Bleak House

Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House is considered one of his most ambitious works, and is lauded by critics as one of his very best. BH falls squarely into the 4B category, a Big Boring British Book. It's about the effects of the corrupt and inefficient British legal system on the lives of those unfortunate enough to be suitors at court, and the efforts of one young woman named Esther to beat the system.

The characters are interesting, especially when you dig down to discover their more sinister motives, and the descriptions of London are evocative and powerful. Dickens makes the city appear to be one seething cesspool of fog, mud, rain, and misery, with the courts lying at the very center of it all. Esther, on the other hand, is the proposed cure for the ills of the courts, and proceeds to clean up various domestic spaces in her attempt to purify England from the legal blight it is under. There are some interesting side plots involving Esther's dubious parentage, a handsome doctor, and a particularly determined police investigator. These asides (which actually are extremely important to the plot) provide a nice distraction from the central story, but don't contribute enough fun to salvage the plot from its own ponderous weight.

As is typical with Dickens the writing is dense and wordy, and the novel hardly makes for casual reading. Even the most ambitious literary aficionados will find it difficult to slog through the nearly one thousand pages of text. However, if you have a good group that you can regularly discuss the novel with, and the guiding hand of someone intimately familiar with the text (preferably a PhD) then you may find the novel to be a rewarding read. Outside of the classroom setting, however, I just couldn't bring myself to recommend Bleak House to anyone. It's too long, too boring, and too inaccessible for all but the most devoted and erudite readers of Victorian Literature.

Score: 6/10 (I realize this is awfully low. Please note that I don't think this is in any way a bad book, it's just boring and not very fun. From a critical standpoint it's great).
Read this book if: You like really long works of fiction with fairly slow moving plots that examine legal corruption in Victorian London.
Don't read this book if: You primarily read books for entertainment, and if you don't like having to frequent the dictionary in order to understand a text.

Three Week Update
The further away I get from the actual reading of this novel, the more I think I liked it. At the time I wrote my initial review I was so overwhelmed with the sheer length of the thing that I allowed many of the delightful details and elements to escape my notice. However, now that the pain of reading has subsided I have had time to think about just how many delightful and interesting characters, plots, and events are contained within this (still unreasonably long) novel. There is mystery, intrigue, a great detective story side-plot, and loads of characters that are downright hilarious. If you can stand the length, this is a very rewarding read.
Revised Score: 8/10