Bleak House may well be the finest literary work to come out of nineteenth-century England. In no other Victorian novel is the narrative more artful, the cast of characters more engaging, the satire more biting, the range of life more wondrously vast. A miracle of autho rial creation, the book is constructed around three great themes: the High Court of Chancery, whose endles litigation of Jarndyce and Jarndyce symbolizes th murky institutional fog surrounding all England; th theme of misplaced children, setting whimsical, carefre Harold Skimpole in poignant contrast with sad, youn nameless Jo; and the mystery theme, a romantic tang of trails followed by the three unforgettable sleuth Guppy, Tulkinghorn, and Bucket, leading to the asto ishing revelation of a …