“Dickens could not have performed better than [Simon Vance] does here. With a motley cast of characters to challenge the skill of any narrator, his brilliant dramatizations range from a homeless street urchin to an arrogant barrister, from a canny old windbag to a high-minded heroine who deserves the happy ending Dickens affords her. [Vance] is also persuasive as the indignant voice of the author himself, attacking both the injustice of the law and the cruel indifference of society. This may be one of the most Dickensian novels Dickens ever wrote. Highly recommended.”

'Bleak House represents the author at a perfectly poised late-middle moment in his extraordinary art.'

'Features one of his most holy of heroines...He brilliantly projects Esther as his type of ideal woman, with her modesty, perceptiveness, and moral responsibility.'

'Bleak House is one of the greatest novels by one of the giants of English literature. It is also, in the words of one legal scholar, 'the ultimate indictment of law, lawyers, and the legal system in the English language.''

'Bleak House is a satirical look at the Byzantine legal system in London as it consumes the minds and talents of the greedy and nearly destroys the lives of innocents--a contemporary tale indeed.'

“Perhaps his best novel…When Dickens wrote Bleak House he had grown up.”