Bleak House

Preface I. In Chancery II. In Fashion III. A Progress IV. Telescopic Philanthropy V. A Morning...

It is not a large world. Relatively even to this world of ours, which has its limits too as your...

I had never heard my mama spoken of. I had never heard of my papa either, but I felt more...

Well. said Mr. Kenge. Upon the whole, very proper. Now to the point, addressing me. Miss Barbary,...

I passed at Greenleaf six happy, quiet years. I never saw in any face there, thank heaven, on my...

The young gentleman was her distant cousin, she told me, and his name Richard Carstone. He was a...

Nobody had appeared belonging to the house except a person in pattens, who had been poking at the...

Mrs. Jellyby, sitting in quite a nest of waste paper, drank coffee all the evening and dictated at...

Oh. Dont talk of duty as a child, Miss Summerson; wheres Mas duty as a parent. All made over to the...

Aye. said the old man, coming slowly out of his abstraction. Yes. Tom Jarndyce youll excuse me,...

Ah, cousin. said Richard. Strange, indeed. All this wasteful, wanton chess playing IS very strange....

The furniture, old fashioned rather than old, like the house, was as pleasantly irregular. Adas...

I was apprehensive that his illness might be of a dangerous kind, but of course I begged her to be...

Why, what a cods head and shoulders I am, said Mr. Jarndyce, to require reminding of it. The whole...

She supposes we have family affairs to speak about, I dare say. She is very modest. It is a fine...

It was interesting when I dressed before daylight to peep out of window, where my candles were...

I really was frightened at the thought of the importance I was attaining and the number of things...

Ada told me afterwards that Mrs. Pardiggle talked in the same loud tone that, indeed, I overheard...

How little I thought, when I raised my handkerchief to look upon the tiny sleeper underneath and...

By my soul, Jarndyce, returned his guest, who seemed to refer to his watch, if you had been...

Well. I was full of business, examining tradesmens books, adding up columns, paying money, filing...

Mr. and Mrs. Snagsby are not only one bone and one flesh, but, to the neighbours thinking, one...

You will find that the place is rough, sir, says Mr. Snagsby, walking deferentially in the road and...

The marine store merchant holds the light, and the law stationer conducts the search. The surgeon...

For some little time the jurymen hang about the Sols Arms colloquially. In the sequel, half a dozen...

My Lady taps her dimpled cheek with the same delicate gloved fingers and goes on to the foot of the...

We expected you before, says Sir Leicester. A gracious observation. As much as to say, Mr....

Truly, said Mr. Kenge. And Mr. Richard Carstone, who has so meritoriously acquitted himself in the...

The dear old Crippler. said Mrs. Badger, shaking her head. She was a noble vessel. Trim, ship...

On our arrival in London, we had called with Mr. Jarndyce at Mrs. Jellybys but had not been so...

Caddy went on to say with considerable hesitation and reluctance that there was one thing more she...

Mr. Turveydrop said this in quite a pious manner, and it seemed to do his son good, who, in parting...

These answers and his manner were strange enough to cause my guardian to inquire of Mr. Woodcourt,...

I glanced at the key and glanced at her, but she took it for granted that I knew what to do with...

Mrs. Blinder sat down to give herself a more favourable opportunity of recovering her breath,...

Jo lives that is to say, Jo has not yet died in a ruinous place known to the like of him by the...

His first proceeding is to hold the piece of money to the gas light and to be overpowered at...

But even Ada, with her loving face and if it had seemed innocent and trusting when I first saw it...

He slightly waved his hand and fell into his usual manner. The change was so remarkable, and he...

As to Mr. Jarndyce, who, I may mention, found the wind much given, during this period, to stick in...

Thats the housekeepers grandson, Mr. Rouncewell by name, said, he, and he is in love with a pretty...

The weather had been all the week extremely sultry, but the storm broke so suddenly upon us, at...

The bar of England is scattered over the face of the earth. How England can get on through four...

Do you hear, Jo. It is nothing to you or to any one else that the great lights of the parliamentary...

Jo, whose immediate object seems to be to get away on any terms, gives a shuffling nod. Mr. Guppy...

Why, what I may think after dinner, returns Mr. Jobling, is one thing, my dear Guppy, and what I...

After much ado, he opens them, but without appearing to see his visitors or any other objects....

This touches a spring in Grandmother Smallweed, who, chuckling as usual at the trivets, cries, Over...

The sportive twins, who have been looking straight before them all this time except when they have...

