Bleak House

Bleak House

Before I get started: a) I am, in many ways, behind the times, b) given the Jersey Shore angst here (which is completely justified), we need to watch stuff that's, you know, good. Or with this one, you can read it. Or both.

So, Bleak House. First, it was a Charles Dickens novel, then in 2005 the BBC made it into a mini-series, featuring Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame. And on that subject, Gillian shows her skills in this, trust me. Anyway, for some reason, I decided it would be neat to read the book (which is just shy of 900 pages long) & watch the series at the same time. It's going well, aside from being a pretty long process so far. But it's been worth it, because it's classic literature, great storytelling, & especially in video form, very compelling & engaging.

Death, betrayal, romance, scandal, lies, shame, guilt, secrets, murder, blackmail, dickhead lawyers, the failures of the legal system in general, human experience, violence, sickness, financial ruin, the rich, the poor. It's all here, & that's not even everything. It's tough to concisely explain the plot in a way that makes it sound interesting but also doesn't give anything away. That's what the IMDB page is for. Oh, I forgot to mention the spontaneous combustion. Yep. Dickens got in a little bit of trouble for that one.

The book is worth trying if you have the time & patience for 19th century writing. And if not, the mini-series is one of the closest adaptations of a novel I've ever seen. The only real changes condense the story & move things along faster because really, how much time would it take to get every detail of a book this long perfect? Which is also why mini-series format works really well.