Lady Dedlock changes clothing with her maid Hortense, and goes to find Jo. They cannot acknowledge one another publically, however, for fear of ruining Sir Leicester's reputation. Soon, Esther learns that Lady Dedlock is her mother, and they have one impassioned reunion. Woodcourt, who loves her even though her face has been scarred by smallpox, which she contracted while caring for Jo, who suffered from the disease. Richard Carstone cannot settle on one occupation, and soon becomes engrossed in the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit, which consumes all his money and his health. He has no family, and the only person who seems to have anything to say about him is a street orphan called Jo. Tulkinghorn investigates, and finds out that the the hand is that of Nemo (Latin for 'no one'), an impoverished law writer and opium addict who lives above a dillapitated rag-and-bottle shop owned by Mr. She recongnizes the handwriting as her presumed dead lover, Captain Hawdon. Lady Dedlock sees a legal paper that her husband's lawyer, Mr. Esther, Ada, and Richard become close friends, and Ada and Richard fall in love. They are thought to be likey beneficiaries of a large inheritance, but the endless nature of the proceedings, and the delays of the Court of Chancery, make this very unlikely. Jarndyce, as wards of the long complicated Chancery suit Jarndyce and Jarndyce. John Jarndyce, a kindly man who educates her and brings her to his house to be the companion of his other ward, Ada Clare.Īda Clare and her distant cousin Richard Carstone live together with Mr. After this aunt dies Esther is given into the care of a guardian, Mr. This child, Esther Summerson, has been raised by her godmother, who she finds out is really her aunt. She hides a terrible secret - before she met Sir Leicester she bore an illegitimate child with her lover Captain Hawdon. His beautiful wife lives with him, and is the apex of the fashionable world. He has a home in rural Lincolnshire called Chesney Wold.

Sir Leicester Dedlock is introduced as the height of British Aristocracy. The title of the book is more indicative of the social ills and hypocrisy that Dickens addresses in it. That said, the Bleak Houses in Bleak House are not bleak at all. The term ' Bleak House' refers to two different houses - the one owned originally by John Jarndyce, to which Ada, Esther, and Richard come to live with him, and to the second Bleak House, built for Esther and her husband at the end of the book.

Charles dickens book bleak house