Clear all
Work #818 · Mid

Bleak House

Charles Dickens
1852-53 (serialized); 1853 (book) · English
Victorian social novel · Mid-Victorian English realism

Dickens's 1853 Victorian critique of Chancery and the social condition of England

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Bleak House (Mid)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Theistic
Observer · Moral Authority Scripture
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Bleak House

The interminable time of the Chancery suit.

Space

Bleak House

London fog and Chesney Wold.

Matter

Bleak House

The diseased social body of Victorian England.

Observer

Bleak House

The omniscient narrator and Esther Summerson.

Energy

Bleak House

Energies of legal grind and human compassion.

Information

Bleak House

The opaque documents of Chancery.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Bleak House

Dickens's Bleak House: foundational for the Victorian social novel; central reference for the modern critique of institutional dysfunction.