Bleak House

Study of the genesis of the novel is facilitated by thereproduction of Dickens' working plans and, for the first time, by somethousands of meticulous textual notes."Backgrounds" offers all of Dickens' correspondence about Bleak House aswell as contextual materials that document the Victorian controversyover pollution, a theme central to the novel, and present contemporaryattitudes toward the government, the courts, and the police, to enhancethe setting of the story.Also featured are several hundred annotations which fully elucidate fortoday's readers the allusions and topical references in this remarkablyallusive Victorian masterpiece.Especially helpful is a clear exposition of the nature of lawprocedures in the Court of Chancery, which is crucial to anunderstanding of the central action of the story."Critical essays" reprinted here include interpretations by G. K.Chesterton, J. Hillis Miller, George Ford, A. O. J. Cockshut, W. J.Harvey, H. M. Daleski, and Ian Ousby.