Chapter 17-20 Summary

Mrs. Bayham Badger observes that Richard lacks passion for medicine, criticizing his inexperience. Richard himself thinks medicine is tiresome and decides to switch to law, especially that it would enable him to control the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit. Mr. Jarndyce helps to place him under Kenge and Carboy.

Mr. Jarndyce tells Esther that her aunt wrote to him, revealing that she raised Esther in secrecy, begging him for help before she died. Mr. Kenge was appointed to be an agent and Mr. Jarndyce was to be her guardian. Allan Woodcourt visits them before departing for China and India as a surgeon on a ship. The next day he sends Esther flowers through Caddy.

In Chapter 18, Richard undertakes his studies of law at Kenge and Carboy. The opportunity to untangle the Jarndyce and Jarndyce suit makes him so absorbed with the case...