Bleak House Resources

So you don't have to type out long quotations.

Everything you ever wanted to know about our favorite repressed ancestors, brought to you by Brown University.

It's like Disney World, but for Dickens novels!

There are actually a lot of these, but we here at Shmoop can personally vouch for the 1985 miniseries made by the BBC. It's about as good a movie version as you're going to get, with the main flaw being that the actress who plays Esther looks nothing – nothing! – like the one who plays Lady Dedlock.

This more recent version of Bleak House has great reviews, but again, Ester and Lady Dedlock look nothing alike.

Map of London with locations from Dickens's novels marked.

1853 article about Bleak House from The New York Times (spoiler alert: they liked it).

Dickens's article about the horrible, criminal orphanage where Guster is said to have grown up.

Dickens's magazine, with all the issues from 1851.

All the marriage proposals from the novel, back to back, starting with Mr. Guppy proposing to Esther. These clips come from the 2005 miniseries.

Play this Charles Dickens game! Here's what the BBC says about it: " Dare you take a tour of Dickensian London? You could meet Mr Micawber, Mr Pickwick or Fagin. Or you might catch smallpox and end up in jail. If you do well, you'll get to meet Charles Dickens."

An animated video about the author's life, from the BBC.

This one comes from LibriVox.

Listen to NPR on the opening of a Dickens theme park in London. Sounds pretty cool.

The illustrator Phiz drew the novel's original illustrations. Check them out here.

Photograph of Dickens from just after Bleak House was published. Looks like he needs to comb his hair.

So you can see what Esther's face might have ended up looking like. But it's gross, so sit down and take a deep breath before clicking.