The tricks in 'Bleak House'

Weeks ago I reviewed The Artful Dickens ("Breaking the rules," Feb. 17, 2023), John Mullan's book about "the tricks and ploys" Charles Dickens uses in his novels. Most of these are evident in Bleak House, which I recently read.

My review of the Bleak House ("Love conquers all," March 31, 2023) mentioned the fact that it has two narrators, one who writes in past tense and another who uses present tense. Mullen notes that when Dickens experimented with present-tense narration in this novel "there had been nothing like in the English novel before." Today, of course, use of present tense is commonplace. It was Dickens who showed that it could be done.

Dickens was apparently sensitive to odors, and Bleak House, like most of his other novels, is filled with smells. The odor of cooking food, of death, of burning wood, etc, get frequent mention.

The speech peculiarities that Dickens often used to give his characters unique personalities are certainly apparent here. My favorite is a man who always refers to his wife as "old girl." He knows her to be much smarter, but he tells others he must "maintain discipline" by pretending to be in charge. So we frequently find him saying something like, "tell him what I think about that, old girl." Thus he gives the orders, while she leads the way.

I have previously written about the odd names in Bleak House ("Names to remember," Feb. 20, 2023). He also uses coincidences to his advantage in this novel. And he frequently employs one of his favorite phrases: "as if." We read, for example, that Mr. Vholes looks at Richard Capstone "as if he were making a lingering meal of him with his eyes," and, later, "he gave one gasp as if he had swallowed the last morsel of his client." Such fantasies enhance the reality of his fiction.