Bleak House Character Tracker

An interactive web application to help readers track characters while reading Charles Dickens' "Bleak House."

Quick Start

Simply open index.html in any web browser. No server, no installation, no build process required!

Features

• 📖 Non-Spoiler Design: Only shows information up to your current chapter
• 🎭 Character Stories: Click any character to see their story so far
• 🔄 Relationship Circles: Characters organized by social groups and locations
• ⭐ Major Characters Highlighted: Easy to spot recurring important characters
• 📱 Responsive: Works on phones and desktops
• ⚡ Fast: Pure static files, loads instantly

How to Use

1. Select a chapter you're about to read (or just finished)
2. See all characters that appear in that chapter, grouped by social circles
3. Click any character name to see their cumulative story up to that point
4. Never get lost trying to remember "Wait, who is this person again?"

Character Circles

Characters are grouped by their social worlds:

• Bleak House: John Jarndyce's household and wards
• Chancery: Legal world and Court of Chancery
• Chesney Wold: The Dedlock family and aristocracy
• London Poor: Jo, crossing sweepers, and the destitute
• Legal London: Lawyers, law stationers, and the legal trade
• And more as the story progresses...

Current Coverage

ALL 67 CHAPTERS COMPLETE! ✨

The application now includes detailed character information and stories for the entire novel, from the fog-shrouded opening in Chancery to Esther's happy ending seven years later.

How Character Stories Work

When viewing Chapter N, character stories show only what you've learned in chapters 1 through N-1. This prevents spoilers while helping you remember who characters are.

Example: Viewing Chapter 5 and clicking "Esther Summerson" shows her story from Chapters 3-4 only.

Technical Details

This is a pure static web application:

• No backend server required
• No API calls or dependencies
• Just HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
• All data pre-generated in data.js

See ARCHITECTURE.md for detailed technical documentation.

Files in This Project

• index.html - Main application interface (contains all HTML, CSS, and JavaScript)
• data.js - All character and chapter data (static/pre-generated)
• BleakHouse.txt - Full novel text (reference material)
• chapter_data_backup/ - Backup data files used to rebuild data.js if needed
• build_data_js.py - Script to rebuild data.js from backup files
• README.md - This file
• ARCHITECTURE.md - Technical architecture and design decisions
• PROJECT_SUMMARY.md - Development history

Contributing

To add more chapters:

1. Read the chapter
2. Identify characters and their roles
3. Update data.js with character appearances and story entries
4. Test by opening index.html

See ARCHITECTURE.md for detailed guidance on data format and design principles.