Bleak House

Everyone knows that Dicken's Bleak House is a literary classic. But how many know it was the first detective novel too? Introducing Crime Classics, from Atlantic Books. Jarndyce versus Jarndyce - a dispute over a vast fortune left by an intestate miser - has occupied the Court of Chancery for years. When, one day, Lady Dedlock faints upon recognizing the handwriting in one of the documents pertaining to the case, her sinister lawyer, Tulkinghorn, immediately senses a hidden secret - and an opportunity for blackmail...But he is playing a dangerous game, and he is found dead: the victim of murder most horrid. It is down to Detective Inspector Bucket - the first ever detective in a British novel - to solve the labyrinthine mystery. From the peaceful countryside aristocracy to the starving of the dank London streets; from the legal profession and its hangers-on, to its numerous poor litigants; from philanthropist Jarndyce to orphan Esther and parasitic Skimpole, Bleak House reveals the vast complex of relationships in multi-layered Victorian society. It is classic crime fiction at its most enduring and well-loved best.

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) had little formal education yet became the most prominent and revered English Victorian writer as well as a journalist. His novels include The Adventures of Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities. Robert Giddings is an eminent literary critic who reviews for such publications as the Guardian, the New Statesman, and the Sunday Times.