Supposing Bleak House

201 Pages·2011·3.22 MB·English

by  John O. Jordan

SUPPOSING
Bleak House
Victorian Literature and Culture Series
Jerome J. McGann and Herbert F. Tucker, Editors
(cid:2) (cid:1)
SUPPOSING
(cid:1) (cid:2)
Bleak House
john o. jordan
university of virginia press
charlottesville and london
University of Virginia Press
© 2011 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
First published 2010
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
library of congress cataloging- in- publication data
Jordan, John O.
Supposing Bleak House / John O. Jordan.
p. cm.—(Victorian literature and culture series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8139-3074-9 (acid-free paper)—ISBN 978-0-8139-3092-3
(e-book)
1. Dickens, Charles, 1812–1870. Bleak House. I. Title.
PR4556.J67 2010
823′.8—dc22
2010020833
Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations are by Hablot K. Browne, etchings
from original serial parts of Bleak House, 1852–5 3. (Courtesy of the De-
partment of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries)
For Jane
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Ac know ledg ments ix
1 Voice 1
2 Illustration 26
3 Psychoanalysis 44
4 Endings 67
5 Dickens 87
6 Specters 113
Epilogue: Christmas 141
Appendix: The Ghost in Bleak House 147
Notes 161
Bibliography 171
Index 179
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. “The appointed time” 29
2. “Mr. Guppy’s Desolation” 30
3. “The little church in the park” 32
4. “Consecrated ground” 34
5. “The Little old Lady” 36
6. “The Ghost’s Walk” 37
7. “Lady Dedlock in the Wood” 39
8. “The Young Man of the name of Guppy” 51
9. “The Mausoleum at Chesney Wold” 81
10. “Sunset in the long Drawing- room at Chesney Wold” 116
11. “Becky’s second appearance in the character of
Clytemnestra” 151
12. “The Mausoleum at Chesney Wold,” working
drawing 153
13. “The Mausoleum at Chesney Wold,” drawing, 1853? 155
14. “The Mausoleum at Chesney Wold,” lithographic
transfer?, fi rst bound edition 157
15. “T he Mausoleum at Chesney Wold,” etching from
1938 edition (reprinted 2005, Nonesuch edition) 158
16. “Rose Maylie and Oliver” 159
AC KNOW LEDG MENTS
Long contemplated, this book would not allow itself
to be written until it was ready. When the time came, it off ered itself
with unstinting generosity. Lengthy incubation in this case entails great
indebtedness. I owe thanks in the fi rst instance to Murray Baumgarten
and Ed Eigner, who brought me along when they had the idea of start-
ing a Dickens research group at the University of California. To Murray
in par tic u lar, the Dickens Project’s founding director and my longtime
co-c onspirator in all things Dickensian, I owe a debt of gratitude for
colleagueship that extends over four de cades and that includes many
conversations about Bleak House.
An early version of chapter 1 was presented at the 2001 Dickens
Universe gathering in Santa Cruz. I am grateful to friends, students,
and colleagues for their positive response on that occasion and to dele-
gates at the 2009 “Uneasy Pleasures” conference in Jerusalem, where I
presented a later version of this chapter. The book’s appendix appeared
in the March 2010 issue of Dickens Quarterly and is reprinted h ere with
the kind permission of the journal’s editor, David Paroissien.
To Bob Newsom and Hilary Schor, two passionate, expert readers
of Bleak House, I owe special thanks for their long friendship and for
innumerable exchanges about Esther and about Dickens. So many of
the ideas that appear in these pages fi rst took shape in conversations