Ithaca College

Credited as being the first detective novel, Bleak House is a dark comedy that combines mystery, social Darwinism, slippery gender roles, layered plots and a cast of nearly a hundred characters in Dickens’s attempt to create a three-dimensional experience of mid-century London.

This course is one book, read deeply over the course of one semester, by people who are curious to explore the construction of narrative, gender, plot, suspense and dialogue through the lenses of literary and cultural studies. We will examine the ways readers where being taught how to read other people, and why their lives and livelihoods depended on it in a period of unprecedented social and economic change.

The novel traces: the tangled case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs; the romance of Esther Summerson and the secret of her origins; the sleuthing of Detective Bucket; and the fate of Joe the crossing sweeper. Homework includes analyses of the novel as well as film and television adaptations. Highly recommended for fans of Lost, The Wire, Downtown Abbey, Jane Austen, The Crown, Victoria and more.

CRN: 23815   Slow Read: Bleak House 29400 - 01  Wednesdays, 2-2:50 pm

Questions? Contact Prof. Elizabeth Bleicher at ebleicher@ithaca.edu or 607-274-1531.