The reputation of Charles Dickens amongst the general reader seems to rest on works like A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and Great Expectations. The standard fare for schoolchildren also includes A Christmas Carol, usually churned out in December by way of ghastly screen adaptations. Yet one of Dickens’ major contributions to the development of English literature is the creation of the detective novel. Bleak House, serialised between 1852 and 1853 has a plot which depends on the work of a police detective, named Inspector Bucket who can also be labelled as the first police detective hero of English fiction. Dickens had few literary models before him. The Sensation novels and Gothic novels of the previous century, replete with eerie details, a general air of mystery and uncertainty along with French publications like the Memoirs of Vidocq- the convict turned hero- could not compete with the figure of Inspector Bucket. Bucket was the plodding policeman, one who was refused quick access to the posh world of the upstairs but who was forever watching, thinking, sifting, working silently and without much aid till the mystery that is at the heart of the novel is revealed and the murder understood.

Dickens may not have been a conscious criminologist in the modern sense of the term but he certainly bordered on being one. His writings show a fascination for crime and punishment, with police cases, murder, ghosts, violence, villainy, evil. As a writer whose concern for social problems pushed through his plots and characters, crime was an arena for understanding these. In an article entitled The Detective Police, published in 1850 in the periodical Household Words he had begun with an elaborate panegyric to the newly established Metropolitan Police: “On the other hand, the Detective Force organised since the establishment of the existing Police, is so well chosen and trained, proceeds so systematically and quietly, does its business in such a workman-like manner, and is always so calmly and steadily engaged in the service of the public, that the public really do not know enough of it, to know a tithe of its usefulness.Impressed with this conviction, and interested in the men themselves, we represented to the authorities at Scotland Yard, that we should be glad, if there were no social objection, to have some talk with the Detectives.” Dickens often spent time with policemen, in the slums and the streets, by the river or in police stations, observing them and lavishing on them his praise and respect. Although doubtful about the Bow Street Runners, whom he dismissed as being in cahoots with criminals, Dickens was entirely respectful of the Detective Department of the Metropolitan Police. Inspector Bucket seems to be a tribute to the police.

Bleak House is a natural development of Dickens’ interest where the personalities and activities of the Detective Police are given a permanent place within the structure of a fictional narrative. The framework for the crime and detection is provided by the quest for an illegitimate child’s parentage. Esther Summerson is Mr Jarndyce’s ward and also the product of a passionate affair between Lady Dedlock and Captain Hawdon. Lady Dedlock accidentally recognises her former lover’s handwriting, Mr Tulkinghorn the lawyer is quick on the scent and soon the march of events catapult into public knowledge of Lady Dedlock’s past, her strained relations with Mr Tulkinghorn and the latter’s murder which puts her into greater suspicion. These two characters provide the eye of the storm, a nerve-racking cat and mouse game, a deadly thrust and parry which is literally a matter of life and death. They are surrounded by other characters like Jo, Krook, Guppy, Mr Smallweed, all assisting in the intensification of the mystery. But the master of honours is Inspector Bucket whose systematic probing arranges the various disjointed threads into a logical order.

Bucket was modelled on a real life policeman, namely Inspector Field of Scotland Yard. In appearance, manners, temperament the two are nearly identical. Bucket is further idealised into an infallible investigator. His knack for hunting out the right clues, his tireless exploration of loose ends, his battles with a plethora of false clues, faulty evidence, lies, violence, only to uncover the truth at the end make him the first in a long line of police detectives. As a personality he has an aura, is seen as being thoughtful, composed, almost serene. But Bucket is also a humanised figure, he is deferential to Sir Leicester, kind to Esther, skilled in his dealings with Mr Jaryndice. He is also skilled in disguise and uses it to hunt down Gridley, appearing as a distinguished looking gentleman with gaiters and a large hat. At other times Bucket endears himself through his charm and then proceeds to unravel secrets. Although in his pursuit of the truth Bucket runs up against other characters who are poor and defenceless, such as the waif-like Jo, there is never any criticism of police heavy-handedness. Bucket, like the other policemen in the novel, is harsh because it is his duty to be so. These policemen are never unnecessarily villainous or grasping. They embody the universal stereotype of the British Bobby, a keeper of truth and tradition, one who is dependable and helpful and usually a principled man of simple virtue.

As a detective novel Bleak House is a successful melange. A crowded city, an illegitimate child and a dark past, four deaths, one of which is murder while another is a semi-supernatural event labelled ‘spontaneous combustion’, a panoply of omens, shadowy figures and events and over it all the patient Detective Bucket at the heart of the unravelling. As a comment on the human condition the novel is also supreme. The multiple plots connected by disruptive events show us that the day-to-day life of an individual is often a precarious and perilous one and that we are often wavering on the brink of menace. Fog and rain are symbolical of human greed, desire and of course, the utter failure of the legal system. The spiritual nullity of the law is matched by the avarice of materialistic Victorian England. Only conscientious policemen can restore some measure of order to this benighted world.

With Inspector Bucket begins a tradition of the Great British Policeman, one that moves to Conan Doyle’s Lestrade and Christie’s Battle, to Freeman Wills Croft’s French and James’ Dalgliesh, right down to our modern Alec Hardy and Luther. More than a hundred and fifty years after being created, the persona of the fictional police detective still lives strong.