History YMMV / BleakHouse

* SacredCow: The novel is regarded as the best of Dickens' writing, and as such is highly defended when faced with criticism

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: This novel's first paragraph is notable for containing ''the very first'' mention of a dinosaur in modern fiction, where the omniscient narrator describes the streets of London as being so muddy he could imagine a ''[[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursSaurischianDinosaurs Megalosaurus]]'' lumbering up them just as it did in its time. It doesn't affect the story in any way, and was probably just mentioned because dinosaurs were a popular subject in Victorian Britain when Dickens wrote it.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: This novel's first paragraph is notable for containing ''the very first'' mention of a dinosaur in modern fiction, where the omniscient narrator describes the streets of London as being so muddy he could imagine a ''Megalosaurus'' lumbering up them. It doesn't affect the story in any way, and was probably just in because dinosaurs were in at the time.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: This novel is notable for containing ''the very first'' mention of a dinosaur in modern fiction (in the first paragraph, no less), where the omniscient narrator describes the streets of London as being so muddy he could imagine a ''Megalosaurus'' lumbering up them. It doesn't affect the story in any way, and was probably just in because dinosaurs were in at the time.

** Mr. Bucket offhandedly mentions a man named [[NamesTheSame Michael Jackson]] late in the novel.

** Gillian Anderson (Lady Dedlock) went on to play Miss Haversham in ''Literature/GreatExpectations'' (2011).

** From the more obscure 1985 miniseres: Peter Vaughan played the villainous Mr. Tulkinghorn. Thirteen years later he played the kindly Mr. Boffin in ''Literature/OurMutualFriend''.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: A criticism that is almost as old as the book itself is that rather than the modest humble, honest narrator Dickens intended Esther to be, she comes across as unbearably pious, priggish, disingenuous and self-serving. Her attitude towards Ada sometimes seems more morbid, controlling obsession that the simple sisterly affection Dickens' meant, and her actions sometimes seem willfully self-harming. However, even her harshest critics could hardly lose all sympathy for her, as the parts of the book which concern her relationship with her mother or her heartfelt sympathy for the unfortunates she encounters, show her in a much better light.

* HilariousInHindsight: Mr. Bucket offhandedly mentions a man named [[NamesTheSame Michael Jackson]] late in the novel.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: A criticism that is almost as old as the book itself is that rather than the modest humble, honest narrator Dickens intended Esther to be, she comes across as unbearably pious, priggish, disingenuous and self-serving. Her attitude towards Ada sometimes seems more morbid, controlling obsession that the simple sisterly affection Dickens' meant, and her actions sometimes seem willfully self-harming. However, even her harshest critics could hardly fail to lose all sympathy for her, as the parts of the book which concern her relationship with her mother or her heartfelt sympathy for the unfortunates she encounters, show her in a much better light.

* {{Fridge Brilliance}}: Allan Woodcourt is Welsh. In that time and place, this would have made him a member of a persecuted minority. Who better to ignore prejudice and see Esther for who she really is?

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: A critisism that is almost as old as the book itself is that rather than the modest humble, honest narrator Dickens intended Esther to be, she comes across as unbearably pious, priggish, disingenuous and self-serving. Her attitude towards Ada sometimes seems more morbid, controlling obsession that the simple sisterly affection Dicken's meant, and her actions sometimes seem willfully self-harming. However, even her harshest critics could hardly fail to lose all sympathy for her, as the parts of the book which concern her relationship with her mother or her heartfelt sympathy for the unfortunates she encounters, show her in a much better light.
** The BBC adaptation made no bones about overhauling Esther, keeping her charitable and kind nature, but granting her a sense of humour and a sensible, rather than pathologically self-effacing, attitude to her own virtues and vices.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: a critisism that is almost as old as the book itself is that rather than the modest humble, honest narrator Dickens intended Esther to be, she comes across as unbearably pious, priggish, disingenuous and self-serving. Her attitude towards Ada sometimes seems more morbid, controlling obsession that the simple sisterly affection Dicken's meant, and her actions sometimes seem willfully self-harming. However, even her harshest critics could hardly fail to lose all sympathy for her, as the parts of the book which concern her relationship with her mother or her heartfelt sympathy for the unfortunates she encounters, show her in a much better light.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: a critisism that is almost as old as the book itself is that rather than the modest humble, honest narrator Dickens intended Esther to be, she comes across as unbearably pious, priggish, disingenuous and self-serving. Her attitude towards Ada sometimes seems more morbid, controlling obsession that the simple sisterly affection Dicken's meant, and her actions sometimes seem willfully self-harming. However, even her harshest critics could hardly fail to lose all sympathy for her, as the parts of the book which concern her relationship with her mother or her heartfelt sympathy for the unfortunates she encounters, show her in a much better light. The BBC adaptation made no bones about overhauling Esther, keeping her charitable and kind nature, but granting her a sense of humour and a sensible, rather than pathologically self-effacing, attitude to her own virtues and vices.