Bleak House Read-Along Starting Post

I got an email yesterday about a readalong for Bleak House and didn't know what to do because I am also supposed to be reading other stuff for other challenges and have yet to get reading them.  I suppose it doesn't help that I have been trying to get ebooks from the library (and regular books as well) completed. So hence I was a little hesitant to start yet another one.

I have been wanting to read Bleak House for a while and after a few hours away from the computer, I thought I would do it after all.  I am going to be reading the etext from Gutenburg, but marking my progress with the Penguin Classics version (pictured next to the text).  Here is a quick synopsis of the book from unputdownables.net:

Often considered Charles Dickens’s masterpiece, Bleak House blends together several literary genres—detective fiction, romance, melodrama, and satire—to create an unforgettable portrait of the decay and corruption at the heart of English law and society in the Victorian era.

Opening in the swirling mists of London, the novel revolves around a court case that has dragged on for decades—the infamous Jarndyce and Jarndyce lawsuit, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs. As Dickens takes us through the case’s history, he presents a cast of characters as idiosyncratic and memorable as any he ever created, including the beautiful Lady Dedlock, who hides a shocking secret about an illegitimate child and a long-lost love; Mr. Bucket, one of the first detectives to appear in English fiction; and the hilarious Mrs. Jellyby, whose endless philanthropy has left her utterly unconcerned about her own family.

As a question of inheritance becomes a question of murder, the novel’s heroine, Esther Summerson, struggles to discover the truth about her birth and her unknown mother’s tragic life. Can the resilience of her love transform a bleak house? And—more devastatingly—will justice prevail? (via goodreads.com)

My intent is to post every Friday my thoughts on the reading.  Here’s the reading schedule for the read-along:

Week #/ dates :: Place in which to STOP
Week One/ February 24- March 1 :: Chapter 6
Week Two/ March 2-8 :: Chapter 10
Week Three/ March 9-15 ::Chapter 15
Week Four/ March 16-22 :: Chapter 20
Week Five/ March 23- 29 :: Chapter 24
Week Six/ March 30- April 5 :: Chapter 30
Week Seven/ April 6-12 :: Chapter 34
Week Eight/ April 13-19 :: Chapter 39
Week Nine/ April 20-26 :: Chapter 45
Week Ten/ April 27- May 3 :: Chapter 51
Week Eleven/ May 4- 10 :: Chapter 56
Week Twelve/ May 11-17 :: Chapter 61
Week Thirteen/ May 18-24 :: The End

If you’d like to sign up for this read-along, please visit the starting post here!