Bucket is now racing to find where Lady D has run off to because Sir Leicester is amazing and wants her back and doesn't care about her past and is the sweetest person ever and I feel bad for all the times I thought mean things about his gout.
Bucket continues to be super nice and friendly while trying to find information, while at the same time getting back to the carriage with Esther and completely dropping the friendliness (not that he's being mean to Esther, just he's not as jolly as he was a moment ago) and this is not winning me over in terms of thinking Bucket is not faking friendship with other people he's nice to. Cos it seems this is something he's able to turn on and off really easily. And YES maybe he's just really friendly and he can keep these things separate and he's very sincere in his friendship. Or not. I can't tell.
Aaaaand Lady D is dead. Well. Huh. I did not expect that. And she died not knowing that Sir Leicester is awesome and had already forgiven her and just wanted her home and safe. Damn. And now he's had a heart attack or a stroke or something.
BUT this is not the end of the story, even if it is the end of the most interesting storyline.
Richard continues to be a Dick-chard and is getting sicker and sicker so Esther is always hanging out with Ada, as things should be. Ada married Richard thinking she could change him and yeah, that's working out great for her. Also she's pregnant and hoping the baby will help make things better with Richard. Again, that always works out so well.
Skimpole calls Jarndyce selfish in his memoirs or whatever.
George and his brother reconcile and George becomes friends with Sir Leicester and takes care of him and that's nice of him. So he got a happy ending.
Jarndyce pretends to plan his marriage to Esther just to mess with her cos HAHA he knew she loved Woodcourt, which is why he had Woodcourt's mom move in with them for a while. Jarndyce is so sweet. Even if that was sort of a mean trick and can't you just give Esther what she wants without playing an elaborate trick on her? No, instead we have to make her cry and cry and try to convince herself they're tears of happiness. Great. But now Woodcourt and Esther is engaged.
In what is probably my favorite scene in the book, Guppy shows up to say that even though Esther is all weird looking now he will totally still marry her, isn't he swell?
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| Roughly how the proposal goes |
The Jarndyce & Jarndyce case is over. I still have no idea what happened. But now it's done and the book's almost over so I guess that doesn't matter.
And then Richard dies and I should probably feel bad for him, but not happening.
Oh, and there's a line about Ada's son having two moms. Because of Esther. So. Are there seriously people that argue Esther and Ada aren't in love? Because how?
Here's the thing. We have now finished Bleak House. And I've read A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations a bunch of times (because various classes made me) and I've come to the conclusion that Dickens
Sorry Alice. I thought if anything would make me appreciate the guy it would be one of our readalongs. And I still stand by that. Cos if this didn't do it, there's little hope. I like the idea of Dickens but actually getting into the weeds of his stories I mostly just...don't care.
BUT I still had a good time doing this readalong with everyone, as expected. And now I can say I've read this one so, points.
Title quote from location 14553
Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. Amazon Digital Services. Originally published 1853. Kindle edition.
