Bleak House

An Apple Books Classic edition.

Bleak House exposes the human toll of a tangled and broken legal system. At its heart is Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a lawsuit over a disputed inheritance that’s dragged on for generations. Young orphan Esther Summerson has arrived in London to begin a new life with her kindly benefactor, John Jarndyce. But the secrets surrounding her birth connect her fate to Lady Dedlock, a powerful aristocrat with a past she’s worked hard to bury.

As court delays destroy lives in slow motion, Dickens reveals a country where bureaucracy has become a weapon and empathy is in short supply. Fierce in its critique yet rich in heart, Bleak House is one of Dickens’ most expansive achievements—and an urgent call to remember those whom society would rather forget.