[jcranmer]

I suspect a majority of the population has no idea what "Michaelmas term" is. And there's some other phrases in there that require some familiarity with things commonplace in the 19th century that aren't so in the 21st century.

[0xffff2]

Count me among those who have no idea when Michaelmas is, but does it really matter? The next sentence tells you it is sometime around November. The whole passage is laden with overlapping context clues.

[hluska]

It’s a helpful detail that Dickens wrote for his Victorian readers. Michaelmas term refers to both the first academic term of the school year and the start of the legal year in the English courts system. Bleak House is about a court case that has gone on so long that nobody knows what it’s about. The case is about an inheritance and has dragged on for so long that the estate itself has been totally wiped out by legal fees. It has ruined lives and continues to ruin them but there is no end in sight even though there’s nothing left but fighting to fight over. It’s an inherited lawsuit and an inherited feud.

Dickens had a lot of issues with the legal system at the time and it was a protest work.

[everybodyknows]

> nothing left but fighting to fight over

Toward the end of the story the fighting does stop when lawyer's fees, which they had been charging to the estate, at last empty it. This is announced publicly in court, and the attorneys respond by flinging their piles of paper into the air, one of a few comic scenes in the novel.

FYA, this modus vivendi is still being practiced -- see the litigation around the estate of O.J. Simpson.

[Zedseayou]

One example student in the study does not look it up and misinterprets "Michaelmas Term" as a person, presumably because it has "Michael" in it. Knowing it is even a time is half the battle.

[andoando]

How does November help? I don't even remember the academic terms from my college 10 years ago, how am I supposed to accurately know how academic terms worked a century ago in England?

[jcranmer]

Per Wikipedia, Michaelmas term tends to around in mid-December, not in mid-November.

[0xffff2]

Well then I guess it was an unseasonably warm December that year? Or perhaps the dates have changed? Regardless, I'm not at all convinced that it makes a significant difference to the story.

[SamBam]

They were given a dictionary, and also told they were allowed to look things up on their phone.

I suspect that the unfamiliarity with words like Michaelmas was part of the point.

I.e. What do the students do when reading a book and they come across a word they don't know? Look it up? Deduce it's rough meaning from context? Live with the uncertainty? Get mad and not finish the text?

[BobaFloutist]

Sure, but I know what terms are in tis context, and I know what Christmas is. So it's hardly impossible to deduce enough to keep reading.

[mkehrt]

I'm pretty sure "Michaelmas term" is just a Britishism sill in use today.

[StefanBatory]

... I guessed it was about some prime minister term ending, maybe he got voted out, or he wasn't elected in his constituency again.

In my defence, I'm not a native speaker

[layer8]

The explanation is nowadays just a tap-and-hold away, however, on a mobile device.