II still reads “Bleak House and the East Wind.” One of ten sheets where Dickens tested titles for Bleak House, © Victoria & Albert Museum, London This title appears on the headers of the Working Notes for the first two numbers, before Dickens finally landed on the shortened title Bleak House and amended the heading of the Working Note accordingly in finalizing the first installment. The central theme of Chancery also appears in most iterations, usually as “The Ruined House / That got into Chancery / And never got out.” Although the order of these sheets is uncertain, in Harry Stone’s speculative sequencing, the idea of the “East Wind” appears late in the process, before Dickens settled on “Bleak House and the East Wind” (Stone Working 185). This is usually accompanied by “The Ruined House” or “The Solitary House,” with “Building,” “Factory,” and “Mill” also appearing as alternatives. All but one of these sheets features “Tom-all-Alone’s” as part of a possible title. 1852 daguerreotype portrait of Dickens by Antoine ClaudetĪs with his previous novel David Copperfield (1849-50)-as well as the earlier Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44)-Dickens retained a series of sheets on which he tested different titles for the novel, sheets which are now bound with the manuscript and Working Notes for the novel. I” (this chapter eventually became chapter 2 see BH_WN_01) (Letters 6.550). But on December 7, 1851, Dickens informed Evans that he had “only the last short chapter to do, to complete No. By October, Dickens was discussing advertisements for the new novel with his publishers Bradbury and Evans, though no notice appeared until February 14, 1852, just two weeks before the first installment was published (Slater 337). BH.II.L2).ĭickens began composition of Bleak House in late 1851, but the first hints of the novel date back to February when he mentions to Mary Boyle “the first shadows of a new story hovering in a ghostly way about me (as they usually begin to do, when I have finished an old one)” (Letters 6.298). Individual editorial annotations are written by Adam Grener and can be cited by annotation number as displayed at the beginning of an annotation (e.g. “Bleak House Working Notes,” transcribed and edited by Adam Grener and Isabel Parker.

The Working Note transcriptions for Bleak House (MLA): Dickens, Charles. “The Working Notes for Bleak House: Critical Introduction.” Digital Dickens Notes Project. Critical Introduction (MLA): Grener, Adam.

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