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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Bleak House
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(1853) Novel by *Dickens, published 1852–3 in monthly parts. At the centre of a complex plot is the case of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce, which has dragged on and on in the old court of Chancery (nowadays a division of the High Court) to the benefit of no-one but the lawyers. Litigation comes to a sudden end when it is discovered that the costs now equal the entire value of the estate under dispute. Among the many characters is Mrs Jellyby, whose obsessive philanthropy threatens to ruin her own family in much the same way as the lawyers have eaten up the Jarndyce inheritance.
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