# A Personal Record — Character guide

> Key figures in A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad.

- [Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/narrator.md): He is a man who broke from his origins under a storm of blame to make the merchant service his only home for years, and now turns those memories into literature. His central tension is between the sea's direct demands an
- [Almayer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/almayer.md): Almayer is a person of weak character whose fate and surroundings have been the narrator's companions of imagination for years, living again with vividness in Pimlico lodgings. The tension lies in how this failed trader 
- [Nicholas B.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/nicholas_b.md): Mr. Nicholas B. is the narrator's great-uncle, a veteran of the Hundred Days who shrank from returning to his province after Napoleon's fall and never quite explained how he crossed an armed Europe. His dry, deliberate i
- [Jacques](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/jacques.md): Rousseau serves as a foil in the narrator's argument about literary honesty: a man who justified his existence with extreme thoroughness, lacking imagination, no novelist. The tension is between confession as self-justif
- [Captain Froud](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/captain_froud.md): Captain Froud is a man of tireless activity and devotion, organizing lectures and lobbying for the merchant service, granting private interviews whose principal motive was to render service. His crooked finger and glance
- [Mr. Hugh Clifford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/mr_hugh_clifford.md): A colonial administrator and writer, mentioned in the narrator's literary circle.
- [Madame Delestang](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/madame_delestang.md): A French woman encountered by the narrator during his travels.
- [Solary](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/solary.md): A friendly local figure in the narrator's maritime recollections.
- [The Officer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/the_officer.md): An unnamed officer serving on a ship, part of the narrator's crew.
- [The Servant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/the_servant.md): A household servant in the narrator's recollections.
- [Our Master](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/our_master.md): A shipmaster referred to collectively by the crew.
- [Mr. T. B.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/mr_t_b.md): A business associate of the narrator, involved in shipping matters.
- [Mr. W. W. Jacobs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/mr_w_w_jacobs.md): A fellow writer and acquaintance of the narrator.
- [Durand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/durand.md): A person briefly referenced in the narrator's maritime past.
- [Joseph Conrad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/joseph_conrad.md): The author himself, appearing as a self-referential character in the memoir.
- [Emperor Napoleon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/emperor_napoleon.md): The French emperor, mentioned as a historical allusion in the narrative.
- [Anthony Trollope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_personal_record_se/characters/anthony_trollope.md): The Victorian novelist, referenced in the narrator's literary discussions.

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