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Popular Culture Review
Poverty and drug addiction rear their ugly heads repeatedly as thematic
elements in Bleak House and Regiment. Certain characters illustrate connections
between the books that speak of ruin in young love because of irresponsible
behavior. Bleak House's Richard and Ada directly reflect Miles and Veronica in
Regiment. Because Richard fails to follow his guardian’s advice and find a
profession, he ruins his life and that of his betrothed Ada. He dies in the vain
hope that Jamdyce and Jamdyce will make him rich, preyed upon by his leech
like lawyer. Leaving his young wife to care for their child, Richard’s
unwillingness to do the right thing is a didactic tale meant to emphasize the
importance of responsibility while showing Chancery’s negative effect on
society.
Miles and Veronica’s engagement in Regiment is also negatively influenced
by a large and powerful institution: the British government. He is sent to war
and returns shell shocked. He turns to heroin to ease his suffering and is
portrayed as both a victim of his addiction and an irresponsible cad who leaves
Veronica in the lurch. Her lackluster looks and his jilting are cause enough to
send her into the realm of the “odd woman.” After Holmes is able to clean Miles
up, he comes to his senses and marries Veronica. They too have one child before
he is sent away with the military again and killed. While both novels portray the
young men as having succumbed to the whims of a powerful institution,
Regiment takes a more sympathetic and modem view of Miles, who is
temporarily redeemed and whose addiction is shared by Holmes and Russell at
one time or another. Bleak House shows that in some sense Richard is a victim
of Chancery but gives him ample opportunity to step away and make a regular
living. In the end, they both die too young and leave behind the young women
who love them and their children.
Far from irrelevant, these minor characters and their struggles serve to
underscore the embattlement of the major characters and the plot and thematic
elements that set up a dialectic between the contemporary detective novel in
Regiment and the Victorian detective plot in Bleak House. Drawing attention to
the parallels between the novels elicited a side result. This highlighted how even
a contemporary perspective that attempts to strike out complications brought on
Victorianism cannot escape the influence of some: marriage between unequal
sexes/generations and bias against foreign influence. While these clinging
influences are far from damning, they are worth noting in looking at the
detective stories holistically in terms of their socio-political value.
Apart from these relatively minor elements is a systematic and effective
dismantling of some Victorian philosophies by the contemporary historical
detective story represented by Regiment on issues of women’s identity and place
in the public sphere, charity, class, and ultimately, the meaning of justice in
detective fiction. Extensions of this study could focus on the historical
significance of the shift to the fulfilling resolution in detective fiction and away
from the more ambiguous conclusions in early detective plots like Bleak House.
Novel hallmarks of the subgenre’s development and harbingers of its ultimate