# A House of Gentlefolk — Character guide

> Key figures in A House of Gentlefolk by Ivan Turgenev.

- [Lisa Mihalovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/lisa_mihalovna.md): A devout, gentle young woman whose quiet faith and moral seriousness make her the still center of every romantic hope and spiritual conflict in the novel.
- [Fedor Ivanitch Lavretsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/fedor_ivanitch_lavretsky.md): A weary nobleman returning from abroad to his estates, carrying a failed marriage and a cold, searching gaze that unsettles the drawing rooms he enters.
- [Varvara Pavlovna Lavretsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/varvara_pavlovna_lavretsky.md): Lavretsky's beautiful, calculating wife, whose graceful humility conceals a cold intelligence and whose reappearance threatens to undo any hope of happiness.
- [Vladimir Nikolaitch Panshin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/vladimir_nikolaitch_panshin.md): A polished young official and favorite of Petersburg society, charming everyone effortlessly while his sharp brown eye never stops calculating advantage.
- [Marya Dmitrievna Kalitin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/marya_dmitrievna_kalitin.md): Lisa's widowed mother, a provincial lady of restless vanity and maternal anxiety, forever arranging marriages and fretting over the governess she has just hired.
- [Marfa Timofyevna Pestov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/marfa_timofyevna_pestov.md): Marya Dmitrievna's sharp-tongued aunt, who collects stray creatures and speaks uncomfortable truths with a bluntness that masks real tenderness.
- [Christopher Theodor Gottlieb Lemm](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/christopher_theodor_gottlieb_lemm.md): Lemm is a proud, impoverished composer and piano teacher who has spent decades in Russia, his cantata unfinished and his life narrowed to the Kalitins' drawing room. He adores Lisa with a chaste, almost paternal passion,
- [Glafira Petrovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/glafira_petrovna.md): Glafira Petrovna rules the Lavretsky household with absolute, unbending will, having reduced her gentle sister-in-law Malanya to a silent shadow and claimed the boy Fedya as her own project. Her pride is matched only by 
- [Mihalevitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/mihalevitch.md): An old university friend of Lavretsky, a passionate and idealistic man.
- [Ivan Petrovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/ivan_petrovitch.md): Lavretsky's father, a man of Westernized tastes and a difficult temper.
- [Gedeonovsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/gedeonovsky.md): A local gossip and frequent visitor to the Kalitin house.
- [Agafya Vlasyevna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/agafya_vlasyevna.md): A pious peasant woman who influenced Lisa's religious upbringing.
- [Anton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/anton.md): An old servant at Lavretsky's estate, loyal and garrulous.
- [Piotr Andreitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/piotr_andreitch.md): Lavretsky's grandfather, a harsh landowner of the old school.
- [Malanya Sergyevna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/malanya_sergyevna.md): Lavretsky's mother, a gentle serf woman married by his father.
- [Anna Pavlovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/anna_pavlovna.md): A relative of the Kalitins, a society lady in St. Petersburg.
- [Shurotchka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/shurotchka.md): A young girl in the Kalitin household, possibly a ward or relative.
- [Lenotchka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/lenotchka.md): A young girl, possibly a servant or child in the Kalitin circle.
- [Pavel Petrovitch Korobyin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/pavel_petrovitch_korobyin.md): Varvara's father, a retired general of modest means.
- [Ada](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/ada.md): Lavretsky and Varvara's young daughter.
- [M. Jules](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/m_jules.md): A French companion and possible lover of Varvara Pavlovna.
- [Apraxya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters/apraxya.md): A servant in the Kalitin household.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_house_of_gentlefolk_se/characters