That would have been a smash indeed, returns the trooper coolly; any way, he had been young,...

Yes, sir, and to night, too. My little woman is at present in not to put too fine a point on it in...

Its brought into my head, master, returns the woman, her eyes filling with tears, when I look down...

Mademoiselle, she began, looking fixedly at me with her too eager eyes, though otherwise presenting...

And then he showed me, proved by elaborate calculations in his pocket book, that supposing he had...

I have no doubt of it, said Mr. Turveydrop. Your qualities are not shining, my dear child, but they...

And oh, miss, says Charley, clapping her hands, with the tears starting down her dimpled cheeks,...

In the business of preparation and equipment he soon lost himself, and even his grief at parting...

I put up my finger, for Miss Flite was close by me, having kept beside me all the time and having...

Come, come. he said from his corner. Dont go on in that way, Mr. Gridley. You are only a little...

When he is at last adjusted like a lay figure, Mr. Chadband, retiring behind the table, holds up...

But the wintry morning wants him not and wakes him not. It wakes Mr. George of the shooting gallery...

But he might, you know. He seems to have hurt himself a good deal, and he might hurt somebody else,...

This reply is cut short by Mr. Tulkinghorns arrival. There is no change in him, of course. Rustily...

It is more difficult to get rid of the old gentleman, Mr. George finds, than to bear a hand in...

It is that he cannot have too little to do with people who are too deep for him and cannot be too...

He is called, I believe an ironmaster. Sir Leicester says it slowly and with gravity and doubt, as...

In search of what. Of any hand that is no more, of any hand that never was, of any touch that might...

Is the dead colour on my Ladys face reflected from the screen which has a green silk ground and...

I didnt mean that, because Mr. Woodcourt had been at our house a good deal altogether and had...

So what with working and housekeeping, and lessons to Charley, and backgammon in the evening with...

Mr. and Mrs. Pardiggle were of the party Mr. Pardiggle, an obstinate looking man with a large...

The alacrity with which Charley brought my bonnet and veil, and having dressed me, quaintly pinned...

My dear Jarndyce, said Mr. Skimpole, you know what I am. I am a child. Be cross to me if I deserve...

There were other times when Charley knew me well and talked to me, telling me that she sent her...

You find the rent too high, do you, sir. returns the stationer. Rents ARE high about here. I dont...

You are to bring the letters to your room to read and compare, and to get yourself into a position...

Mr. Weevle and his friend Mr. Guppy are within the bar at the Sol and are worth anything to the Sol...

An air of haste and excitement pervades the party, and as the tall hat surmounting Mr. Smallweed...

Mr. Guppy sneaks away. Mr. Tulkinghorn, such a foil in his old fashioned rusty black to Lady...

Mr. Bagnet, being in this singular manner heard out, has merely to observe that the letter must be...

Very well. Then you must pay it between you or you must both be sued for it and both suffer. You...

Dare I hint at that worse time when, strung together somewhere in great black space, there was a...

He was so good, his touch expressed such endearing compassion and affection, and the tone of his...

But, my dear, she went on in her mysterious way, theres a dreadful attraction in the place. Hush....

My hair had not been cut off, though it had been in danger more than once. It was long and thick. I...

I AM resolved. I have long outbidden folly with folly, pride with pride, scorn with scorn,...

Oh, how happy I was, down upon the floor, with my sweet beautiful girl down upon the floor too,...

He told Ada, in his most ingenuous way, that he had not come to make any secret inroad on the terms...

Why, acknowledged Richard, that may be true enough, my love. I rather feel it to be so. But I shall...

Yes, said Richard, flushed, and looking triumphantly at Ada and me, we dont do these things in the...

I assure you, my dear, returned Caddy, smiling, when the out door apprentices ring us up in the...

Thank you, miss, he returned, measuring the table with his troubled hands. So far thats...

Vholes, sitting with his arms on the desk, quietly bringing the tips of his five right fingers to...

Tony, says Mr. Guppy, a little disconcerted, to be unreserved with you, I dont greatly relish the...

Hence Mrs. Rouncewell, housekeeper at Chesney Wold, foresees, though no instructions have yet come...

A languid cousin with a moustache in a state of extreme debility now observes from his couch that...

Sir, she says, for the moment obliged to set her lips with all the energy she has, that she may...

The same wan day peeps in at Sir Leicester pardoning the repentant country in a majestically...

In a word, mistress, says Mr. Tulkinghorn, I am sorry to be unpolite, but if you ever present...

