# A Start in Life — Character guide

> Key figures in A Start in Life by Honoré de Balzac.

- [Oscar Husson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/oscar_husson.md): Oscar Husson is a youth on the cusp of adulthood, sent from Paris into the countryside where his mother's hopes and a family friend's patronage hang over him. Desperate to appear worldly and well-connected, he is dangero
- [Pierrotin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/pierrotin.md): Pierrotin, forty and a family man, inherited his father's coucou and runs it with military punctuality and a flexible conscience about booking rules. He respects rank, humors women, and regards travelers as so much freig
- [Georges Marest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/georges_marest.md): Georges Marest travels the same road as Oscar, armed with the confidence of a man who knows the world and enjoys bending it to his amusement. He flatters, provokes, and improvises stories with a scoundrel's fluency, draw
- [Monsieur Moreau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/monsieur_moreau.md): Monsieur Moreau holds a respected place in the countryside around Presles, where his household and connections give him quiet authority over local affairs. He stands as a father figure and patron to Oscar, offering the b
- [Madame Clapart](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/madame_clapart.md): Madame Clapart belongs to that precarious Parisian class which lives on small means and large hopes, and she has staked much on Oscar's prospects. Her watchful worry follows him onto the coach and into the countryside, w
- [Comte de Sérizy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/comte_de_serizy.md): The Comte de Sérizy moves in the highest circles, and his very name commands deference from coachmen and provincials alike. His travels intersect with the humbler passengers in ways that expose the gulf between aristocra
- [Mistigris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/mistigris.md): Mistigris travels the Paris-to-l'Isle-Adam road in the orbit of his master, the painter Schinner, and becomes a fixture among the coach passengers who carry news, ambitions, and gossip between town and country. His nickn
- [Cardot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/cardot.md): Old Cardot belongs to the solid bourgeois world of retired trade, a man whose money and connections give him quiet authority over his nephew's prospects. He is generous when it suits him but never sentimental, and his ca
- [Godeschal](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/godeschal.md): A lawyer and friend of the Moreau family, traveling to Presles.
- [Desroches](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/desroches.md): A lawyer involved in legal matters concerning the characters.
- [Old Léger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/old_leger.md): A farmer and neighbor who interacts with the travelers.
- [Schinner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_start_in_life_se/characters/schinner.md): A painter and friend of Mistigris, traveling to the countryside.

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