Dickens, in love and squalor

As to love, maybe I'll get to that in a future post - depiction of love is probably not one of Dickens's strengths in any event - but when it comes to squalor he's the man. Among the great passages in Bleak House, which I'm reading now, would be for sure the visit to the antiques and collectibles shop owned by the weirdly named shopkeeper, Krook; the visit to the cramped apartment in which the woman obsessed with her case in chancery lives, with a view of the courthouse; Esther's visit to the workingman's hovel where she sees the last moments of life of the little child; and the office-supplier's shop with its thousands of gadgets and items - each of these places (except maybe the sad little apartment of the madwoman) is jammed with objects, smothered by foul air, packed with dust and grime and sometimes mud or rot - and each seems to have exuded from the crowded city full of waste and noise. These are generally meant to be distasteful, even horrid scenes - but you can't help think as you read the passages that Dickens must have really enjoyed writing this stuff - and must have enjoyed reading it aloud as well. His interest is sparked by squalor and his rhetoric and descriptive capacities rise a notch - he seems always a little bored with and distrustful of wealth and station, and with good reason, but when it comes to squalor he's on familiar ground.