Bleak House - Week Eleven

By golly, I do believe ol' Charles has finally decided to get to the point and stick to it this week. No fluff, no filler, just plenty of action and a good heaping of humor. Nearly all of the tremendous cast of characters that we've been trying to keep track of for the past ten weeks appeared in this week's reading making me glad that I'd made a point to keep track of all of them. We had an elopement, a funeral, a reunion, and a surprising arrest this week - it was great fun! This week I'm switching things up a little and getting the thing I didn't like this week out of the way first.

 What I Didn't Like This Week: I'm not always sure what to make of Dicken's opinion of women but he certainly didn't think much of most of them. Ada is little more than a child, Mrs. Snagsby is a shrew, and even our beloved Esther is nothing more than a martyr. Even Mrs. Bagnet, who is clearly the brains in her family, is only allowed to voice her opinion because her husband believes she is giving voice to his own opinion. On the other hand, Dicken's women are very often the heart of the story, as they are in Bleak House.

What I Liked This Week:  Mr. Bucket. Previously I haven't cared much for him, being under the impression that he was a brute. He did, after all, take poor Jo away from Bleak House and then leave him on his own. But in these chapters his way of solving a crime, of working his way into the trust of people, was such fun to read. He's quite a wily guy!