As the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grinds its way through the Court of Chancery it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson a ward of court whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage but often comic indictment of a society that is rotten to the core Bleak House is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums.