond all rational doubt, observed in that case are the appearances observed in Mr. Krook’s case. The next most famous instance happened at Rheims six years earlier, and the historian in that case is Le Cat, one of the most renowned surgeons produced by France. The subject was a woman, whose husband was ignorantly convicted of having murdered her; but on solemn appeal to a higher court, he was acquitted because it was shown upon the evidence that she had died the death of which this name of spontaneous combustion is given. I do not think it necessary to add to these notable facts, and that general reference to the authorities which will be found at page 30, vol. ii.,* the recorded opinions and experiences of distinguished medical professors, French, English, and Scotch, in more modern days, contenting myself with observing that I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable spontaneous combustion of the testimony on which human occurrences are usually received.**

*Transcriber’s note. This referred to a specific page in the printed book. In this Project Gutenberg edition the pertinent information is in Chapter XXX, paragraph 90.