Character Details

See also Characters – which is essentially about questions of the style "In which book did ... first appear?"

In the page you are looking at now, the answer is generally the name of a character.

Author	Title			Character(s)
(James Malcolm Rymer, Thomas Peckett Prest)	The String of Pearls	First appeared in this Victorian "penny dreadful" (1846–7) – subtitled, when published in book form (1850), The Demon Barber of Fleet Street		Sweeney Todd
(Johnston McCulley)	(The Curse of Capistrano)	Secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega		Zorro
Douglas Adams	The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy	The hapless protagonist – who escapes the destruction of the Earth as it is demolished by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass		Arthur Dent
		The experienced galactic hitch–hiker (a field researcher for the Guide) who guides Arthur through the galaxy, having rescued him after he lay down in front of a Vogon bulldozer		Ford Prefect
		Ford Prefect's two–headed "semi–half–cousin", from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse – a former President of the Galaxy, and the inventor of the pan–galactic gargle blaster ("the alcoholic equivalent of a mugging")		Zaphod Beeblebrox
		Planet designer who won an award for his work on the fjords of Norway		Slartibartfast
		The only surviving human (after the Earth is destroyed), apart from Arthur Dent		Trillian
		The 'Paranoid Android': a robot on board the starship Heart of Gold, with a "brain the size of a planet"		Marvin
		Based (according to Adams) on Andrew Marshall – a comedy scriptwriter, best known for the 1990s BBC sitcom 2point4 Children
Richard Adams	Watership Down	The protagonist, who leads the rabbits to Watership Down from their old warren, and eventually becomes their Chief Rabbit – voiced in the film by John Hurt, and elegised in the song Bright Eyes		Hazel
		Younger brother of the above: a seer, who has visions and strong instincts; voiced in the film by Richard Briers		Fiver
		The largest and bravest rabbit of the group: severely wounded in a battle with the antagonist (see below), but survives and becomes the head of the Owsla (military caste) at Watership Down		Bigwig
		Clever rabbit who rescues the above from the snare that almost kills him		Blackberry
		The main antagonist: leads an attack on the Watership warren; dies in a fight with a farm dog, he lives on in rabbit legend as a bogeyman		General Woundwort
		The narrator		Dandelion
Joy Adamson	Born Free	Name of the lion		Elsa
Louisa May Alcott	Little Women	Surname of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy		March
Dante Alighieri	The Divine Comedy	Roman poet who guided Dante through Hell and Purgatory		Virgil
		Dante's inspiration, who guided him through Paradise		Beatrice
Kingsley Amis	Lucky Jim	Surname of Lucky Jim		Dixon
Jane Austen	Emma	Emma's surname (before she marries Mr. Knightley)		Woodhouse
Jane Austen	Pride and Prejudice	Surname of sisters Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine (Kitty) and Lydia		Bennet
		Pompous clergyman, turned down by Elizabeth, marries Charlotte Lucas		William Collins
		The 'single man in possession of a good fortune' who eventually marries Elizabeth		Fitzwilliam Darcy
		Enemy of Mr. Darcy, who marries Elizabeth's youngest sister Lydia		George Wickham
		Friend of Mr. Darcy, who marries Elizabeth's beloved elder sister Jane		Charles Bingley
H. E. Bates	The Darling Buds of May	Family		Larkin
Harriet Beecher Stowe	Uncle Tom's Cabin	"Never had no father, nor mother, nor nothin'. I 'spect I just growed"		Topsy
R. D. Blackmore	Lorna Doone	Name of the narrator		John (Jan) Ridd
		The violent and uncontrollable heir of the Doones – the 'foil' to the narrator		Carver Doone
John Braine	Room at the Top	Hero		Joe Lampton
Charlotte Bronte	Jane Eyre	"Reader, I married him": whom did she marry?		Mr. Rochester
		Mr. Rochester's first names		Edward Fairfax
Emily Bronte	Wuthering Heights	The principal male character: an orphaned gypsy boy, who loves Catherine; played in the 1939 film by Laurence Olivier		Heathcliff
		Catherine's surname (before she married)		Earnshaw
