Esther Summerson's Struggle for Identity

In the preface to Bleak House, Charles Dickens wrote
that he purposely dwelt upon the romantic side of
familiar things (xxxv). This simple sentence hints
at the narrative outline of the book, establishing a
third-person omniscient narrator of familiar
things, and the first-person narrative of Esther
Summerson, whose task it was to write about
the romantic side of things. Although not
universally the case, most critics consider the
omniscient narrator to be a powerful, compelling
voice, but find Esther s voice to be somehow
ineffective.

Autorentext

Peter J Ponzio, B.A., Loyola University of Chicago, 1981; CPA,
1983; M.A., Northwestern University, 2008. Author of Children
of the Night, a novel; Spike's Goldfish Guide, a resource for
goldfish hobbyists; co-editor of Great Books Foundation Omnibus
of Science Fiction, scheduled for release in Autumn 2009.

Klappentext

In the preface to Bleak House, Charles Dickens wrote
that he "purposely dwelt upon the romantic side of
familiar things" (xxxv). This simple sentence hints
at the narrative outline of the book, establishing a
third-person omniscient narrator of "familiar"
things, and the first-person narrative of Esther
Summerson, whose task it was to write about
the "romantic" side of things. Although not
universally the case, most critics consider the
omniscient narrator to be a powerful, compelling
voice, but find Esther's voice to be somehow
ineffective.