Wow, it's been too long....

Sorry it has taken me so long to post again. Yes, I'm still working my way through Bleak House, I actually spoke about my project for the first time publicly at a job interview the other day. I think speaking about it outside of my immediate family made it more real, so I vowed to post at least every other day.....

So, on to the progress with the book. I am loving this book. One thing that I am noticing and really enjoying is how Dickens changes his narrative style depending on which group of characters we happen to be visiting. When we're at Bleak House, or with Richard, Ada, and Esther, the language choices are light and airy, even when the action is not. When we're at Chesney Wold, whether with or without the Dedlocks language choices are gloomy, in fact it's always raining there. When out and about in London we get a mixture of gloom and sunshine both in setting and in language choice.

I'm really enjoying this novel, and while I've always found Dickens to be a challenge, I'm able to see this novel in my mind's eye and am really looking forward to watching the both the 1985 and the 2005 BBC produced mini-series, as I can see that this particular novel would translate well to either stage or screen. I'm really curious to see how someone else interprets the Growlery, which I think is such a wonderful place. In fact I love it so much that I'm considering renaming my office the Growlery, not that I'm always "out of humour" when I'm in my office, but I find the idea of a specific place to go when I am, to be appealing to say the least.

More in a couple of days....

It's Dickensian really....

No seriously, Bleak House is Dickensian by nature, but it's really really Dickensian... I was LOST the first few chapters, but am now getting a grasp on what is happening. My students felt the same way this year when I read to them from A Christmas Carol. They kept asking when the ghosts were going to appear, and when they finally did, all else fell into place. I'm still a little confused by the Lady Dedlock character, but I think that is by design, I'm confident things will become clearer the further I get into this novel. I've also heard wonderful things about the PBS produced film version of this novel and may well check it out once I've finished.

All in all, I'm pleased so far and am also excited about the beautiful illustrations in the edition of the novel that I have. They appear to be pen and ink but I can't really be sure.

More tomorrow....