		Son of a neighbouring family, whom Catherine marries		Edgar Linton
		Edgar's sister, whom Heathcliff marries		Isabella
		Catherine's brother		Hindley
John Buchan	The Thirty–Nine Steps	Hero		Richard Hannay
John Bunyan	Pilgrim's Progress	Central character		Christian
Anthony Burgess	A Clockwork Orange	Central character		Alex DeLarge
Francis Hodgson Burnett	Little Lord Fauntleroy	Little Lord Fauntleroy was the heir to the		Earl of Dorincourt
Edgar Rice Burroughs	(Tarzan stories)	John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke (known in some later adaptations as Earl of Greystoke) is better known as		Tarzan
Miguel de Cervantes	Don Quixote	Described by his companion (squire) as 'knight of the sorrowful countenance'; tilted at windmills, mistaking them for giants		Don Quixote
Leslie Charteris	(various)	Character uses several aliases including Sebastian Tombs and Sugarman Treacle		Simon Templar (The Saint)
Lee Child	(various)	Hero of over 20 novels, beginning with Killing Floor (1997): a 6' 5" former major in the US military police; played in two films by Tom Cruise (5' 7")		Jack Reacher
Bernard Cornwell	(various)	Named after an England rugby captain who won 16 caps, including two for the Lions, between 1960 and 1967 (with an 'e' added at the end)		Richard Sharpe
		RSM Patrick Harper (originally an antagonist; played on TV by Daragh O'Malley) was the right–hand man of
Baroness d'Orczy	The Scarlet Pimpernel	The Scarlet Pimpernel's real name		Sir Percy Blakeney
Fyodr Dostoevsky	Crime and Punishment	Central character: impoverished student and murderer		Raskolnikoff
Arthur Conan Doyle	(Various)	"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"		Sherlock Holmes
Alexandre Dumas (pere)	The Count of Monte Cristo	Protagonist (name of the title character)		Edmond Dantes
Alexandre Dumas (pere)	The Three Musketeers	Protagonist (a friend and associate of the title characters)		d'Artagnan
George du Maurier	Trilby	Hypnotist and mesmerist		Svengali
T. S. Eliot	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats	Named after a book of the Bible		Old Deuteronomy
James Fenimore Cooper	Last of the Mohicans	Name of the Last of the Mohicans		Chingachgook
		Son of Chingachgook		Ungas
F. Scott Fitzgerald	The Great Gatsby	Full name of the title character		James Gatz
		The attractive (though shallow and self–absorbed) young debutante and socialite who is the subject of the title character's obsession		Daisy Buchanan
Ian Fleming	(Various)	Attended Fettes College in Edinburgh, after being expelled from Eton following an indiscretion involving a laundry maid		James Bond
John Galsworthy	The Forsyte Saga	Possessive central character of the first novel, A Man of Property		Soames Forsyte
Earle Stanley Gardner	The Case of the Velvet Claws	First appearance of		Perry Mason
Mrs. (Elizabeth) Gaskell	The Half–Brothers	First appeared in Mrs. Gaskell's short story The Half–Brothers; first appeared on film in 1943 – since when, despite being female, she has been played (on film and TV) by at least five different males		Lassie
Stella Gibbons	Cold Comfort Farm	Family that owned the farm		Starkadder
Goethe	Faust	Evil spirit, Faust's tempter		Mephistopheles
Winston Graham	Poldark (series)	Title character of the fourth novel in the series: Ross Poldark's arch–enemy; an industrialist and businessman, regarded as an upstart by the aristocracy; becomes enamoured of Poldark's first love, Elizabeth, eventually marrying her after she is widowed		George Warleggan
Graham Greene	Brighton Rock	Teenage gang leader – a "frighteningly immature teenage psychopath"		Pinkie Brown
Philippa Gregory	The White Queen	The White Queen was (historical character)		Elizabeth Woodville
		... consort of		Edward IV
G. & W. Grossmith	Diary of a Nobody	The nobody		Charles Pooter
H. Ryder Haggard	King Solomon's Mines	Protagonist of this and its sequels (an English big game hunter and adventurer)		Allan Quartermain
Thomas Hardy	Far from the Madding Crowd	Central character – inherits her father's farm at start of book		Bathsheba Everdene
		Handsome and unprincipled soldier, Bathsheba's first husband		Sergeant Troy