My dear Jarndyce, returned Mr. Skimpole, his genial face irradiated by the comicality of this idea,...

Thank you of calling here on my road from Lincolnshire to express my regret that any cause of...

will be attentive to what passes in that family, so far as I can observe it from my distance. And...

It was weak in me, I know, and I could have no reason for crying; but I dropped a tear upon her...

We whose ambition it is to be looked upon in the light of respectable practitioners, sir, can but...

No, no. cried Richard exultingly. If every farthing of Adas little fortune were mine, no part of it...

Darkness rests upon Tom All Alones. Dilating and dilating since the sun went down last night, it...

Yes, sir, yes. Took him home, and made him comfortable, and like a thankless monster he ran away in...

Leaving the boy sitting on the bench of the breakfast stall, with his back against an iron railing,...

Now I was thinking, sir, says Mr. George in a martial sort of confidence, as if he were giving his...

Mr. Sangsby, says Jo, I went and giv a illness to the lady as wos and yit as warnt the tother lady,...

It is a dull street under the best conditions, where the two long rows of houses stare at each...

But he wishes to see my Lady. Within a few more minutes he is reported as sending his respects, and...

Too capricious and imperious in all she does to be the cause of much surprise in those about her as...

The old girl has another trial to undergo after the conclusion of the repast in sitting in state to...

Aint there really. says Mr. Bucket. I should have thought there might have been. Well, I dont know...

Now, George, continues Mr. Bucket, putting his hat upon the table with an air of business rather in...

Nay, my dears, he would remonstrate; and when I saw Caddys thin arm about his fat neck as he said...

When Mr. Woodcourt arrived in London, he went, that very same day, to Mr. Vholess in Symonds Inn....

He is not so sanguine, Ada, continued Richard, casting his dejected look over the bundles of...

I came to myself by and by, after a little scolding, and took a coach home. The poor boy whom I had...

Certainly, sir. And I have done so. I have stated to the magistrates, Gentlemen, I am as innocent...

We three went out of the prison and walked up and down at some short distance from the gate, which...

Having leisurely helped himself from a canister borrowed from somebody downstairs for the purpose,...

Aye, and even in gen teel families, in high families, in great families, says Mr. Bucket, again...

Now, Sir Leicester Dedlock, Baronet, Mr. Bucket begins, standing over him with one hand spread out...

The advice I give you is, dont you trouble your head about the murder. Thats my affair. You keep...

If you WILL PARLAY, you know, says Mr. Bucket parenthetically, you must take the consequences. Now,...

Railroads shall soon traverse all this country, and with a rattle and a glare the engine and train...

The trooper has dried his eyes and put away his handkerchief, but there is an extraordinary...

She opens the letter. Spread out upon the paper is a printed account of the discovery of the body...

The sprightly Dedlock is reputed, in that grass grown city of the ancients, Bath, to be stimulated...

There has been a discovery there to day. Family affairs have come out. Sir Leicester Dedlock,...

We appeared to retrace the way we had come. Not that I had taken note of any particular objects in...

The woman had a great desire to answer, but the man, with another oath, openly kicked at her foot...

Punctual to the time, at the half hours end the carriage came rumbling under the gateway, and they...

I am thankful I have lived long enough to be with Sir Leicester in this illness and trouble, for I...

His formal array of words might have at any other time, as it has often had, something ludicrous in...

I will not dwell on the suspense and anxiety with which I reflected all this time that we were...

My little woman, said Mr. Snagsby, entering behind us, to wave not to put too fine a point upon it,...

There. Now I will, now I will. So she said, could I tell her how to find it, and I said yes, and I...

Why, little woman, returned my guardian, smiling, not being an oracle, I cannot confidently say,...

Miss Summerson, he said, it may be so; and I freely admit that the young lady who has taken Mr. C.s...

Not a day passed without my going there, of course. At first I found Mr. Skimpole there, on two or...

When we came to the usual place of meeting it was close by, and Mr. Woodcourt had often accompanied...

He had laid down his pen and leaned back in his chair looking at me. I have often spoken of his...

Having given us one glance out of the watching corner of his eye, and having given his nose one...

The trooper thanks his informant and rides slowly on, looking about him. He does not turn back, but...

A communication having been made to me by Inspector Bucket of a letter to myself being found among...

Understand me, my dear girl. I had no doubt of your being contented and happy with me, being so...

I take upon myself, sir, said my guardian, laughing as he rang the bell, to reply to your proposals...