Bleak House

Charles Dickens' Bleak House is held to be one of Dickens' finest novels. It contains one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of characters and sub-plots in his entire canon. Many of this intricate novel's subplots deal with the minor characters and their ties to the main plot. The novel revolves around a long-running litigation in England's Court of Chancery, Jarndyce v Jarndyce. This case is about a testator who made several wills. The litigation consumed years and at great expense, is emblematic of the failure of Chancery. Dickens' assault on the flaws of the British judiciary system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk, and in part on his experiences as a Chancery litigant seeking to enforce his copyright on his earlier books.