		The farmer who Bathsheba agrees to marry, but who shoots Troy on his reappearance		Boldwood
		The shepherd who is Bathsheba's first suitor and second husband		Gabriel Oak
		Mother of Troy's child, whom he deserts before marrying Bathsheba		Fanny Robin
Thomas Hardy	Jude the Obscure	Jude's surname		Fawley
Thomas Hardy	The Mayor of Casterbridge	Name of the eponymous character, who sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas after arguing with his wife when drunk		Michael Henchard
Thomas Hardy	Tess of the D'Urbervilles	Clergyman's son that Tess falls in love with and marries		Angel Clare
		False young man that Tess murders, after having his child		Alec D'Urberville
Joseph Heller	Catch–22	"Some men are born mediocre; some men achieve mediocrity; and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With …, it had been all three"		Major Major Major Major
O. Henry	The Caballero's Way	Character that first appeared in this short story		The Cisco Kid
James Hilton	Goodbye Mr. Chips	Mr. Chips's full surname		Chipping
E. W. Hornung		Amateur cricketer and "gentleman thief" – known as 'The Amateur Cracksman' – assisted by Harry "Bunny" Manders		(A. J.) Raffles
Thomas Hughes	Tom Brown's Schooldays	School bully who persecutes the title character but gets expelled for drunkenness; later turned into a military anti–hero by George MacDonald Fraser		(Harry) Flashman
Victor Hugo	Les Misérables	Unmarried mother that Valjean sends to a hospital (where she dies of shock ... )		Fantine
		Daughter of the above, whom Valjean ransoms from her cruel foster parents and raises as his own daughter, after her mother's death		Cosette
	Notre Dame de Paris	Gypsy girl that Quasimodo falls in love with		Esmeralda
Washington Irving		Fell asleep for 20 years and missed the American War of Independence		Rip Van Winkle
Kazuo Ishiguro	The Remains of the Day	Narrator and central character (played in the film by Anthony Hopkins)		Stevens
Jerome K. Jerome	Three Men in a Boat	Name of the dog		Montmorency
Stephen King	It	Name of the 'dancing clown' in which form the titular "ancient cosmic evil" usually appears		Pennywise
Stieg Larsson	Millennium trilogy	Name of the character referred to in the titles		Lisbeth Salander
		In the stories, Millennium is a		Magazine
D. H. Lawrence	Lady Chatterley's Lover	Lady Chatterley's first name		Constance (Connie)
		First name of Lady Chatterley's husband (Lord Chatterley)		Clifford
		Name of the eponymous gamekeeper		Oliver Mellors
Anita Loos	Gentlemen Prefer Blondes	Heroine		Lorelei Lee
Captain Maryatt	Children of the New Forest	The children's surname		Beverley
H. C. McNeile	(various)	The Black Gang (1922) was the second novel (the first being self–titled, and describing him as "detective, patriot, hero and gentleman") to feature		Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond
Herman Melville	Moby Dick	Narrator – the only survivor of the wreck of the Pequod		Ishmael
		One–legged captain of the Pequod		Ahab
		First mate of the Pequod		Starbuck
Thomas Middleton, William Rowley	The Changeling (play)	Heroine		Beatrice Joanna
Margaret Mitchell	Gone with the Wind	Scarlett O'Hara's three husbands		Charles Hamilton
				Frank Kennedy
				Rhett Butler
		The gallant Confederate soldier who Scarlett saw as "the perfect knight"; "She loved him and wanted him and did not understand him"		Ashley Wilkes
		Upsets Scarlett by marrying Ashley, who is her distant cousin; Scarlett marries her brother in revenge		Melanie Hamilton
John Mortimer	Rumpole stories	Rumpole's first name		Horace
Vladimir Nabokov	Lolita	Middle–aged academic who is unable to resist the charms of the title character		Humbert Humbert
George Orwell	Animal Farm	Human owner of the farm – said to represent Tsar Nicholas II of Russia		Mr. Jones
		Owner of Pinchfield, a successful neighbouring farm – said to represent Hitler and the Nazi Party		Mr. Frederick
		Owner of Foxwood, a run–down neighbouring farm – said to represent the Western powers		Mr. Pilkington
		Most of the principal animals (including the three below) are		Pigs
		Leader of the animals, said to represent Stalin		Napoleon
		Main rival to the above – said to represent Trotsky		Snowball
