"Bleak House" - worst title but best Dickens book? Quiz

Answer: In the Court of Chancery

Dickens' most savage criticism in this book is directed at the law and at lawyers in general. The fog is a metaphor for the delay and confusion that always took place in civil cases before the Court of Chancery.

Answer: Mr. Tulkinghorn

All of these are the names of lawyers in "Bleak House", but Mr. Tulkinghorn proves to be the most persistent and ruthless of them all. It comes as no real surprise to discover that he ends up as a murder victim.

Answer: All of these people

Indeed Esther receives an unwanted proposal from Mr. Guppy, the lawyer's clerk. Later Mr. Jarndyce makes a proposal, but Esther is more of a daughter to him than a future wife. Mr. Woodcourt is the one whom she eventually marries.

Answer: Chesney Wold

The house in Lincolnshire and the house in London are both important locations in the unfolding story of Lady Dedlock's secret. Chesney Wold itself is at the centre of the general election campaign in the chapter entitled "National and Domestic". Dickens gives a very clear picture of the bribery and corruption that was endemic to English politics.

Answer: Tom-all-Alone's

Dickens links the powerlessness of politicians, the delay of the law, and the ineffectiveness of charity by his picture of Jo and Tom-all-Alone's. He traces the connection between this fever-ridden slum and the beautiful and haughty Lady Dedlock.

Answer: Mr. Boythorn

Mr. Boythorn is a man who is full of life and ebullience, but he is also a very gentle man whose pet is a bird that is allowed to fly freely in his house and land on his head. He proves to be the man disappointed in love by Esther's aunt.

Answer: Richard Carstone and Ada Clare

The decision about their guardianship is what is under question in Chapter One of the book, but we actually learn what happened to Richard and Ada from Esther's narrative several chapters further in to the book. By the end of the book Richard has died, crushed by the weight of the "Jarndyce and Jarndyce" legal case.

Answer: Mr. Skimpole

Mr. Skimpole is one of the most infuriating characters in the book. He is the epitome of selfishness, yet excuses himself by declaring that he is a mere "child" in the matter of money. It was rumoured that he was based on Dickens' friend, the minor poet Leigh Hunt.

Answer: smallpox

When she catches the smallpox which has probably come into the household via Jo, it makes Esther very ill and leaves her with a much altered set of facial features. Fortunately, Mr. Woodcourt and everybody else loves Esther for her character and it makes no difference to their feelings.

Answer: He runs a shooting gallery and gives fencing lessons

Mr. George runs a shooting gallery (where he also lives and sleeps) with the help of a man called Phil Squod. However, because he is in debt and can only pay off the interest each month, his existence is very precarious. Thus he becomes an easy target for blackmail.

Answer: A sample of Captain Hawdon's handwriting

Mr.Tulkinghorn is trying to make the connection between Lady Dedlock and the man who wrote the legal document and who had passed under the name of "Nemo". Lady Dedlock had been upset when she saw the writing for the first time.

Answer: Two

At first it seems she only had one son who had moved away from home and become an important Ironmaster in the Midlands. Then we learn that her other son had run away to join the army. We are not surprised to learn that this is Mr. George, who owns the shooting gallery.

Answer: a law stationer

Mr. Snagsby owned a law-stationer's shop and was the person who had recuited Nemo to make copies of the legal documents that Mr. Tulkinghorn was trying to trace. He was a kind man but tended to be dominated by his wife.

Answer: that Mr. Snagsby was his father

Mr. Snagsby feels sorry for Jo and is constantly slipping him half-crowns as the only way he knows of alleviating his suffering and salving his own conscience. Mrs. Snagsby automatically assumes that it must be because he is Jo's father.

Answer: Mr. Chadband

Mr. Chadband is one of the most repulsive characters in all Dickens. He is slimy and sanctimonious and fond of sermons on every occasion, even when stuffing himself with food whilst poor Jo starves.

Answer: Lady Dedlock's French maid Hortense

Mr. George falls under suspicion and is in fact arrested. Lady Dedlock would appear to have the motive of wanting to keep her secret safe from her husband and from society in general. Captain Hawdon is already dead. The maid has already been presented as a highly volatile creature, and it appears she kills Tulkinghhorn because he didn't keep his promise to her.

Answer: Inspector Bucket

Mr. Bucket is one of the first examples of the detective in British fiction. Dickens had travelled the streets of London with just such a man in order to get background settings for parts of his story and for this important character.

Answer: Mr. Krook

Mr. Krook's rag and bottle shop is really a depository for a vast amount of junk and is full of apparently useless papers. Dickens draws the comparison with the "mountains of costly nonsense" that fill the Court of Chancery.

Answer: He explodes into small pieces through spontaneous combustion

It is a particularly disgusting scene where his body is found by the other occupants of his house. Strange as it may seem, there are documented historical cases of "spontaneous combustion" that Dickens drew upon for his novel. He wanted to suggest that the legal system could also explode because of all the evil it contained.

Answer: Mr. Vholes

Mr. Vholes is presented as yet another kind of legal parasite who is more interested in providing for his own family than seeing that Richard's case should go forward. He is given the revolting habit of picking his pimples to ensure that we are sickened by him in more ways than one.

Answer: The money in the case has been absorbed in legal costs

As the case finishes, Dickens describes how a great deal of bad air comes rushing out on to the street. All the lawyers and the people who hang around the court consider this ending to be a great joke. For the ordinary people who were involved in the case it just causes more misery and despair.

Answer: Lady Jane

Lady Jane is a very fierce predatory cat and not at all comfortable to be in the room with. Just like the law, once something has got into her claws, she will never let it go. Once again this adds to the oppressive atmosphere of Krook's establishment.

Answer: Bart and Judy

"Children" doesn't seem to be quite the right word to describe Bart and Judy. Dickens refers constantly to their resemblance to monkeys and Bart is described as a sort of "fossil Imp" who has acquired unlimited quantities of "owlish wisdom".

Answer: Phil Squod

Mr. Jobling is Mr. Guppy's friend and lodges at Krook's under the name of Mr. Weevle. Nemo is the former Captain Hawdon who was Esther's father and the lover of Lady Dedlock. Miss Flite is a little mad old woman who keeps cages of birds to be released on "The Day of Judgement" in the case of "Jarndyce and Jarndyce".

Answer: Mrs. Pardiggle's children

When Esther first meets Mrs. Pardiggle at Bleak House, she notes that she has never seen more discontented children. Membership of the "Infant Band of Joy" seems to have turned some of the boys into minor criminals who attack Esther by pinching her and telling of their woeful life with their mother.