The object of the present text is to provide a personal analysis of an extract of first chapter of “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens.

Considering the title “In Chancery” the reader may be think the topic of the text is diplomacy and the issues of London’s Chancery.

To start with, the structure of the text is immediately visible: it is organized in five paragraphs separated by a space. All sections are very detailed and full of adjectives to show the real conditions of the city.

After a first reading, the reader enters in the London of the Victorian age. It comes to life during an autumnal day in November. The writer focus the attention on the muddy streets and on the pollution typical of the period of the Industrial Revolution.

In the text appears the Lord Chancellor, but the narrator doesn’t focus the attention of him. The main narrative techniques are the narrator omniscient that create a clear imagine of the city in the reader’s imagine by the means of figure of speech such as anaphoras and similes. The repetition of the word “fog” creates suspance and a mysterious atmosphere.

Regarding the overall effect, it is created by figures that concerns the sight and step by step the reader builds a personal idea of the city.

To conclude, the ideal reader tries to create a connection between the situation of the city and the Chancery.