Bleak House character list below for the supposed inspiration of individual characters). Although not a character, the "Jarndyce and Jarndyce" case is a vital part of the novel. It is believed to have been inspired by a number of real-life Chancery cases involving wills, including those of Charles Day and William Jennens, and of Charlotte Smith's father-in-law Richard Smith. Much criticism of "Bleak House" focuses on its unique narrative structure: it is told both by a third-person omniscient narrator and a first-person narrator (Esther Summerson). The omniscient narrator speaks in the present tense and is a dispassionate observer. Esther Summerson tells her
My Companions in the Bleak House My Companions in the Bleak House My Companions in the Bleak House () is a novel by Czech author Eva Kantůrková, first published in 1984 and was the first recipient of the Tom Stoppard Prize. It is a fictionalised account of Kantůrková's time in prison on charges of sedition in Communist Czechoslovakia. In 1992 it was adapted into a -hour miniseries, which won two awards at the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels. The book tells the story of twelve female prisoners held in Ruzyně prison in Prague, in the form of a fictionalized memoir. Arrested in 1981, the author was