"It is possible to enjoy both books and television without being an imbecile or a drooling couch potato. The implications in some of these letters that those who enjoy the "Bleak House" TV series are simpletons are coming from hostile malcontents who obviously have little else going for them beyond their professed abilities to read. I'd love to not invite some of you stiffs to a party sometime."

What amuses me is that, were we living in the age of Dickens, the same people would be sneering at the dullheads who read novels in their off time instead of putting their minds (such as they are) toward more enriching pursuits.

Bleak House is a book that I've tried to read more than once and have stopped(have read other Dickens books but this one challenges me more

since many people consider it to be one of his masterworks)but now with

the Masterpiece Theater version on the air,I've been inspired to try again.

I do agree about Anna Maxwell Martin;she's one of those actresses that seem

so right in a period piece and I really liked what Gillian Anderson did in The House of Mirth which makes seeing her as Lady D alot more fun. Charles

Dance as Tulkinghorn gives a great performance of a truly vicious abuser of

power(insert your own favorite lawyer joke here)and Guppy seems like the

Victorian version of a stalker,to me.

The edition I'm reading is an Oxford Illustrated Dickens volume(Dickens is

one of the few writers whom you don't feel childish about reading his books

with the pictures)and I know a couple of other bloggers who are enjoying the show as well. One of the best things that MPT does is encourage folks to read some good books and this miniseries is a prime example of that.

Watching Bleak House is one of the highlights of my week. It's a whole experience: the time to myself, the cup of tea, the blanket---I'm in heaven.

I jumped to the article as soon as I saw the headline--oooo, great, it's long and detailed! I knew I wanted to write and thank you for writing the piece; I had no idea that other people were also wrapped up in Bleak House...but in such a negative way. I am shocked at the anger and dissatisftion that jumped out from almost all the reader's letters.

I just thought that everyone would write what I am writing: I'm really into it, and that's something special.

anonymous

Watching Bleak House is one of the highlights of my week. It's a whole experience: the time to myself, the cup of tea, the blanket---I'm in heaven.

I jumped to the article as soon as I saw the headline--oooo, great, it's long and detailed! I knew I wanted to write and thank you for writing the piece; I had no idea that other people were also wrapped up in Bleak House...but in such a negative way. I am shocked at the anger and dissatisftion that jumped out from almost all the reader's letters.

I just thought that everyone would write what I am writing: I'm really into it, and that's something special.

anonymous

...can kiss me fat white arse.

It is possible to enjoy both books and television without being an imbecile or a drooling couch potato. The implications in some of these letters that those who enjoy the "Bleak House" TV series are simpletons are coming from hostile malcontents who obviously have little else going for them beyond their professed abilities to read. I'd love to not invite some of you stiffs to a party sometime.

As Samuel Johnson said, "curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind." This is not limited to curiosity about books alone, I'm certain. Fascinating, intellectually attractive people are marked by their keen hunger for knowledge and connection through multiple forms of expression.

Thanks for the nice appreciation of "Bleak House." Among the great cast, you didn't mention Charles Dance playing lawyer Tulkinghorn. Twenty years ago, Dance played a lead role in "Jewel in the Crown" (on almost everyone's list of Masterpiece Theater's Greatest Hits), and it's fun to see him play a different, perhaps darker character.

After the first two-hour "Bleak House" episode, I found a used edition and began reading, and I finished it just last weekend. If you think you may want to read it, you may as well start now. It will be a while before you catch up with the show, and if you do, so what? - I'm looking forward to seeing how the adaptation deals with a few of the more startling twists. And while the show does a good job with the main plot and principal characters, the novel provides much more depth to the descriptions of Mrs. Flight, the Jellyby's, Guppy, and other minor characters.

It's not quite as easy to read as some posters have suggested - it's in our language, sort of, but it's 150-plus years old. The BBC adapters have eliminated some conventions - like dialogue that is overly formal and almost sickenly sweet, at the same time - that seem odd and off-putting to a modern audience.

On the other hand, it's a great story. Dickens alternates chapters in the first person, purportedly by a major character, with chapters written in the third-person, in the present tense. The styles contrast - the first-person chapters, though appearing to be a memoir written years after the events described, is naive, trusting, and hopeful; the third-person narrative is brooding and caustic.

Zacharek is right that "Bleak House" is a criticism of the English legal system (the Chancery Court, more specifically), but it's about much more than that. It's also about class, and in particular the arrogance of the aristocracy, which controlled the nation's land, wealth, and government, and its intentional and unintentional cruelty towards everyone else; the pretensions of much of the professional and middle classes; and the misery and helplessness of the poor.

The introduction in my old edition is by U-Chicago professor Morton Zabel, who notes that Shaw admired Dickens' social conscience. "Bleak House," said Shaw, "has never been surpassed for accuracy and for penetration of superficial pretense." Shaw described another Dickens novel, "Little Dorritt," as "a more seditious book than 'Das Kapital.' All over Europe men and women are in prison for pamphlets and speeches which are to 'Little Dorrit' as red pepper to dynamite." Here in Berkeley, Cody's and Moe's are out of "Bleak House," but I was able to pick up a copy of "Little Dorrit."