It’s time for my friend Sue’s Big Book Summer Challenge! The gist of this challenge is to read a book or books that are over 400 pages long between Memorial Day and Labor Day (May 28 – September 6, 2021).

Check out the details over at Sue’s blog, Book By Book. You don’t have to have a blog to participate and there is a giveaway for participants at the end of the challenge.

This’ll be my fourth year in a row participating in Sue’s challenge. Last year I managed to read four books over four hundred pages (here’s my wrap-up post for 2020).

One Big Classic

This year I’m focusing on one big book: Bleak House by Charles Dickens, which was serialized from March 1852 – September 1853. The Vintage Edition I’m reading comes in at 866 pages.

I haven’t read much Dickens and chose Bleak House because it is considered his most critically acclaimed novel.

The only Dickens novel I can definitively remember reading is Great Expectations, which I enjoyed wayback in high school. I’ve read more Wilkie Collins than Dickens. Apparently, there’s sometimes a rift between the fans of these two wordy 19th century male writers.

About Bleak House

Last year the Newberry Library in Chicago had a seminar on Bleak House and wrote, “Though it may look like a novel, Bleak House is really a variety show with a plot.” I’ve been watching the Apple TV+ series Dickinson and got a kick out of a scene where Emily’s sister and brother, Lavinia and Austin, are gleefully pouring over the latest installment of Bleak House, wondering who will do what next.

Publisher’s blurb: “In Bleak House, competing claims of love and inheritance–complicated by murder–have given rise to a costly and decades-long legal battle that one litigant refers to as “the family curse.” The insidious London fog that rises from the river Thames and seeps into the very bones of the characters symbolizes the pervasive corruption of the legal system and the society that supports it, targets of Dickens’s satirical wrath. Displaying Dickens’s familiar panoramic sweep and brilliant characters–including the mysterious orphan Esther Summerson, her gentle guardian John Jarndyce, the haughty Lady Dedlock, and the scheming lawyer Mr. Tulkinghorn–the novel is also a bold experimental narrative that unforgettably dramatizes our most basic human conflicts.”

UPDATED: Reading Schedule

My plan remains to start Bleak House on July 1st.

However, as of 6/30/2021 there’s an UPDATED READING SCHEDULE based on the 1852-53 serialization chapter breakdown. I’ve updated the reading schedule to reflect the flow of how Dickens originally presented the story. The main difference is that instead of taking 21 days to read, this schedule aims at 19 days. The page count for each day is more consistent (42-46 pages) except for the last day which is a bit longer (66 pages). But please read at your own pace/scheduling requirements. I’m hustling through the novel mainly because I have other projects coming up in late July and August.

Thanks to Jenny from Reading Envy for sharing the following resource that brought Dickens’ original chapter breakdown to my attention:

https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/bleak-house/

At the link above you’ll find scans of each issue of the original serialization. I hope you check out at least one issue to see the context for Bleak House’s entrance onto the world’s stage. The ads for products and other books are fun to see. These scans are part of The Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE).

If this schedule below doesn’t work for you, please read whenever you can and at your own pace. The only thing I ask is that if you post a comment with a spoiler, that you mark it as such.

New Schedule

Day, chapters, page numbers, and in parenthesis the # of pages to be read:

July 1: Chapters 1-4, pages 3-47 (44)

July 2: Chapters 5-7, pages 47-92 (45)

July 3: Chapters 8-10, pages 92-137 (45)

July 4: Chapters 11-13, pages 137-180 (43)

July 5: Chapters 14-16, pages 180-224 (44)

July 6: Chapters 17-19, pages 224-269 (45)

July 7: Chapters 20-22, pages 269-313 (44)

July 8: Chapters 23-25, pages 314-358 (44)

July 9: Chapters 26-29, pages 359-405 (46)

July 10: Chapters 30-32, pages 405-449 (44)

July 11: Chapters 33-35, pages 450-494 (44)

July 12: Chapters 36-38, pages 494-538 (43)

July 13: Chapters 39-42, pages 539-581 (42)

July 14: Chapters 43-46, pages 582-625 (43)

July 15: Chapters 47-49, pages 626-669 (43)

July 16: Chapters 50-53, pages 669-712 (43)

July 17: Chapters 54-56, pages 712-755 (43)

July 18: Chapters 57-59, pages 756-799 (43)

July 19: Chapters 60-67, pages 800-866 (66)

THE END!

Buddy Read

The page numbers refer to the Vintage Classics edition that I’ll be reading. My friend Kate has reached out to buddy read Bleak House with me. If you’d like to buddy read with us and have a different edition, I assume the chapter breakdowns are the same.

If you are interested in doing a buddy read, you can connect with me here, or if you’re on Goodreads, I’ve created a discussion thread on the Book Cougars’ group there. Here’s the link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22006723-bleak-house-by-charles-dickens.

If you have zero interest in Bleak House and instead would like to read Anna Karenina, my Book Cougars cohost Emily has chosen Tolstoy’s novel as her Big Book Summer read. Here’s the link for that buddy read: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22006716-anna-karenina-by-leo-tolstoy.

Are you reading a Big Book this summer?

Are you a classics reader or reader of Big Books? I’d love to hear about your summer reading plans. Let me know in the comments.