The character who dies of spontaneous combustion in Bleak House is Mr. Krook. He is a rag-and-bottle merchant whose bizarre death becomes one of the novel’s most famous and controversial episodes.
Krook lives in London and owns the house where several important characters reside, including Miss Flite. He collects old papers and documents, a detail that connects him thematically to the novel’s central legal dispute, Jarndyce and Jarndyce. His heavy drinking and the grim atmosphere surrounding him make his eventual death feel like a Gothic event.
Krook’s body is discovered burned almost completely, with only limited remains, and Dickens presents the death as spontaneous human combustion. The episode provoked criticism from writers and scientists who considered the phenomenon a superstition or misunderstanding. Dickens defended the scene in the preface to the book edition, arguing that he had based it on reported cases. Mr. Smallweed, Mr. Vholes, and Mr. Turveydrop are other Bleak House characters, but none dies this way.