Guppy's first name is William. Weevle/Jobling's first name is Tony. And they have an adorable "And then Guppy said "Who are YOU conspiring with?" And then Jobling retorts "Nuh huh!" And then HE said "well I won't take you to the spring fling*" and then I said "Well I'm going with Prince, so WHO CARES" and then they broke up and it was on the quad and everyone saw.
George gave Tulkster the Hawdon handwriting sample because something debts for the Bagnets. I'm not entirely sure who the Bagnets are. I know they have hilariously named children and now I know they were in debt but aren't now because George made a minor deal with...not the devil but one of the lesser demons. Sorry, George. You seem very nice but your chapters are boring.
Esther is all disfigured by smallpox (at least enough that Charley hid all of the mirrors) BUT not blind anymore so there's that. She then admits that she believes Woodcourt loves her (yeah, thanks for that, couldn't have guessed) but she's very happy that they didn't get engaged cos now she's all ugly and that would be unfair to him.
Are there interpretations of Bleak House that don't talk about Esther being super in love with Ada? If so, how the hell do they argue that? I mean, other than badly.
The Lady D and Esther reunion was...anticlimactic. Dickens take 3 chapters to describe fog, but we get maybe 3 pages for the entire "I'm your mother!" "Of course you are! I love you, mother!" "I love you too. But we may never speak again. I must be dead to you because of my reputation." "Of course! Because I love you so much I shall keep your secret." "OK. Bye then." "Bye."
Richard is being a jerk now, all wrapped up in the Jarndyce case. And yet I still didn't really mind him, until it was revealed he's been hanging out with Skimpole. No Richard. No. You've crossed the line now.
Guppy agrees to quit digging into Esther's past in a scene that's sort of adorable when he keeps oscillating between talking to her and running back to the house. But then you remember the creepy stalking and go back to thinking he should just go away now.
Grandfather Smallwood is digging through Krook's things, and Tulkinghorn is lurking in Nemo/Hawdon/Weevle's apartment making vague threats at Guppy. All this stuff about Tulkinghorn collecting secrets. He's Magnassen, right? I bet he's flicking faces too. The jerk.
What will Tulkinghorn do with this information? Is he going to reveal Lady D's past? Or use the information to get something from her? What does he want? Is Richard going to keep being a dick (HA) about this J&J case? Will Esther and Ada finally just get together already omg??
*Why yes, Mean Girls was on TV when I was taking some of my notes.
At least there's only one new character in this section
Mr. Vholes - Richard's lawyer to help with the J&J case. Vholes whines a lot about how he does everything for his daughters. Also is very respectable because he has bad digestion and apparently those go together. Comments about how solid his commitment is by banging on a hollow desk, so...
Title quote from location 9397
Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. Amazon Digital Services. Originally published 1853. Kindle edition.