		'Public spokesperson' of the animals' leader		Squealer
		Hired by the animals' leader to represent Animal Farm in human society – said to represent Western intellectual Socialists such as George Bernard Shaw		Mr. Whymper
		Name of the heroic shire horse – "the tragic avatar of the working class"		Boxer
		His friend, representing the educated middle classes		Clover
George Orwell	1984	Central character		Winston Smith
		Nameless Party leader (dictator of Oceania)		Big Brother
		"Inner party" member who proves to be Smith's nemesis		O'Brien
		Smith's lover, a fellow "thought criminal" (and "sex criminal")		Julia
Alexander Pope	The Rape of the Lock	The wronged heroine, after whom one of Uranus's moons is named		Belinda
		The gnome or sprite whose name was also given to a moon of Uranus		Umbriel
Nicholas Rowe	The Fair Penitent	Philanderer who first appeared in		Lothario
Walter Scott	Ivanhoe	Ivanhoe's first name		Wilfred
		First name of Ivanhoe's father – invented by Scott for this character		Cedric
		Ward of the above, and Ivanhoe's 'love interest'; they marry at the end of the novel (after his father finally agrees)		Rowena
		'Healer' who tends to Ivanhoe after he is wounded in a joust, and for whom he successfully fights a duel after she is accused of witchcraft; daughter of the money–lender, Isaac of York		Rebecca
Walter Scott	Rob Roy	Rob Roy's second name		MacGregor
Mary Shelley	Frankenstein	Frankenstein's first name		Viktor
Richard B. Sheridan	The Rivals	Character famous for ludicrous misuse of words		Mrs. Malaprop
Muriel Spark		Miss Christina Kaye, of James Gillespie School, was the model for		Miss Jean Brodie
John Steinbeck	The Grapes of Wrath	Family		Joad
Robert Louis Stevenson	Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde	Dr. Jekyll's first name		Henry
		Mr. Hyde's first name		Edward
Jonathan Swift	Gulliver's Travels	Gulliver's first name		Lemuel
W. M. Thackeray	Vanity Fair	Becky Sharp marries		Capt. Rawdon Crawley
		Character who shares his name with a member of David Cameron's Cabinet		George Osborne
Leo Tolstoy	Anna Karenina	Anna's adulterous lover		Count Vronsky
Sue Townsend	The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole	The love of Adrian's life – becomes a Blair's Babe		Pandora Braithwaite
Mark Twain	Tom Sawyer	Tom's sweetheart		Becky Thatcher
		Dark–hearted villain, half native American, who seeks revenge on Becky's father Judge Thatcher		Injun Joe
Jules Verne	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Captain of the Nautilus		Nemo
Jules Verne	Around the World in 80 Days	Hero – lived at No. 7 Savile Row, London		Phileas Fogg
		His manservant		Passepartout
Voltaire	Candide	Tutor to the title character: a self–proclaimed incurable optimist, who insists that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" – i.e. this one (a satire on Leibniz, in whose philosophy this is a central tenet)		Dr. Pangloss
Keith Waterhouse	Billy Liar	Billy's surname		Fisher
Evelyn Waugh	Brideshead Revisited	Master of Brideshead – returns there and is converted to Catholicism on his deathbed; played on TV by Laurence Olivier		Marquess of Marchmain
H. G. Wells	The Invisible Man	Name of the central character (no first name is given in the book)		Griffin
T. H. White	The Sword in the Stone	Nickname of the future King Arthur		Wart
(P. G. Wodehouse)	(Various)	Lives at 3A Berkeley Mansions, London W1; has an Aunt Agatha, and friends called Bingo Little and Gussie Fink–Nottle		Bertie Wooster
	(Various)	Jeeves's first name		Reginald
	(Various)	Member of the Drones Club: a monocle–wearing Old Etonian, and something of a dandy; a fluent and witty speaker, with a remarkable ability to pass through the most amazing adventures unruffled; has a friend called Mike Jackson – a keen cricketer; first name Rupert (later changed to Ronald Eustace); the initial letter of his surname (which he admits he adopted himself as there are too many people with this common surname) is silent; based (according to Wodehouse) on Rupert D'Oyly Carte, son of the famous impresario		Psmith
Herman Wouk	The Caine Mutiny	Captain of the USS Caine – played in the film by Humphrey Bogart		Queeg

© Haydn Thompson 2017–23