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Whenever you are struggling with writing or drafting, and feel like an utter failure, remember that #Dickens painstakingly considered MULTIPLE titles before choosing the comparatively simplistic #BleakHouse (1853).
Some ideas were decidedly inferior to his ultimate choice...
Some ideas were decidedly inferior to his ultimate choice...
If #Dickens had gone with one of his first titles, #1. "Tom-all Alone's. The Ruined House" and #2. "Tom-all-Alone's. The Solitary House, that was always shut up," this would have placed Jo's London slum at the forefront of the novel, giving the Cockney lad a more central role.
If Dickens had chosen his #3.,"Bleak House Academy," one wonders if most of the novel's action would have taken place at a school, or if Esther would have eventually established one as a teacher in Jarndyce's house instead of living as a companion to Ada...how exciting!
With #4. "The East Wind," #Dickens focuses on John Jarndyce's euphemism for depression, which he mentions to Esther, Ada, and Richard whenever he needs to be alone in his study, called "the Growlery." There, he works out his feelings and returns, outwardly cheerful again.
Having reached #5. "Tom-all-Alone's. The Ruined [House, Building, Factory, Mill], that got into Chancery and never got out," Dickens reverts back to his earlier idea of the fictional London slum and is interested in alluding to the court case, but isn't sure about the building.
![Having reached #5. "Tom-all-Alone's. The Ruined [House, Building, Factory, Mill], that got into Chancery and never got out," Dickens reverts back to his earlier idea of the fictional London slum and is interested in alluding to the court case, but isn't sure about the building.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErTXC-bXcAAsQSM.jpg "Having reached #5. \"Tom-all-Alone's. The Ruined [House, Building, Factory, Mill], that got into Chancery and never got out,\" Dickens reverts back to his earlier idea of the fictional London slum and is interested in alluding to the court case, but isn't sure about the building.")
He experiments: #6. "Tom-all-Alone's. The Solitary House, where the grass grew," #7. "Tom-all-Alone's. The Solitary House, that was always shut up and never lighted," and in a wild change of setting, #8. "Tomall'Alone's. The Ruined Mill, that got into Chancery and never got out."
Avoiding writing an industrial novel yet, as he will with #HardTimes (1854), Dickens decides to confine himself to the "house": #9. "Tom-all-Alone's. The Solitary House where the Wind Howled," #10. "Tom-all-Alone's. The Ruined House that got into Chancery, and never got out."
Finally, Dickens reaches #11. "Bleak House and the East Wind. How they both got into Chancery and never got out." Eventually, he edits this down to "Bleak House," a much more memorable title, though Edwin Percy Whipple regrets that "Jarndyce v. Jarndyce" was not considered!
For more about Dickens's writing quandaries while envisioning and drafting #BleakHouse, read Whipple's full introduction to the novel here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Writings_of_Charles_Dickens/X7Q0AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=edwin+percy+whipple+bleak+house
Michael Slater discusses what can be gleaned from Dickens's notes and drafting process, as found in the #BleakHouse manuscript. See "Writing Bleak House: 1852-1853" in his biography "Charles Dickens" (2011): https://www.google.com/books/edition/Charles_Dickens/EeiVDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=bleak+house+manuscript+dickens&pg=PA340
The manuscript of #BleakHouse, bequeathed to Dickens's friend and biographer John Forster, is held at the @V_and_A Museum in the Forster Collection: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-dickens-manuscripts/
And, of course, from your privileged position in the twenty-first century, you can always read the novel without having to wait for its 20 installments to conclude: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Bleak_House_by_Charles_Dickens/trkjuuYloVsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq
