# Edith Ethel Duchemin — A Man Could Stand Up— character guide

> Edith Ethel Duchemin in A Man Could Stand Up— by Ford Madox Ford.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Edith Ethel, Ethel

**First appearance:** 0001-a-man-could-stand-up

## Snapshot

A wealthy widow turned Lady Macmaster, she moves through the novel's drawing rooms as a collector of reputations, including the ruin of Tietjens'.

## Who they are

Edith Ethel has married her way into a title and now traffics in the social verdicts that decide who is respectable and who is finished. She is the source of the rumor that Tietjens and Valentine have had a years-long liaison, a story that follows him from drawing room to trench. She matters because she shows how the war's home front wages its own campaigns, and how a well-placed sentence can do what shells cannot.

## Relationships

### [Valentine Wannop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/valentine_wannop)

_friendship_

Edith Ethel Duchemin is a close friend and intellectual confidante to Valentine, though their relationship is tinged with social competition.

### [Lady Macmaster](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/lady_macmaster)

_friendship_

Edith Ethel Duchemin and Lady Macmaster are friends and fellow literary hostesses, though their relationship involves social rivalry.

### [Miss Wanostrocht](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/miss_wanostrocht)

_social_

Edith Ethel Duchemin and Miss Wanostrocht are social acquaintances, connected through educational and literary circles.

### [Miss Wanostrocht](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/miss_wanostrocht)

_social_

Edith Ethel Duchemin and Miss Wanostrocht are social acquaintances, connected through educational and literary circles.

### [Valentine Wannop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/valentine_wannop)

_friendship_

Edith Ethel Duchemin is a close friend and intellectual confidante to Valentine, though their relationship is tinged with social competition.

### [Valentine Wannop](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/valentine_wannop)

_friendship_

Edith Ethel Duchemin is a close friend and intellectual confidante to Valentine, though their relationship is tinged with social competition.

## In the story

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/chapters/part-i-ii)

Edith Ethel, now Lady Macmaster, telephones Valentine and suggests bringing her together with Tietjens, likely to save her husband from a debt.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/chapters/part-i-iii)

Referred to as Lady Macmaster; accused of spreading derogatory information about Valentine to Miss Wanostrocht.

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/chapters/part-iii-i)

Mentioned in Valentine's thoughts; she had a high-minded liaison with Macmaster and accused Valentine of having a child by Tietjens.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters/edith_ethel_duchemin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_man_could_stand_up_se/characters